In my old papers I came across a letter to my family from Indonesia, written more than twenty years ago when I was a freelance journalist. So long ago, in fact, that I sent the letter by fax. This was in the turbulent months after the fall of the dictator Soeharto, when Indonesia’s transition to … Continue reading “I’m just here for pure enjoyment”. Reporting, voyeurism and violence →

Every week or so, our government throws out some big idea for solving the United Kingdom's problems or boosting its position in the world. These ideas are usually half-baked and clearly intended to distract the public’s attention from failures elsewhere. The newest big idea, the “Moonshot”, is interesting because it suggests that the ruling Conservative … Continue reading Shooting for the Moon: Britain’s Tories and the Big State →

There’s been a lot of interest lately about what it might mean to be British. Two recent war films, “Dunkirk” and “1917”, dig into this question but rather than coming up with confident answers, they imply that a once-influential notion of Britishness is lost and adrift. These films are set in northern France, on that … Continue reading In Britain’s new war films, it’s not really about the enemy →

The British comic actor Kenneth Williams, maybe best known for his immaculately campy roles in the “Carry On” films, would sometimes give himself private sexual pleasure and record in his diary that he’d had “the barclays.” This bit of rhyming slang (Barclays Bank = wank) pretty much describes the attitude of the British public towards … Continue reading Barclays Bank and tax havens: what do the numbers say? →

Last week Oxfam published this briefing about the tax rates of 25 of the biggest corporations on the London Stock Exchange, which I researched with a colleague and largely wrote. The idea was to see how their tax payments have been affected by the global phenomenon of tax competition – that is, countries slashing their … Continue reading UK-based corporations and tax competition: what’s the story? →