Jul
31
2022
The scientists are now virtually unanimous. Unless we can reduce carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 we have no hope of zero by 2050. If we fail we will bequeath unimagineable climate horror upon our children. You can’t imagine...
Jul
30
2022
From my autobiography. Is this fair? How distorted is my take on Passmore?
And then came Passmore. Where Trafford had sought to make Downside great through the OTC, Passmore was going to do it through academic achievement. He was huge both in body...
Jul
30
2022
From my autobiography. Is this fair? And then came Passmore. Where Trafford had sought to make Downside great through the OTC, Passmore was going to do it through academic achievement. He was huge both in body and presence, the...
Jul
29
2022
We know that Neville Cardus made a lot of it up. But would we really want to be without such gems as congratulating Dick Tildesley on sportingly admitting the ball had touched the ground before he caught it “Westhoughton...
Jul
25
2022
How both Proust and Shakespeare adored bores. Proust savours M.de Norpois as if he is the dish, when Norpois comes to dinner, that Norpois himself admires:”That is a thing you don’t get in a chophouse, not even in the best...
Jul
19
2022
All through this time I had hoped to meet somebody I might marry but I gradually began to realise that I had little chance of doing so in West Wales. Jobs were so hard to come by that if you...
Jul
15
2022
Logos.
‘The Word was with God and was God’. St John’s Logos is a word drawn from Greek philosophy. It means the rationality of the universe, science in other words. And, indeed, we easily forget how remarkable the absolute truths of science...
Jul
12
2022
Of course I am well aware that the sweeping tax cuts I am proposing will lead to even more inflation that will gobble up any increased growth, but fortunately I am blessed with that extremely useful political skill of...
Jul
10
2022
A great man brought down by dwarves but mostly by himself.
I believe I have some inkling of what it is like to be Boris Johnson because I used to be a compulsive liar too. As in both our cases, this condition is...
Jul
01
2022
One of my favourite books is Jonah Lehrer’s Proust Was a Neuro-Scientist. Jonah Lehrer’s theme is that artists have often intuited truths that scientists have later shown to be the case. My favourite chapter is the one on Cézanne. The impressionists had learnt...