Just because an economy as a whole does not grow it does not mean that no activity whatever increases. For example, there are now 4000 professional tattooists in France whereas ten years ago there were only 400. And in neighbouring Belgium last year the number of cases of euthanasia grew by a healthy 27 per cent (no pun intended). It … [Read on]
I was briefly flattered the other day to receive an e-mail from the General Medical Council asking me whether I could be its Chair (meaning Chairman). Then I realised that it was a circular, not an actual invitation to me personally: it had, presumably, been sent to everyone on its e-mailing list. What were the duties of the Chairman? The … [Read on]
A well-known conclusion of political philosophy, as well as of the most elementary reflection upon life, is that not all human desiderata are compatible one with another. This is so because Mankind not only is capable of desiring, but always desires something and its opposite at the same time. We desire, for example, both security and excitement, both freedom and … [Read on]
I have taken no interest in cricket ever since cricketers started to wear baseball caps and vulgar coloured clothes, and behaved like footballers or basketball players when they took a wicket, hugging one another and making neanderthlal gestures of triumph. Last weekend I attended, for the first time in several years, a village cricket match. It was a heavenly day … [Read on]
The account in The Times of the murder by stabbing of Mary Maguire, a teacher in Leeds, quoted a recent report by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) about the school in which it took place. ‘Students,’ said the report, ‘say they feel very safe in the school. It is clear they have a good understanding of how to … [Read on]
Travelling frequently as I do between England and France, I am always depressed almost to the point of despair when I see the English at the airport. Never in human history can so many people have been so determined to make the worst of themselves. Self-respect is unknown to them. Fat or thin, they dress in a more slovenly fashion … [Read on]
Henry Ford once said that you could have any colour car you liked so long as it was black. Among social liberals in America, you can have any opinion you like so long as it is theirs. The chief executive of the Mozilla Foundation, which owns the software company that designed Firefox, was forced to step down after only two … [Read on]
The belief that everyone can be persuaded by argument to behave well is, I suppose, a corollary of the notion that no man does wrong knowingly. The task of the moralist, then, is to get people to understand the true nature of their conduct, to educate them; and once this is done, the reprehensible conduct will cease by itself. This … [Read on]
