The Plashing Vole

A few days ago, I posted a piece called Entering The Bullshit Zone , satirising my university for paying an unqualified therapist and author...

I woke up this morning to to joyful news that Ferguson has resigned. Fantastic. Another victory for reason and progressive values. Sadly, ...

Yesterday was far from being a Blue Monday, unless we're talking about the azure-coloured sky. I went to a wonderful place (the Weaver H...

This delightful missive came straight to my email yesterday! From:  Burst Ovary, bofetot@hotmail.com Subject : A really important questi...

I spotted what looks like a good book the other day, Biressi and Nunn's Class and Contemporary British Culture . Excellent, I thought. T...

I wake up this morning to discover that the BBC is hailing UKIP's 'surprise' showing in the local elections, as if there's n...

Over the past few weeks, right-wing newspapers have made it clear that anyone who so much as murmurs objections to St Margaret Thatcher'...

Imagine the scene. Somewhere in a Surrey 'gated community' (we can discuss the contradictory nature of that phrase some other time)....

A lot of you may think that my life is pretty damn sweet. I get paid a decent wage for talking about books and ideas. Books and ideas that I...

My least favourite MP and yours, Mr Paul Uppal, excelled himself in the smarm and self-interest stakes this week. Here he is, rooting for ma...

What a weird Friday. My post about the True Blue Cookery Book made The Guardian , to the amusement of my colleagues. The university got res...

I'd have thought this was obvious, but judging by my Twitter feed, it isn't. So here we go again, in simple words.  The Conservati...

It's not – as you may have assumed – all work work work here at Uppal Towers. I've been dealing with the influx of nervous dissertat...

You may have noticed that I haven't devoted much space recently to the egregious Paul Uppal MP, the secretive millionaire. The fact is, ...

The good Professor Elemental has a task: the execution of the United Kingdom's new spying-on-absolutely-everyone-for-ever law : Brou...

As you may know, I'm an enthusiastic Twitterer. I follow and converse with all sorts of people: journalists, academics, readers, politic...