A columnist who is not a fan of the Greens reads two news pieces about their leader and is scrupulous about the difference between a headline and a story Monday, A Coalition Whisper The Green leader was in the news, and I read two Channel 4 News pieces about coalition…

The radio asks whether by-elections mean anything, and the kitchen floor offers no clear answer. NORWICH, England (The London Prat) – I am sitting on the kitchen floor in front of a radiator cover that does not fit, with the afternoon phone-in on and a mug of tea gone cold…

A list of what to check before believing any promise, a fair word for the other side and the last cattle of the season Sunday, Five Things to Check At the end of the month I write a list of five things to check before believing any political promise, from…

Reading the Institute for Government on a new cabinet, then the farmers who argue about it in plain language Monday, The Cabinet Gets Marked The Institute for Government has marked the new cabinet, and I wrote up the report in Burnham’s cabinet marked by the Institute for Government. The headline…

A conservative-minded columnist reads the Liverpool conference speech with a pencil and gives the other side its best paragraph Monday, The Speech With a Missing Page I watched the Liverpool conference speech with a pencil and a plate of toast, and I wrote up my reading in Burnham’s Liverpool conference…

Civil service cuts, wildfire plans and an allotment where the Greens and the leeks share a fence Monday, A Pub Lunch in Brighton I ate a pub lunch in Brighton and wrote about the three topics that dominated the conversation at the next table, in Brighton pub lunch: civil service…

Hilary ordered the pie, I ordered the Institute for Government, and only one of us was satisfied. BRIGHTON, England (The London Prat) – I took the train down to meet Hilary for lunch, a woman who spent thirty-one years in a government department she still declines to name, and who…

The Treasury found 2.6 billion pounds but not a server that could cope with me typing in a postcode. LONDON, England (The London Prat) – I have been awake since six, which is not a political act but felt like one, and I have spent the best part of the…

A gas field is approved, a minister admits it will not cut bills, and the leeks decline to comment. BRISTOL, England (The London Prat) – The leeks have not been told about the energy transition, and are doing what leeks do in a damp autumn, which is nothing, slowly. I…

The bottle bank is still undecided, but the Home Office has shortened a 15-year wait in a single afternoon. HARROGATE, England (The London Prat) – The residents’ association met in the church hall at seven, and by ten past, the chairman had already ruled that the glass recycling bank could…