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When something is described as a classic, we expect it to be, most of all, capable of endless re-invention. I was reminded of this by the incredible story about an Oxford professor of classics allegedly selling papryi for hard cash (more). The classic I am thinking of is a theme rather than a single work.…

The Guardian‘s Harry Fox Davies has picked up on the Tigger thing. Neil Davidson is quoted so: According to the report, the documents were destroyed “during the winding down of operations”, but Davidson said this related to actions taken by former members of staff between June and July last year. So – in his telling…

If you read this I promised you a review of Adam Tooze’s Crashed. I didn’t write the review, but a major theme of the book seems enormously important now. Here’s the FT‘s Edward Luce, with a magisterial piece on Trump responding to a real crisis in the way it was obvious he would. It was…

The jarring combination of absolutely pristine spring weather and a national emergency reminded me of something the other day. Viridian foliage, crystalline skies, working from the back steps in glorious sunshine, a massive financial crisis, no aeroplanes – of course, I’d been here before. It’s eerily like the weeks following the Eyjafjallajokull eruption back in…

Here are some really outstanding comments on our campaign in 2019. James Meadway writes in Novara about the manifesto and economic policy. Andrew Fisher in the Guardian about mobilization. Simon Fletcher in the Daily Mirror about general issues. Matt Zarb-Cousin on online advertising. They have in common that they all worked on the 2017 campaign…

One impression I often had was of a gulf between the political activity on the ground and that in the media, almost as if the two contests were happening in different countries – the pays réel and the pays virtuel – or even that the contest was one between the canvassers and the opinionators. Maybe…

Is there any point trying to make consumers save the world? One of the most important debates of our time is whether we should approach climate change as a primarily individualistic or collective problem. Individualistic approaches include things like cap-and-trade at the consumer level, carbon taxes imposed on the final consumer (like VAT), shouting at…

Chris Dillow complains that too many journalists treat politics as theatre. This reminded me of a book. I recently found my copy of J.G. Ballard’s A User’s Guide to the Millennium, his collected essays and criticism, after moving churned it up to the top of my library. A major theme of these writings, especially the…

Chris Dillow discusses why management jobs seem immune to automation despite all the excitement about AI. The problem, I think, is that the current state-of-the-art is very poorly suited to making strategic decisions, for reasons that are inherent in the way it works, and in the nature of the decisions themselves. So we’re training our…