To The Daily Telegraph “The head of the Royal Philharmonic is making a serious error by believing that abolishing the term “classical music” will suddenly attract thousands of young people into our concert halls. The leadership of the RPO seem to be suffering from a crisis of confidence in their art form – brought on …
Owing to the release of dopamine, listening to music makes you feel good. This much is known. Studies suggest that the brain’s natural opioids also play a part. This might help explain why music can act as an analgesic, and explains its use by some hospitals to help relieve pain after surgery. Some types of …
Two recent shocking reports into jails in Nottingham and Liverpool show that conditions remain Dickensian – inmates crammed into filthy, freezing cells; cockroaches; rats; extensive violence. Whether you measure it by the high levels of re-offending or the number of suicides, it’s clear the system is failing; yet we keep locking more and more people …
Continue reading ‘Prisons again: British prisons are a disgrace, too.’ »
According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2,220,300 adults were incarcerated in US federal and state prisons, and county jails in 2013 – about 1 in 110 of the U.S. resident population. Additionally, 4,751,400 adults in 2013 (1 in 51) were on probation or on parole. For-profit companies were responsible for approximately 7 percent …
Should the British voting age be reduced to 16? Labour, the Lib Dems, the Greens, SNP and Plaid Cymru all believe so, and recently sought unsuccessfully to vote through a private members’ bill in Parliament to that effect. The arguments made for this idea are specious. Letting 16-year-olds vote, it is claimed, would invigorate our …
