An intriguing poll was published just before the European Election.  In it the Greens had overtaken the Liberal Democrats leaving them in fifth place.   At time of writing I don’t know what the real results will be.  Polls are just polls and what happens on the ground can be very different.  I’d be surprised

I have just finished watching all five seasons of Breaking Bad.  If you haven’t heard about it yet I am not sure where you hang out, but it is the story of Walter White, an unsuccessful and morally ambiguous chemist and his remarkably self centred response to a diagnosis of cancer.  This involves using his technical

There is a notion that the history of Britain has been written by the Whigs, and that they have put their moderate progressive slant on events.  Lady Antonia Fraser would certainly fall into that mould.  She is famous enough as a historian for her family and marriages to not be the things that define her.

May day has always seemed to me to be a day in the calendar that cries out to be celebrated.  It is about this time of year that the evenings become light for long enough to enjoy.  If we are lucky we can pack away our winter coats and jumpers for the year.  A bank

The folk boom of the sixties carried on into the seventies, but became a lot more commercial in the process.  The three big female folk stars in the UK were Sandy Denny, Maddy Prior and June Tabor.  Of the three I think most people would agree that the one with the best voice was June

Ulster, Texas, Algeria, Crimea are all examples of one of the things that empires do.  A good way of expanding your authority is to move populations around.  Ideally you move people who are reliably on your side and get them to live where people who don’t recognise your authority are currently living.   It’s just