Simon Wessely: more sinning than sinned against
In the current New Year honours, Professor Simon Wessely has received a knighthood and will henceforth be known as Professor Sir Simon Wessely. In this he joins the company of Roy Meadow, the doctor...
Author: Matthew Smith
Christian persecution campaigners lose Sunday work case
Christians have no right to refuse to work on Sundays, rules judge – Telegraph This is the latest appeal in the case of Celestine Mba, a former carer for children with learning disabilities in...
Tories have lost 2015 already, says Conservative Home editor
This article has been appearing in my Twitter feed a lot this morning; it’s by the executive editor of ConservativeHome (and former MP for Wycome in Buckinghamshire), Paul Goodman, and predicts that 2015 is...
Will Huntingdon toll scheme drive traffic away?
BBC News – Road pricing: More new roads could be funded by tolls The battle goes on to find a way to fund a supposedly much-needed upgrade to the A14 in Cambridgeshire, which is...
The problem with ‘privilege’ (and the anti-cuts movement)
The problem with privilege-checking by Tom Midlane (from the New Statesman website) I had this article tweeted at me earlier this week and the accompanying comment read "Privilege is a myth. Guess before you...
Kesgrave Hall abuse in the Guardian
Former pupils call for new investigation into abuse claims at Suffolk school | Society | The Guardian A few weeks ago I was contacted by a journalist from the Guardian, Josh Halliday, who saw...
There’s no “war” on Britain’s roads
Last Wednesday there was a programme on BBC1 called “The War on Britain’s Roads”, which was based on footage shot from cyclists’ helmets, and included various encounters with dangerous drivers and cyclists and confrontations...
Ayn van Dyk: beginning of the happy ending
This past week I heard some very happy news from the family of Ayn van Dyk, the young autistic Canadian girl who was seized from her home by social workers in British Columbia after...
Labour ‘expels councillors’ who campaigned for rival
Labour party expels councillors who 'supported rival' (BBC News; more at The Wharf) This report is about three former Labour councillors who were expelled from the party in east London for supporting an independent...
Final Overground section opens; BBC mourns ‘loss’
Tomrrow (Sunday) the last section of the London ‘Overground’ (a mostly overground but partly underground group of railway services which run mostly just outside central London) is opening; this is a line from Clapham...
Punish bad nurses, but don’t let the bosses off the hook
Last Wednesday the secretary of state for health, Jeremy Hunt, made a speech at the King’s Fund on “the quality of care”, in which he alleged, among other things, that there had been a...
Leveson: what about the content?
Last week the Leveson inquiry finally reported, and the key points can be found [here](http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/29/leveson-report-key-points), but they include a new independent regulator backed by statute but independent of government and the industry, with membership...
Good enough for Olympians, good enough for the plebs
BBC News – Lancashire Muslims Halal school dinner boycott call The Lancashire Council of Mosques has advised Muslim parents in the county to boycott the new ‘halaal’ dinners being offered to their children by...
What’s this? Hope Not Hate endorsing racism?
Hope Not Hate has reproduced an article by Shiraz Maher from the Spectator, titled “Few would shed tears if Britain barred Anjem Choudary from returning”. Choudary is currently in Pakistan attending a conference of...
What don’t we know about the UKIP fostering case?
A number of newspapers, and the BBC, have reported today that a foster family from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, have had three children removed from their care allegedly becuase they are members of the UK...
Bishops are not mere middle management
I’ve been pretty astounded at the tone of the response to the Church of England’s General Synod’s decision to reject the appointment of female bishops on Wednesday. The motion had been supported by the...
Lynton and Boris – Islamophobia isn’t news
Islamophobia Watch – Documenting anti Muslim bigotry – Lynton Crosby told Boris Johnson not to waste his time chasing votes from ‘f***ing Muslims’ Lynton Crosby is the Australian electioneer who ran the campaign that saw...
Casualty, Morquio syndrome and incest
Yet again, Casualty gets the medical facts wrong in one of their plotlines. This time the condition involved was Morquio syndrome (pronounced Morkio), a genetic disorder which results in dwarfism, spinal defects and visual...
The reach of Wessely’s theories
Last Friday I wrote here about Simon Wessely, the psychiatric professor at King’s College Hospital in London who is notorious for promoting psychological theories about certain chronic illnesses, won an award for “courage” presented...
Melanie Phillips is not mad
When I first got into blogging in 2004, one of the most prominent voices in the blogosphere (she was, and is, also a newspaper columnist) was Melanie Phillips, who by that time wrote for...