The great blubbing debate has just moved to a new, decisive phase, with those of us who hold that crying in public is almost always a form of showing off in danger of being swept away on a tide of tears. Crying, according to the latest research, is good for us all. It makes us… Continue reading It’s enough to make me cry… in private
Read moreFor the nation’s ever-growing band of shockaholics, there have been some satisfying moments of outrage over the past few days. Bill Oddie shocked viewers by including a footage of a dead squirrel on a nature programme. The head of BBC news scandalously appeared on screen while not wearing a Remembrance Day poppy. The broadcaster Edward… Continue reading Dame Joan has a battle on her hands
Read moreThese are hard times for the old-fashioned, money-making operations that were all the rage until a few months ago. It is now a time of doubt and questions for investors. Is the business plan sound? What effect will it have on the local environment? Does it have an unacceptably large carbon footprint? Will it face… Continue reading Golf madness is killing the countryside
Read moreIt is as if we need to be afraid of one thing or another in order to feel alive Three years ago, the Chief Medical Officer announced that a great pandemic was “a biological inevitability”. Now the writer Mark Honigsbaum has written a book about the flu pandemic of 90 years ago which is believed… Continue reading We’re living in the Great Age of Panic
Read moreThey are usually polite. They introduce themselves by their first names, and address you by yours. They assure you at every opportunity that they are there to help you. Then they take you into a nightmare world where all normal standards of behaviour are reversed and nothing is quite what it seems. Is there any… Continue reading Driven to despair as I wander in the seventh circle of call-centre hell
Read moreIt is a rather bewildering contradiction of our increasingly peculiar society that, while cruelty in everyday life is the subject of unprecedented disapproval, it is positively celebrated and encouraged in the world of entertainment. Everyone from primary schoolchildren to chief executives knows that bullying ranks high on the list of contemporary evils. Yet in the… Continue reading When did bullying become acceptable?
Read morePredictions that those organising our Olympic adventure would learn important lessons from the way the Beijing Games were run have turned out to be alarmingly true. In east London, a local council has been enthusiastically adopting the Chinese solution to dissent by suppressing it. The great writer of London life Iain Sinclair was due to… Continue reading Censorship Beijing would be proud of
Read moreNow at least we know the origin of the phrase “a crashing bore”. The Great Crash of 2008 will, we have been assured, affect us all; what nobody explained was that its first casualty would be normal, sane human discourse. Once, not so long ago, one could go to a social occasion and discuss life,… Continue reading We’re in the grip of money madness
Read moreEven now he is no longer in a position of power, John Prescott continues to serve his country well. He is a weather-vane of contemporary insecurities. Few figures in public life highlight so clearly the flaws and hang-ups of modern life. Most politicians strive to maintain a balance between their professional personae (tough, effective, grown-up)… Continue reading John Prescott on the class system? Psychologists please take note…
Read moreThe television presenter Richard Madeley was having lunch with his agent, discussing possible book projects. They had rejected ideas that had come in from publishers – “The Madeley Medley of Celebrity Gaffes” was probably there, not to mention “Sofa So Good: Behind the Scenes of Daytime TV” – and were discussing their families over coffee.… Continue reading They sell your books, your mum and dad
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