We don’t need another Crystal Palace
Last week I read that a Chinese businessman has presented plans to rebuild the old Crystal Palace on its old site at the top of Crystal Palace Park in south-east London. Ni Zhaoxing, chairman...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
What breeds anti-intellectualism?
From the Archive: Paul Johnson on the Know-Nothing Left This article first appeared in the New Statesman in 1975 when Paul Johnson was still associated with the British political left (in the late 1970s...
Roman Polanski raped a young girl. Not much nuance there.
Roman Polanski and the sin of simplification (in today's Observer) Victoria Coren Mitchell tries to make a case that the situation of Roman Polanski, the subject of a book published by the woman he...
FGM and the fallacy of symbolism
Sarah Sands: We cannot lose the battle for liberal values – Comment – London Evening Standard Sarah Sands is the editor of the London Evening Standard, and this article by her appeared in yesterday's...
Letter to the Guardian on Niqaab
I wrote this letter last Thursday after seeing a series of very hostile letters in the Guardian following Kira Cochrane's article in which she interviewed women who wear the niqaab (who had been conspicuously...
A suspected war criminal to settle a hostage crisis?
The BBC just reported that the trial at the Hague of William Ruto, the Kenyan deputy president, for crimes committed after the 2007 general election, has been suspended so that he can go back...
Coalition is not “Britain’s new normal”
Coalition Governing Could Be Britain’s New Normal Despite Liberal Democrats’ Troubles (from the New York Times) This article claims that the "successful" Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition that was formed after the 2010 election has changed...
Outbreak of media splaining over niqaab
The recent wave of media interest in niqaab that resulted from the Birmingham College and niqaab-in-court affairs has, as previously noted, featured a lot of opinionising from almost everyone except for wearers — plenty...
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...
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...