I hear plenty of people tearing strips off the NHS. Yes, it has its flaws. It’s overstretched, underfunded, and sometimes feels like it runs on goodwill and duct tape—but here’s the truth. My recent experience was brilliant.
It all started in spring when I went deaf in my left ear. Like any self-respecting British man in denial of mortality, I panicked. Convinced it was a an electrical fault in my head or a brain spider, I booked an ...
An Unexpected Tearjerker
When Chloe Kelly smashed in her penalty on Sunday night, I felt that now-familiar surge of emotion. Bottom lip quivering, lump in the throat, the whole works. I don’t know why this keeps happening in my latter middle age. Maybe it’s hormones. Or maybe it’s the same reason I get choked up when someone fixes a dusty old jukebox on The Repair Shop or when the movie ‘Up’ comes on at Christmas. There’s ...
There are few things more depressing than watching a Simon Reeve documentary with the dawning realisation that your country has been run like a car boot sale by people who think “long-term strategy” means making it to Friday without a scandal. His recent journey through Norway was one of those eye-popping, blood-boiling spectacles that leaves you shouting at the telly, then Googling ‘Norway Wealth’ just to confirm he’s not lying.
A ...
After 13 years steering the good ship Oakley Cricket Club, I’ve decided that this season will be my last as Chairman. It’s not a decision I’ve taken lightly, but it is one I’ve reached with peace, perspective—and, inevitably, a hint of sentimental wobbling of the bottom lip.
So why do we do it? Why do otherwise sane people give up their evenings and weekends to run grassroots clubs, often armed only with wit and an ability to ...
Nothing says “we mean business” like a government press release dripping with righteous fury at water companies… followed immediately by doing absolutely nothing to change the rotten system they helped create.
Ministers are once again donning their hi-vis vests of performative outrage, promising fines, accountability, and tough talk about “cracking down” on those naughty water firms who—oopsie!—keep pumping raw sewage into our ...
