So Christmas is over for another year and we’re now amid Twixmas, the travel industry invented name for that no man’s land between Christmas and New Year (therapeutic for some, possibly many) when it’s tricky to know what places and services are open and when. This lack of consistency can make it hard to planContinue reading “Sunday 29 December”
Tag Archives: Christmas
Sunday 15 December
Syria – what a dramatic turn of events which no one saw coming. Just a month ago, a Western diplomat was apparently arguing that sanctions should be lifted from Assad because clearly he had won the war and now we needed to ‘move on’. Although such a rebel operation (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, HTS) must haveContinue reading “Sunday 15 December”
Friday 22 December 2023
After the all too brief relief felt at Boris Johnson’s expulsion and the disastrous tenure of Liz Truss, many of us might have thought in October 2022 that we’d get more a more principled premiership from Rishi Sunak. Who’d have thought that we’d actually get an even worse brand of dishonesty and private profiteering, butContinue reading “Friday 22 December 2023”
24 December
As happy a Christmas as possible to all readers! These are busy days for many but you may perhaps have time to peruse this mini blog post while basting that turkey or nut roast, when grabbing a crafty snifter while peeling those spuds, or during the post-lunch/dinner slump! Recently transport minister Mark Harper was trying,Continue reading “24 December”
Saturday 8 January 2022
Happy New Year to all readers, insofar as this is possible given the current worrying situation! The feeling in many quarters that things are out of control can rarely have been so pronounced. Since the last blog post in mid-December, the intertwined Covid and political situations have been a rollercoaster, and just when you thinkContinue reading “Saturday 8 January 2022”
Sunday 12 December
Various media outlets are now finally discussing the degree to which we can trust the Prime Minister, citing a plummeting in trust over recent months. The major theme of this blog has been the risks to public mental health when we can’t trust our leaders, who function as proxies for our early authority figures (egContinue reading “Sunday 12 December”
Sunday 5 December
How things can change in a week – ten days ago despite rising Covid cases some commentators and politicians were blithely alluding to Covid as being in the past: on UnHerd Andrew Lilico had said ‘Britain is remarkably well-placed as it emerges from the pandemic. Public health officials will of course continue to be concernedContinue reading “Sunday 5 December”
Sunday 21 November
There are almost no words for the shameful spectacle which has engulfed British politics during the last few weeks but which has its roots in the privilege and sense of entitlement nurtured over many years, particularly within the Conservative Party. This will be adding to public anxiety, already long exacerbated by the effects of pandemicContinue reading “Sunday 21 November”
Saturday 9 October
To hear politicians pontificating from their conference hall bubbles recently, you’d almost think there wasn’t a fuel and supply chain crisis surging through the rest of the country, the sticking plaster solutions clearly not working. The request for overseas drivers (some of whom have not minced words in their media about how badly they feltContinue reading “Saturday 9 October”
Sunday 20 December
With 586 Covid deaths registered on Friday and dire warnings of a new and highly contagious strain of the virus wreaking havoc in London and the South East (thought to be 62% of cases in London), the Prime Minister has now, after weeks of dithering, restricted Christmas relaxation of restrictions to one day in EnglandContinue reading “Sunday 20 December”
Politics and mental health - the missing link? 