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...
Category: Politics
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...
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...
Brexit: Back to the 16th Century?
Last Tuesday, there was a programme on BBC Radio 4 in which Jonathan Freedland, a Guardian columnist who was a strong Remain supporter, compared the present Brexit situation with the Elizabethan era, in which...
On the problem of proving hate
Yesterday I saw a post on the Disability Hate Crime Network group on Facebook about a crime in which a 'vulnerable' man was kept captive and tortured for more than a week by a...
The electronics ban: malice or stupidity? Protectionism or security?
Yesterday, the Trump administration announced that 'large' electronic items such as tablets and laptops were to be banned from US-bound flights on some airlines, all based in the Arab world or Turkey, from airports...
If in doubt, blame Corbyn
The other day I saw an exchange on Twitter between some Labour activists in which Jeremy Corbyn got the blame for Theresa May's announcement that the ban on new grammar schools was to be...
Melanie Phillips has her history wrong
There is an article in the Times today (paywalled) in which Melanie Phillips proclaims that the Scots and Northern Irish have no right to secede at the expense of the "authentic", "ancient" British nation...
Short memories
One of the signs that you're getting older is that you start to become aware that there are adults who weren't even born when you became an adult, or at least don't remember the...
Milo is just a professional jerk
Last week Milo Yiannopoulos (AKA Milo Andreas Wagner), once the darling of the "alt-right" and of a sizeable chunk of the American Right, suddenly fell from grace as a result of someone drawing attention...
Foreign criminal scum!
The Sun are OUTRAGED this morning because an “American strangler”, as they call him, has been deported from the USA to this country after serving nearly 40 years in a New York state prison...
Blair not the man to lead Brexit fightback
The former British prime minister, Tony Blair, today gave a speech in the City of London in which he declared that Brexit could be defeated if the people who opposed it "rise up" (the...
Citizenship is not just a visa
Today three members of the notorious 'grooming gangs' who raped and sexually abused girls in the Rochdale area lost an appeal against deportation to Pakistan. Two of the men, who were jailed in 2012,...
Trump has no business in any parliament
The speaker of the Commons, John Bercow, has made himself unpopular (again) with a number of Tory MPs for announcing that he will not allow Donald Trump to address the Commons if and when...
Trump’s election is no ‘rejection of elites’
In yesterday's Observer, there is a piece by one John Daniel Davidson, identified as "a senior correspondent for the Federalist" who lives in Austin, Texas, defending Donald Trump from claims that he is a...
Time for Europhiles to divide and rule
So, in the last few weeks Jeremy Corbyn has shown his true Euro-Sceptic colours, issuing a three-line whip to order his MPs to vote in favour of the government's bill to trigger Article 50...