Politicians have long focused on “being tough on crime” – to ensure that those who are jailed are not just unable to escape their confinement, but also “feel” the punishment. Yet if we want prisoners to rehabilitate, the evidence says this strategy does not work. Such punishment usually fails to deter reoffending. On the contrary, …
How often statistics that grab the headlines divert attention from what’s really going on. From the furore over BBC payscales, you’d think incomes in the UK are getting more unequal, and the pay gap between men and women larger. Not so. Income inequality is lower than it was before the financial crisis; and though women …
Continue reading ‘Income inequality? Or a massive squeeze on incomes in the UK’ »
Human beings possess a strong survival mechanism in the brain, directly linked to our bodies, able to signal Fight, Flight or Freeze. When threatened our bodies are flooded with adrenaline. This part of our brains, primitive but effective, develops in utero starting at around 7 weeks. A baby, with this strong survival instinct, finds the …
Continue reading ‘Truby King and an origin of pervasive anxiety’ »
Figures from France have revealed a tenfold increase in the number of Britons applying for French citizenship. They show that 386 Britons filed applications to become French in 2015, rising to 1,363 in 2016 and to 3,173 in 2017. Over the same period, the number of UK nationals obtaining French citizenship increased from 320 to …
“Bloody men are like bloody buses — You wait for about a year And as soon as one approaches your stop Two or three others appear. You look at them flashing their indicators, Offering you a ride. You’re trying to read the destinations, You haven’t much time to decide. If you make a mistake, there …
