Odds and Ends #64: Why we cancelled our trip to America

Plus how to save Blue Peter

Hello! It’s time for Odds and Ends, your regular round-up of interesting links and shorter takes.

This week, it’s mostly a couple of bonus things by me. Specifically, in this edition I’m talking about:

• Why my partner and I decided to cancel our trip to America

• How I’d fix Blue Peter, so that it works in the 21st century

• A really interesting, more sceptical perspective on the digital government blueprint

• …And a polite, but savage demolition of one Johnny Harris

But first, a reminder!

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On this week’s Abundance Agenda podcast, Martin and I talk about the maddening story of Barry Thompson, who can’t install solar panels on his ex-council house, and reflect on the emptiness of gestures like declaring a “climate emergency”. We then dig into Peter Hitchens’ one man crusade against Daylight Savings Time, and speak to former Boris advisor, Lord Ben Gascoigne, about the Lords’ Built Environment Committee’s new inquiry into New Towns.

Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack, or wherever you get your podcasts!

(And if you have been enjoying the new pod, please do let people know! We’re delighted with the response so far, but growing a new podcast is hard – so sharing it really helps us get word out!)

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Now let’s get on with the takes!

Why we cancelled our trip to America

I genuinely can’t work out if I’m crazy.