The North Pole Answers Its Post And That Is The Whole Job
The North Pole Answers Its Post And That Is The Whole Job | An editor’s diary on constituent letters, honest values, and the real spirit of public service
UK Insight
The Welfare State Expansionist Has Founded A Department
The Welfare State Expansionist Has Founded A Department | Every Sadness Deserves A Form
Three in the Morning in a Leisure Centre: Notes From a By-Election Count
Trestle tables, bundles of fifty, a man with a bin on his head and the purest hour in British democracy Three in the Morning in a Leisure Centre: Notes From a By-Election Count I am too old for this, and I say so every time, and every time I go. There was a by-election yesterday … Read more
The Piece I Spiked Because the Government Got There First
A bad day at the editor’s desk, a lesson from Jonathan Swift and the hazards of being believed The Piece I Spiked Because the Government Got There First A trying day. I killed a good piece this morning, and I have been in a poor temper since. The writer took it well, which made it … Read more
Conference Season: Four Days Among the Lanyards With Orwell in My Pocket
Warm white wine, fringe meetings on the future of everything and a private game of counting dead metaphors Conference Season: Four Days Among the Lanyards With Orwell in My Pocket Home last night from the last of the party conferences, and I have slept eleven hours. I have attended these gatherings for a quarter of … Read more
UK Bankruptcy: The Nation Checks the Sofa Cushions for Spare GDP
UK Bankruptcy: The Nation Checks the Sofa Cushions for Spare GDP | Fiscal headroom, Digestive biscuits, and the spring statement nobody wanted to read
Wednesday, Noon: Thirty Minutes of Shouting I Cannot Stop Watching
An editor’s notes on Prime Minister’s Questions, the worst half hour in British politics and the most useful Wednesday, Noon: Thirty Minutes of Shouting I Cannot Stop Watching I have a rule that the office goes quiet at twelve on a Wednesday. Phones down. Kettle off. The junior staff think this is reverence. It is … Read more
The Red Box, the Glass of Water and the Speech Nobody Understands: Budget Day From the Editor’s Chair
Notes on the annual ritual in which a Chancellor holds up a briefcase and the nation pretends to follow the sums The Red Box, the Glass of Water and the Speech Nobody Understands: Budget Day From the Editor’s Chair Budget week approaches, and the office is preparing as a coastal town prepares for a spring … Read more
Editor’s Diary: A 450MW Solar Farm in Nottinghamshire Gets Its Consent Within the Statutory Timescale and I Check the Calendar Twice
Alan Nafzger on Steeple Renewables, the Planning Act examination, 183 applications and the quiet drama of a process that finished when it said it would Saturday 10 October, 1.40pm, the same desk, a plate of toast and a sense that something is wrong, which turns out to be that the news is good and I … Read more
Editor’s Diary: Project Safari Opens the Test Ranges to Small Firms and I Wonder Who Will Hold the Clipboard
Alan Nafzger on the Ministry of Defence, QinetiQ, the Hebrides range, a 298 billion pound plan and the old problem of getting clever ideas past the gate Saturday 10 October, 6.50pm, the editor’s desk, a glass of something amber and a stack of procurement documents that I am reading for pleasure, which tells you what … Read more