I read a blog post tonight, entitled “ConDemd” which detailed the real life experience of a university graduate, and the ongoing effects of student loans. Despite that blog title, the fee regime Betty, and most further education students since 2002 have experienced was introduced by the Labour Government of Tony Blair, supported mostly by the...
I’ve only just realised that my Dad is handicapped! That sounds like a bloody stupid thing to say, doesn’t it? It is, however, alarmingly true. Sometimes we just don’t see what’s in front of us as unusual, if that’s how they’ve always been. My dad is almost 72. Like Clive James, he says “The Second World...
This is a repost of an article I published anonymously on another website earlier this year. I did so because I wrongly thought I shouldn’t be seen to provoke the journalists I am complaining about. I now think I should have put my name to it. ———————————– I’ll keep this short. I am disgusted at the...
I just had to add this. As you may know, I am from Airdrie, and my home town team are therefore Airdrie United. Last weekend, in commemoration of Remembrance Day, the good people at the club decided to depict a wartime picture on the cover of the programme, showing a train scene with soldiers going...
So Nick Clegg, the Lib-Dem leader, and Deputy Prime Minister, is being given a hard time by the red-top press for his apparent hypocrisy in considering sending his Catholic kids to a Catholic school. “Where’s the hypocrisy in that?” I hear you ask. Well, Nick himself is an atheist. He doesn’t believe in any god,...
As a recruiter, and professional nosey-parker, I always loved finding out intimate details of individuals’ working lives, which they would never reveal to other people. One of those, of course, is the biggest taboo subject in the workplace –salary. A spokesman for the Government Equalities Office says: “From October 2010 the Equality Act will make...
Is a spam letter to a stranger at my exact home address suspicious? This morning I received a piece of sales literature addressed to a mysterious Miss Nazmin Subhan at my home address. Sent via a DHL mailing service, it could, of course, be a clerical/ computer error, whereby her name has accidently been connected...
Or, how I came to be in the wrong place at the right time. This isn’t a funny or peculiar story, but the assassination attempt of Margaret Thatcher is the closest I’ve come to a live historical event. I’ve retold it countless times, but never written it down, until now. In 1984, when I was 18, I...
Right, I’m prepared to make myself look like an idiot here. Why is it that whilst so much of the world opposes the actions of Israel, with regard to its occupation of other countries, the blockade of Gaza, and unofficial possession of nuclear weapons, their support by the USA remains solid? Am I being misled? ...
I am possibly one of the worst people you could ever vote for. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to be an MP. Despite all the bad press of late, I still think it’s a cool job with a huge amount of kudos, deference from others, and absolutely fascinating to boot. However, as an MP,...
