Since my early 30s, I have been increasingly aware of - and enjoyed - the season of late winter. The first evidence of nature waking up; the occasional mildness; the feeling that the darkest days are… (View Post)

But I think we would have been similarly alarmed if in late 2001 a prospective by-eelction candidate was making that point. (View Post)

Well, I think we would want that world to return. But it seems not to the extent of actually paying for it. We'd rather get lower quality news for free. A generation ago, a newspaper wasn't… (View Post)

I broadly agree with what I think your point is: in the early 80s, someone on an unspectacular but solid salary - a teacher, say, or@148grss - could afford to buy and live in an unspectacular but sol… (View Post)

On an entirely different note, and only as you're here, you may remember about two and a half years ago a discussion about the relative merits of English counties, in which you bridled slightly … (View Post)