Blair blocked truth about Iraq from cabinet
Blair blocked Cabinet from hearing legal advice on Iraq – UK Politics – UK – The Independent The recently published diaries of Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s former “spin doctor” who had been at his...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
Ukraine: BBC exposes abuse of disabled and slave labour
BBC iPlayer: Ukraine’s Forgotten Children (viewable in UK only until 28th June); more here Last night (Monday), the BBC broadcast a 90-minute exposé on the state of care for orphans and disabled people in...
HS2 will destroy beauty, not deliver it
Where are the new airports and railways we so desperately need? | Will Hutton | Comment is free | The Observer This article by Will Hutton appeared in today’s Observer, arguing in favour of...
Ayn van Dyk: one year on
For my previous writings on Ayn’s case, see these two entries from September and December 2011. There is also a Facebook group to support Ayn’s parents in getting their daughter out of care. A...
“Middle lane hoggers” and other driving stupidity
Yesterday morning, Vanessa Feltz dedicated much of her talk show (BBC London, 94.9FM, 9am-noon) to the supposed news that people who drive for long distances in the middle lane on the motorways (rather than...
New immigration rules: targeted at Asians, again
Stark choice under new immigration rules: exile or family breakup | UK news | The Guardian After the fiasco of the raised age limit for non-EU spouses (it was set at 21, ostensibly to...
ME suicide “triggered by benefits form”
Why I let my husband die | Life and style | The Guardian This article is an interview with Jill Anderson, whose husband Paul killed himself in 2005 (on his fourth attempt). He had...
The Jubilee and British values
The last four days, the UK has seen a whole lot of events related to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee (marking 60 years on the throne) and these included a flotilla on the Thames through...
RadFem 2012, “male privilege” and censorship
Yesterday it was announced that a radical feminist conference that was to be held at Conway Hall in London has had to find another venue after an online campaign led to the venue’s owners...
We must do away with the “ignore and it’ll go away” myth
Catcalls, whistles, groping: the everyday picture of sexual harassment in London (from the Independent) Yesterday (Friday) it was reported in the Independent newspaper in London, and discussed on the Vanessa Feltz show on BBC...
Windows 8: tablet as desktop coming to a desk near you
I’ve been noticing various articles about the impending Windows 8 release on OSNews appear recently, and it doesn’t look good. I’ve been using Linux a lot since about 2002, and one of the worst...
Jim Fitzpatrick on halaal meat
There is a letter in this week’s edition of the New Statesman from Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour MP for Poplar and Limehouse, an east London constituency which includes a very large Muslim population (it is...
Carole Malone: a new low in victim-blaming
This was on “This Morning”, a chat show that goes out on weekday mornings on ITV1, earlier today (Wednesday): Carol Malone, a tabloid newspaper columnist, gave her judgement on the family of which six...
A law unto themselves
What do medical staff and airline staff have in common? What separates them is that airline staff do not train for their jobs for five years, yet have the safety of dozens, if not...
ME Awareness Day 2012: some links
Because of the pressure of work, I’ve been unable to write anything for ME Awareness Day (or even week) this year. I’ve written a few articles over the past year, the two most important...
Review: Acer Aspire 5733Z
Last Saturday I bought a new laptop, a purchase made necessary by the fact that my old laptop had given up the ghost after just over four years. I had been using that for...
Why I believe Ken Livingstone lost
Last night, we discovered that Boris Johnson, the Tory mayor of London elected in 2008, had been re-elected: he gained 44% of first-preference votes against Livingstone’s 40.3%; when second-preference votes were counted, his vote...
It’s not news, and it’s not fit to print
This was originally going to be a BADD post and I was writing it in my head on Tuesday intending to type and post it that evening after work, but work dragged on longer...
BADD 2012: mobile accessibility
Being Accessible Doesn’t Just Mean Ramps – Blogging Against Disablism Day » Dannilion.com Danni Brennand posted the above article this morning, regarding how accessibility is often taken to mean providing wheelchair ramps, rather than...
Disability benefits and the self-made mouth
This post has been republished at Where’s the Benefit as a guest post, and you can comment there or here. Last Saturday night, there was a debate on the Stephen Nolan show, a late-night...