Reports of the imminent demise of the Labour Party have been greatly exaggerated. Virtually up until polling day on the 6th May, the majority of commentators had Labour staring a worst defeat than that under Michael Foot in 1983. Despite a revived Liberal-Democrat threat and a washed out, tired looking PM compounded by the disaster […]
There is one small consolation for Gordon Brown if, as is now widely predicted, he is no longer Prime Minister after May 6th. This comes in the form of the widely reported remarks attributed to the Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, that whoever wins the next election will be “stuffed” by the […]
The story of the boy who cried wolf is primal, told to us in childhood and virtually etched in our synapses. It is a formative fable whose impact is universal, one of those stores which, while ostensibly aimed at children, actually help to set out rules of good conduct and effective ways of behaving which […]
(This week’s blog is the basis of an article which was printed in the Sunday Herald Scotland on 25th April 2010.) Methadone, the substitute drug for heroin, has come in for some severe criticism of late here in Scotland. The main brunt of that criticism is that we are simply substituting one addiction (to heroin) with […]
The following is now virtually anathema in many modern educational circles. A teacher or lecturer walks into a classroom/lecture theatre. She delivers a lesson/lecture based on prepared notes consisting of a combination of an established, ‘traditional’ body of knowledge in a particular subject area enhanced by the most up-to-date results and findings in that subject. […]
The 2010 UK general election is underway and campaigning is in full swing. No-one can accurately forecast the result, but for the first time since the 1970s there is a real prospect that no one political party will secure a majority and, therefore a hung parliament will ensue with parties and senior politicians horse-trading and […]
A contemporary phrase, repeated mantra like in a wide variety of situations, is “not being judgemental”. The phrase (which in a positive negative variant can have an ism attached to as in “non-judgementalism”) is meant to clearly indicate that the person saying it brings no prior judgement or prejudice to meeting other people or any […]
More often than not the subject of drugs and rational discussion and debate are mutually exclusive entities as emotion and the search for quick, easy solutions take precedence over all other considerations. A vivid example of this has occurred over the past few weeks. Several deaths in quick succession have been reported in the press […]
Glasgow City Council is the largest of 32 local authorities in Scotland with an annual budget of £2.4 billion and the city’s largest employer with a compliment of some 36,000 staff (the second largest employer in the city is the National Health Service; Glasgow’s workforce is largely concentrated in the public sector). Recently buffeted by […]
It is not often that one’s rantings and ravings get confirmed. But two weeks ago the Scottish Government launched an “anti-obesity strategy” which in its aims, objectives and potential implications could be a virtual textbook example of what I have called pseudo-benign liberal totalism or PBLT (see posts Liberal-Fascism, Nonsense or the Way We Are […]