The Plashing Vole

Twenty years since we first heard the words 'butterbeer', 'Slytherin', 'Quidditch' and 'Sorting Hat'. How ti...

I've (almost) nothing to say this week. Personally, it's been one of banal but necessary administrative labour the details of which ...

What an odd 18 hours or so. My emotions – so far as I have any – are mixed. The joy is easy: my arch-nemesis Paul Uppal lost resoundingly. H...

No insights into my working life or current affairs coverage this week, Vole fans! All I've done is mark essays and clean my house. Gues...

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...