It might not be everybodyâs idea of entertaining television â and, to be frank, itâs not necessarily mine; but the party conference season is with us again, and at one time this strange, ritualistic Eurovision-for-politicians spectacle used
Continue reading →Party On, Dude!
Predictive Policing and ‘Allegator’ Algorithms.
Traditional Policing has always paid attention to crime âhot spotsâ. Keeping an eye on the ATM machine where several muggings have occurred over the previous few weeks; Making a regular âdrive byâ a
Continue reading →Comic Cuts
Beyond the endless TV mags, titillating rags and metrosexual men’s handbooks, I spied a tiny handful of what used to be called comics on the newsstand the other day. All bar one notable exception appeared to be movie merchandise, just
Continue reading →The Last of the Famous International Playboys
I was having a chat with our landlord Petunia this week. For those who donât know, Petunia borrows his moniker from the theatrical nickname of 70s British showbusiness superstar, Peter Wyngarde AKA Jason King. I think I
Continue reading →The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle
Sometimes a face gatecrashes the public consciousness with such force that the imprint of the image acquires an immortal permanence; the owner of the iconic countenance in question remains fixed as that face way beyond the point
Continue reading →*Exclusive* Esther Baker and David Hencke.
The allegations of historical child sex abuse made by Esther Baker were always going to be a âbig challenge for Staffordshire Policeâ to investigate, to quote David Henckeâs own words. David,
Continue reading →Luck Be a Tory Tonight
Whatever part competence, judgement and vision play in a premiership, the factors of timing and luck should never be underestimated. Robert Walpole emerged from the chaos of the South Sea Bubble and sold himself as the only
Continue reading →Class and the Common Girl.
Reading one of Moor Larkin’s excellent posts the other night, an excerpt from the Pollard report caught my eye. I had seen it before, but in isolation; now I was reading it again in conjunction with
Continue reading →Mutter Angela and the Sorting Hat
I read in my Sunday broadsheets that Angela Merkel is starting to get a bit of stick in Germany. For example âMutter Angelaâ is featured on the front page of Der Spiegel in full Mother Theresa
Continue reading →#Snoutrage.
There is no part of a millionaireâs anatomy quite as delicate as his ego.
Lord Ashcroftâs ego was severely dented when David Cameron failed to give him a prestigious job in
Continue reading →Spamalot & The Sunday Obituary
Members of staff at the Raccoon Arms are not solely engaged in serving the customers, pulling pints, changing barrels, preventing patrons from buying too many packets of peanuts merely to see if the model on the board
Continue reading →The Hunt for Red September
Being a starving artist in a garret and all that, social outings arenât so abundant; but I do make a point of venturing out to my local parade of shops each morning and if thereâs one thing
Continue reading →Grace and Fervour
September 1955, exactly sixty years ago â a momentous month for popular culture that drew a line in the sand, signalling the division between the old world and the new; in the case of the latter, it
Continue reading →*Exclusive* – Mandatory Reporting and Meirion Jones.
Meirion Jones has long been an advocate of ‘Mandatory Reporting’ – a system of criminal sanctions for those who have care of children but have failed to report allegations of abuse made to them regarding those children. He
Continue reading →The Open Doors of Perception
Here is a brief timeline of events.
On Saturday morning I listened with great interest to the announcements of the results of the Labour leadership contest. I raised an eyebrow at the announcement of Mr.
Continue reading →Munchausen’s Tea Party.
The poisonous legacy of Leveson drags on. The main stream media has turned into âpenny dreadfulâ country in its efforts to prove that it should be allowed to print anything and everything (well,
Continue reading →Fat Bottomed Girls and Boozy Memories.
Academics never fail to amaze me with their innovative methods of acquiring grants to study yet another obscure subject. I well remember writing a post on the obscene size of the grant obtained by some American academics
Continue reading →Citizen Corbyn
Itâs official. New Labour is dead. Long live Old Labour. Jeremy Corbyn is now the Leader of Her Majestyâs Opposition. Imagine Jacob Rees-Mogg being elected Tory leader. Pretty unimaginable, to be honest, yet Comrade Corbynâs election win
Continue reading →Fat Bottomed Girls and Boozy Memories.
Academics never fail to amaze me with their innovative methods of acquiring grants to study yet another obscure subject. I well remember writing a post on the obscene size of
Continue reading →A Kiss is just a Kiss…
Trading masticatory juices with someone who may have just consumed something on the menu that you wouldnât have dreamt of choosing is such a part of western culture that virtually all of us
Continue reading →Publish and Be Damned
Hitlerâs Germany, Stalinâs Russia, Maoâs China, Honeckerâs DDR â mandatory reporting to the authorities by friends, families and neighbours, phone-taps, wire-taps, cameras tracking the moves of every citizen, persistent persecution of targets by a police force making
Continue reading →The Ship of Fools motors back again…
Mrs Relentlessly Cheerful wore her broadest grin. ‘Sleep well?’ Her head tipped from top to bottom in that nodding motion employed by amateur psychologists which is supposed to get you to nod in agreement. Her tussled blonde
Continue reading →The Ship of Fools motors on…
No we didn’t put the sails up.
You can’t put up the sails when the wind is coming from the opposite direction to the one you have a pre-arranged appointment with – the wind would
Continue reading →The Ship of Fools motors back again…
Mrs Relentlessly Cheerful wore her broadest grin. âSleep well?â Her head tipped from top to bottom in that nodding motion employed by amateur psychologists which is supposed to get you to nod in
Continue reading →The Ship of Fools.
Christopher Rudd was a Kent school teacher, grandson of the famous Cape merchant and adventurer Charles Rudd, who also took his pupils out to sea in a dinghy to teach them the art of seamanship. Sadly, he
Continue reading →The Ship of Fools motors on…
No we didnât put the sails up. You canât put up the sails when the wind is coming from the opposite direction to the one you have a pre-arranged appointment with â the wind
Continue reading →A Declaration of Independence
I wish to live as a free man in a free country.
I wish to live under the rule of laws created by elected politicians, who I can hold to account and vote for, or against,
Continue reading →A Sunday Ramble
Since the world is quite clearly going to hell in a handcart, I decided to produce some whimsy, a bit of light refreshment. It is time to talk about lampreys. I feel the lamprey needs to
Continue reading →The Ship of Fools.
Christopher Rudd was a Kent school teacher, grandson of the famous Cape merchant and adventurer Charles Rudd, who also took his pupils out to sea in a dinghy to teach them the art
Continue reading →A Picture Fells A Thousand Tories
What a difference a week makes. For a long time now, what used to be asylum-seekers before being rebranded migrants and then suddenly refugees have been dying at sea in appallingly high numbers, many fleeing war-torn Syria.
Continue reading →