It’s a cliché to say it, but statistics are often really badly misused. People seem to accept figures about this or that without any verification or checking. A really good example was one that came up again this weekend with the Stuart Wheeler fuss in the Conservative party, and is often heard from Nigel FarageContinue reading “Magic Numbers”
Monthly Archives: March 2009
You Oughta Know
Day 2 of the European Citizens Consultation. They’re all wandering around the room at the moment discussing the various ideas that have come out. What I find encouraging and at the same time dispiriting is the thirst for information and the lack of access to it. The people here are a cross-section of the UKContinue reading “You Oughta Know”
Ask
I’m at the London event of the European Citizens Consultation today, filling in at the last minute because one of their “experts” dropped out at the last minute. It’s been a great event. You have 100 randomly selected Brits in a room, talking about what they want the EU to do. You might expect aContinue reading “Ask”
The Mighty Quins
I had my first taste of season-ticket-holding Rugby League this weekend, when I headed to the Twickenham Stoop to watch Harlequins absolutely walk all over Warrington Wolves – 60-8 was the final score and 4 of those came from a try that was an individual run longer than the length of the pitch. Good stuff.Continue reading “The Mighty Quins”
Come home
I was at the Royal Court Theatre last night, at the invitation of their Development department. I saw two things – Over There by Mark Ravenhill and Wall with David Hare. What a night – one of the best I’ve had since moving to London. The two pieces were very different. The first is about identicalContinue reading “Come home”
Sisters are doing it for themselves
Nice to know I’m doing my bit for advancing the women’s cause, according to Rowenna Davies’ piece on “blogosphere or blokeosphere“. I also spent the morning getting the car MOTd, which involved some very tricky manouevring to back it out of the car port, which I managed to do all on my own, without aContinue reading “Sisters are doing it for themselves”
Posts are like buses…
and here’s the third of the day! Just wanted to post something I read on the BBC website, Stephen Fry talking about the web on the Analysis programme. I really liked the way he put this: This is an early thing I said about the internet at the time things like AOL were still huge.Continue reading “Posts are like buses…”
I want to break free
Libertas have launched their UK election campaign today. It’s an interesting one. There are various things about it that strike a chord with me – a pan-European political party, aiming to respond to (or create?) a European demos, rather than focussing on national issues; a call to ensure that European institutions work effectively – itContinue reading “I want to break free”
Kuneva webchat – 13 March
To mark the 10th anniversary of European Consumer Day, EU Consumer Commissioner Meglena Kuneva host a live webchat on 13 March 2009 (at 15h00 CET) with citizens from across the EU about their rights and their concerns as consumers. Chatters from across the EU will have the chance to ask the Commissioner direct questions onContinue reading “Kuneva webchat – 13 March”
Nothing else matters
Like I think pretty much everyone in the whole wolrd except Michael O’Leary, I couldn’t believe the reports that Ryanair are thinking about charging for use of in-flight bogs. Is that actually legal? But there is a good side – the endless creativity and humour that people can bring to bear to these kind ofContinue reading “Nothing else matters”