If you live in the UK you must have noticed a massive increase in homelessness, in particular homeless people with drink and drug problems. Durham has a hardcore of about 20, sometimes the police and the council get them off the streets, but a few weeks later they are back again. Some are vulnerable and … Read more
This week marks 3 years since Boris’ Brexit deal came into affect. On January 31 three years ago, then-PM Boris Johnson led the country out of the EU after decades of membership and years of campaigning, mainly from the right of British politics. The Brexit deal that we ended up with was much harder than … Read more
No, of course it’s not. But that didn’t stop the Mail and other papers from making this their lead story this week, knocking financial scandals with Nadim Zahawi and Boris Johnson off the front page temporarily. The story in the Mail comes from a report published by Civitas, a right wing organisation based at 55 … Read more
No they can’t. The headline in the Times sums up how grim things are. 1000 extra deaths a week due to problems in the NHS. This graph showing delayed admissions shows how dramatically how performance has deteriorated The reasons for this crisis are straightforward. Money is the obvious one. In the years up to 2010 … Read more
The decision to play the 2022 in Qatar in Winter has attracted a lot of controversy – it is a a small authoritarian state with no previous interest in football, rampant misogyny and brutal homophobia. Giving the World Cup to Qatar would be like giving it to Putin’s Russia or Mussolini’s Italy. Except … Read more
The NHS in the scariest position that it has been in my lifetime. I am incredibly worried about what will happen in the next 6 to 9 months – but worried than I have ever been. There are systemic problems across the whole healthcare systems, and the risk of increased mortality as the result of … Read more
I’ve been to my clothing bank twice in the last few weeks. No, times aren’t that hard in the Gin world – I’ve moved house and got all of my stuff out of storage. I’ve given them lots of my old clothes – particularly suits from my office days. There will be some very … Read more
There has been a concerted campaign over the last few weeks against people working from home post pandemic. Given the appalling way that Downing Street was run during Covid you would have thought that 4pm wine time guys would keep their mouth shut. The campaign is being run by senior figures in the Government, including … Read more
This may come as a shock to people but for the last few decades the world deaths in conflicts have been very low by post war standards. We think from the news, and from what we read on line, that violence is surging around the world, but it isn’t. This is the most peaceful … Read more
One of the most common claims in British politics is that the Tories are tough on immigration, and Labour are soft. In reality this is just posturing – right wingers like to claim to be tough on foreigners, while lefties feel the need to claim the opposite for effect. One side claims it wants to … Read more