Articles by Roger Watson

We have entered an age where subjectivity trumps objective facts, where decibels outweigh debate and where rhetoric (here defined as ‘language designed to have a persuasive or impressive effect, but which is often regarded as lacking in sincerity or meaningful content’) will always be superior to reason. This is the age of identity politics, ‘lived’ experience, ‘my truth’ and a … [Read on]

  I am a First Gulf War veteran and one of my sons, when very young, asked me which ‘team’ I had been on as if that was a choice for a British soldier. I was recently asked by one of my not so young grandsons which ‘team’ I supported in the war between Ukraine and Russia. Years of online … [Read on]

Increasingly it seems we cannot trust the police and why should we? They used only to have to consider whether a crime was being committed and what action they would take. Now they make their own decisions, not as to whether a crime is being committed, but about whether they are going to stop it when a crime is clearly … [Read on]

The leader of the Anglican Church Archbishop Justin Welby, a man given to increasingly bizarre pronouncements, told us in his Christmas sermon that we should show compassion towards refugees crossing the English Channel from France to Britain. I completely agree, if I understand compassion properly as ‘sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.’ Setting off in … [Read on]

I have previously suggested that the dreadful Athena Swan Charter should be put out of its misery. For anyone unaware of what the Athena Swan Charter is about it purports to be a ‘ a framework which is used across the globe to support and transform gender equality within higher education’. Belinda Brown has previously exposed the excesses of the Athena … [Read on]

‘You don’t have to be mad to work here…etc.’ It wasn’t very funny the first time round when this adage began appearing on office walls a few decades ago. But it did demonstrate the casual attitude to madness, something very few people actually encounter red in tooth and claw unless they have sufferers in their family or work professionally with … [Read on]

The global pandemic of 2020 has exposed many things about our society. Amongst these is the issue of whether we still need universities. I am not suggesting we do not need higher education and training for the major professions, I am referring to the enormous infrastructures that take up increasing amounts of space in university towns and the bureaucracy and … [Read on]