Tag: opinion
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Boots on Other Feet
I recently saw a post on a local community Facebook group. You know the sort of groups; the ones where children are criticised for not playing outside any more, then are further criticised when they exist in public spaces on bikes and whatnot. This time, there was a legitimate gripe. Some children were throwing eggs…
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Bindependence Day?
There were two bins on the ballot in Clacton. The first was made of silver plastic. It wore a cape, spent thirty quid on its campaign, and admitted up front that it was filled with absolute rubbish. The second was made of velvet and tweed. It took a five-million-pound crypto bung, treated the town like…
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Number 10 of the… North?
Andy Burnham is our prime minister. Third time was, indeed, the charm for the ruthlessly ambitious career politician who has been treated as the king across the water for some time. That’s not a criticism. Ambition is important, but I don’t quite understand some of the people buying into his contrived persona of a happy-go-lucky…
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The Clickbait Breakdown: How The Media Converts Scottish Education into Rage-Bait
Scottish education reporting hit another low this week with The Scotsman’s latest piece of statistical rage-baiting: a page-padded countdown of Scotland’s “worst-performing” council areas for Higher passes. We are no strangers to local news reducing complex public institutions to raw, decontextualised metrics. But pieces like this step beyond lazy reporting; they actively mislead the public…
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The “Hand-Me-Down” Seat: Why the Makerfield By-Election Feels Like a Betrayal
When Josh Simons resigned his seat on May 14th, he didn’t just step down; he explicitly vacated the space to clear a path for Andy Burnham. This kind of calculated seat-swapping, where a constituency is treated like a personal asset to be gifted from one party figure to another, leaves a sour taste in the…
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The Sneaky-Sneak’s Sneaky-Sneak Scheme
In the halls of Holyrood, dusty and grand, Where the leaders all gather to govern the land, There was a great kerfuffle, a hullabaloo, About money that vanished; a million? Or two? “Oh, where is the cash?” cried the people, quite loud, “It was meant for the Cause! It was meant for the crowd!” But…
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If The Newsroom Was a British Show
I love Aaron Sorkin’s show, The Newsroom. I think it’s one of the best pieces of television ever made. It’s also a show with a truly incredible opening sequence, wherein the main character lays out why the United States of America is, despite the propaganda, not the greatest country in the world. Here’s the clip:…
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A Ban Today, a Precedent Tomorrow
They stopped Hasan Piker from entering this “United” Kingdomwith a decision already madesomewhere far from the desk in front of him. His ETA revoked,his name flagged,his presence declared“not conducive to the public good,”a phrase so vagueit can stretch to fitanyone a government finds inconvenient. No charges.No hearing.No explanation beyond implication. Just a door quietly closingon…
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The Case of the Forgetful First Minister
In a house near a hoose on a bright Glasgow day,A reporter popped up with a question to say: “Did your spouse do the thing with the funds in the can?”And she blinked and replied,“I don’t recall being married to that man.” She checked in the cupboards, she checked in her shoe,She checked in a…