You know how it is when you get a puzzle buzzing in your brain and you can’t rest until, as they say, you’ve got your head round it? I have such a pestering question in my head – it’s been there for the best part of a week: is Christianity compatible with democracy? Usually when I’m bothered by one of … [Read on]
What’s in a word, and how much can it express? Sometimes quite a lot, if it’s just the right one. The other day I had an example of how much a single well-chosen word can convey. I was at a conference to give a talk; it was held in a hotel in the country, not an old inn or country … [Read on]
The Church of St Jargon & All Gobbledegook – formerly known as the Church of England – is affectionately called “Jarg’s” or “Gob’s” by its devotees. It is “a resource where exciting things are happening.” Last year, for example, they appointed Mike Eastwood, Liverpool Diocesan Secretary, to the “exciting” two days a week job of Director of the nationwide Reform and Renewal movement, aka “The … [Read on]
There was a time when taking the pledge meant abjuring strong drink, but members of the Labour Party will soon have to take a different pledge: to abjure strong language online. Apparently Labour MPs have been inundated, or whatever the correct term for it is, by abusive electronic messages. One MP alone, Ruth Smeeth, has received 25,000 abusive messages, including … [Read on]
“Liberals – when were you first mugged by reality?” Thats how I heard it put once. Any reader who used to be a liberal will understand what being mugged by reality is. Sadly once the mugging has taken place, it becomes difficult to talk to the un-mugged. Recently, at a loose social gathering in a bar, I inadvertently started a … [Read on]
One of the first books I ever bought was Trump’s The Art of the Deal. Yes, I readily scorned the stuffy volumes of Balzac’s Human Comedy under my native roof, to go roll in the hay with Trump’s paperback. And what is worse still, a kind of affection lingers in my heart for him, in the same way I can’t … [Read on]
When Jo Cox, the Labour Member of Parliament, was murdered just before the referendum on Brexit, I thought that it might turn the vote in favour of the status quo, of which she, otherwise an advocate of radical change, was a strong supporter. Strictly speaking, her brutal death should not have affected the result in either direction: it left the … [Read on]
The prospect of a grammar school in every city in Britain terrifies a middle class left entrenched in privilege and wealth. Grammar schools represent a golden age in British education when a bright working class boy or girl could make it to the top ranks of government, science the arts or industry. A famous example of how grammar schools, even … [Read on]
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