1 October 2020 The Great Debate At Oxford Univ Museum of Natural History by Philip Throp This week, the OUMNH (Oxford University Museum of Natural History) re-opened its doors after a six month closure due to the pandemic. Originally opened in 1861, the building was used straightaway, before many of its exhibits were installed, for… Continue reading Issue 249: 2020 10 01: The Great Debate
Article Category: Features
Issue 248: 2020 09 24: The Irish Conundrum
24 September 2020 View from the Cotswolds The Irish Conundrum: Problem or Solution? By Paul Branch Ireland looms large yet again on the Brexit stage: the oven-ready deal that we thought we had agreed before the general election, and before everyone’s attention lurched over to Covid-19, seems to be not quite as well-prepared as we… Continue reading Issue 248: 2020 09 24: The Irish Conundrum
Issue 247: 2020 09 17: Punctuation, Book Clubs
17 September 2020 Punctuation, Book Clubs and the Booker Prize. By Lynda Goetz Sadly, Hilary Mantel will miss out on a hat trick in the 2020 Booker Prize to be awarded, rather later than usual this year, in November. She won with both the first and second novels (Wolf Hall and Bring up the Bodies)… Continue reading Issue 247: 2020 09 17: Punctuation, Book Clubs
Issue 247: 2020 09 17: Myself Was Like…
17 September 2020 Myself Was Like… Minding your Ps and Qs in German. By Philip Throp What is officially acceptable in speech and grammar is judged these days by common parlance. Count me out. “Myself and my husband was like” won’t be acceptable to me until I hear Her Majesty saying it: “Myself and my… Continue reading Issue 247: 2020 09 17: Myself Was Like…
Issue 247: 2020 09 17: Uncertain Environment
17 September 2020 Life in an Uncertain Environment Political Parties by Vic Leader It’s a new month, a new season and time for a new perspective. So let’s get straight in to it. I could never be a Corbynista. That said I could never be a Brownite, Blairite, Johnsonite, Mayist, Cameronesi, Davisist, Lucasade, nor yet… Continue reading Issue 247: 2020 09 17: Uncertain Environment
Issue 246: 2020 09 10: The Scholar Gipsy
10 September 2020 VW and The Scholar Gipsy An Oxford Elegy. By Philip Throp Following my last article about the Signal Elm on Boars Hill near Oxford, there is another unresolved question of story location on Boars Hill. “Why is it called Boars Hill?” many people ask expectantly. According to local repute, this is because… Continue reading Issue 246: 2020 09 10: The Scholar Gipsy
Issue 245: 2020 09 03: The Signal Elm
3 September 2020 The Signal Elm by Philip Throp Back in the mid-60s one of my A-level set books was The Collected Poems of Matthew Arnold. Two key inter-related poems were “The Scholar Gipsy” and “Thyrsis”. The former is about a hill-walk often undertaken by the Victorian Romantic scholar-poet with his fellow-poet A. H. Clough. … Continue reading Issue 245: 2020 09 03: The Signal Elm
Issue 245: 2020 09 03: City Job
3 September 2020 Getting a job in the City by Hilary Strong I was an unlikely new graduate applicant for an investment bank career in information technology (IT) at the end of the 1980s. I had opted for computer science and mathematics in my second year at university in a gambit to avoid cutting up… Continue reading Issue 245: 2020 09 03: City Job
Issue 244: 2020 07 30: A Busman’s Holiday
30 July 2020 View from the Cotswolds A busman’s holiday: one step to heaven By Paul Branch It’s that time of year again. Blue skies in Europe, warm sunshine, good food, good wine. But this time with a twist, and not a lemon one in your gin. Unless you’re brave enough to try the expensively… Continue reading Issue 244: 2020 07 30: A Busman’s Holiday
Issue 243: 2020 07 23: What Do We Remember
23 July 2020 What do we remember of friends? And they of us? By Richard Pooley. Time for me to take a break from being rude about Johnson and his government. Time to write an article with no message. Just rumination and a couple of stories from another world – the past. Ever since entering… Continue reading Issue 243: 2020 07 23: What Do We Remember
Issue 243: 2020 07 23: Telling Tales
23 July 2020 Telling Tales Lockdown with Boccaccio. By Neil Tidmarsh Once upon a time, there was a king of the Lombards called Agiluf whose queen was very beautiful. She was so beautiful that one of the servants fell in love with her and tricked his way into her bed by impersonating the king in… Continue reading Issue 243: 2020 07 23: Telling Tales
Issue 240: 2020 07 02: Time to Party!
02 July 2020 Time to Party! Probably not. By Lynda Goetz Well, this weekend apparently heralds the next phase of this extraordinary year and the ‘The New Normal’ for most of us – apart from those in the city of Leicester, who, for reasons as devoid of meaning as those which prompted my article last… Continue reading Issue 240: 2020 07 02: Time to Party!
Issue 239: 2020 06 25: Self-Promotion
25 June 2020 Origins of the Cult of Self-Promotion in Politics by Philip Throp All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act… Continue reading Issue 239: 2020 06 25: Self-Promotion
