Following a defeat or set back it is natural to contemplate what went wrong, human nature having developed this tactic to avoid repeating mistakes forever. One of my favourite and oft-quoted pieces of wisdom is that one, sometimes attributed to Einstein, about the definition of insanity being expecting a different result from the same action. [...]
Entries Tagged as ‘Minipax’
Saturday 29 May 2010
In Memoria e Amicizia
At this time of year the anniversaries come often for Liverpool fans, the games we love to remember and the ones we will never forget for completely different reasons. One date that should resonate for all fans of the team is 29 May. Today is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Heysel stadium disaster, when 39 people died [...]
Wednesday 17 March 2010
Roll up, roll up…
… we haven’t had a good drug panic for a few years*, so it was obviously slightly overdue. Hearing the calls for a ban on mephedrone instantly recalled the Simpson’s Maude Flanders: There is also a delicious irony, which you should join me in enjoying immensely, as the report from the Advisory Council on the [...]
Tuesday 16 March 2010
Suffer, little children
If you should find yourself musing on the immigration question this election-tide and wondering if we are, in fact, in danger of being swamped, seen as a soft touch or provider of free swan burgers to all the world’s poor and huddled masses, reassure yourself with this story: M was arrested, and locked up in [...]
Wednesday 10 March 2010
A day without immigrants?
So it appears that the Tories might be about to blow the immigration dog-whistle again. If true, an article I read today over on Liberal Conspiracy regarding a day of action in France called ‘a day without immigrants‘ has special poignancy. The campaign encouraged: anyone who is an immigrant, of immigrant origin, or who feels [...]
Thursday 4 March 2010
Questions
Questions that MUST be answered regarding the return to jail of Jon Venables, co-murderer of 2-year-old James Bulger: 1. Does the public’s the tabloid editor’s right to know supercede the importance of not prejudice a pending hearing? 2. Does this right to know also include an element of a right to turn up outside the [...]
Wednesday 27 January 2010
Justice League
I wrote earlier that Amir Choudhary was ‘wrong, plain wrong’ and was rightly called up on it by this bloke over here in the comments. Rightly because, in one important aspect, Mr Choudhary is right, for reminding us of the non-British war dead, albeit for some very wrong reasons: getting his name in the papers. [...]
Sunday 24 January 2010
The offence of being cocky
I suspect that some Police Community Support Officers (PSCOs) might need retraining if, as demonstrated in this Guardian video, they believe that being “cocky” is now an offence and justification for arrest. Italian student Simona Bonomo was stopped under anti-terrorism legislation for filming buildings in London. She was later arrested by other officers, held in a police cell and [...]
Tuesday 15 December 2009
And so this is Christmas
It’s a predictable question for this time of year, but one which needs to be asked again. And so this is Christmas And what have you done? What exactly? Covered yourself in glory? Or featuring repeatedly on the naughty list? How can you tell? It has been a year of such rampant evil that you [...]
Thursday 15 October 2009
No alternative
Quote from a ‘senior source’ talking about the latest expenses scandal: We were led up the garden path by Gordon. I have never known a prime minister to be heckled at a meeting of the parliamentary party as he was on Monday. Not even Tony during the Iraq war got such a rough ride. (my [...]
