The Plashing Vole

It's Friday afternoon and I'm in the office, marking dissertations (some good, some bad and some ugly). On my colleague's desk i...

It feels like a long time since I put fingers to keyboard for blogging purpose – it's certainly been an aeon since I managed 4 posts a d...

Titles are weird. Some tell you that your interlocutor's ancestors were the most determined terrorists and plunderers of the day (Qu...

Hi everybody.  It's been an action-packed few days here at Vole Towers. Since my last post I've been the external examiner for a Ph...

Like the undead, failed, mediocre Conservative candidates walk amongst us. In my case, it's Paul Uppal, the self-satirising Tory. For my...

A strange few days since I got back from the US. Jetlag of course, but it turns out that all the things I thought were hallucinations actual...

So I went to Austin, Texas for a few days, to attend the Britain in the World conference. Yes, I did travel United (and Flybe) and yes, it w...

Next week I'm off to Texas to deliver a conference paper on Lewis Jones and the move away from explicit political engagement in post-19...

This morning I received a letter asking me to promote an 'internship programme' to my students. It turned out to be a very expensive...