26 May 2022 A Bad Case of Bullying School turns on girl. By John Watson Nasty things smell and an unpleasant odour arises from last week’s story of a girl who left her private school as a result of bullying because she questioned an outside speaker on transgender issues. There is little to go on… Continue reading A Bad Case of Bullying
Article Category: Comment
Diary of a Corbynista
26 May 2022 Diary of a Corbynista A Madeleine moment by Don Urquhart In Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past a Madeleine was a delicate cake he could dip in his tea to evoke precious memories. On Any Questions there was a Madeleine in a less than delicate mood. She spoke for many: How should I… Continue reading Diary of a Corbynista
‘The Wrong Sort of Black’
26 May 2022 ‘The Wrong Sort of Black’ C of E Woke Illiberalism by Lynda Goetz Calvin Robinson, a right-wing journalist and political commentator, said last year “My race has nothing to do with my politics, nothing to do with my opinions”. He also said on Twitter that “Being mixed race wasn’t an issue for… Continue reading ‘The Wrong Sort of Black’
The Northern Ireland Protocol
26 May 2022 The Northern Ireland Protocol A US envoy? By John Watson On the surface it all seems very simple. The UK finds that the Northern Irish protocol pulled together to get a withdrawal agreement with the EU doesn’t really work and has put forward an alternative. Brussels refuses to look at the alternative… Continue reading The Northern Ireland Protocol
Immigrants in Kent
26 May 2022 Immigrants in Kent Yanko Goorall’s story. By Neil Tidmarsh Cross-Channel migration might not be front page news any more, but newspapers this week nevertheless reported record numbers of migrants stumbling ashore on the Kent coast near Dover in recent days. You might be familiar with Yanko Goorall’s story. Born and bred in… Continue reading Immigrants in Kent
Calls Being Recorded
26 May 2022 Calls Being Recorded Bonfire of red tape. By Robert Kilconner “This call is being recorded for training purposes”, “this call is being recorded so that we can improve the service we supply to you”. There are various ways of informing the customer that the tapes are on and thus expanding the use… Continue reading Calls Being Recorded
Crossword
Moving On
19 May 2022 Moving on After Boris, who? By Robert Kilconner Boris just isn’t going to last to the next election. That is not because everything he does is wrong. His commitment to the freedom of Ukraine, on which he plainly feels strongly, has impressed the public and the funding of vaccines to which his… Continue reading Moving On
Protect the NHS
19 May 2022 ‘Protect the NHS’ It needs reforming, not protecting by Lynda Goetz There have been a couple more headline-grabbing bits of news about the NHS this week. Neither of them increase confidence in the ability of this monstrous consumer of taxpayer funds to provide the service the people of this country need. Firstly… Continue reading Protect the NHS
NHS Spending
19 May 2022 Lies, Damned Lies and Coronavirus NHS spending by David Chilvers As indicated in my last column, we have decided to investigate health statistics more widely than just looking at COVID data. This week, we look at some very broad data on how much money the NHS spends and the trends in this. … Continue reading NHS Spending
Diary of a Corbynista
19 May 2022 Diary of a Corbynista Will Labour back PR? by Don Urquhart September’s Labour Party Conference could be a significant event for our democracy. A couple of weeks ago, John McDonnell, in a Labour List article urged conference delegates to commit to Proportional Representation. In 2021 a similar motion failed narrowly. Let’s finish… Continue reading Diary of a Corbynista
A New European Project
19 May 2022 A New European Project And yes, the UK is involved. By Neil Tidmarsh In 2012, Brussels and Kiev negotiated an Association Agreement treaty between the EU and Ukraine. Encouraging a neighbouring country towards the independence, freedom and rule of law it craved was a brave and noble effort on the part of… Continue reading A New European Project
Ageism
19 May 2022 Ageism Why on earth not? By John Watson “Ageism? Well, it’s just like racism or sexism, isn’t it? A bigoted attitude passed down by previous generations. Wasteful too in economic terms. All that experience thrown away. Of course I’m right. Pass the Chardonnay”. Actually, no, you are not right at all. When… Continue reading Ageism