When I was a kid in South East London, there was no Internet and no video games. There were just two black and white television channels. Commencing the day after President Kennedy was assassinated, we had Dr Who on a Saturday evening, but both channels went off for an hour on Sunday evening. The Sixties […]
Archive | Politics
A disturbing footnote in a sad election season
Donald Trump has provoked Michelle Obama to make one of the best political speeches of my lifetime. She spoke in New Hampshire on Thursday 13th October 2016, supporting Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign. She displayed a rare authenticity and a passion that I found genuinely moving. It is worth watching all 25 minutes here. It is […]
Poetical Essay On The Existing State Of Things
The summer news drought has been cancelled. Right back in the middle of the 19th Century, Fleet Street labelled the month of August ‘the Silly Season’ (‘Cucumber Time’ to my European readers). This year we have a vibrant Technicolor news freak out instead. Every time you think that Mr Trump has reached his offensive peak, […]
The Ministry of Fear
As I arrived in Southwold, Suffolk, for the annual family gathering, I was puzzled by a plethora of red, white and blue bunting. It was the day after the Bastille Day massacre in Nice and I briefly wondered if the bunting was a gesture of solidarity. Then I wondered if the town was having an […]
Chaos and lies
There seems to be a lot of news at present. It is not just the quantity that is exhausting. Like the weather, severe news events are becoming unnaturally common. Once-a-century phenomena are occurring several times a week. Personally, I would like some respite. Events are piling in on top of each other so that, for […]
¡No pasarán!
People who have a religious faith say that it affects everything they do, though it mostly goes unstated. I suppose that political convictions are similar. It is wrong for doctors to use their clinical relationship with patients as a platform for political proselytisation, but health and health care are deeply political matters. In a job […]
‘Brexit’: who came up with that?
Three weeks ago I received my Senior Railcard. I have left middle age behind and can spend my remaining years travelling in cut-price comfort. This milestone was quickly followed by another. I was included as a signatory in a letter in the Times (read it here). There were an awful lot of us; I was […]
If you stand up to a bully, they are very likely to hit you
Bullying is in the news a lot these days. Two recent examples: A few weeks ago, Labour MPs who voted for the bombing of Syria complained that constituency party members had threatened to deselect them, that they had received abusive messages and that they were being bullied. There is an appalling allegation of Conservative Party […]
We really do want our ball back
The entire political establishment, including its commentariat wing, are in a frenzy. The Labour Party has sent out ballot papers and the imminent possibility of Jeremy Corbyn being elected leader is construed as the end of political life as we know it or, at the very least, doom for the Party itself. Senior Party figures […]
The wrong life
Sir Simon Wessely is President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Together with Greg Smith, who works for the College, he wrote this excellent article about proposals to eliminate the payment of welfare benefits to fat people and people with alcohol problems. It is suggested that they will have their benefits withdrawn if they don’t […]