06 June 2019 The Tiananmen Playbook China, Sudan, Algeria. By Neil Tidmarsh Last Monday, of course, was the thirtieth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The authorities in China marked the day by ensuring that it would not be commemorated. Access to the square itself was denied to foreign journalists and to relatives of the… Continue reading Issue 205: 2019 06 06: The Tiananmen Playbook
Article Category: Comment
Issue 205: 2019 06 06: Costs of University
06 June 2019 Costs of University The Augar Report. By John Watson The report by the Post 18 Education and Funding Review Panel, chaired by Philip Augar, is more than 200 pages long and bases its recommendations on a very large amount of information about tertiary education in England. Some of that is hardly news. … Continue reading Issue 205: 2019 06 06: Costs of University
Issue 204: 2019 05 30: Nothing Changes
30 May 2019 Nothing Changes (.UK) Here again. By J R Thomas Never in the field of political commentary has so much rubbish being laid down in the prints and salons of British politics. To wit: Mr Farage’s Brexit Party will not sweep to triumph in a general election this autumn; the local and Euro… Continue reading Issue 204: 2019 05 30: Nothing Changes
Issue 204: 2019 05 30: After The Spanking
30 May 2019 After The Spanking The Shaw Sheet predicts. By John Watson The Conservative vote down below 9%; Labour’s share in the low teens. The two main parties have been thoroughly punished by the electorate. So what has upset their erstwhile supporters so much? In the case of the Conservatives, there seem to be… Continue reading Issue 204: 2019 05 30: After The Spanking
Issue 204: 2019 05 30: French EU Elections
30 May 2019 Qui a gagné? Qui a perdu? The French European Parliamentary elections. By Richard Pooley I spent last Sunday in the company of five French men and three French women in a minibus. We travelled some 800 kms from Brive to Pau and back in order to watch a rugby match between Brive… Continue reading Issue 204: 2019 05 30: French EU Elections
Issue 204: 2019 05 30: Diary of a Corbynista
30 May 2019 Diary of a Corbynista Nothing has Changed by Don Urquhart 23 May It’s nice that people read Diary of a Corbynista. There have been a few outraged letters to our editor, some scathing tweets and emails. Today’s main bone of contention has been Corbynista’s defence of our glorious leader’s Brexit utterances. My… Continue reading Issue 204: 2019 05 30: Diary of a Corbynista
Issue 204: 2019 05 30: Return to Sender
30 May 2019 Return to Sender Unrecycled rubbish. By Lynda Goetz “What the UK believes they send for recycling is actually dumped in our country” pointed out the Malaysian environment minister as she announced at a press conference that this waste would be returned to the countries of origin ‘without mercy’. The announcement, which went… Continue reading Issue 204: 2019 05 30: Return to Sender
Issue 204: 2019 05 30: Tuition Freeze
30 May 2019 Tuition Freeze The potentially positive May-era legacy. By Frank O’Nomics The only thing that Theresa May is likely to be remembered for is a failure to deliver Brexit. One sad consequence of this is that, based on recommendations released this week, she may have set in motion a process that has a… Continue reading Issue 204: 2019 05 30: Tuition Freeze
Issue 204: 2019 05 30: Sonnet for Simon
30 May 2019 A Sonnet For Simon Armitage The new poet laureate. By Neil Tidmarsh Today you shook the Queen’s hand. She gave you A gold medal and a new job. Ten years At sixteen quid a day. And some booze, too; That butt of Canary wine. The Queen! Cheers! And now you must… Continue reading Issue 204: 2019 05 30: Sonnet for Simon
Issue 203: 2019 05 23: Front Runners
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… Continue reading Issue 203: 2019 05 23: Front Runners
Issue 203: 2019 05 23: The Back Door
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… Continue reading Issue 203: 2019 05 23: The Back Door
Issue 203: 2019 05 23: Yobbo-Flavoured
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… Continue reading Issue 203: 2019 05 23: Yobbo-Flavoured
Issue 203: 2019 05 23: Mr Kurtz, he dead?
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… Continue reading Issue 203: 2019 05 23: Mr Kurtz, he dead?