On Ian Brady and the death penalty
Last week Ian Brady, a serial murderer of children from the 1960s, died in a "special hospital" (a high-security hospital which takes criminals who are mentally ill) aged 79. He had been convicted of...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
On Corbyn, trains and renationalisation
Earlier today I heard Owen Jones, the Labour-supporting Guardian columnist and author of Chavs and The Establishment, on Radio 4's Today programme defending Jeremy Corbyn's plans to "re-nationalise" the railways if he became prime...
Adult education versus university tuition fees
Earlier this week Jeremy Corbyn announced that if Labour wins the election next month, they will abolish university tuition fees, which were brought in under Labour in 1998 and were increased dramatically by the...
On hijab, ‘neutrality’ and threat
Last week I heard a conversation between Shelina Janmohammed, the author of Love in a Headscarf and Generation M and a columnist for The National, a Dubai-based newspaper, and the LBC presenter Sheila Fogerty,...
Before you trust the Tories on mental health …
So, today it was announced that Theresa May has promised new legislation on mental health if her party wins next month's election, which will "rip up" the 1983 Mental Health Act under which people...
Royal fake news?
So, yesterday it was announced that Prince Phillip, the 95-year-old Prince Consort to the Queen, was retiring from public royal duties as of this coming autumn. This followed an awful lot of speculation after...
Review: Colombia with Simon Reeve
A few years ago I wrote two reviews on here of programmes featuring Stacey Dooley, a BBC presenter who features on 'youth-oriented' documentary programmes, and I was pretty scathing about her manner and about...
BADD 2017: On dignity
This post is part of Blogging Against Disablism Day 2017. For the past couple of years, my BADD posts have focussed on the issue of people with autism and learning disabilities and the way...
If we ever leave a legacy…
Today all the papers are marking the 20th anniversary of the Blair landslide, in which Tony Blair's Labour party won a majority of 179, unmatched before or since, defeating John Major's Conservative government and...
UKIP, the ‘burqa’ and FGM
Over the weekend the so-called UK Independence Party published as part of its 2017 election manifesto an "integration agenda" which includes a ban on face coverings, which it describes as a "deliberate barrier to...
NHS compensation is rightful and necessary
Last Monday I saw an article in the Times in which a woman called Susanne Cameron-Blackie, who it turns out was the writer behind the now-removed Anna Raccoon blog (see earlier entry; she was...
St George’s bank holiday? Not such a good idea
So, Jeremy Corbyn has announced that a Labour government would introduce four new UK-wide bank holidays on all four of the national saints' days: St David's Day on 1st March, St Patrick's Day on...
Labour election broadcast a disaster
BBC iPlayer – Party Election Broadcasts: Labour – English Local Elections: 21/04/2017 I just saw the Labour Party Election broadcast, which is intended as being for the local elections next month (4th May), although...
This is a Brexit election
So, Theresa May has called a general election for 8th June, and Parliament has backed her up. After denying that she would have an election or a re-run of the Brexit referendum ever since...
The United Airlines school of Sufism
Last week there was outrage after a man was manhandled off a United Airlines plane in Chicago, having boarded and taken the seat he had paid for, when the airline decided that their crew...
Pictures from the Devil’s Punch Bowl
One of my favourite parts of being a truck driver used to be driving down to Portsmouth, as this involved driving through the Devil's Punch Bowl in west Surrey: the road used to skirt...
Lower Thames Crossing: the worst possible option
Yesterday it was announced that the preferred route for the "East Thames Crossing", a tunnel under the Thames east of the current easternmost crossing at Dartford, had been announced. The proposed route branches off...
Nation 1.0? It never was
There was an article last Tuesday in the Irish Times by Janan Ganesh: Britons don't pine for Empire; they just want to be left alone, which claims that the people of 'Deep England' who...
Labour an “Apartheid party”? Really?
There's an article in today's Mail on Sunday by Dan Hodges, a Blairite columnist and former GMB union and Labour party staffer (and son of Glenda Jackson), proclaiming that anyone who remains a member...
The alt-right’s Barry Kent
Readers of a certain age will remember the character of Barry Kent from Sue Townsend's Adrian Mole series of books about a young man growing up in the Midlands (of England) in the 1980s...