Rav Casley Gera

A new report argues that fifty years of urban policy have failed to revitalise the economies of Britain’s Northern towns. If they’re right, the very future of our Northern cities may have to be rethought

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So it’s mid-January! You remember 2007, right? Right? The one before this one. The one with the missing girl, yes? Yes! That’s right. [Read more →]

The argument about climate change has been for so long about whether it’s actually happening, we’ve got badly behind on discussion of what to actually do about it. Consideration of what carbon emission targets should be included in any successor treaty to Kyoto, which expires in 2010, needs to begin in earnest now. But the very mindset that the green movement has had to create to get its point across makes it hard to transition to practical thought about solutions. For years, we’ve been repeating and repeating the mantra that climate change is real, is serious, and poses a real threat to civilisation and millions of lives. Now the public and politicians seem finally to be accepting the consensus, it’s a jolt to switch from doom-mongering to planning. [Read more →]

With the UCAS process completed and a new year of students beginning to gear up for beginning university, there’s a remarkable level of concensus in the media at the success of the Government’s contentious funding reforms. Here’s the Guardian, one of the papers most receptive to critics of the reforms in the past: [Read more →]

The single war is a dangerous business. “Country House” vs “Roll With It” marked the beginning of both Blur and Oasis’ artistic declines; One True Voice’s decimation by Girls Aloud left the nascent boyband (sorry, “vocal harmony group”) stillborn. So it’s slightly scary to see two brand-new and fairly fragile careers entering the arena: former Sugababes Siobhan Donaghy and Mutya Buena. [Read more →]

In our double-speed age, when the most staid, pinstriped executive salivates over the latest iPod, hot trends shoot all the way up from the underground to the mainstream with dazzling speed. YouTube was only founded in early 2005, but by late 2006 it had not only made its founders multimillionaires, but had put a new buzzword - “web 2.o” - onto the front pages of the developed world’s traditional media. By now, you probably know what it means - an internet created, shaped and filled by us, the user. In a genuine stroke of genius, the folks at Time magazine - at its best, the perfect yardstick of the most forward-thinking end of the American mainstream - declared its Man Or Woman of the Year for 2006 to be “you” - or rather, us. [Read more →]

Celebrity culture is dead. It may seem strong and healthy, but inside, it’s rotting. And soon we’ll all be running from the smell. [Read more →]

The world has been drooling recently over the new Apple mobile phone. Like the iPod, it’s sexy, slim, and simple to use, and it’s expected to fly off the shelves. But it’s not just phone companies who should pay attention: it’s the Government, too. [Read more →]

I have an announcement to make. This is going to shock some of you, but I’ve given it a lot of thought. Before you all rush to judge me, I’d like you to listen carefully to what I have to say.

This Christmas, 2006, I am boycotting “Fairytale of New York.”

I told you you’d be shocked. [Read more →]

Leigh Bowery is chasing me. Not content with haunting my childhood, he’s following me around in my twenties as well.

A couple of days ago I went to see the Michael Clark Company’s mmm…. at the Barbican. Michael Clark is endlessly referred to as a “former enfant terrible of dance,” because his shows in the 1980’s used to have overtones of sex, and frequently nudity. And I was aware that Leigh designed many costumes for Clark in the 80’s, and even appeared on stage in a couple of shows. [Read more →]