Northern Soul – The Movie

Posted on October 21, 2014

When I received a Facebook message from my friend Jenny Syrad asking what the film, 'Northern Soul' was like, I didn't really no know how to respond. You see if I had responded "not bad" or "pretty good" the assumption would have been that the film was a load of crap. This is because we have got used to saying everything we like is "awesome" or "spectacular" on social networks pages. "Very good" and "not bad" are now pretty much obsolete on ...

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The Hidden Story of Loneliness

Posted on October 18, 2014

When you look on the news or social media these days, it appears that something has to be either "awesome" or "catastrophic" with precious little time for issues that are far more dangerous but sadly, far less interesting to the masses who are addicted to impending bogus weather events featured in The Daily Express, reality TV and the outbreaks of Sci-Fi like viruses such as Ebola. A recent Gallup Poll has suggested that out of one thousand ...

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The Conservative Cotswolds

Posted on October 14, 2014

My latest weekend break out and about the great British countryside took us on a trip to the rolling hills of the Cotswolds taking in a visit to the chocolate box towns of Woodstock, Chipping Norton, Moreton in the Marsh and  Bourton on the Water. The first thing I noticed about the Cotswolds is that every village has an obsession with Union Jack flags and I can't help but feel that there is a scent of polite racism hanging in the air that ...

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The Horrors of TTIP and Why Action is Needed!

Posted on October 10, 2014

A Facebook friend (Wendy Billingsley) sent me an article the other day which was, basically, a chilling insight to TTIP, an unelected trade body that makes George Orwell's '1984' look like the tale of a picnic by the trout stream on a warm summer meadow. TTIP stands for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnerships which undertake, what are, in effect, secretive trade negotiations between the European Union and the United States. TTIP ...

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The Terrible State of English Cricket!

Posted on October 9, 2014

When my oldest son and all his peers started playing cricket in early 2006, it came exclusively off the back of the thrilling 2005 Ashes victory against Australia's invincibles that included the likes of Ponting, McGrath and Warne. It was an absolutely thrilling series, resembling a three month penalty shoot-out where our children witnessed their fathers, grown men, pacing the room, hiding behind sofas and racing out to the garden punching ...

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