Choose lockdown. Choose redundancy. Choose furlough. Choose house arrest with your family. Choose debt, higher taxes and inflation. Choose watching your friends eat on Zoom and pretending you are socialising. Choose growing a beard, living in flip flops and wondering what day of the week it is on a Monday morning. Choose a criminal record …
Category Archives: Uncategorized
The Demise of Intolerant Liberals
Over several decades public life has come to be dominated by Secular Liberalism. This “brave new world” filled the void left after Christianity was eroded. When Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016, Secular Liberals choked on their Macchiatos with horror. That was the first time in the UK that anyone had challenged their …
Some Fun with Clerihews
Having recently discovered the joy of the Clerihew, here is a selection: John BercowHad to go.His antipathy to BrexitAssured his own exit. The philosopher PlatoWas no couch potato.He went on the wagonAnd said “μηδὲν ἄγαν”. Jeremy CorbynWas not voted in.His Marxist cant rejected,It was to be expected. Gordon BrownWas no man about town.The voters found …
A Very British Coup
It seems that Britain has suffered a coup d’état. Personally, I had not noticed, but it is stated in the newspapers and on Twitter, so it must be true. We are a little backward in the countryside where I live, so no doubt we will see the effects eventually. One’s views on these matters depend, …
Eat British Beef
The recent IPCC report on climate change has spawned a host of nonsense about agriculture. The most laughable news has been the decision by Goldsmiths University to ban beef from its campus food outlets. If there were any considered justification for this decision one might be able to respect it whether we agree or not …
Caroline’s Angels
Praise to Caroline Lucas for defying the gender-stereotyping police and speaking truth to power. Her suggestion of an all-female cabinet to solve Brexit is so obvious it is a wonder no-one thought of it before. Clearly it was only the presence of so many men in her government that stopped Theresa May delivering Brexit. For, …
I Hate and Love
I must indulge myself by discussing one of my favourite poems by the Roman poet Catullus. In just two lines, Catullus captures the agony and paradox of love rejected. Here is the poem: Odi et amo. Quare id faciam fortasse requiris? Nescio sed fieri sentio et excrucior. “I hate and love. You ask perhaps how …
The Decline and Fall of Political Debate
The survey revealing the scale of abuse faced by MPs is of course very shocking. Much of the ensuing discussion has concerned the irascible nature of public debate. Politicians are certainly victims of this, but could they also bear some responsibility for it? There seem to me to be two particular areas where certain politicians …
LOBSTER LIBERATION
Recent newspaper articles suggest that the RSPCA may be finally over-cooking its hand in the promotion of animal rights. The society is lobbying the government to include cephalopods and decapod crustaceans in future legislation concerning recognition of animal sentience. The result would be that octopi, squid, lobsters and crabs would face the same protections as …
Twitter is dead, long live the blog!
Modern writing seems to plumb new depths every day. Social media leads the way: Twitter is merely a platform from which to shout at people. Linked In is chiefly shameless self-promotion or glib truisms about leadership. Even the printed media lacks both the truth and style it pretends to. At work our email correspondence is …
Tacitus 