The clue is in the name. Football is about manoeuvring a ball with one's feet. Some are good at it and others are not. The range of skill is great, from very good to mediocre and even bad and very bad. The footworking skill of good footballers is being spoiled by the armwrestling tactics of …
Category: Campaigning
A disgrace to football
It is a disgrace to football to witness the number of teams in the Russian World Cup 2018 who physically wrestled Harry Kane to the ground to prevent his reaching the ball in the penalty area, even in front of the referee in England's win against Colombia last night. This is not football, far less …
Dishonest dialogue
Everyone forms their own opinions but most are very poor at defending them. They assert their opinions but if debate becomes too awkward for them, they simply walk away. They do not want to change their opinions nor to have them exposed, even to themselves. This is because they do not engage in honest dialogue. …
Unbelief and victim abuse
Victim abuse occurs when a victim's account of their abuse is not believed. It has surfaced in recent times because historically rape victims were not believed. It is slowly being applied to domestic abuse where abused persons have been forced to leave their domestic home because they are not believed to be victims. However, it …
Taking complaints seriously
Too late, Jeremy Corbyn is discovering the effects of not taking seriously the complaints about antisemitism in the Labour Party. He is now on the back foot and trying to salvage the situation with as much damage limitation as he can muster. Russia and Vladimir Putin are discovering the same. After thinking they could ignore …
Built-in obsolence
Not enough consumers know about built-in obsolescence, which would inform their shopping habits. Built-in obsolescence is the deliberate limiting and shortening the useful life of products. The latest example is Apple's confirmation that it deliberately slows down some models of its iPhone as they age. It explains and justifies doing so in order to match …
Jobs for the boys
You may have noticed that many of those who retire or move on from public service jobs are able to pick up plum jobs in the private sector or a government quango. Their experience in one job qualifies them for the next job. However, this experience can include manifest failures to the detriment of the …
Silencing mobile phones
Most people experience mobile phones ringing at inappropriate moments and the embarrassing scramble to discover if it is mine or someone else's phone. So the ability to swiftly and totally silence my Moto G5 Plus for two or whatever hours before going into a meeting is very welcome. What is not so welcome is the …
Revisiting the 1967 Abortion Act
The 50th anniversary of the 1967 Abortion Act made the BBC revisit the debate about abortion in The Moral Maze. Confusion, obfuscation and biblical illiteracy are still the order of the day. The debate proceeded along the usual lines to little effect, so it is worth recording here a list of the topics which are …
Do PDFs save paper?
PDF files are excellent, but do they save paper? How many emails do you receive that ask you to consider whether you need to print it out? Our environmentally conscious age is trying to save paper. PDFs are excellent as one can highlight them, annotate them, remove the annotation, change them, add to them, etc. …
