Category: Off Topic

  • Off topic: defending democracy

    The British foreign minister has just made a speech about defending democracy. You can read it all here. Except that it rings a bit hollow, because democracy is barely practised in British society. Britain runs instead on a kind of mediated patronage that would be familiar to Wolsey, Walpole or Wellington. Crown authority is delegated…

  • The darker side of Google’s street view

    Does street view on Google Maps have a darker, more sinister side?

  • What would a godless religion look like? Like this maybe…

    The closing session at the World Economic Forum in Davos was by Benjamin Zander. If you ever wondered what a secular sermon would sound like (it was Sunday morning), then it would probably go a little like this. It’s quite a schtick (72 minutes in all), but when Zander finished there was barely a dry…

  • The four types of blogger at Davos

    The Telegraph may have Martin Sorrell and Ben Verwaayen blogging from here in Davos, but the FT is covering the waterfront with half a dozen or so blogging participants. There’s an interesting piece on Sovereign Wealth Funds from Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley. But broadly the wider Davos blogging canvas looks like this: faux modest…