My experience of the civil service is that people didn't want to risk being seen as political at all, because they wanted to keep their job when the party in charge changed. Accusations of an ob… (View Post)

As an aside, when the status quo is membership of something, and the change proposed is to leave that thing, a positive case for membership is pretty hard to distinguish from a negative argument abou… (View Post)

Why would it be the Greens splitting the vote and not Labour doing so? That argument has always annoyed me as it implies that Labour own the votes of their voters. They don't. If Labour aren… (View Post)

Apparently the price in Europe for immediate delivery of oil is nearly $150, while the much talked about Brent price is only just over $100, the difference being that the Brent price is a futures pri… (View Post)

Obsolescence of electronic devices is becoming increasingly important as devices that were mechanical become increasingly electronic - e.g. cars, kitchen white goods, maybe home heating systems. Ther… (View Post)