The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, founded by the chocolate millionaire in 1904 to combat “the great scourges of humanity”, has been looking into equivalent scourges today. Having consulted 3,500 people, it has nominated our top ten social evils. They are the decline of community, individualism and selfishness, consumerism and greed, a decline of values, the decline… Continue reading Don’t be glum! Here are ten reasons to be cheerful
Read moreOf the publication of silly surveys there is no end. To help us make sense of an increasingly frantic and fragmented world, publicity-minded academics and marketing experts eagerly supply a daily diet of research documents and studies, usually with some statistics to lend an air of fake seriousness to the whole thing. They rarely amount… Continue reading Weren’t computers meant to liberate us?
Read moreOf all the names one would least expect to find in reports of a controversy about sport, life and death, and America, that of Captain Mark Phillips would be a leading contender. The captain – “Foggy Phillips”, as he was unkindly known when he was the bewildered consort of Princess Anne – has been out… Continue reading Winners don’t always play by the rules
Read moreImagine for a moment that a government body has delivered a report which presents, as one of four policy options, the prospect of your house being destroyed as well as your local shops, pub, village and landscape. It could happen within the next decade or so, the experts tell you, or in a century’s time.… Continue reading The whiff of defeatism in the face of an old enemy
Read moreThe shaggy media millionaire and poet Felix Dennis has just confessed to murder. In a newspaper interview with Ginny Dougary, he told of an event, some 25 years ago, when a man he knew behaved so badly and violently towards a woman and her children that Dennis decided to take action. “In the end, I… Continue reading When truth and its showbiz cousin collide
Read moreHow is this for an image which perfectly captures the greed, hypocrisy and downright silliness of the age through which we are living? A planeload of passengers flies from Norwich to Dublin. When it arrives, the travellers wait at the airport for half an hour and then re-board the plane to fly straight back. They… Continue reading A stunt that exposes the truth about corporate greed
Read moreLike a tired old couple nagging wearily away at one another, politicians and the media have been bickering over the great marriage crisis exposed by the Office of National Statistics. In 2005, the number getting married fell by nine per cent from the previous year; 2006 saw another significant fall, this time of four per… Continue reading Is it so terrible that marriage is in decline?
Read moreBefore the current pitch invasion by wimps, cissies and goody-goodies gets out of hand, it is time to speak up for bad behaviour in football. As in any sport, there will be certain types of play which are inadmissible: the leg-breaking tackle, for example, or the elbow to the face. It is probably a bad… Continue reading Why can’t we let off steam on the pitch?
Read moreIt was, on reflection, not such a good idea for Sebastian Horsley, the English artist and decadent, to fly into New York on a publicity tour during Easter week. It was six years ago that he acquired a certain notoriety by having himself crucified in the Philippines. Although he has no religious pretensions other than… Continue reading When refusing to repent is considered suspect
Read moreHere they come again, the tragic comic gang. There is Tony Hancock, of course, and our old friend Frankie Howerd. Absent this time around are Kenneth Williams and Spike Milligan, and the ghost of Peter Cook is being given a well-earned rest, but while there are TV commissioning editors eager to give us new versions… Continue reading Yawn ! Another tale of the tragic funny man
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