Literature
Farmhouse cooking
Gran toils on In the foreman’s house The old black range is always lit Her foreman husband, live in hands With horses plough and reap and sow. Flour comes in half stone sacks Making bread [more…]
Blog
Arts
Iggy Pop – The Idiot (1977)
Listening for the first time to a bone fide legend of music comes with more than a small amount of trepidation and expectation. One expects to be immediately impressed, wowed, surprised and entertained; one expects [more…]
Arts
Always Worth Saying’s Question Time Review
Question Time 18th January 2024 The Panel: Bim Afolami (Conservative) Emily Thornberry (Labour) Hashi Mohamed (Barrister and Author) Kate McCann (Political Journalist) Venue: Peterborough Emily Thornberry, not her real name, Lieutenant Colonel (temporary) The Right [more…]
Fiction
Jinnie’s Story – Book Six, Chapter Thirteen
In the car park outside the KFC site, Freeholders Lawyers, Jinnie said, “I think that went well, let’s go and talk to the staff at KFC.” “Right oh,” said Brian, “While you drive, I want [more…]
Health
Total knee replacement
The NHS will be playing no part whatsoever in this article Background or “Why should anyone care about your bloody knee?” A few weeks ago I asked the question on GP whether anyone had any [more…]
Eating
Caribbean Christmas 2023/24, Part One
This year I’m only off for two weeks, but as I’m flying to pick up the ship in Barbados, so it is a full two weeks in the sun. As a single passenger I must [more…]
Authoritarianism
Kenya at Sixty: The Death of a Nation
Sixty years after independence we are in a worse position than we were in 1963. Levels of impunity have reached astronomical levels and, thanks to the IMF and an insensitive leadership, we are likely to [more…]
20th Century
Report From Israel, 1957 – Part Four
In 1957 my uncle, John Alldridge visited Israel for the Birmingham Mail. This is the fourth of his reports. – Jerry F Kefar Hanasi, Upper Galilee Not so very long ago, Gershon Epstein was a [more…]
Economics
Does the private sector pay for the public sector?
A common talking point: it is the private sector that actually pays for the public sector, and hence all public services ultimately. This argument is heard so often on the right, and considered such a [more…]