in brief
London-based writer and grammar stickler with a love of coffee, culture and politics.
Currently reading about passionate citizenship and listening to Gillian Welch.
According to the documentary The Right Child [Det rätta barnet], which was broadcast on Swedish television recently, a prenatal screening programme in Denmark has started a trend which, if it continues, will lead to no more babies being born with Down’s syndrome. Not because they [...]
Posted in feminism, personal, politics, right and wrong | No Comments »A quick thought on Kenneth Clarke’s take on last month’s riots:
What did he say? Our problem, and one of the key reasons behind the riots, is a “broken penal system”.
How did he come to this conclusion? A majority of the offenders during the riots belong [...]
Posted in politics, right and wrong | No Comments »The first thing you get when you go to your GP and say that you’re pregnant is a calm congratulations, and then a reminder that one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage. Not exactly fireworks.
There are reasons for this, of course. First of all, it’s [...]
Posted in feminism, personal, right and wrong | 2 Comments »“Keeping people safe is the first duty of government,” said David Cameron in the House of Commons after recalling parliament. Not a particularly surprising statement coming from a true conservative. But put into context, where what the prime minister is really saying is that the [...]
Posted in equality, politics, right and wrong | No Comments »I’m going to go all Lynne Truss on you for a minute, and tell you to get some manners (and trust me, it’s not like me to go on about manners and etiquette or any kind of polite rules at all). Or, as Truss herself [...]
Posted in equality, right and wrong | 11 Comments »Who would have thought that some sympathy would cause so much agitation?
When Amy Winehouse died on Saturday, we didn’t just lose one of the greatest singers of our time. Her parents lost a daughter, many lost a friend. Yet, most of Amy’s obituaries, along with [...]
Posted in music, personal, right and wrong | 5 Comments »That a free-market thinktank wants to kill the NHS in favour of tax cuts, that’s newsworthy enough to write about? Really?
That we could save money by opting for something similar to the American health care system (or lack thereof), where health is a luxury product, [...]
Posted in equality, politics, right and wrong | No Comments »I was one of those people who found the killing of Osama bin Laden slightly nauseating. No matter how certain Obama felt that it was the right thing to do, the lack of a legal process just made the whole thing seem like a slap [...]
Posted in politics, right and wrong | No Comments »OK, I’m not going to repeat my most recent post. I’m just going to go and bang my head against a wall over here for a while.
Posted in equality, feminism, politics, right and wrong | No Comments »“When people wonder how on earth I’ve got time to blog, I normally ask if they have a TV. Because I don’t.
When people ask how on earth I can afford organic food, I normally ask if they buy soft drinks, cigarettes and ready-made meals – [...]
Posted in pedantry, right and wrong | No Comments »
London-based writer and grammar stickler with a love of coffee, culture and politics.
Currently reading about passionate citizenship and listening to Gillian Welch.