To The Times The elephant in the room is that no one really wants Northern Ireland. Ireland can’t afford its engorged public sector costs, while British taxpayers have no option but to feed that expensive fly in the political ointment, and keep a stiff upper lip about it. Ironically, the EU has understood the Good …
All over Britain reception class teachers are faced with children who have not been taught the bssic social skills before they reach first school. Typically, about a third of all kids begin school without being able to speak in full sentences, use the toilet alone, hold, let alone read, a book. In fact, two in …
Forty per cent of people think British culture is undermined by multiculturalism and that migrants do not properly integrate, according to a new survey, conducted by ICM and 60 citizens’ panels, carried out on behalf of the thinktank British Future and the anti-racism group Hope Not Hate over the past two years. The report reflects …
Continue reading ‘Distrust of multi-culturalism in the UK’ »
Women in the United States are having fewer children and at older ages than at any time in the last 30 years. This applies to all races and for both rural and urban America, including Hispanics. Between 2007 and 2017 the total fertility rate fell by 18% in large metropolitan areas, 16% in smaller metro …
A Liberty University-produced film called “The Trump Prophecy,” claims that Donald Trump’s election in 2016 can be attributed to divine intervention, and that Trump is the King Cyrus of our times. Cyrus the Great was the king of Persia in the second half of the sixth century BCE. He conquered the Babylon and established a …
Continue reading ‘Why the religious Right will put up with anything Trump does or says’ »
A short while ago the hard-line Brexiteers of the European Research Group were expected to finally reveal their detailed plan. The group of some 80 Tory MPs, led by the ubiquitous Jacob Rees-Mogg, was going to publish “a Brexit plan to rival Theresa May’s”. Some in the Prime Minister’s camp feared that it would be …
Continue reading ‘Britain’s extreme right wing shows it has no idea and no grown-up ideas.’ »
The President of John Hopkins University, Ronald J. Daniels, recently overheard a conversation among students. One opined that he would have liked to have enrolled in an introductory course in philosophy, but that the demands of his major meant that “enlightenment would have to wait”, you “gotta get a job”, and that therefore he would …
Prospect Magazine, October 2018 edition, runs an article by Jay Elwes entitled “The Brexit Crunch”, and it is very important indeed. A precis of the article follows. Long-ish, but bear with me: In 2008 the total value of all CDOs (Collateralised Debt Obligations) and Credit Default Swaps, both types of derivatives, was $458 trillion. One …
Continue reading ‘Yet another serious “derivatives” threat’ »
“The most aggravating thing about the younger generation is that I no longer belong to it.” “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything one learned at school. “You teach me baseball and I’ll teach you relativity…..No, perhaps we shouldn’t…..You will learn relativity faster than I learn baseball. “Anyone who has never made a …
A new manual designed to help prevent clerical sexual abuse in Chile has triggered further outrage by listing a host of instructions that critics say should be self-evident. Among other things, the manual – which was published on the website of the Archbishop of Santiago, but which has since been withdrawn – advised priests not …
Postal workers and their allies are demanding that the country’s mail service stay in the hands of the public. This comes amid increasing threats to privatize the postal service, including a proposal from President Trump this summer to examine selling U.S. Mail off to the highest bidder. Many may think that in the internet age, …
1. Distracting yourself by dedicating time to work, study or hobbies. Drawing or painting is particularly absorbing. It doesn’t matter if the result is lousy. Singing in an amateur choir can be fun, and it doesn’t matter if your voice is a bit weak or you can’t read music. 2. Joining a social club, but …
Continue reading ‘Coping with loneliness : follow- on from a recent post’ »
To the White House: Mr. President, Over the last week or two the nation has been more divided than I have seen it in my lifetime. While I am honored to have been chosen by you for a lifetime seat on the Supreme Court, and to have had the heartening support of the Republican members …
Continue reading ‘Revealed: The letter drafted but never delivered’ »
In February 2018 The BBC Loneliness Experiment was launched on BBC Radio 4 in collaboration with the Wellcome Foundation. People from 237 different countries, islands and territories took part in the survey. A summary of the main findings: Loneliness is said to mainly strike older, isolated people – and of course it can, and does. …
Continue reading ‘Loneliness. ( an attempt at a deliberate distraction from the news!)’ »
The Tune The Tune, just like it’s friend, the Rhyme, Has had its era and its time. Rodgers, Hart and Hammerstein Now seem as quaint as Auld Lang Syne. And big bands that were once the rage, Are relics of a bygone age. A booming sound in deep bass clef Now satisfies the future deaf. …
