An Ahmadiyyah geography lesson
This letter appeared in yesterday's Daily Mail in response to the article by David Goodhart about the Ahmadiyyah centre in Morden last Monday (see earlier article). The letter starts off by stating that her...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
When will people realise the Bulger killers were children?
BBC News – Three men jailed for selling information to the Sun On Wednesday a former prison worker and two former policemen were jailed for selling information to the papers, and the information the...
Open letter on murder of disabled man — please sign
Open letter to Keir Starmer regarding Jordan Sheard (public) – Google Drive The above is an editable open letter — it is editable so that you can add your name to the bottom of...
“Merton’s not white anymore”, moans former liberal in the Daily Mail
A mega mosque in a suburb that was 90 per cent white 30 years ago and the polite apartheid dividing Britain | Mail Online Barely a month ago I responded to an article in...
Go after abusive media companies, not bloggers
Samuel Johnson famously asked, in an essay written during the American war of independence, “How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?”. These days, we hear...
Seven Years in the Making
Jessica Taylor has severe ME, and has been bedridden for seven years. She has previously made another video, “The World of One Room”, in which she describes how the disease has affected her life:...
Perfidious Albion
BBC News – Leading music college loses border licence Point Blank Music College, a well-regarded college which seems to specialise in modern music (teachers include DJ Pete Tong, alumni include Goldie and Leona Lewis)...
Because nobody gets raped in England, do they?
BBC News – Barbados rapes: MP warns travellers island is 'unsafe' Stephen McPartland, Tory MP for Stevenage, has been putting pressure on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to declare that Barbados is “not a...
Don’t be tempted not to vote!
Yesterday, in response to the abstention by most Labour MPs (and the party itself; forty Labour MPs voted against, including John McDonnell and Dennis Skinner) on the retrospective legislation to excuse the government for...
Why aren’t more people feminists nowadays?
Laurie Penny: Feminism is the one F-word that makes eyes widen in polite company (from this week's New Statesman) The other week, one of my Facebook friends (who has severe ME) wrote that it...
Lib Dem associations must act against backdoor Tories
Last week it was reported that the Lib Dem party conference had condemned the government’s plan for “secret courts” (as the BBC describes it, “some civil proceedings held in private for fear of damaging...
Is free speech free, or isn’t it?
Note: Further enquiries reveal that “Bethan Jones” is in fact Beth Tichbourne, and that her offence was not only to hold up the placard mentioned, but also to attempt to scale a barrier. Her...
IDS: More Catholic than the Pope?
The other day, Justin Welby, the new archbishop of Canterbury, defended the welfare system that the present government are busy ripping up, describing it as a duty of a civilised society to support vulnerable...
Hadley Freeman, feminism and intersectionality
Hadley Freeman on Sheryl Sandberg, feminism and intersectionality (from today's Guardian) The above is an article by Hadley Freeman, who is one of the Guardian's fashion columnists who also writes increasingly about feminist issues...
Getting CyanogenMod on the Galaxy Nexus
A month or so ago I bought a second-hand Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone — I had intended to get a Nexus 4, but there were the usual supply problems at the time, and I...
Johnson’s cycling proposals are no substitute for new laws
Boris Johnson’s bold thinking could change the future of London cycling | Environment | guardian.co.uk (also see this in today’s Observer) I’ve been a cyclist since I was a child, although these days I...
How not to market a smartphone (or: How to not market a smartphone)
Recently I’ve been hearing a lot about the newly revamped BlackBerry 10, which has been appearing in various phone shops (shops like Carphone Warehouse as well as the carrier franchises). It’s also appeared on...
Human rights are not just for other people
This Venn diagram by Paul Bernal has been doing the rounds on Twitter, and follows the announcement from the Conservative party that at the next election, their manifesto will include a commitment to changing...
A UKIP geography lesson
In Nigel Farage’s local pub, there are no Ukip activists, ‘just friends’ | Politics | The Observer This “sketch” appears next to a large feature on UKIP and their plans to target northern England...
Ten years on, Nick Cohen celebrates the Iraq invasion with a straw man
Ten years on, the case for invading Iraq is still valid | Nick Cohen | Comment is free | The Observer Ten years ago I participated in the demonstrations in London against the invasion...