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...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
Jonathan Freedland: there is no silence on Syria
We condemn Israel. So why the silence on Syria? | Jonathan Freedland | Comment is free | The Guardian This article appeared in the opinion section of yesterday’s Guardian and criticises the public and the...
Why don’t Muslims condemn every bad thing a Muslim does anywhere? by Cristina Odone
How many Muslim women martyrs do we need before Muslim leaders speak out? – Telegraph Blogs Cristina Odone is asking why Muslims didn’t loudly condemn the shooting of Malala Yousufzaid in Swat, Pakistan, as...
Extradition decision shows double standards
On Tuesday the Home Secretary, Theresa May, announced that the computer hacker Gary McKinnon would not be extradited to the USA to face charges of hacking into NASA’s and the Pentagon’s computers before and...
Cerebral palsy blogger “David Rose” exposed as fake
This post is also published at Same Difference, and you can comment there or here. Back in August, a blog was set up titled “Dave on Wheels”, purportedly by a young disabled man called...
Mehdi Hasan, abortion and the “no womb, no opinion” fallacy
Mehdi Hasan, a former editor at the New Statesman who has since moved to the Huffington Post, had a largely very well-reasoned article published on the latter website about how being opposed to abortion...
Is your family ‘troubled’ enough to get a ‘Basics Card’?
Today the Daily Telegraph reported that the government were considering introducing a system of "smart cards" for benefit payments, which recipients will only be able to use to spend on "essentials" such as "food,...
Cameron’s speech appeals to “aspirationalism”
I’ve been following the response among my friends, most of them activists in the disability community, to David Cameron’s speech at the Tory party conference today (a full transcript of it is on the...
Some pictures from Salisbury and Weymouth
Salisbury, 6th October 2012, a set on Flickr. I stopped off at Salisbury yesterday on the way back from seeing my friend in Dorchester. I was only there two hours, and so took a...
Jimmy Savile: the benefit of hindsight
I watched Wednesday night's Exposure documentary in which the claims that have been made about his molestation of young girls in the BBC studios and at a special boarding school in Surrey in the...
Rochdale grooming and the “Asian” dimension
Last week, the issue of the grooming and sexual abuse of girls in Rochdale and other northern towns was in the news again, as a report by the Rochdale Borough Safeguarding Children Board was...
Islamophobia Watch: Why Conway Hall was right to ban ‘Tommy Robinson’
Islamophobia Watch – Documenting anti Muslim bigotry – Why Conway Hall was right to ban 'Tommy Robinson' A comprehensive article about the debate that was to be held at Conway Hall between the "Muslim Debate...
On free transport passes and invisible disabilities
Epileptic Jess McGee, 19 Ordered Off Bus After Driver Calls Her Illness A ‘Pisstake’ The other day my new Asperger’s job consultant in Kingston asked me if I had a Freedom Pass (a free...
My letter on ME in today’s Telegraph
Means-testing pensioner benefits is a political rather than practical policy – Telegraph I wrote the Telegraph a letter on Monday in response to Max Pemberton's article on the issue of mental health stigma in...
Exaggerating Thusha’s disability
The BBC recently conducted another ‘exclusive’ interview with the family of Thusha Kamaleswaran, the (then) 5-year-old Tamil girl shot and paralysed in a gang-related incident in south London last year. There is a written...
Max Pemberton: the red herring of ‘mental health stigma’ in ME
Why few dare tackle the psychology of ME at the Telegraph website This article is by Max Pemberton, who has earlier written in the same paper about why ME sufferers are wrong to object...
Motorists support rise in speeding fines, charity claims
I was listening to the You and Yours programme on Radio 4 early this afternoon, and I heard part of an interview with some woman from the “road safety charity” called Brake, and she...
XMRV is not the only virus
ME is probably a mental illness after all – but that does not mean that it is not real – Mail Online – Michael Hanlon’s Science blog: From The Cutting Edge This is one...
Review: Fy Chwaer a Fi (My Sister and I) on S4C
S4/Clic O’r Galon: Fy Chwaer a Fi S4C is a Welsh-language TV channel that only broadcasts in Wales, although you can get it on satellite (not cable) and online, and it offers subtitling of...
On ‘child brides’ and irrelevant imams
I saw two stories in the mainstream press today that were about the state of the British Muslim religious establishment. One was in the Daily Mail by Baroness Cox which was based on a...