Schrödinger’s Fox n. 1. A curious beast whose guilt does not exist until it is observed by a vindictive media. The Contrary Dictionary Thanks to @the_twiterati’s #liamfoxapology for the idea. I also like this one from Sarah Chalmers: ”I regret that certain aspects of my not getting up in time allow the media to portray me as running…
Author Archives: Jon
Quantum Locking. Say what?
At some point, I shall go off and find out what “quantum locking” is. But for a while, I’m quite enjoying the way this YouTube clip absolutely boggles my mind. It has to be CGI. Doesn’t it?
Remember the politician’s lifecycle
It looks like there will be two main conclusions from GO’D’s report on Liam Fox: He broke the ministerial code He did not gain financially from the arrangement With respect to the first – it will be good to have this made clear, and this is the hard evidence that makes a nonsense of the…
The importance of close scrutiny
One of Dr Liam Fox’s main defences for treating his office like a business opportunity for friends is that he doubts the motives of those criticising him. You would have thought their name (“The Opposition”, “journalists”) would tip him off that nobody expects (or needs, frankly) their motives to be pure as the driven snow….
Eurosceptics: they’d be funny if it weren’t so serious
It drives British Eurosceptics mad that many in Washington tend to sigh at their warnings of the perils of European integration, instead tending to take the view that if the Lilliputians across the Atlantic care to form themselves into a single delegation, that might make them slightly less time-consuming and pathetic. The Economist isn’t given…
The paid-in-advance symbolism of Labour Youth
As I mentally shut down last night, here’s what was the most interesting thing about the previous week: Labour Youth seem very comfortable with being well funded. They had good stuff at Reading University Freshers’ Fayre when I nipped down to help for an hour or so. I’m no fan of poverty porn. You shouldn’t…
When Physics and Ghostbusters collide
This comment on Comment is Free tickles my fancy, corny though the film reference may be. This particular Bill Murray is a physicist at CERN: For almost 20 years, Bill Murray has been hunting the Higgs boson, the elusive subatomic particle that is thought to give mass to the basic building blocks of nature. Every…
Thank you, Dr Fox
Perhaps something will come out that makes the Liam Fox story look less incredibly suspicious and steeped in corruption and back-room deals. Perhaps it won’t, and David Cameron still chooses to keep the discredited Dr Fox as Secretary for Defence while the UK remains embroiled in Afghanistan. Neither seems likely, however. Regarding the first possibility,…
Oh, the inhumanity!
It’s hard to express how dehumanising the stereotypical Conservative nutter’s resistance to human rights can be. I try to be sympathetic to the bedwetting paranoia that appears to drive it. It can be a dangerous world, after all, and everyone has something they wish were a bit more predictable. But then some muppet comes along…