‘This is a historic day’, the John Cleese character in the film Clockwise repeatedly intoned to himself as he rehearsed his speech while driving to a conference – a scene which has always stuck in my mind. Whether or not we approve of the Assisted Dying Bill passing its first reading (330 to 275 votes),Continue reading “Sunday 1 December”
Tag Archives: books
Saturday 13 August
Assailed, as we are on a daily basis, by news of deepening crises in the water and energy industries, in the NHS and cost of living, which put further downward pressure on our mental wellbeing, it surely beggars belief that we are expected to tolerate for weeks on end a ‘zombie government’ (in the wordsContinue reading “Saturday 13 August”
Sunday 1 August
Although the news continues to be dominated by Covid-related issues, there was another stark reminder last Sunday of the climate crisis, parts including London once again experiencing flash floods. We’ve become used to seeing these in other countries but it feels even more alarming when you see for the first time footage of local placesContinue reading “Sunday 1 August”
Sunday 21 February
As numbers of Covid deaths and new cases continue to fall but remain high, this last week finally saw the introduction of hotel quarantining for UK passengers returning from the 33 ‘red list’ countries (in Scotland it’s sensibly all countries since dangerous variants have been found in many besides the 33). Ministers had quite aContinue reading “Sunday 21 February”
Saturday 7 November
Here we are in the first few days of England’s second lockdown and some are already asking ‘what lockdown’? At least in London we’re still seeing heavy traffic on the roads, numerous people walking around and on public transport, non-essential shops open and not a single police officer in sight, let alone the COVID marshallsContinue reading “Saturday 7 November”
Politics and mental health - the missing link? 