Uncategorized
Understanding The Dreaded Comma!
One of the hardest things I find when writing is how and when to use a comma. There are pretty much hard and fast rules when it comes to other forms of punctuation but the comma is unique, because it is open to debate when it should be used. When it first arrived in the English language (in the 18th century) the comma was supposed to signal a pause as well as separate phrases and clauses. However, the comma was almost too popular for ...
The Hidden Story of Loneliness
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 ...
The Conservative Cotswolds
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 ...
The Horrors of TTIP and Why Action is Needed!
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 ...
The Terrible State of English Cricket!
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 ...