The threat to the dam has receded. The power is back on. The residents of Whaley Bridge, homeless for almost a week, have returned, and the blackout at Ipswich Hospital is over. "We have been overwhelmed by the generosity and community spirit shown from across the High Peak and beyond,” High Peak Borough Council said. … Continue reading
Something happened Today Which set the cat among the pigeons and fluttered the dovecote Stop! Listen! How on earth do we respond? Armageddon awaits, if we get this wrong! So Let us put a loony up against an expert Let them both be white and middle aged and male Let us draw swords and … Continue reading Today
A year ago, I posted a summary of global news about refugees and migrants. It was a horribly depressing picture. On the eve of Refugee Week 2019, it feels like nothing has changed and a lot has got worse 2018: The Guardian published a list of 34,361 people who died trying to reach … Continue reading Refugee Week 2019 – one year on
I wrote this for the Felixstowe Book Festival Short Story competition, then missed the deadline to enter! The theme was 'Green.' Bepe winced, his sight dazzled for a nanosecond, as the policewoman’s badge flashed in the sun. ‘Thank you for your patience, sir. We must ask that you stay in your vehicle until we’ve got … Continue reading Stuck on the Orwell Bridge
At last! Thank God for Greta Thunberg and her quiet revolution. History is filled with radically quiet, quietly radical women, overlooked first by its male guardians then by the ‘strong women’ movement – fantastically welcome, but in danger of excluding the mild, the shy and the dull (a charming adjective ascribed to Dorothy Hodgkin by … Continue reading Greta Thunberg’s Quiet Revolution
For getting around London in the days before pre-Sat Nav and Google Map - if you can imagine such a quaint, techno-lite concept - Phyllis Pearsall’s A-Z was indispensable. But most contemporary references to Phyllis are derogatory. Take for example, the mentions she gets in the much-lauded London Review of Books. The tunnel-boring machine used … Continue reading Phyllis Pearsall – ‘Whose secretary are you?’
Some significant news was released yesterday but it was no April Fool. The European Commission agreed to reinforce its Border and Coast Guard with an additional 10,000 border guards. You might think the move would be fuel for sceptical Leavers convinced that the EU project will suck up its members into a super state, despite … Continue reading 10,000 employed to keep ‘them’ out of Europe
