21 February 2019 Pity, Sympathy, Retribution? Rehabilitation or justice? By Lynda Goetz There has been much comment, speculation and discussion in the media, and presumably elsewhere, during the last week over the case of Shamima Begum. Now 19, she left the UK almost exactly four years ago in February 2015, with two other friends, to… Continue reading Issue 190: 2019 02 21: Pity, Sympathy, Retribution?
Article Category: Comment
Issue 190: 2019 02 21: Here It Comes Again
21 February 2019 Here It Comes Again More US elections! By J R Thomas Casual observers of American politics could be forgiven for thinking that Ground Hog Day is not the half of it. Get one set of elections out of the way and before the posters are even recycled along comes another. The President… Continue reading Issue 190: 2019 02 21: Here It Comes Again
Issue 190: 2019 02 21: Diary of a Corbynista
21 February 2019 Diary of a Corbynista Thoughts about Think Tanks by Don Urquhart 14 February The Big Issue highlights approaches to homelessness in Finland and Hungary. Juha Kaakinen runs the Housing First project in Finland which has all but eradicated rough sleeping in Helsinki. He says: The UK is very special for me because… Continue reading Issue 190: 2019 02 21: Diary of a Corbynista
Issue 190: 2019 02 21: A Great Future
21 February 2019 A Great Future The building blocks. By John Watson Disaster is a staple of the science fiction writer. A world destroyed or at least so messed-up that you cannot go onto the surface; humanity reacting to man-made disaster with a return to savagery or worse. People enslaved by a wholly malignant imperialism. … Continue reading Issue 190: 2019 02 21: A Great Future
Issue 190: 2019 02 21: Ignore Culture
21 February 2019 Ignore Culture At your peril. By Richard Pooley Why don’t we take culture seriously? By “culture” I mean what we think of when we talk about cross-cultural differences between immigrants and natives or between the people of one country and another. Is it because we think it is absurd to believe that… Continue reading Issue 190: 2019 02 21: Ignore Culture
Issue 190: 2019 02 21: Crossword
21 February 2019 Crossword By Boffles Crossword No 190 Click for this Week’s interactive online crossword Click for a printable version of this Week’s crossword Click for the solution to crossword, No 189 Share this using… Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Whatsapp
Issue 189: 2019 02 14: Venezuela
14 February 2019 Venezuela The politics of intervention. By John Watson Could it be worse? A collapsing currency, medicines not available, malaria spreading, people fleeing starvation, and all in a country with huge, huge oil reserves. Whatever your politics, the politicians in Venezuela have certainly cocked it up and, to put the cherry on the… Continue reading Issue 189: 2019 02 14: Venezuela
Issue 189: 2019 02 14: Cutting the Books
14 February 2019 Cutting the books How to cope with the tidy police. By Frank O’Nomics How many times do you read a book? Apart from dictionaries most of us, once we have finished (or given up on) a book, rarely touch it again unless we are throwing it away or giving it to a… Continue reading Issue 189: 2019 02 14: Cutting the Books
Issue 189: 2019 02 14: Up the Revolution
14 February 2019 Up the Revolution Who rules? By J R Thomas Matthew Parris is a former politician (Conservative MP for West Derbyshire, 1979 -1986), a traveller, and a prolific writer, some of whose work may well be familiar to readers. His thoughtful, erudite and usually gentle columns appear on a regular basis in The… Continue reading Issue 189: 2019 02 14: Up the Revolution
Issue 189: 2019 02 14: Measuring Happiness
14 February 2019 Measuring Happiness The importance of friends. By Lynda Goetz There is plenty in the news currently, from the no-progress Brexit to the stalemate in Venezuela via the dying days of the Caliphate, so it may seem somewhat frivolous to be discussing happiness at this time. However, this is, interestingly, an underlying theme… Continue reading Issue 189: 2019 02 14: Measuring Happiness
Issue 189: 2019 02 14: The Year of the Pig
14 February 2019 The Year of the Pig Squealer’s blog (with apologies to George Orwell). By Neil Tidmarsh If George Orwell was writing today, would his Animal Farm insurrection be an anti-establishment, alt-right uprising rather than a socialist revolution? Would the pigs Napoleon and Snowball be populist, nationalist rabble-rousers rather than communist dictators? Squealer, their… Continue reading Issue 189: 2019 02 14: The Year of the Pig
Issue 189: 2019 02 14: Diary of a Corbynista
14 February 2019 Diary of a Corbynista Still Playing Chicken by Don Urquhart 7 February Yesterday’s Metro contained an article about increases in offences involving anti-Semitism. On no grounds whatsoever they managed to turn it into a Labour Party issue with an image of the party leader smack bang in the middle. 8 February Ipsos-MORI… Continue reading Issue 189: 2019 02 14: Diary of a Corbynista
Issue 188: 2019 02 07: Lens on the Week
7 February 2019 Lens on the Week UK ARE YOU HOT? No this isn’t a teenage dating game but something we should all be worrying about because if you are not hot now you soon will be. New met office forecasts show climate change accelerating faster than previously thought with predictions of 1.5 C above… Continue reading Issue 188: 2019 02 07: Lens on the Week
