Politics
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In which I am accosted by an old major on the virtues of Trump
My maternal grandmother had a sharp and witty tongue, I am told. I don’t remember her – she died when I was 18 months old – but I could have done with her sharp tongue on a particular occasion last week. I often work in coffee shops. I’m more productive in a setting other than…
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The joke that is the new Conservative cabinet
Prime Minister David Cameron announced his new cabinet this week, the first all-Tory cabinet in nearly twenty years. The first meeting – which TV cameras had been allowed to record – kicked off with Etonian-style table banging and cheers of approval from ministers. So let’s take a look at some of Cameron’s most colourful cabinet…
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Wary of the new government? Maybe there’s another way
It’s been a painful few days for those of us who never thought the outcome of the general election would be as bad as this. From a personal, self-indulgent level, it’s felt like a grieving process: I’m oscillating between denial and acceptance and a thinly-veiled hope that maybe, just maybe, we won’t have to wait…
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DWP: “Workfare does not exist”
As part of an article I am writing for a disability magazine, I contacted the DWP press office to get their take on the various work programmes which are floating about. I didn’t want to present an article that could be accused of ‘reporter bias’, so speaking to them to directly was important. (Although I…
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Why I love the NHS (and why we mustn’t let it go)
No one believed the 2011 NHS Reform Bill would pass. With growing opposition and hugely influential medical groups, we thought, we hoped, it wouldn’t go ahead. And who are “we” exactly? A militant minority group? No. We are the majority. We are teachers, parents, bus drivers, cleaners, nurses, doctors, surgeons, academics, specialists. Some of us…
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State-endorsed fascism in Britain – this time they are after the disabled
In some ways, I feel I’ve become a bit too sensitive of late when it comes to “disablist” gags, but maybe I’m just hyper vigilant these days. The smear campaign the DWP and the media are carrying out on disabled people has made me and thousands of other disabled people distinctly uneasy. Why is it…
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The shortest blog post I’ve ever written…
….but the figures speak for themselves. The Office for National Statistics have today released the latest unemployment figures which the BBC say are the highest since 1996. Unemployment is now at 2.67million. Women make up two thirds of this number. The unemployment rate among 16-22year olds is currently at 1.04million. Those claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance in…
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EHRC v BNP (2009) :It’s a game of Monopoly
“The British National Party is poised to give up its whites-only membership policy after a legal challenge accusing it of racial discrimination,” reports The Times. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6820847.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797084) The legal challenge, sought by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, accuses the BNP of breaching the Race Relations Acts (2000) due to its fundamentally racist policies. Not that…