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The Depressed Men of Status Symbol Land
When it became apparent last week that former footballer, PFA chairman and TV pundit, Clark Carlisle, had stepped out front of a lorry in a suicide attempt, it came as little surprise because rumours had been circulating about his mental health for some time. What I found more startling is that the biggest killer in men under 50, is suicide. There were over 4,000 suicides last year, outdoing cancer, coronary disease and accidents on the ...
Employment Rights and the Abuse of Small Employers
Being someone with self-confessed socialist values, I have always supported employment rights of the worker against overzealous paymasters and there was without doubt, a time in the days of heavy industrial output, when workers required protection with regards to working conditions, pay and sickness in particular. However, times have changed and a good 50 per cent (perhaps more than that) of my peers have, because of major changes in the ...
War Porn and the Magna Carta
What a crazy few weeks it has been on the the television, with programmes featuring all the glory of war, the holocaust, Churchill and the Magna Carta. As interesting as they are, I often find that these programmes about modern history seem to have a somewhat elitist bias to them, possibly because the majority of the arts and media industry is dominated by the offspring of the ruling classes. Churchill for instance, has been documented as ...
Ched Evans, the Paris Massacre and Freedom of Expression
What a chilling week it has been for democracy, independent thought and freedom of speech, with the tacky tale of a footballer not going away as the horrendous events in Paris continue to unfold. Because the whole seedy affair surrounding footballer and convicted rapist, Ched Evans, rolled on and on, I finally, after being persuaded by a solicitor friend, took some time out to read the details of the events of an evening that changed his life ...
Katie Hopkins, Charlie Brooker and Establishment Cover Up’s
After what seems to have been a never ending Christmas, many of us are returning to normality for the first time since the 19th December last year. When I say normality, I am increasingly aware that in Britain there is no such thing as normality after the consumer obscenity of Black Friday and the media demand for drunken violence on Mad Friday. We now (today) have what salivating solicitors are describing as Divorce Monday, which, I ...