Last updated 22 September 2026.

Cookies are small text files a website stores in your browser. This page explains which ones this site uses and what you can do about them.

Strictly necessary

These make the site work: keeping your session consistent, remembering that you have dismissed a notice, and protecting forms against abuse. The site cannot function properly without them and they carry no advertising purpose.

Performance and analytics

These count page views and tell us which articles are read and which are ignored. They record behaviour in aggregate rather than identifying you personally. We use them to decide what to write and what to fix.

Advertising

Advertising pays for this site. Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this and other websites. These cookies are set by the advertising vendor, not by us, and are governed by that vendor privacy policy.

Controlling cookies

Every major browser lets you see the cookies a site has set, delete them, and block future ones. Look under Settings, then Privacy. Blocking strictly necessary cookies may break parts of the site; blocking advertising cookies will not.

To turn off personalised advertising specifically, use Google Ads Settings, aboutads.info, or the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out. You will still see ads; they will simply be less relevant to you.

Do Not Track

There is still no agreed industry standard for responding to Do Not Track browser signals, so we do not claim to honour one. The opt-out links above are the reliable route.

For the wider picture, see our privacy policy.