(no subject)

A couple of interesting articles

The single mother’s manifesto, JK Rowling, The Times.

The Secretary of State for Wales, John Redwood, castigated single-parent families from St Mellons, Cardiff, as “one of the biggest social problems of our day”. (John Redwood has since divorced the mother of his children.)

( Read more... )

The village that shows us what society really means, The Guardian:

The early workers built the walls of their crude dwellings from stone, freely available in this landscape. But they had to get permission to take the turf and the heather to put on a roof. That belonged to the estate. If the estate wanted you out, they had the right to burn you out by setting the roof on fire; the roof that belonged to them.

( Read more... )

And bingo! There's the part missing from David Cameron's vision of a grassroots-up, sober, self-help society. It was not ordinary people who needed the state to keep them in line – fearful authoritarian religious leaders did that. It was the ruling elite, who abused their power without restraint, that made "big government" necessary.”

I forget which stately home it was I visited in the north-east that boasted that its wealth was not founded on slave-ownership (perish the thought!) but lead-mining.

Finally, how’s this for nonchalance? The captain of the BA flight caught in an ash cloud following the eruption of Mt Galunggung in 1982 made the following announcement to passengers:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them under control. I trust you are not in too much distress.”

Funnily enough, the newspapers don’t appear to be quoting his comment about the landing: "a bit like negotiating one's way up a badger's arse"

(no subject)

A couple of interesting articles

The single mother’s manifesto, JK Rowling, The Times.

The Secretary of State for Wales, John Redwood, castigated single-parent families from St Mellons, Cardiff, as “one of the biggest social problems of our day”. (John Redwood has since divorced the mother of his children.)

( Read more... )

The village that shows us what society really means, The Guardian:

The early workers built the walls of their crude dwellings from stone, freely available in this landscape. But they had to get permission to take the turf and the heather to put on a roof. That belonged to the estate. If the estate wanted you out, they had the right to burn you out by setting the roof on fire; the roof that belonged to them.

( Read more... )

And bingo! There's the part missing from David Cameron's vision of a grassroots-up, sober, self-help society. It was not ordinary people who needed the state to keep them in line – fearful authoritarian religious leaders did that. It was the ruling elite, who abused their power without restraint, that made "big government" necessary.”

I forget which stately home it was I visited in the north-east that boasted that its wealth was not founded on slave-ownership (perish the thought!) but lead-mining.

Finally, how’s this for nonchalance? The captain of the BA flight caught in an ash cloud following the eruption of Mt Galunggung in 1982 made the following announcement to passengers:

“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them under control. I trust you are not in too much distress.”

Funnily enough, the newspapers don’t appear to be quoting his comment about the landing: "a bit like negotiating one's way up a badger's arse"