23 May 2019 Front Runners Boris, Brexit Party and Lib Dems. By John Watson “Three fences from the end and it’s the favourite out in front by four lengths. It’s his race now. He’s well ahead of the pack. But wait…. who is this moving up on the inside rail? Three lengths, two lengths, he’s
23 May 2019 Please Use Back Door Boris in next? By J R Thomas The funniest newspaper photograph of the week was that of Mrs Theresa May, Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, shuffling onto a platform in Bristol. Not a station platform, though the others on the
23 May 2019 Yobbo-Flavoured ‘Ludic’ milkshakes. By Lynda Goetz “You’ve let yourselves down badly; you’ve behaved like animals!” No, not the words of someone recently addressing the crowds shouting down a Brexit Party or UKIP campaigner, but someone addressing the pro-hunt campaigners in Rhyl in 2001, one of whom threw an egg at John Prescott
23 May 2019 “Mistah Kurtz, he dead”? Austria’s political ‘heart of darkness’. By Neil Tidmarsh So another coalition bites the dust. Last December, Belgium’s coalition government collapsed and its prime minister Charles Michel resigned – he’s continuing as head of a caretaker government until later this week (the EU parliamentary elections coincide with a general
23 May 2019 Notre Dame Back to the future? by Richard Pooley You learn a lot about a people’s culture when they are hit by a disaster, natural or man-made. In late 1994 I was staying with Swiss friends in Kobe, Japan. The couple and their two children had just moved there from Tokyo. As
23 May 2019 Diary of a Corbynista Government in a moral vacuum by Don Urquhart 16 May When politicians of whatever stamp move into “That’s Why” mode you know they are reading from scripts written by those employed to justify evil, sometimes termed “spin doctors”. Here’s an example reported by Hannah Richardson: A spokesman for
16 May 2019 Brexit Tipster Place your bets. By John Watson Oh well, you might as well enjoy Brexit if you can. Time for a trip to the bookies clasping the latest polls in your hand; but where should you put your money? Let’s think about it together. Firstly, where are the polls for the
16 May 2019 Afros, Diversity & Universities New Enlightenment. By Lynda Goetz Admittedly I was at university in the 70s, clearly a less ‘enlightened’ time than today (although we were, of course, far more enlightened than previous generations). Nevertheless, however woke we all are now, should university Vice-Chancellors really be spending time worrying about whether
16 May 2019 How Green Was My Voter Taking back the argument. By J R Thomas Readers of the Shaw Sheet are probably not frequent visitors to seaside funfairs, but perhaps are familiar with those little machines with snake heads outside arcades. Insert pound coin. Grab the mallet, bash the protruding head. Down it goes;
16 May 2019 Nothing The power of zero. By Neil Tidmarsh Some staggering figures are coming out of India as the six weeks and seven phases of its general election (the world’s biggest ever election in the world’s biggest democracy) draw to a close. Nine hundred million registered voters; four million voting machines; one million
