Hi all, Friends of mine know it’s pretty easy to make me happy: put me somewhere where I can watch birds, cricket or basketball, with something good to drink (preferably derived from grapes) and good food.

Every once in a while, even if for a short time, we find ourselves inhabiting our ideal niche. I remember the one summer in my teens when I looked like a great basketball player, solely because I lucked into a team where everything I did was desperately needed by my much more talented teammates, who...

What are we supposed to do with a week like that? I usually poke (sometimes) gentle fun at the state of English politics during our now routine scandals, but satire seems hopelessly inadequate after a week of the most comical, incompetent, ridiculous political machinations in living memory. Boris Jo...

The CGD London offices occupy a set of rooms just a stone’s throw of Parliament, not that anyone would be advised to throw that stone, however much they may be tempted. It’s a good vantage point: close enough to observe, but not so close as for the grime to rub off. This week, a senior MP was sancti...

There’s a mild statistical bent to all my favourite pastimes. Cricket is the most numbers-obsessed sport in the world; everything is counted, put into averages, investigated under all contingencies (sure, Mahela Jayawardene averages 59.72 at home, but shouldn’t we be concerned his average is a full ...

Ahhh, it’s the most magical time of year, with Christmas carols, and presents, and Love, Actually and It’s a Wonderful Life! That’s right, Christmas! Well, it is in CGD Europe, where our pandemic- delayed Christmas party has been reorganised for today, and frankly, the ambience is much, much more my...

The best thing I read this week was Michael Nielsen’s long, thoughtful, erudite criticism of Effective Altruism, the moral philosophy that argues for us to adopt an approach to life that relies on evidence and logic to establish how to achieve the most good for others over time, and to apply that un...