Emeritus Prof Christopher May

RIP Len Deighton. Deighton's working class spys in books such as the Ipcress File & Funeral in Berlin were a major shift in the literature of espionage...but for me, his best work was Bomber. And the reason: my father pilot & Squadron Leader in Bomber Command during WW2, thought it was the best depiction of what he had gone through, he ever read & this from a man who refused for the most part to discuss his role in what he had subsequently concluded was a war crime. #RIPLenDeighton

The Fascist Frog's activities on the Cameo paid-for video platform have been examined & summarised by the Guardian, and it is not a pretty sight. Quiet apart from some (shall we say) questionable messages, the amount of time he'd dedicating to his 'work' on the site, also raises questions about the time he has for his (in theory) primary job of being an MP... Its just more evidence that the Fascist Frog is just one more political grifter. #NigelFarage #politics https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2026/m…

For some reason I think its necessary to say this: Anyone who's saying that we should stop blaming Brexit for the UK's economic travails knows little about economics. Certainly, the UK economic problems pre-date Brexit, but the departure from the European Union has compounded & worsened pretty much every negative trend that the UK suffers from.... To deny this is world-class bulls*t. #Brexit #news #UK [apologies spotted this headline in the supermarket earlier & it pissed me right off!]

Having launched an illegal war and tried, but failed, to get NATO & other allies involved, the Tangerine Tyrant has thrown a hissy fit & declared the US needs no-one's help in further attacks on Iran anyway! And then, US national counterterrorism chief Joe Kent resigned saying he 'cannot support sending the next generation off to fight & die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people'... because Iran posed no 'imminent threat'. Just another day in geopolitics, then. #Iran h/t FT

Some great music from the 80s, no.30 The Jam. A Town Called Malice This classic social commentary from Paul Weller & the Jam is a driving post-punk bit of rock-pop that both skewed the Thatcherite attrition on working class communities & related Weller's own journey away from his roots. The Jam's normal sound is wonderfully complemented by the Hammond organ at the centre of the mix (played by producer Pete Wilson) & hinted at where Weller was going with the Style Council. #music #80sClassics

If you wanted an example of how the UK is becoming more like the USA look at the roads.... the appalling state of many roads in the USA partly prompted John Kenneth Galbraith's observation some 50 years ago that the US combined public squalor with private affluence. Given the concentration of wealth in the UK & the ever growing problem of potholes in roads, a similar observation would seem (and has seemed for some time) apposite for the UK. #inequality #politics https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2rm8evv7eo

The Varieties of Democracy project at GothenbergU confirms what many have been saying/thinking for years: the US & Europe are heading towards autocracy (often arriving because voters have supported explicit autocratic leaders in elections). The Q. is how does one defend democracy against this wave of (renewed) quasi-dictatorship? One key answer is our political class(es) need to stop colluding with the Far Right & *actually* support democracy! #democracy #politics https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2026/mar/…

Is the problem of coercion raised by Birthrights one more aspect of the NHS crisis, with doctors & midwifes lacking the time (or headspace) to discuss options & making decisions for mothers because they don't have the capacity for patients to exercise a personal choice? Birthright's sample is small (and self-selected?) so its unclear how representative it is, but equally the conclusions are in line with others' criticisms of maternity care. #NHS #MaternityCare #health https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/mar/17/maternity…

As the Tangerine Tyrant continues to threaten Cuba with some form of intervention, given the regime that was overthrown by the Cuban Revolution, many Cubans may be of the view (for better of worse) the Cuba of 1959 may be returning albeit in a modified form. The Cubans rejected/deposed gangsterism once, the Q. is will they, can they do it again? #Cuba #USPol

Friends & colleagues of Peter Mandelson paid him around £1.5mn for shares in his (now collapsed) consultancy firm Global Counsel, including £250k for his remaining shares just days before the firm collapsed unable to survive the fallout from elevations about Mandelson's connection with Jeffrey Epstein - leaving the remaining shareholders with worthless shares. If I was a 'friend' of Mandelson I'd feel exploited at best, defrauded at worst. #PeterMandelson #EpsteinFiles h/t FT

Interestingly, Sarah O'Connor (FT) suggests the best model for human-AI interactions may be the experience of airline pilots since the rise of highly automated commercial airplanes. As she argues the level of preparation for use of automated systems undertaken by pilots (not least based on historic disasters) dwarfs the current level of preparation by other sectors' teams when preparing to deploy AI. If AI deployment is hard to resist, then human preparation is key! #workers #AI #technology

A simple prediction: Use of AI by university students has already seen a return of focus on exams as the key way of testing student abilities & learning; for courses that include projects, long-form research reports or dissertations, we will now see the expansion of the use of the in-person verbal examination. While this has always been used for PhDs, the use will now likely reach down into assessment of any undergraduate long-form work, expanding staff work-loads (again). #universities #AI

Hmmm... Angela Rayner is (as the say in the Westminster Village) on manoeuvres - she has been in a BNP Paribas hosted group phone with top bankers & investors reassuring them about her views on fiscal responsibility & manifesto pledges, no doubt trying to dampen down any prospective panic in the financial sector (among bond market traders especially) should there be a contest for Starmer's position & she looked like winning (as she might well). Ohhh.... the intrigue #politics #Labour h/t FT

The Treasury is looking to clip the wings of the Financial Ombudsman Service as it has become a 'quasi-regulator' & should return its more focussed mission of handling complaints about financial services. Of course, this begs the Q. why did the FOS expand its remit? The answer: the rest of the regulatory regime around financial services has been captured by the sector even before the Govt. decided to 'relax' financial regulation! #FinancialServices #regulation #politics h/t FT

National Car Parks (who stated out converting WW2 bomb-sites into car parks) has gone into administration after post-Covid shifts in the way we works & shop has so reduced the use of car parks that they are unable to make a profit - which for an essentially rentier business is surprising. It will continue trading while some sort of future for the business is resolved... but it looks like the end of an era (in some ways). #CarParks #politics #WorkingFromHome h/t FT

So, let me get this right; the Tangerine Tyrant has launched a war (colluding with Israel) against Iran with the explicit intent to topple the regime.... but, today Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has said the US will tolerate continued trading in Iranian oil (to keep prices from escalating) and therefore handling the Iranian regime a major windfall in oil revenues; which I assume they will be using to continue their side of the war. No wonder the Europeans want no part of this! #Iran h/t FT

Some great music from the 80s, no.29 Human League. Don't You Want Me This stone cold classic of electro-pop brings together a driving electro-beat & arrangement with fabulous lyrical content delivered by Phil Oakey & Susan Ann Sulley; a tale of rejection & stardom. The band were surprised it was a hit but it has now become their signature song & remains a 80s night sign-along fave. On this song all the elements of the Human League came together better than ever! #music #80sClassics #synthpop

Healthwatch offers (yet) more evidence of the emergence (actually, the engineering) of a two tier health system, with increased use of the private secure (by those who can afford it) to avoid long(er) waiting lists for treatment. As I've note before, successive health secretaries (and Govt.s) have engineered a crisis in the NHS with the intent of expanding the cherry-picking of treatment by private providers. This isn't a policy bug, its a feature! #NHS #health https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn4892wnv2zo

Nesrine Malik argues, in the end its all about Palestine: 'The absence of peace & self-determination for the Palestinian people is the original sin; all flows from there. Netanyahu prefers to be in a costly state of wars with seemingly no end rather than see a free Palestine. His government has yoked Israel, the Middle East & the entire world to this expanding crisis, rather than solve the fundamental issue'! #Gaza #Palestine #Iran #politics https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/16/war…

For decades successive Govt.s have sought to cover declines in public spending on vital services by 'empowering' charities to deliver them, leaving those in need dependent on charitable giving. The news that donations are declining, not least due to the continuing cost of living crisis, holes that political gambit below the water-line. The Q. is what happens when charities are unable to delver services that the state no longer (says) it can afford? #charity #politics https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/mar/16/fewer-bri…