It may come as a shock to readers to learn that pocket billiards, choking the chicken or bashing the bishop—choose your euphemism—is now a university level subject. It has always been available as an extracurricular activity but now it has officially moved to the mainstream, and someone is writing a PhD about it. Not only […]
Polishing the banister Read More »
Reluctant as I am to kick over a ladder I have recently climbed, it has to be said, British Universities aren’t what they used to be. Having worked in a series of them myself, one can’t help feeling they are reaching their sell by date. At the very least, their politically correct antics are making
A friend messaged me to say there was a report on the BBC News website about a tree hugging contest recently held in Scotland. I thought it was a joke and checked that the date was not April 1st. Then I checked Google, and it turned out to be true. To be precise, the inaugural
Tree hugging. What the hell next? Read More »
I first picked up a copy of The New Statesman at Glasgow Central Station on one of many trips I made between my parents’ home on the west coast of Scotland to Edinburgh where I was a student. I can’t recall the year, but it must have been during the editorial reign of Anthony Howard
The New Statesman past and present Read More »
Our national health service, coincidentally known as the National Health Service (NHS), continues to disintegrate into chaos and, in some places, paralysis. Fêted for decades as the jewel in the crown of our welfare state, it has fallen for its own rhetoric and thinks that it only needs to exist to merit praise. When troubles
The NHS is not working Read More »
I had the misfortune to be the inaugural chair of one of the series of Lancet Commissions, this one into nursing. This was one of the many mistakes I have made in my professional life and not one of my proudest aspects of my Wikipedia entry which some charitable souls curate for me. I tried
Lunacy at The Lancet Read More »
It is hard to imagine that anyone could stand up in front of a group of people and say, with a straight face, that there are at least one hundred and fifty (that’s one-five-zero or 150) different genders. But someone does and has at the BBC. Just exactly what is going on is hard to
No, there really aren’t 150 genders. Read More »
When it was announced that Covid-19 was going to wipe out the human race, I cowered in my house; determined to drink myself to death before the virus got me. Having done my liver irreparable damage in the process, I was dismayed to learn we are not all going to die. Still, I continued drinking,
A pox on all your houses Read More »
I had never heard of the journalist Dom Phillips and had no idea he was missing; now I hear he is dead, along with his local guide, and identifiable only by dental records. I guess it does not take long for a body to decompose in the Amazon rainforest. But since his death I have
The death of Dom Phillips Read More »
A bunch of Muslim fanatics is protesting about something. Nothing new there, but what is it this time? A teacher daring to show a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed? A pig farm in the middle of Bradford? A string of sex shops opening in predominantly Muslim areas, or has someone else written a book suggesting
Essential viewing: The Lady of Heaven Read More »
