September 2022

A month ago, I wrote about the bizarre market for widgets; that is, for electricity.  It began: "Suppose you were in the market for 20 widgets.  You might put out a call for makers to submit prices.  So far so...

Finally, the company that supplies my electricity has told me how much per unit I will have to pay from October for the next two years.  This is much less than the scary (pre-subsidy government announcement) forecasts from OfGem, the...

There was a brief flurry of interest last week about bringing back imperial units of measurement.  Well, maybe.  Some never went away of course (pints of beer, miles on roads, etc) while others reside in fond memory. Do you have...

There's a lot I could write about the death of Queen Elizabeth.  But I'm limiting myself to two brief acknowledgements of her greatness. Here's Philip Larkin: In times when nothing stood But worsened, or grew strange, There was one constant...

Last Friday, I gave a brief input to the launch of Teach the Future's review of the English National Curriculum for key stages 3 and 4.  This covers subjects ranging from History to Art and Design, and uses a tracked changes...

As people turn to burning wood over the coming winter in order to reduce heating costs, it's good to have some guidance about which woods to choose for efficiency and effectiveness.   The Firewood Poem is a good place to start....

When state-owned monopoly businesses were privatised in the 1980s and 90s, I welcomed most of them as I thought that it might free up the investment needed to modernise the enterprises and make them more responsive to customers.  After all,...

I alternate between being irate and apprehensive about the rising cost of electricity.  Irate at the hopeless communications we've been faced with where no-one bothers to explain the "price cap" clearly.  Apprehensive at my own personal coming liabilities and those...

According to the Times Higher, Kemi Badenoch MP, the Tory leadership contender who recently said that “some universities spend more time indoctrinating social attitudes than teaching lifelong skills or how to solve problems” is set to be education secretary in...