Confessions of a vehicular hypercondriac

I love driving. I love cars. Although I’ve only been driving for five years and own a Citroen DS4 (not exactly the symbol of the modern petrol head), I love nothing more than buckling up and setting off on the open road. But since having my first car go wrong on the first properly long drive I went on, I appear to have developed a condition suitably described by the Urban Dictionary, as vehicular hypercondria. I wouldn’t normally reference the Urban Dictionary, but for the purposes of this Continue reading [...]

What does it take to be successful?

At the time of writing this, I'm 26 years old. I work in marketing for a globally successful business; I have two degrees; I drive what I think to be a nice car; I live in a nice apartment, and I'm engaged to the love of my life and my best friend. But are these things the constitute success? I often spend far too much time scrolling through my social media feeds, reading posts and looking at pictures that my friends post, thinking to myself "God, why am I not that successful?" I have friends from Continue reading [...]

Why the proposed changes to the Lib Dem leadership make no sense

You can tell that parliament is currently enjoying its summer holiday as the Liberal Democrats have been making the headlines recently. Not for the reasons you might expect, however. It's nothing to do with the party's controversial stance on Brexit, nor is it to do with any other policy issue; once again, it's the question of the party's leadership. It's been three years since the party lost all but eight of its MPs along with, arguably, its most successful leader. After five years in coalition, Continue reading [...]

Corbynism is yet another example of post-truth politics

Like him or loathe him, there's no denying that Jeremy Corbyn is certainly an interesting politician. The antithesis to almost all UK political leaders of the last decade (perhaps longer), Corbyn has attracted a monumental following across the UK, capturing the hearts of hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised people with a promise of a better country, a fairer society, and a kinder and gentler politics. In his relatively short tenure as leader of the Labour Party, he's proved almost every political Continue reading [...]

Drowning in a sea of blue – why the Lib Dems are failing to make progress in the North

If I stand out and observe the view from my favourite spot in the town where I live, all I can see for miles is a sea of blue. That’s not just because I live in the town of Scarborough, right on the North Sea coast, but also because I live in a part of the world that at the last General Election, once again returned Conservative Members of Parliament in all but one of its eight constituencies. It’s the same story at County Council level too, with the Conservatives holding 55 of the 72 seats Continue reading [...]