Category: Comment

Issue 4:2015 05 28:Fading Icons: Tory Tanks on the BBC Lawn

28 May 2015 Fading Icons: Tory Tanks on the BBC Lawn by R J Thomas  It’s not been a good decade for the BBC.  Leaving aside the embarrassment and trauma of the Jimmy Savile debacle, the searing competition from the satellite broadcasters who have got their acts together to produce very fine critically acclaimed drama… Continue reading Issue 4:2015 05 28:Fading Icons: Tory Tanks on the BBC Lawn

Issue 4:2015 05 28: Arabs call for the seventh cavalry

28 May 2015 Arabs call for the Seventh Cavalry by Neil Tidmarsh Understanding US frustration in the Middle East No wonder Ashton Carter, the US secretary of defence, lost his patience last week following the catastrophic collapse of the Iraqi army at Ramadi, Anbar province. Once again the USA found itself in the bizarre position… Continue reading Issue 4:2015 05 28: Arabs call for the seventh cavalry

Issue3: 2015 05 21:Not quite gentlemen: will the Guardian go back to Manchester?

21 May 2015 Not quite gentlemen: will the Guardian go back to Manchester? by John Watson Readers familiar with Conan Doyle’s Brigadier Gerard stories (and if you haven’t read them you should – they are every bit as good as Sherlock Holmes), will remember the one about his escape from Dartmoor. In his flight across… Continue reading Issue3: 2015 05 21:Not quite gentlemen: will the Guardian go back to Manchester?

Issue3:2015 05 21:‘Well, I never heard it before, but it sounds uncommon nonsense’ (Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland )

21 May 2015 ‘Well, I never heard it before, but it sounds uncommon nonsense’ (Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland )  by Lynda Goetz Last week head teacher Janet Felkin was apparently cleared of a ‘disability hate crime’. A what?! I checked my copy of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and could only find reference to a ‘thought… Continue reading Issue3:2015 05 21:‘Well, I never heard it before, but it sounds uncommon nonsense’ (Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland )

Issue 3 :2015 05 21: Samauri Rising

21 May 2015 SAMURAI RISING by Neil Tidmarsh Should we be worried or reassured by Japan’s move away from its ‘peace clause’?  This week, the deputy commander of the Royal Marines, Brigadier Richard Spencer, has been advising Japan on the creation of a marine commando force. Last week, Japan announced that it is hoping to… Continue reading Issue 3 :2015 05 21: Samauri Rising

Issue3:2015 05 21:In a Pickle

21 May 2015 In a Pickle   by R J Thomas                                                                                                 Whatever has happened to Eric Pickles? He is, with the greatest respect, hardly a man you could miss. Large, jovial, and free spoken with a disarming northern bluntness, he has been the living embodiment that there is Tory life north of Retford – even if… Continue reading Issue3:2015 05 21:In a Pickle

Issue 2: 2015 05 14: Aftermath

14 May 2015 Aftermath by John Watson One of the sadder sights of Thursday night was that of the constitutional pundits leaving the offices of the various broadcasters and newspapers. The cold light of dawn, which revealed that the Conservatives would achieve an absolute majority, meant the end of what had looked like a nice… Continue reading Issue 2: 2015 05 14: Aftermath

Issue 2: 2015 05 14:Snubbing Putin; should the British Lion have accepted the invitation to the Russian Bear’s party after all?

14 May 2015 Snubbing Putin; should the British Lion have accepted the invitation to the Russian Bear’s party after all? by Neil Tidmarsh   Last Saturday, the allies who defeated Nazi Germany in 1945 celebrated the seventieth anniversary of their victory. The celebrations were inevitably sober and tinged with sadness, given the high price of… Continue reading Issue 2: 2015 05 14:Snubbing Putin; should the British Lion have accepted the invitation to the Russian Bear’s party after all?

Issue 2: 2015 05 14: Polls Taxing

14 May 2015  Polls Taxing by J.R.Thomas As the spent ballot papers are fed through the shredders of town halls up and down the land, the reproaches begin. Some of the loudest come from the opinion pollsters – reproaching themselves. The practitioners of this mysterious and endlessly reweighted and rebalanced science have fallen into what… Continue reading Issue 2: 2015 05 14: Polls Taxing

It's FREE!

Already get the weekly email?  Please tell your friends what you like best. Just click the X at the top right and use the social media buttons found on every page.

New to our News?

Click to help keep Shaw Sheet free by signing up.Large 600x271 stamp prompting the reader to join the subscription list