media – Politics and mental health

Sunday 23 November

As Trump’s capitulatory and short-termist non solutions to Gaza and Ukraine struggle to take hold, not surprisingly, and Budget speculation gets worse, not better, there are three interesting sources of silence. One is that the BBC, having lost another Board member this week, has still not received the threatened law suit from Trump (is heContinue reading “Sunday 23 November”

Sunday 26 January

Phew – the first week of the Trump second term many of us have been dreading, with good reason. The 47th president declared: ‘Starting tomorrow, I will act with historic speed of strength and fix every single crisis facing our country’. The sycophantic media excelled themselves with their obsessive and excessive coverage of the inaugurationContinue reading “Sunday 26 January”

Sunday 1 December

‘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”

Sunday 27 October

As the Middle East crisis worsens, the Sudanese civil war continues to be under-reported, as Putin boosts his flagging army with North Korean manpower and the US election is imminent, the world certainly looks a dangerous place. Meanwhile, there’s plenty going on here to occupy us but there’d be much more time and space forContinue reading “Sunday 27 October”

Sunday 6 October

Amid so much important and disturbing news, including the worsening conflict in the Middle East, it seems to me that partly due to the power of right wing media, there’s been a major and non-stop attack on Keir Starmer and his government. Said one tweeter: ‘The amount of shit being dumped on Starmer at theContinue reading “Sunday 6 October”

Sunday 14 July

Just over a week since Labour’s election success and five things have been very noticeable: how many are saying they feel relieved and hopeful for the first time in years (a vitally needed mental wellbeing boost); the speed with which Starmer got his programme up and running, with a Cabinet meeting the following day, talksContinue reading “Sunday 14 July”

Saturday 3 June

Whenever we think the government can’t get any worse, it does, and these last few weeks have been no exception. It seems there’s no limit to the damage this government is prepared to inflict on this country and its reputation on the world stage in order to get away with corruption and incompetence. Besides theContinue reading “Saturday 3 June”