I’m driving south. Skirting a border that Offa built a dyke to preserve. When people draw maps, they draw fixed lines. Moving through these spaces the lines soon dissolve. They become less solid. Borders are, of course, not real. Until, like Offa, we make them so. They are made by…

It is strange to return. I got to know St. Petersburg through words on the page. Particularly Dostoyevsky, but also from many of his contemporaries. A city unwrapped itself in my mind. Visiting, though the names had changed, all was somehow familiar. The last time I was here was mid-summer…

We have lost our connection. That promised fluidity the internet offered us has hardened. Twenty years ago, even ten, we saw a space to connect, share and expand our horizons, we saw palpable benefits rendered by the distanciation of time and space. Yet, even as we started to understand how…

I’m a writer. I write for work, often dense, deeply analytical reports and academic texts, brimming with references to obscure philosophers, on whose shoulders I build my argument. Sometimes, articles for magazines or newspapers. I’m a writer. I write for pleasure, poetry for many years and more recently fiction. I’m…

Both sides of the EU referendum campaign are guilty of being ‘economical with the truth’, gilding lillies in ways we never thought possible. The amount we pay to the EU? Rubbish. The impact on the economy if we leave? Overblown and based on supposition. …

The 7th century-BC Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu said: Go to the people. Live with them. Learn from them. Love them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. Perhaps the perfect motto for a growing group in the research and evaluation community who are undertaking research with, rather…

It’s not enough to see Alan Duncan as an ignorant buffoon, we have to recognise him as a symptom of what is wrong with our democratic system. Democracy, “for the people, by the people”. But this is Britain so we’ll have none of that nonsense here. …

The results of the New Zealand flag referendum are in. And the change is no change. So, that’s the end of it then. We can sit back in the knowledge that there’s overwhelming support for our trusty old colonial relic. Well, no. …

OK, so about this referendum thing. You know, to Brexit. Or Not. We’re about to be inundated with a lot of pointless noise. If the pre-whining is anything to go by, most of it will be wrong. …