There is a kind of brilliant madness to the idea that the best people to decide the direction of a large country are all of the people that live in it.
In the debates, David Cameron looked peripheral, a professional who has lost hunger. That could be the end of him.
We tend to think of terrorists and gangsters - the professionally violent – as opponents of the state. In fact, they are alternatives to it. Like politicians, gangsters and terrorists are interested in governance.
Oh, and moaning women. These are the films of the year, the ones that we think best capture the tenor of the times. Yet they are only interested in one half of the human tableau.
By using ever more machines we lose not only physical skills, but cognitive faculties.
Too often, it feels as though the Labour leader has so assiduously studied the rules of political communication that he can’t forget them.
Normal polling methods struggle to detect people’s internal divisions, yet the Scottish referendum has just demonstrated how powerful an effect ambivalence can be.
If you’re playing a loser’s game, strategy is unnecessary. You avoid errors, but in dangerous times risk being buffeted by events.
The Labour leader is surrounded by brainboxes, but they’re all clever in the same way – their lack of diversity makes the whole group stupider.
The internet is an answer machine, it doesn’t help us ask better questions. It feeds the illusion that we already know everything we need to know to be well-informed.
After the death of his wife following a minor operation, airline pilot Martin Bromiley set out to change the way medicine is practised in the UK – by using his knowledge of plane crashes.
We ought to be doing everything we can to foster curiosity but we undervalue and misunderstand it.
Now that we have infinite space on the internet and huge volumes of data about what people read, is there a role for the powerful individual who shapes a publication according to personal taste?
A quiet revolution has taken place in gambling, with electronic terminals finely-tuned into the perfect devices for parting you from your money. Rather than thrilling you, they lull you into a calm, machine-like state that gives the illusion of control.
Politicians no longer change the world, technology does. Even as wealth has become more concentrated, power has become more dispersed.
Our national news agenda is distorted by a deep suspicion of Muslims.
When they are forced collaborate – as they increasingly have to these days – it’s like a horse and a cow attempting to procreate.
Humans are terrible lie detectors, but we believe ourselves to be practically flawless. That's why banning the veil in court will never lead to better justice.
Social media lull us into thinking we’re whispering to a friend at a party, when in reality we’re shouting through a megaphone. But every time we hold back from dishing the dirt, we become a little bit less human.