And Then He Said

Below is the latest email from the campaign against ID cards. If you're in Britain, please – sign the petition. If you value your ability to stick two fingers up at society and say 'sod you, I'm me and I'm the one who decides what that is, not you' (as I know a fair few…

Well, that's the end of this stint at the Independent. No more sleep-deprived battles with the Scottish division three table (did you see Gretna this season? What were they on? Chelsea? Pah!) No more late night drives across darkened London. No more celebrity interludes at 24-hour service stations. Will I miss it? Obviously. Am I…

Virtue may be its own reward, but it appears that vice packs a punch all of its own. No sooner had I scarfed half the pork gelatine pizza last night than it all started to go wrong. One sudden and emphatic visit to the bathroom later I was forced to concede defeat – karmic justice…

The true measure of how committed we are to our principles is whether we can stick to them if doing so hurts us. Anyone can boycott McDonald's if the there's a Burger King next door. But can they still do it if they're in a strange country, hungry, don't speak the language, and it's the…

Great review of last night's Doctor Who episode here, via Nick Barlow. This is how storytelling should be. We get the objective correlative that explains how the relationships work. There's an adventure element, but it's really just about people. Really, life, love, being ordinary is an adventure… Anyone who thinks science-fiction isn't “proper literature” knows…

Half time in the last week of the football season and, as an Ipswich Town fan, I still have no idea whether we'll be in the same division next year as our local rivals Norwich City. Will they be relegated in 45 minutes time, or stay in the Premiership? Will we be promoted through the…

The biter bitDead brown ivy festoons a yew tree in the car park outside out kitchen window. I'm pretty easy-going usually, but I have a real blind spot when it comes to parasites. Things like those wasps that lay their eggs inside grubs so that the lavae can eat their way out really freak me…

Very late for work tonight, partly because of traffic, partly because of stopping for petrol and thereby becoming embroiled in the saga of giving directions to a thoroughly lost family, and partly by being reduced to tears by tonight's Doctor Who episode. I finish at the Independent on Monday night and on the whole I'll…

USB-compatibleA collection of tubes and taps in the back of my father-in-law's hand. He got out of hospital today after a week in Bedlam.