An accident & emergency department in the north of England last Monday admitted a 13 year-old girl with injuries that implied self-harming. The motivations for young people to do this are varied, but in this case it was being bullied at school that led to the hospital admission. It is disheartening that occurrences like this…
Political laziness and insouciance threaten more than popular disaffection with the process, but the very existence of the franchise itself, as politicians’ bad behaviour rubs off on their constituents. There are many reasons people grow disaffected with politics. And I’m lucky enough to have been given a new aspect into this, as our teenage twins…
If you’re caught unawares, the sound of the Allegri Miserere can reduce you to tears. The artfulness and innate beauty of the music is remarkable today, but imagine its debut in an age of religious fear and worldly ignorance; the very voice of God inspiring emotions beyond understanding. But the institution of the church at…
I was fortunate enough to learn my trade in a time and place where that trade was a mysterious black art. Getting a job was easy. Getting my own way was easier still. Imagine my alarm when it transpired everyone had become a writer, and that I was no longer special at all. All those…
If you spend any time trawling freelance job sites like People Per Hour or Elance as a seller or a buyer, you appreciate how shocking is the divide in communication skills between the haves and have-nots. Just this morning I clicked the ‘learn more’ link on a job abstract, only to see the message that…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…