Category Archives: Everything

Bucharest – last but not least

Posted on June 17, 2011 by brian

After Sofia, I’m afraid I went to Bucharest with pretty low expectations. I’m really pleased to say they were surpassed by quite some margin. If it hadn’t been for the stifling heat (which we were told was unusual for June) … Continue reading →

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Canada: Cleggmania v2 or orange crush?

Posted on May 1, 2011 by brian

Confession. On April 11th, I wrote a post about the Canadian general election.  In it, I correctly predicted that the General Election on Monday would be ‘this years most fascinating election’.   However, I have to confess that I managed … Continue reading →

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And the award for this year’s most fascinating election…

Posted on April 11, 2011 by brian

…certainly doesn’t go to the local elections here in Sunderland, where I haven’t seen a single election poster so far.  But over in Canada, the election set for the same week (Canada votes on 2nd May) looks like it might be … Continue reading →

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Memories of Christchurch

Posted on February 28, 2011 by brian

It’s been awful to see Christchurch hit by another earthquake. We went to New Zealand back in October 2009, landing in Christchurch before picking up our fantastic camper van from the lovely people at Wilderness. ‘Lovely people’ was a bit … Continue reading →

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I can’t believe it’s not legal : The politics of margarine

Posted on February 17, 2011 by brian

Okay, stick with me.  This is bizzare. Today at work, I found myself reading about public service reform in New Zealand.  I kind of stumbled onto it after reading lots of references to Sir Roger Douglas in Reform’s 2011 Scorecard. … Continue reading →

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In praise of David Ward MP – the localist fundamentalist

Posted on February 8, 2011 by brian

The Localism Bill is currently making fairly stately progress through Commons Committee Stage.  The debate’s mostly pretty predictable – Labour are against a lot of the provisions, or the rolling back of legislation they themselves passed, and in response Coalition … Continue reading →

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