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Impartiality, QT, and the BBC
I tend to play cricket on Thursday nights, so I don’t generally have the misfortune of stumbling upon BBC Question Time. Even without that, I have tended to avoid it after it turned into a bear pit last year when Diane Abbott was on the show. I am pretty much ambivalent when it comes to Diane Abbott. She is obviously a thousand times more intelligent than those who, without prompting, angrily request you don’t get them started on her. ...
The New Immigration Policy
The government have administered a populist masterstroke with the post Brexit immigration policy. They have focused most people (particularly Brexiteers) on the minimum 26k salary to avoid immigration of unskilled labour. However, they have done this whilst distracting people from a potential race to the bottom in the skilled sector. For all those who think EU immigration was too high, it is music to their ears; at least the ones who do not ...
Impulse Winning the Battle Against Logic
I was wondering the other day how it could be that populism is so successful right now? How is it that the world almost seems upside down and logic is defied by impulse? I am not an expert and even a psychologist that I do know, is baffled by what sometimes feels like a descent into madness. We are in a period where, whether you are in the workplace, or at the pub, if you put logic into an argument, you are the fool. Impulse Over Logic ...
The Gentlemen
We went to see ‘The Gentlemen’ last night. As you would expect with a Guy Richie film, it involved drugs, Britain’s underworld, and several easy to follow plotlines. Featuring a sophisticated, Oxford educated American drug lord (Mickey Pearson) an underhand Jewish businessman, Chinese wannabe drug lords, the chav MMA members of a boxing club run by a comically dodgy Irishman, and you can see where it is heading, However, the surprise ...
Johnson and his Fantasy Bridges!
In many ways, Boris Johnson’s childlike fascination with bridges is funny. However, when you begin to understand that he couldn’t even oversee the building of a bridge from London, to…erm…London, his latest fantasy project appears even more preposterous. It could still be regarded as funny if it didn’t cost anything to dream. However, the moment these projects start becoming open to being investigated, the public purse is opened ...