The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Counterfire members fiddle excessively with iPads and other electronica. Another, equally immutable fact of life is that people with good politics sometimes get things very wrong. Recent examples include Tony Benn, George Monbiot and Suzanne Moore. In their different ways, all three have been [...]
How long ago October seems. Back then François Hollande promised that his country would provide “logistical support” in Mali, but no French combat troops would be sent to the West African nation. Since then we have received news of Malian civilians killed in a French air strikes, while French soldiers continue to advance on key [...]
“Malcolm Tucker: Is that your chair? Nicola Murray: Oh god, yeah. It’s cool, isn’t it? It’s got lumbar support. Malcolm Tucker: Bin it. People don’t like their politicians to be comfortable. They don’t like you having expenses, they don’t like you being paid, they’d rather you lived in a fucking cave.” - From The Thick of It It [...]
At 11.39pm, April 14 1912, a man called Robert Hitchins made the mistake of turning right instead of left. The RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, taking with it a captain who had blithely ignored all warnings of danger and plowed on full steam ahead with the arrogance of an Empire which was soon [...]
Article removed pending further discussion. We stand by the content of our original article and consider the system of apprenticeships highly problematic. To contact Reuben email reuben@thethirdestate.net
Ok, let’s be honest. If you live in London, within zone 4, then it’s unlikely that snow will massively impede your ability to get to work. Indeed I would suspect that a fair number of us have been a little economical with the truth, when explaining to our managers that the snow had made travel an [...]
This weekend it was reported that an Oxford college – St Hugh’s – has refused to award a place to an applicant because it thought he wasn’t rich enough. At least, that’s what the headlines said, and…well, it’s sort of true. It’s just that that’s also quite a misleading way of putting it. A headline [...]
Vince Cable, on Friday last week: In such weather spare a thought for those out on the streets & consider supporting or donating to @spearlondon, a local homeless charity — Vince Cable (@vincecable) January 18, 2013 Very commendable, Mr Cable. Just one thing – when you’re sparing a thought for those living on the streets, [...]
Continuing the European theme from Reuben’s well-reasoned article, I have thrown in my two euro cents on the EU on my new website salmanshaheen.com David Cameron is taking his sabre to the Netherlands tomorrow, rattling it like a toy rattles when it’s thrown from a pram. On the agenda: Britain’s future in Europe. There will [...]
Ahead of tomorow night’s heavily billed speech in the Netherlands, the outline of Cameron’s Europe strategy has begun to emerge. He will use the threat of a UK referendum to try to repatriate some powers from Brussels. Conversely, he hopes that the prospect of Britain taking back some powers will be enough to dampen down [...]
