Boothill Foot-Tappers

Gather round boys and girls and let Uncle Dave tell you about the Boothill Foot Tappers. It’s the early 1980s and punk rock is pretty much dead. A number of bands are experimenting with combining the spirit and energy of punk with more traditional forms of music. The best-known example is probably the Pogues version… Continue reading Boothill Foot-Tappers

Review of 2010: Favourite Posts

Here’s my list of my own favourite posts from the blog this year. As in previous years I’ve tried to pick one from each month (but August is missing as I didn’t write a single entry all month). Andrew Wakefield The doctor who manufactured the MMR “controversy” was censured by the General Medical Council. I… Continue reading Review of 2010: Favourite Posts

Review of 2010: Most Popular Posts

As is becoming traditional, I’m going spend a couple of posts rounding up the last year on my blog. Today I’ll list the ten most read posts and tomorrow I’ll look at some of my favourites. Alice in Wonderland I really wasn’t very impressed with Tim Burton’s take on Alice in Wonderland. But I saw… Continue reading Review of 2010: Most Popular Posts

I Believe in Father Christmas

They said there’ll be snow at Christmas They said there’ll be peace on earth But instead it just kept on raining A veil of tears for the virgin’s birth I remember one Christmas morning A winters light and a distant choir And the peal of a bell and that Christmas tree smell And their eyes… Continue reading I Believe in Father Christmas

The War You Don’t See

If people really knew the truth the war would be stopped tomorrow. This quotation from David Lloyd George, talking about the First World War, opens John Pilger‘s new documentary, “The War You Don’t See”, and it immediately sets the historical context for Pilger’s main argument. War has, of course, always been terrible and governments have… Continue reading The War You Don’t See

Snow vs Global Warming

Every winter as the snow starts to fall we get some some climate change denier claiming that the existence of snow categorically disproves the existence of climate change. This weekend the race was won by Richard Littlejohn who added the following to the end of his column in the Mail on Sunday. It’s late November… Continue reading Snow vs Global Warming

Bread and Circuses

The country is broke, students are rioting and it’s about to start snowing. But that’s OK as a scion of our great and glorious ruling family has announced that he is getting married next year. And, to demonstrate their benevolence, our rulers have granted the lower orders an extra day off from our toil so… Continue reading Bread and Circuses