Today, asylum seekers are in the Channel but it is a global crisis we need to weather November 26, 2021 In the space of six years, around 1,100 people died at sea on small boats, only slightly more seaworthy than those crossing the Channel. Then, they were making the perilous journey that stretches thousands of kilometres from Indonesia to Australia. In 2013, then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott, implemented a policy of turning back the boats and [...]
Generation Netflix: The weekly release could fall victim to our binge habit November 23, 2021 Much ado about, uh, something, stumbled one of Logan Roy’s goons as he tried to stall for time at the fictional shareholder meeting that would decide the fate of Waystay Royco. The machiavellian drama has been drip fed out to audiences like a doctor administering morphine really, really slowly. In contrast, the likes of Squid [...]
Channel migrant crisis and Priti Patel’s Australian obsession November 22, 2021 Last week, Priti Patel blamed freedom of movement within the European Union for the number of migrants crossing illegally into the UK from France. She was also careful to keep the French in her bad books, saying they were simply too under resourced to deal with the problem. The number of migrants making the perilous [...]
PMQs: Keir Starmer finally gets his leader’s feet under the table with Northern rail letdown and sleaze spat November 17, 2021 Keir Starmer has finally figured out he is, in fact, leader of the Labour party as he takes on Boris Johnson over rail let downs and sleaze allegations
Theresa May fluffs her feathers on the backbenches November 17, 2021 Theresa May, who has been considerably more interesting as a backbench MP than as the actual Prime Minister, was packed full of flak for Boris Johnson yesterday. The ex-PM defied the three-line whip dished out by Johnson over a motion to give disgraced former MP Owen Paterson a a break and rewrite rules on Westminster [...]
Take a break from the social media wormhole – if they let you November 12, 2021 Adam Mosseri really cares about you. He’s “personally very excited” for a new Instagram “tool” which encourages you to “take a break”. Mosseri, the head of the platform, wants you to be in the driver’s seat while you scroll through endless images designed to keep you hooked. The point of the new feature is to [...]
Opinion-in-brief: a big day for Google’s lawyers November 11, 2021 Yesterday, Google both won, and lost. The tech giant avoided a £3.2bn claim over alleged unlawful tracking and selling of users’ data. In another breath, the EU courts rejected an appeal to overturn a €2.8bn fine. In cash terms, let’s call it even. An important door was left open in the UK case. The Court [...]
Forget second jobs, ministers should do start with the grunt work of their first ones November 9, 2021 In a storm of sleaze allegations, it was an unfortunate day for Sir Geoffrey Cox to publish details of his £400,000 a year job at Withers LLP. For the pleasure of being paid almost half a million pounds, he offers “international legal services”. Sir Geoffrey, is, after all, a QC. To borrow a lawyer’s phrase, [...]
A fallen tree on a railway scuppered Cop26 travel plans – and that was the high point November 2, 2021 Cop26, billed as our last chance to save humanity, went very well. Within hours of wandering into the summit, borrowing a phrase from Greta Thunberg, comparing himself to James Bond, and reminding cows, once again, that they really shouldn’t burp, Boris Johnson saved the world, repaired tense relations with Europe, put the French and the [...]
Sally Rooney, Billie Eilish and George Eliot: Can we ever divorce the art from the artist? October 13, 2021 PUBLISHING a book is the ultimate act of surrender for a profession as dedicated to control as writers. Once a book is in a reader’s hands, you have relinquished your ability to shape what they think of it, how they connect with the characters, or how lost they become in a story. So too with [...]
