August Archives
Or, what I wrote when no-one was reading it
I wrote a lot of stuff back in 2017 - 2019, when my blog had only 30 - 50 readers. Much of it deserves to lie buried.1 Some is very of its time (I wrote a LOT about Brexit, a lot of it about the very specific twists and turns which none of us want to revisit).
But there are some pieces that still stand up - either interesting, entertaining, or enough of value to still be worth reading despite the flaws. Over August, most days I’ve been sharing a piece on X and BlueSky of those that do. For those of you not on those platforms,2 here’s a consolidated list of the best 15.
In no particular order:
I really dislike World Book Day. An apolitical rant we can all get behind: who doesn't detest the dressing up element of World Book Day?
Against Means-Testing. I still agree with the philopsophy of this - and in an ideal world we'd have a lot less means testing. But with debt at close to 100% to GDP and political realities what they are, I'm more resigned to it as a necessary evil.
Stories of Your Life and Others. A review of the brilliant short story collection by Ted Chiang.
No Car is Better than a Bad Car. I said we wouldn't refight the Brexit wars - but I still enjoy this satire on the absurdity of UK politicians conducting their internal arguments in full sight of the EU and its negotiators.
Some Thoughts on the Culture Wars. Written in 2018, well before the 2020 surge of ‘woke’, it looked at how the 'culture wars' arose - and possible ways forwards. The third possible scenario - that each side would double down and adopt increasingly aggressive tactics - has sadly been more prophetic than I'd have liked, particularly in America.
How to win broad support for green taxes. Answer: cut other taxes so they are fiscally neutral.
A Tourist Guide to New Orleans. It's a city I've been to over 30 times: this is a tourist guide I wrote for a friend who was going. The best things to see and do, museums to go to and - crucially - food to eat!
Watership Down is not a Children's Book. Another timeless rant!
On Leaving the Civil Service. My most-read post of the pre-COVID era, setting out why I joined the civil service - and the story of how I realised 'impartiality' was not for me.
Endless Surrenders? Why do both sides in politics feel they are fighting the long defeat? Can they both be right?
Post-Modernism and the Devil. How the progressive assault on objectivity - via 'your truth', 'lived experience' and liberal jurisprudence - weakened our societal antibodies against populists doing the same. One I still strongly believe is both true and underdiscussed - and that has only got worse since I wrote it in 2018.
My Perfect KS3 History Curriculum. With the benefits of 7 years of hindsight, this is ridiculously too long and ambitious a list. Maybe an aspirational curriculum for the top set!
‘Don’t know they’re born.’ Why are young progressives so eager for authorities to impose censorship, fire people and otherwise determine the limits of free speech? It's because they can't imagine living somewhere where the authorities don't share their values.
Herman Wouk – the greatest novelist of the last 100 years. I argue the case.
Votes at 16: A call of consistency. One that's hardly dated at all3 - and, indeed, has only become more relevant!
To the 95%+ of you who were not reading me then, I hope you find something to enjoy from this dive into the archives!
Reading it compared with more recent stuff I was torn between whether to be pleased my writing had improved so much or appalled that it was so bad back then!
Honestly, a wise decision on your part.
Except that the marriage age has gone up!
I think you've gotten better at being bipartisan since then. No Car feels very uneven-handed: it's pitting the most noble, rational (!) and truthful (!!) of Brexiteers against a poor caricature of a subpar Remainer, to the extent that I found it almost unrecognisable. No mention of inaccurate figures on buses, no suggestion from Bob that Alice could have been arranging her new car during the last three years, anything like that. As you say, let's not re-fight the Brexit wars; I mean this rather as a compliment on how much more approachable your recent writing is to those of different political stripes.