Memories of Princess Diana

Less than 24 hours after Diana, Princess of Wales, was killed in a car accident I flew to Canada for a well-earned two-week holiday.
I arrived in Toronto, picked up a hire car and spent a fortnight driving through Canada - I made my way from Toronto to Quebec City, stopping along the way at various points [...]

Yahoo, internet censorship, Chinese cyber police and the Olympics

The Chinese Government has announced plans to have two virtual police officers patrolling the internet.
It aims to crack down on users of sites promoting “illicit activities” and the animated officers, a man and a woman, will appear on screens every 30 minutes “to remind them of internet security”.
China censors all internet and media content and the virtual police [...]

Junk generation can’t even sleep properly

So are today’s youngsters the junk generation?
They’re apparently addicted to junk food and heading for a lifetime of obesity and health problems. They lap up junk TV and other forms of entertainment of dubious quality to such an extent that ignorance is not just bliss, it is a badge of honour.
Now we’re told that they [...]

Map of Birmingham’s talent

This is a fantastic idea, albeit inspired heavily by the equally excellent The Great Bear by Simon Patterson.
Jon Bounds - the man behind www.birminghamitsnotshit.co.uk - has come up with an alternative take on Patterson’s memorable work.
This one shows the wealth of talent that has come out of the West Midlands.
Good stuff. 

Is Cameron’s credibility sinking too fast?

Having apparently weathering a brief but powerful storm over his leadership qualities during the UK’s summer floods, David Cameron was probably hoping to make some significant headway during the current lull.
But he looks like he’s run aground again as he attempts to start hauling in Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s lead in the opinion polls.
The Conservative [...]

mydeathspace.com brings BMDs up to date

It is a logical extension of both the MySpace phenomenon and the local newspaper-style Births Marriages and Deaths section.
Yet the creator of mydeathspace.com has come in for criticism for accumulating obituaries on 3,000 MySpace members who have passed away since December 2005.
He denies accusations from some that he is exploiting the deaths of others or [...]

Katie Hopkins - saviour of family values

It had to happen. There is an inevitability that the biggest name from this year’s series of The Apprentice - even if it was for all the wrong reasons - should get yet more media exposure than she deserves.
I must admit, however, that I thought it would be ITV or Channel 5 that would give [...]

Call it a tenner…

Having delved into the wide, wide world of arts overs the years in various journalistic guises it always struck me that the more dynamic and innovative the organisation, the more conservative and unimaginative it tended to be on key issues such as generating income.
A new book addresses this, using that often heard phrase at the end of a [...]

The Vulcan’s unlikely return

Whoever it was within Conservative Party HQ that decided it would be a good idea to bring John Redwood out of the woods and into the limelight again cannot possibly think it is a vote-winner. Can they?
The one-time party bright youngish thing who first rose to political prominence as the Welsh Secretary everyone loved to poke fun at [...]

The boss is always right

The debate about whether school standards have dropped and pupils’ are suitably equipped and prepared for requirements of the workplace has raged for years.
Both sidess of the argument continually put up a multitude of reasons to back up their case, but very little headway is ever really made.
So perhaps we should be listening to those [...]