Reflection for New Year

So, once again, it’s New Year. This year, like many others, I found myself engaged in conversation with several people who shared equal bewilderment at what all the fuss was about. 2017, after all, won’t be a significant new year: no new decade, century or millennium is beginning.

I'm a thoroughly modern brand of old-fashioned

Originally written for, and published on Dear Cupid – the free advice site.

I was particularly amused by a recent comment about my views. I was described as living in “the 1950s,” which I found highly amusing. But when I’d had my chuckle, I got to thinking: what would it be like to be stuck in the 50s? How does the experience of my generation compare to that of my grandparents’? Have things got better or worse, easier or harder?

May's first appointments show she's a PM that means business

What a momentous day it must have been for Theresa May. Cool, calm and collected, she is said to have spent this very morning working on urgent papers at her Home Office desk, before the most significant event of her life – her appointment with the Queen, at which she replaced David Cameron as Prime Minister.
A somewhat mysterious figure, May’s comparatively low profile and close guarding of her privacy means that we don’t know much about this woman. What we do know, though, is that as Home Secretary, she has proved time and time again that she’s not to be messed with.

Labour must do better and Tories must think different

Local elections are a funny old business. The results, however the chips have fallen, tend to be viewed by almost everyone as proof that things aren’t that bad. Indeed, it always makes a nonsense of the journalistic proclivity to translate local results to general elections, even if said elections are 4 years away.

Letter on Good Friday: the limitless love of God

“After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfil the scripture), ‘I am thirsty.’ A Jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, ‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”
(John 19:28-30).

Dear Reader,
Good Friday is, undoubtedly, a difficult day. I have been moved to tears before on this day. It is difficult because we are forced to confront the hardest truth of our Christian faith.

It's about time politically-correct students just shut up

“Have you heard about this campaign for disabled students?” My friend’s question seemed fairly straightforward. Was it about financial support? Was it something national? Was it about highlighting the support needs of disabled students? “Which one would that be?”
It turned out to be none of these things.

Letter on Sunday: learning from an adulterous woman

This Sunday’s readings are:
Isaiah 43:16-21, Philippians 3:8-14, and the Gospel of John 8:1-11.

Dear Reader,
We all know the story in today's reading from John's gospel, of the woman caught committing adultery, in which Jesus invites whoever is without the first sin to cast the first stone, thereby setting the condemned woman free.

Why I'm not buying in to 'Brand Positivity'

What is Facebook’s most important question when hiring candidates? Here is the answer. The most important question is this: “On your very best day at work – the day you come home and think you have the best job in the world – what did you do that day?”
As million dollar questions go, you would be forgiven for hoping the sentence construction was a little more graceful, but the lack of elegance is far from the most sinister feature of such a question.

Cameron's phony EU battle is over; let the real battle commence

Another EU summit, another all-nighter, another pretend game of brinkmanship, but last night David Cameron emerged triumphant, proclaiming with confidence that he now believes he has secured the reforms required for him to be able to recommend our continued membership of the EU. And here it is, ladies and gentlemen – Britain’s new deal. It is the deal that, for David Cameron, apparently changes everything.

Question Time review: buffoonery and the demeaning of tragedy

One can only hope that last night’s Question Time did not reflect the extent of debating skills in this country. IF it did, and it wasn’t just a classic lefty hijacking (as all episodes lately seem to be), God help our politics.

Look beyond the whinging: we don't need straight civil partnerships

Civil partnerships for the heterosexual? I ask you! But yes, this couple with too much time on their hands are going to court to try and get one.

Britain can ban Donald Trump, but it can't ban the Trump effect

Is there anything more embarrassing than the British Parliament indulging the nonsensical idea of banning US presidential hopeful Donald Trump from entering the country because he said something we didn’t like about Muslims?

Why should we save the NHS?

I have written before about striking doctors, and exactly what I think of the action they have taken. Though strikes were delayed and now taking place over January and February, my point remains. Hence I am not going to write another fully-referenced article, spelling out again what you can read for yourself if you want.
Instead, I want to ask a question. I want to ask this: why should we save the NHS?

I'm quitting my recreational drug use, and hope new guidance can help others manage theirs

So, we’re going to get some new guidelines from Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer. Shock of all shocks, they're widely expected to tell us that drinking isn’t good for us. Well wouldn’t you know! Nearly every choice we make involves a degree of robbing Peter to give to Paul – ask any smoker who banged on the weight when they tried to quit, or anyone walking around puffing and spluttering like lung cancer on legs insisting that smoking calms and relaxes them.