Russia is playing a blinder over the Ukraine and will get just what it wants. I don’t believe they have – or ever had – any intention of full scale invasion and/or annexation in the way they took the Crimea. The Ukrainian economy is in crisis and the ethnic mix will always make the country… Continue reading Russia playing a blinder over Ukraine

As soon as I heard Google’s Chromecast was available in the UK I had to have one. I knew useful apps are in their infancy (although BBC iPlayer and YouTube both work very well), but I particularly wanted a Chromecast to stream (“cast”) videos, music and pictures I already own and store on my own… Continue reading Chromecast – casting local content

During the summer I had to have a plaster cast on a leg and went to hospital several times for it to be changed. The Plaster Room is usually a fairly subdued place, but on one occasion it was quite distressingly different. There was the general bustle of activity, the noise of harmless circular saws… Continue reading Mercy for the Utterly Helpless Seems Too Much to Ask

People often tell Stephen Frythat he shouldn’t call himself an atheist, he should call himself an agnostic because he can‘t know there isn’t a God, and therefore he must be agnostic. Bertrand Russell answered this one brilliantly many years ago. Bertrand Russell said “Many things are beyond the realm of absolute knowledge in any sense,… Continue reading Stephen Fry and Bertrand Russell on Atheism

Interesting article on food security, but which failed to reach the obvious conclusion. To be more “food secure” in an increasingly unstable world, the single most effective measure would for us to move to a vegan diet. In “What Future Our Food” (see latest edition of Unite the Union’s magazine), agricultural scientist Dr Clutterbuck points… Continue reading BEST FOOD SECURITY – GO VEGAN!

William Hague’s “If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear” is simplistic nonsense, as well he knows. To accept it as true, you need to believe the state: is incapable of error will never draw the wrong conclusion employs no-one with the wrong motives, and is and forever will be benign. You… Continue reading Hague wants everyone watching each other, East German-style

Interest-free loans to cover deposits, so more people can get mortgages, is the wrong choice by the Chancellor for the country’s economy. As the National Housing Federation said yesterday (20th March), investing £3.5 billion this will cost in cheap housing could deliver up to 175,000 homes. Private sector completions have stayed fairly consistent over a… Continue reading BUILD MORE HOMES, DON’T GIVE MORE TO THE BANKS

Events over recent years have shown the devastating effect companies can have in their single-minded pursuit of profit. Over 1,000 workers dying in a Bangladesh building unfit for factory use is a stark example. Others are are huge supermarkets squeezing out competition and forcing suppliers to cut costs at risk to human health and animal… Continue reading Corporate Responsibility Should Be A Corporate Duty