We’re reminded today by David Aaronovitch in the Times of why care with English usage and knowing the rules is more than simple pedantry or being ‘cute’. And it echoes what I’ve been saying for years – some might say ad nauseam, that in allowing the governing clerical classes to get away with bad English…
Category: Hobby Horse
Business, Hobby Horse, Social Media, Writing
Is Process-automation in Social Media Robbing People of the Ability to #Think?
by Dominic O'Byrne •
With no small degree of alarm, I noted that I had failed to write on my blog since 2nd January. Having been told by social media experts that it’s vital to blog often (daily if you can) I’ve nurtured a nagging fear for a few weeks now that my brand will have suffered… my online…
Business, Family, Golf, Hobby Horse, Political, Sharks, Writing
WA Shark Cull… who really wants it?
by Dominic O'Byrne •
This coming Saturday 4th January 2014, six and a half thousand campaigners are expected at a rally on Cottesloe Beach, West Australia to protest Premier Colin Barnett’s decision to instigate a shark-culling policy in the state. The decision has stoked clamorous protest among the public (embracing significant numbers of surfers, divers and swimmers), as well…
Business, Family, Hobby Horse, Political, Writing
Whatever became of Nelson Mandela?
by Dominic O'Byrne •
When history logs the death of Nelson Mandela for posterity, what date will be carved on his gravestone – and indeed on monuments across the free world? Whatever the numbers used, the truth will likely always be lost to official clumsiness, greed, self-interest, family petty politics, commercial interest, face-saving and obfuscation. Why? Because while even…
Business, Family, Hobby Horse, Political, Writing
North South Divide from Crack to Chasm
by Dominic O'Byrne •
When will tha think for tha sen, then? In The Times today we learn that 2/5 of northern voters would never consider voting for the Conservatives, that one in four voters in the North said they did not know anyone who supported or voted Conservative, that only 21 per cent thought the Tories understood their…
Business, Golf, Hobby Horse
Changing to ‘Intelligent Hire’ of Freelance Writers
by Dominic O'Byrne •
Good Writers Will Lead Their Clients to Embrace Change We need to examine the state of the writing industry, so I’m looking for input from people who both commission freelance writing / content writing / proofreading / copywriting projects, as well as from writers of all disciplines, experience levels (newbies to heavyweights), industry sectors and…
Business, Hobby Horse, Political
Just how sad is the BBC?
by Dominic O'Byrne •
Whether an apocryphal story or not, an old tale among broadcasters goes that the clerks in charge of the BBC commissioned a survey (likely a time and motion study – before the Birtian nomenclature of Blue Sky Thinking had its dawn), and the findings were along the lines that the corporation would run at its…
Golf, Hobby Horse, Political
Coloured by Barbarism
by Dominic O'Byrne •
When a fundamentally good and decent man is publicly savaged in an England that one used to associate with words like tolerance, understanding, courage and fair play, you have to question how long before that society begins devolving into paranoid and aggressive tribalism <a ref="When a fundamentally good and decent man is publicly savaged in…
Business, Hobby Horse
7 New Reasons for Class Envy
by Dominic O'Byrne •
Sociological Milestone or The Emperor’s New Survey? Apparently our intellectual betters have decided the redundant and archaic class system is no longer fit for purpose. An entirely new meaningful and modern class system is required to help us more usefully define our station in life. For whom, why and to what end? ‘Class’ in its…
Hobby Horse
Do Catholics really want a repeal of The Act of Settlement now?
by Dominic O'Byrne •
It can be viewed only as a right-minded and overdue thing that the antediluvian establishment attitude to Catholics in Britain is coming under ever closer scrutiny. Surely…? And it’s especially pleasing to see it written about so articulately by a Jew – Our island must stop living in the Tudor past, David Aaronovitch, The Times…