Parenthood is an unending succession of anxiety provoking situations. Once, one of my offspring expressed an interest in becoming a social worker. I immediately had a pang of apprehension. Don’t get me wrong. Some of my best friends are social workers. I don’t mean that figuratively, they really are. I have social work colleagues who […]
It’s enough to make you cry
The hapless Sir Tim Hunt FRS, Nobel laureate and important scientific dude, is currently attracting support from a range of senior scientists. They feel that he has been victimised by a baying Twitter mob following some crass comments about female scientists. No one likes to see somebody hounded, but the fact is that his comments […]
Charles Kennedy is dead
Charles Kennedy’s funeral has passed and so has the intensive press coverage. The sheer volume of comment about him was astonishing. Much of it was repetitive, and it has left me feeling uncomfortable. Even for those of us who didn’t like Charles Kennedy’s politics, he always seemed personable and decent. He was once the youngest […]
Life
When I was young, old people had a certain mature dignity. They had been through the Second World War. They didn’t talk about it or, if they did, they construed it as one huge apocalyptic party and sing-song. Women still wore the fashions of the 1940s. Men had oiled short back and sides, topped off […]