Jury Waiting Room, XXXX Crown Court, London… Not much of a “diary” this week, I’m afraid, as I continue to spend most of my waking hours in this increasingly sweaty Jury waiting room. That’s me in the corner, tapping away on the laptop with the Apple logo. Yes, I’m one of them, those snotty Apple […]
Every undergraduate statistician – and, I think, every City trader – is familiar with the concept of Brownian motion: the random, aimless, jittering path taken by particles suspended in a fluid; a completely random walk, where the direction taken at time t isn’t deterministically predictive of the path to be taken one step into the […]
I’m sat in the Cat and Mutton, Broadway Market, Hackney, watching the two chefs prepare the gourmet English food they’ll serve for dinner tonight. I love bars with open-plan kitchens. Outside about a thousand commuters are making the last push for home, serious faces on top of so many bicycles you might be forgiven for […]
What would a liberal-totalitarian government look like? Is that too strange a concept to get your head around? Well. It would be a government which enforced rigidly, and with severe sanction for those who disobeyed, a single-minded worldview of correct and incorrect behaviour. Plurality would not flourish, indeed it would be frowned upon. Such a […]
Graeme Archer, a blogger and activist in Hackney, reflects on the emotional wrench with which Tony Blair leaves office and reflects on our own history of relationships with Conservative Party leaders. How do you get on with your ex? Something most of us have to struggle with at one time or another. What about if […]
Graeme Archer is a statistician who lives in Hackney, has his own blog and is about to be civilly partnered "to the long-suffering Keith". I don’t know how to express myself politically except through personal demonstration, so please bear with me. We woke up yesterday morning, as we always do, to very strong cups of […]
Graeme Archer, Hackney activist and ConservativeHome regular, has his own blog. Look, I’m not about to go off on one about “dumbing down” in general, or launch a tirade about the pitfalls of popular culture. I’m not an opera buff and I’ve never been the ballet. Though we did go and see Don Giovanni a […]
Graeme Archer has his own blog. Last night I took Mr Keith to the Times Newspaper / Intelligence Squared debate at the Royal Geographical Society in Kensington Gore. That’ll teach him for suggesting we "get out more". Listen, you don’t get to where I am in the modern Conservative Party (precisely nowhere) by hanging around […]
The Law Commission is about to propose the creation of a set of "marriage-lite" rights for couples who choose to live together without formally marrying. I was surprised by how visceral my opposition is to this proposal, and would be interested to know if this is a personal foible or a common Conservative position. Certainly […]
Graeme Archer reviews Alan Hollinghurt’s ‘The Line of Beauty’, televised yesterday evening on BBC2. When was your summer of love? I think everyone has one – that first hot season when you realise that you can actually do all that stuff you spent your early teenage years reading about. Mine was 1989. I had a […]
Graeme Archer – a blogger and regular visitor to this site – welcomes yesterday’s first civil partnership ceremonies… Do you know what love is? It’s one of those objects that is impossible to describe, don’t you think? Mozart made a song about it, "Voi che sapete, che cos’e l’amore – " I’m paraphrasing, but the […]
I’m sat on Bethnal Green tube platform, waiting for the eastbound train to take me to Snaresbrook, ready for my last day of jury duty. We’re going to start with the judge’s summing up at about 10, and then deliberate, and then deliver our verdict. On Mr M. Mr M who doesn’t speak a word […]