Immigration Debate Skewed
Most people will aware that there is occasionally debate about immigration within the mass media, but few will be aware of the way in which this debate is carefully controlled in order to dissipate any impact it may have upon the public consciousness. The discussion which took place on BBCs Question Time on 17th January this year is a typical example of the kind of sanitised and neutered debate that is allowed. Question Time viewers…
The Parable of Dr Strangeways
It was a bleak and unwelcoming time fraught with dangers, but bunting fluttered in the breeze, banners flew and music played creating an atmosphere of hope resurgent. Then, accompanied by a shrill fanfare, Dr Strangeways mounted the dais before the assembled mass of those who sought life everlasting. “Good morning my friends”, he called to the people. “Good morning!” they all replied. “This morning I shall conduct an experiment in which I will demonstrate the…
Henry & Kevin Talk Sex & Politics
Henry: Hi Kevin, you’re looking cross today, what’s the problem? Kevin: It’s the state of the country – immigration, the EU, the loss of jobs, street crime – you name it, its all going wrong! Henry: I know what you mean, Kevin, if only there was a political party that represented our views – a party like the BNP, or the English Democrats – but one that was successful. Kevin: Too right, there are lots of…
Anthropological Truths – From a Park Bench
I sat down on the wooden bench to survey the autumnal scene. It was a sunny afternoon and freshly fallen leaves were scattered across the grass. Jim sat slightly slumped at the other end with his eyes closed. I wasn’t sure whether he knew I was there. He wasn’t asleep – I think he was meditating. “I’ve been reading about evolution in the library”, he said. “About the Out of Africa theory, … and I’ve…
Government Minister Misleads Public?
More than 1,500 square miles of open countryside — an area more than twice the size of Greater London — needs to be built on to meet housing demand, the Government’s planning minister Nick Boles has apparently warned, in an interview with BBC’s ‘Newsnight’, which is due to be broadcast tonight. In the interview reported on the Daily Telegraph website, Mr Boles a Conservative minister appointed in the September reshuffle, is reported to have said…
In the Lives of All My Fathers
By Max Musson: Jack London 1876 – 1916, was the son of Flora Wellman a woman of Puritan stock who was deserted by her husband while London was still very young. At the age of 13 London was already working in a local canning factory, later becoming an oyster pirate, a fisheries patrolman, a student and a gold prospector during the Klondike Gold Rush. These early experiences gave London a massive amount of material upon…
Outrage as Brave Marines are Defamed
As five Royal Marines are charged on suspicion of murder over the death of a Taliban fighter in 2011, morale within the military sinks to a new low and questions are being asked whether anyone will ever want to take up arms again in the British Army for a political regime that criminalises and vilifies it’s own fighting men? The servicemen are understood to have been arrested after a video was discovered by police on…
Paradise Island – A Parable
Paradise Island is the home of a relatively small community of 10,000 people, and the people of this island are famous for their production of high quality widgets, which they sell as components to larger manufacturing client companies on the mainland. The population of Paradise Island has been changing in recent years however. The widget business has been depressed for some time – competition for contracts on the mainland has been fierce and a number…
British Democracy In Terminal Decline?
As the annual political party conference season begins, falling party memberships, falling voter turnout and diminishing respect for those in public life are all factors signalling a widening gulf between elected politicians and the people they are meant to represent. In recent decades voter turnout at general elections had been gradually falling, dropping from 83.9 % in 1950 to 77.7% in 1992 and following which there was a marked drop of over six percentage points to 71.4% in 1997,…
“Astonishing” Cost of Afghan Conflict
As Prince Charles opens the new Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC) for wounded service personnel at Headley Court in Surrey, the focus of public attention falls once again upon the unacceptable number of deaths and casualties being sustained by British troops serving in Afghanistan. Upon meeting the large numbers of amputee troops cared for at the new £16.9m centre, the Prince of Wales said: “So often people don’t hear about the number of people who…