The Plashing Vole

The government - especially Mr Clegg - has been going round telling everyone who'll listen that the tuition fees system they're intr...

I started reading May Sarton's The Small Room on Friday. It's a 1961 novel following the fortunes of a passionate young literature ...

It's utter chaos over in Ireland - attempted ruling-party coups, resignations, and a general election in 8 weeks. This beautiful sente...

Huge reductions at the Oxford University Press sale. I bought some medieval, some Renaissance and some modern scholarly works for £33 instea...

As you may know, I've been a fan of Apple's computers for many years now. They don't (often) break, they're secure and they ...

This, I imagine, is what her dreams are made of. It's by Negativland. Are they still around?

Steve Bell - genius cartoonist - has excelled himself today with his take on Cameron's economic philosophy:

What an amazing Friday. Shadow Chancellor resigns yesterday and the personal stuff starts coming out. Tony Blair being grilled on his littl...

How I wish I was mentally living the weekend already - fat chance with a pile of marking and three lectures to write for Monday. I'm cop...

Alan Johnson, their Shadow Chancellor, has resigned out of the blue , citing 'family reasons'. Presumably this means that the tabl...

This was today's lunch. Not only is it a bad salad (I love good ones) but we're forced to use plastic boxes as a form of portion con...

I slipped off to meet Ed Miliband today, down at the football ground. It didn't take much to get in, though a worried Labour Party offic...

Apparently Ed Miliband's visiting The Dark Place today, holding a meeting at the football ground from 12. I'm a bit annoyed the loca...

There's something rather painful about listening to a third-class mind trying to sound like a first-class one. I had the unpleasant expe...

I could use Wordle as an analytical tool. Instead of doing what I should be doing (marking), I'm doing a little research for my Anne of ...

The Tories have publisher their plan to destroy reorganise the NHS (the thing they promised not to do, during the election). The document i...

Goldman Sachs profits down 53% Goldman Sachs bonuses down 5% I really, really, wish I worked in the banking sector.

The Educational Maintenance Allowance is a small amount of money (maximum £30 per week) paid to 16-19 years old students to allow them to st...

My previous post discussed the role of social media in political uprisings. Thanks for your comments, by the way. This photograph of Tunis...

Only because I've bought a book. It's Evgeny Morozov's The Net Delusion: How Not to Liberate the World . His thesis is that tech...