Over 5,000 years, states have made surprisingly consistent claims about their duties. They have promised to protect people from threats; promote their welfare; deliver justice and also, perhaps less obviously, uphold truth - originally truths about the cosmos, and more recently truths drawn from reason and knowledge.

A tablet replacing an exercise book is not innovation, it's just a different way to make notes.

Democratic nation states remain far more capable of managing the circuit of coercion, taxation and legitimation than any transnational bodies.

A lot of people in government don't really read books at all.

All of nationalism can be understood as a kind of collective narcissism.

Learning isn't something you should only do solo.

Lots of creativity is and should be solitary.