Sparring Partners by Trevor Plumbly
It’s that time again. You know, when all those government paid statisticians release their findings on what improved and what didn’t in the past year. It’s always seemed to me to represent a lot of effort for very little direct good. Ministers either crow about the results or promise that the problem will be addressed, but of course political survival demands that bad bits have as short a shelf life as possible, so the placebos are doled out to us and life goes on as usual. Don’t get me wrong, I love… Read More
Mean People by Angela Caldin
A Mean Question One of my little granddaughters asked me the other day, ‘Why are there mean people in the world?’ I found myself stumped as to how to answer this challenging question, going as it does to the core of the human condition. Flashbacks to lectures on nature and nurture when studying Shakespeare came into my mind but my recollection was hazy and I doubt whether it would help a five year old even if it was clearer. In the end I settled for saying that we are all a mixture… Read More
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