This is a response to Reuben’s post from a week and a half back. I realise that’s quite a long delay (I meant to write about it last weekend, but unfortunately I’ve been away for the past week, and frankly a bit rubbish at posting for a few weeks before that) but I think the [...]
My phone contract ran out of contract a few months ago, so I am told that I am apparently entitled to an upgrade. Great, I think. I go out and investigate getting a new iPhone, because I’m told that this is a really useful bit of kit, but little do I suspect that this is [...]
This article, which I co-authored with environmental lawyers Ambika Hiranandani and Roland Miller McCall, was first published in The Times of India “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day,” goes the old Chinese proverb. “Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” Nowadays, with massive trawlers [...]
The whirlwind of cuts facing higher education is one of those things its hard to get your head round. The idea of entire departments, even colleges, closing, is one that few people have totally got to grips with. Richard wrote last week about the issues at King’s. Estimates vary wildly about how much they want [...]
Peter Tatchell’s is – perhaps understandably – pissed off. The Press Complaints Commission has failed to uphold a complaint against Jan Moir’s despicable attack on late boyzone star Stephen Gately. Yet he is wrong to demand – along with many others - that the PPC, a “discredited, feeble institution” be “replaced by an independent statutory [...]
It’s an election year. Which means it’s time for the Conservatives to attack their favourite victimised minority. For such a tiny minority in British society, Travellers certainly attract a disproportionate amount of Middle England’s ire. Not content with passing the Criminal Justice Act in 1994, which removed the requirement for local authorities to provide sites [...]
It was reported today that the number of long term unemployed has risen by 37,000 to 663k. Such a stat reveals a huge level of serious personal hardship. Yet, as I have written here before, it also represents, if you like, the real hangover that will haunt our future economy. The simple fact is that [...]
Housing minister John Healy has announced that councils will soon be able to limit the number of shared houses in their localities. Landlords who wish to rent out homes to 3 or more unrelated people face having to seek planning permission. Allegedly such measures are being put in place to curb anti-social behaviour. I would [...]
As if we didn’t already have enough homegrown far-right activists in this country, it seems they are now emigrating here. http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/pauline-hanson-to-emigrate-to-uk-report-20100215-nzq0.html I only hope Pauline Hanson appreciates the irony…
I’ve often wondered whether it would be an enjoyable experience to sit in a room full of my peers and listen to their thoughts on writing. Blogging and journalism – both of which I do – are fairly solitary arts and it’s all too easy to never have any contact with others outside the realm [...]
