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• Commented on Who ordered THAT?!?
  It shall be very exciting yes. How go the other two independence minded parties? Are they making any serious runs for Westminster seats? With Scotland & SNP and England & Wales & UKIP, it is going to be a strange...
• Commented on The referendum question
  I quite like the idea of small nations and have long felt that 3-10 million or so population countries are in a good position to have efficient, effective and close to the people government. By which logic England is very...
• Commented on Service update
  Well, for the record I've lived in Australia, have a lot of family &friends there and support federation between the two countries (not that this is on the table at all). For similar reasons as to why I continue to...
• Commented on Service update
  Well, as a newly minted UK citizen from the heavily Scottish bit of a small, peripheral Anglo country of 4.5 million, I am pretty interested in the Referendum. I think I'd vote No, if I had a vote, which I...
• Commented on A Bird in Hand
  Is the answer no? I kept getting the impression Charlie was trying to say "no, long, complicated and amusing anecdotes with a simple crude punchline are about as bad". It sort of reminds me of a style of joke from...
• Commented on Making history personal
  I see a lot of us New World types have been penalised! So here is one for us: The farm I grew up on is situated on the eastern coast of the South Island of New Zealand, inland, on the...
• Commented on Making history personal
  I've rather enjoyed reading people's accounts, lots of good ideas for trips! My list: Oldest Slept Building I've stayed in a bunch of hotels or apartments from the 17th century across Western Europe, Italy especially. Common enough that it isn't...
• Commented on Upcoming appearance: FutureFest in London
  I take it the session is 'Science Fiction Writer's Parliament' on Sunday? It is very tempting, but 36£ for one session does put it right up there...
• Commented on We interrupt this broadcast ...
  Right, got the last copy, now I have some holiday reading ready!...
• Commented on We interrupt this broadcast ...
  I saw a copy in the wild, at a South London Waterstones yesterday. Unfortunately I was en route to a meeting, without a bag of any kind and I did not feel it appropriate to take to the meeting. I...
• Commented on "Fuck every cause that ends in murder and children crying" — Iain Banks, 1954-2013
  Thank you for your thoughts Charlie. I came to you and Ken MacLeod via Iain's work and so will forever associate the three of you together. Raw Spirit was the best kind of travel writing, filling me with a strong...
• Commented on Checking In
  I quite enjoyed my brief day foray to Tallinn from Helsinki, although I wish I'd had time to wander down the coast a bit, rather than having to stay in the old town....
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  So in a slightly relevant note, the European Parliament Press Office has published their thoughts on an exchange with a Daily Express reporter over a public education campaign about said parliament http://www.europarl.org.uk/view/en/media/Euromyths/education.html...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  Wasn't half the point of inventing (or adopting?) the term Anglosphere to create shorthand term to describe that end product of cultural and ethnic imperialism, as distinct from the wider English speaking world....
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  Indeed. While I think London is a particularly special case, it certainly is pretty normal to have a strong sense of dislike or neglect if not in the capital/principle city. New Zealand has a pretty bad case of that as...
• Commented on Thinking the unthinkable
  While I strongly identify with the Commonwealth connection and wish to preserve it, we/it is no substitute for wider engagement with other economies or people. If the inner Commonwealth / English speaking / settler dominated countries had a viable economic...