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...
Author: Matthew Smith
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...
Simon Wessely gets courage award (from a bunch of his mates)
On Wednesday, Simon Wessely, notorious for promoting psychological theories about ME, was jointly awarded a new prize for courage in “standing up for science” by Sense About Science. Nature published the statement by the...
Dorries, Galloway and the problem of MPs’ leave
Nadine Dorries, the conservative (with a small ‘c’) Tory MP for Mid-Bedfordshire, has been suspended from her party (and likely faces de-selection in the run-up to the next general election) following her travel to...
Windows 8: some first impressions
Yesterday I took the plunge and installed Windows 8 on my laptop. I had hesitated to do this, because of various reports such as that the Desktop (that is, the running of the normal...
Jimmy Savile at Duncroft: who to believe?
The past week or so I've been following a series of posts by the blogger "Anna Raccoon", who I earlier came across in her articles about the Court of Protection and her championing of...
Dr Leon Moosavi on “white privilege” and converts
I just attended a talk by Dr Leon Moosavi, who some readers may know from Facebook, on the experience of converts from different backgrounds after they enter Islam. He mentioned the concept of “white...
What does it take to get locked up in Britain?
Shocking moment mother Amanda Lowe, 26, repeatedly stamps on man's head in racist attack | Mail Online A woman who took part with three men in a violent group attack on an Asian man,...
‘Bonfire of standards’ may cut access in new buildings
Government orders building standards review | Politics | The Guardian The government has ordered a review of building standards regulations, with a view to reducing the number of regulations, ostensibly to facilitate a revival...
The importance of staying connected
Over the years that the Internet has existed as a mass medium (which is more or less my adult life — I first got online at university in 1995, before Google and just as...
Yahoo and T-Mobile preserve an ancient tradition: inaccessible Captchas
This post is cross-posted to Same Difference, and you can comment there or here. Captchas are a method websites use to tell whether a visitor is a person or a computer. This is typically...
Upgrading your Galaxy S: there’s no easy way
I spent the past two days upgrading my Android phone, a Samsung Galaxy S (model i9000) to the new version of Android. There have actually been several new versions since the last one Samsung...