Archive | Life

Mapledurham Playing Fields – a follow up post

Whoa. I honestly didn’t expect some of the feedback I got on my previous post regarding siting The Heights Primary at Mapledurham Playing Fields (MPF). There was a lot to take in very quickly. But I’d like to tackle a few of the criticisms that have been made of that post, and also point out a few things that […]

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Our community deserves better than this

The controversy surrounding The Heights Primary serves to highlight deficits in democratic processes that people not just within Reading, but I suspect UK-wide are struggling with. In Mapledurham in particular, it seems like there has been a perfect storm of obstacles that have stopped the development of a new school. For starters, Mapledurham is the […]

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How Repealing the Human Rights Act Targets the Most Vulnerable

After banging on before May 7th about ‘finishing what we started’ with the ‘Long Term Economic Plan’, George Osbourne is suddenly nowhere to be seen. His Tory colleagues instead have immediately set about dismantling our rights by attempting to repeal the Human Rights Act (HRA), and to finally introduce the long-mooted ‘Snoopers Charter’. Rather than see the […]

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On Julien Blanc, I agree with Lynne

The issue of Julien Blanc is being framed in some circles as a civil liberties issue. It’s not. It’s a protection of civil society – in particular women – issue. In 2010 Theresa May excluded Zakir Naik from entry in the UK because he had made comments that we’re evidence of “unacceptable behaviour”. Note. Theresa […]

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Derek Nash at the 606 Club

As you mature you begin to want – and expect – different things from a night out. As a thirty-something dad I don’t particularly want to go to a club where I can barely hear myself think anymore, and neither do the bunch of guys who I went to the 606 Club with. We wanted […]

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Elysium – review

There is something familiar about Elysium. In fact, there are a lot of things familiar about Elysium, drawing, as it undoubtedly does on the usual sci-fi tropes. The dystopia of the future. Hi-tech droids. Unfeeling conglomerates that operate beyond the law, and so on, and so forth. Anybody with a passing interest in sci-fi has seen […]

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Woolwich: The counter narrative

The unfolding of events in Woolwich today leaves a deep melancholy in my heart. Even now, hours after the event, confirmed facts are desperately hard to come by – aside from the unthinkable horror of an attack upon and killing of a man by two other armed men. It was Churchill who said: A lie gets halfway […]

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Fitness to Parent

Being subject to the relentless forward propulsion of the 24 hour newscycle as we all are, it’s easy to forget stories from just 3 weeks ago. But even after the death of Margaret Thatcher and the Boston Marathon bombings, the story of how one man visited psychological and physical abuse upon so many, ending in […]

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