Imagine you’re a microscopic insect who has crawled through the hole in the middle of an old vinyl record. You look around, get your bearings but all you can see is a vast open space that stretches out to the horizon in all directions. There’s nothing in the foreground, apart from irregular grooves that all look the same, and as you start exploring you find yourself doing something you never normally do: watching the horizon. (more…)
Camping is a paradox. On the one hand it’s really simple — you sleep outside — but on the other hand it’s really complicated: before you set off you must check you have a suitable tent (is it waterproof? do you have the poles and pegs?); do you have the right sleeping bag and mat? What about cooking gear, food and water? How many clothes, books, torches and other stuff do I need? Where am I going? Can I pitch a tent there? How am I going to get there? Can I carry that heavy rucksack? And when you’re organising gear for other people it gets much, much more complicated — especially when one of them says “I don’t like camping”. (more…)
A newspaper is like a puzzle. Journalists write material that fits the exact requirement of particular pages – news, sports, health, arts, business. Like every puzzle, the structure of a newspaper is clear and logical when you understand it. Newspapers are predictable; readers know they can turn to the back page for sports news and page three of some publications for a topless teenager.
When a newspaper has a great story they will break their own format and spread the news over many pages. This is rare but it happened twice in the last week: the Guardian’s Monday April fourth edition dedicated their first 7 pages to the “Panama Papers” – a story which they broke in the UK and is having a global impact.
A day earlier, on Sunday April third, the Mail on Sunday (MOS) did something similar. They dedicated 11 pages, including the front page, to a scandal of their own making about Britain’s “£12 billion foreign aid madness.” (more…)
When I was a kid I used to mock the names of the great French authors Gustave Flaubert and Honoré de Balzac. I used to pronounce Flaubert as “Flow Bert” and Balzac as “Balls Ache.” I thought this was really funny and, needless to say, didn’t read any of their books. (more…)
Dear Asylum seekers,
First of all, welcome to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – the cumbersome name of my home country, a name that not many of my fellow Brits actually know. We tend to call ourselves English, Scots, Northern Irish or Welsh.
I don’t know your personal story, ethnicity, religion, or if you had a traumatic journey here but I’m glad you came and I’m sure many Brits would agree with me. Not only are we sympathetic to your plight (escaping terror and poverty at home) but we need you. (more…)