Portrait of Sigmund Freud – by Salvador Dali At the risk of waking up to find a horse’s head strapped to a red leather couch amongst my Christmas presents I’m going to let you into a few trade secrets. By training I’m a psychologist. No, that’s not a […]

Carol singers have become the latest group to defy a ban on unauthorised protests around Parliament. About 100 singers tested the limits of the new Serious Organised Crime and Police Act by singing in Parliament Square on Wednesday evening. The law bans demonstrating without police permission within a […]

Oh goody, the Fabian’s have come with an 11-point plan for a new definition of ‘Britishness’ (yawn), let’s see what they have to say Write down the constitution While we now have a Human Rights Act, the lack of public debate over its introduction means that it is […]

I want to be clear about something before I start here; it is a public scandal that a mere 5.6% of reported rapes result in a conviction. What is equally scandalous, however, is this figure appears set to used, yet again, to justify a further assault on the […]

Of all the ‘heavyweight’ daily newspapers in the UK, its seems invariably to be the Independent that is most ambivalent about bloggers and blogging. While the dear old Grauniad offers near enough an open house on its content, which is why its probably only second to the Beeb […]

WASHINGTON – President Bush reversed course on Thursday and accepted Sen. John McCain’s call for a law banning cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign suspects in the war on terror. Bush said the agreement will “make it clear to the world that this government does not torture […]

I find myself faced with something of quandary. I can’t decide quite who it is I dislike more; bureaucrats or ideologues. I’ve spent more or less the last ten years working in either of the public or the voluntary sectors, which I suppose should tip the balance in […]

One of the things I’m terrible at is maintaining my blogroll at anything near the number of excellent blogs I now track by RSS (150+ and rising all the time) – which is why I’ve set myself the task of trying to bring things more up to date […]

Right, so Ken’s up before the beak today (The Standards Board) over his spat with a journo from the Evening Standard, which seems to be a perfect excuse for the Grauniad to go in crap reporting mode. Here’s how the Graun reported this story back in February… “Ken […]

ONE of the most prolific criminals in Sandwell is the young son of a British National Party councillor, it was revealed today. Teenage offender Ricky Lloyd – who has been committing crimes since he was 12 – is in custody awaiting Crown Court sentencing for attempted robbery. The […]