James Watson

The ghosts of ministerial past

In November 2023, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appointed former Prime Minister David Cameron to the position of Foreign Secretary in his cabinet and recommended him for a life peerage. In his statement on the appointment, Lord Cameron spoke on helping Sunak: “Deliver the security and prosperity our country needs.” Cameron...
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Posted Jun. 24, 2024

A Swim in a Pond in the Rain: A Review

George Saunders is a writer, journalist, and faculty member at Syracuse University in the state of New York. As Saunders frequently asserts himself, a good book is as much about the writer as the content of their work. This is what makes A Swim in a Pond in the Rain,...
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Posted May. 21, 2024

Self-help books – how useful are they actually?

The opening page of James Clear’s bestseller Atomic Habits holds synoptic definitions of the two words in its title: atomic as “an extremely small amount of a thing” and habit as “a routine performed regularly”. Clear’s book is the latest in a swathe of self-help books which, at their core,...
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Posted Apr. 18, 2024

Leamington Spa Covid mega lab put up for sale

The Rosalind Franklin Laboratory, the UK’s first Covid-19 testing “mega lab”, has been put up for sale. The Leamington-based test centre opened in July 2021 and was intended to speed up Covid testing, processing 300,000 tests a day. However, plans never fully materialised, and the lab has stood empty for...
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Posted Nov. 26, 2023