Author: Matthew Smith

Is there really a driver shortage?

A couple of weeks ago I had a very brief stab at being an all-week truck driver, or as they call them in this country, a tramper. The job would have involved picking up...

The mystery of Ruth Wilson

Recently a half-hour film featuring Martin Bright, the former New Statesman, Spectator and Jewish Chronicle contributor, and a retired Northern Irish cop named Liam McAuley, was published on YouTube about the disappearance of a...

No, this treatment won’t save Demi’s life

This morning I came across an appeal to raise money to help an 11-year-old British girl, Demi Knight, to receive 'treatment' for her cancer in Houston, Texas, from a guy called Stanyslaw Burzynski at...

Money versus culture in care

In the light of two recent inquests into the deaths of young men with learning disabilities, one in an NHS hospital (Oliver McGowan, right) and one in a Mencap-run care home (Danny Tozer), both...

Animal rights are no excuse for racism

The other day the 80's pop star Morrissey, best known for being the frontman for the Smiths, gave an interview in which he backed the far-right party called For Britain, set up by a...

Who really loses out here?

This is a sign which, allegedly, appeared on a college hall of residence in Toronto, Canada. It points left to a non-accessible bathroom for men, and right for an accessible one with a hoist...

About those free rides …

Some friends of mine have been sharing a Labour election video on Facebook. The 15-second video claims that the next Labour government will make bus travel free for under-25s in England before telling people,...

On DIY SOS and accessibility

The other day I watched a repeat of an episode of the BBC series DIY SOS: The Big Build. It's where the BBC get some architects, designers and local builders and other workers and...

Keeping Corbyn out is not enough

Yesterday I came across a blog post by Nora Mulready, one of the most sanctimonious anti-Corbyn agitators among the centre-Left, welcoming the announcement of a "new party" in last Sunday's Observer — which, as...

Review: The Silent Child

The other day I watched a repeat of an episode of the BBC series DIY SOS: The Big Build. It's where the BBC get some architects, designers and local builders and other workers and...

How (not) to argue with Brexiteers

Last Friday Nick Cohen posted a series of tweets about what he described as the tendency of Labour Remainers to "snuggle down in the soft warm bed of conspiracy theory" in explaining why the...

Why are service stations a rip-off?

Today the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, called for an investigation into what he called "exploitative" fuel prices at motorway service stations, which are typically 20p per litre above prices elsewhere (and the gap between...