No basis for attack on niqaab
My veil epiphany | Victoria Coren Mitchell | Comment is free | The Observer Last Thursday a major further education college in Birmingham, the Birmingham Metropolitan College, backed down on a decision to ban...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
TSB is nobody’s local bank
I'm one of the people who's been "bumped" from Lloyd's Bank to the new TSB, a spin-off set up because the EU decided that Lloyds/TSB was too big after getting a government subsidy. The...
Why do you believe her?
Last Tuesday a British soap actor, Michael “Le Vell” Turner, was found not guilty of multiple counts of rape and sexual assault on a child (now 17). There has been some suggestions that his...
Apple needs more than a cheap phone to wipe out Android
iPhone 5C: if Apple produces a cheap phone, it could wipe out its rivals Mic Wright (@brokenbottleboy on Twitter) says that if Apple launches a cheap iPhone tonight (the rumoured iPhone 5C), it could...
Ariel Castro’s suicide is no tragedy
Ohio captor 'needed suicide watch': http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23967581 Ariel Castro, the man who kept three young women captive in his house in Ohio for several years, was found hanged in his cell on Tuesday. According to...
Issy Stapleton: suspicious timing
Recently a mother who was known to the online autism community and kept a blog about parenting her autistic daughter was found in a fume-filled van with her. Both the mother, Kelli Stapleton, and...
Ukraine and Drugs: the vapidity of Stacey Dooley
Europe's Dirty Drug Secret: Stacey Dooley Investigates (viewable in the UK until next Sunday) Last Monday I saw a programme featuring Stacey Dooley, the British “investigative journalist” whose efforts at understanding the divisions in...
Parliament got it right on Syria (for now)
Last Thursday, the British Parliament resoundingly defeated a government motion to join military action in Syria in response to the recent chemical weapon attacks in the suburbs of Damascus. Labour were joined in their...
Don’t mind the monkeys
Carers and care workers are the best kind of people. So why are they treated so disgracefully? Yesterday the Guardian published the above article by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, best known for co-founding Vagenda magazine...
Muslims must pay to save Academy
Recently I saw a number of appeals on Facebook and other social media to sign a petition to save a “mosque” in Manchester, the Islamic Academy of Manchester, which had been sold to a...
‘Road tax’ and the state of the A1
The BBC's online "Magazine" last week published three articles about transport issues, one of them about the notion of "road tax" and how it's commonly used as a trump card in arguments between motorists...
Benefits Britain 1949: yes, the world has changed since then
Currently Channel 4 is running a series called Benefits Britain 1949, in which people are invited to live on benefits at 1949 levels (supposedly adjusted to inflation) for a week. The Daily Mail has...
No, it’s not fascism
Recently there has been some well-deserved condemnation on blogs and Twitter feeds that I read about the British government’s attacks on immigration, which took the form of vans telling people who are in the...
Twitter silence is not an answer
Recently in the UK (not sure how many of my overseas readers are aware of it) there has been a major controversy about abuse of women activists on Twitter, which erupted when a feminist...
Justice for Jenny: delivered
Woman with Down syndrome prevails over parents in guardianship case (from the Washington Post website) Yesterday Jenny Hatch, who had been fighting to free herself from a restrictive guardianship arrangement which required her to...
Young people’s mental health: failed by the system
BBC Three: Failed by the NHS Last night there was a documentary on BBC Three about young people whose mental health conditions went untreated for months or years by the NHS mental health services,...
Are the Tories evil? What is evil, anyway?
Owen Jones: Cruel? Certainly. Unforgivable? Beyond doubt. But the Tories aren't actually evil – Comment – Voices – The Independent Last week Sunny Hundal posted an article on Liberal Conspiracy in which he made...
Why compulsory school dinners are a bad idea
Ban packed lunches, head teachers urged (from BBC News) The government has commissioned a report by two founders of the Leon restaurant chain (!) that says that take-up of school meals is low (43%)...
Review: Don’t Call Me Crazy
Recently a series called Don’t Call Me Crazy, set inside an adolescent mental health unit in Manchester, the now-closed McGuinness Unit, was screened on BBC Three, apparently the first time cameras had been allowed...
Who’s helping disabled Muslims this Ramadan?
BBC News – Frederic Kanoute supports disabled man's Ramadan fast Imraan Adam is a Muslim who lives in Derby and has cerebral palsy, and earlier this week it was reported that the council in...