Why do men feel so unloved?

A Facebook post caught my eye today: a young man complained that women, children and pets are unconditionally loved. Men, he lamented, are not.

I am not sure what in this person’s life prompted such a comment, but it got me thinking why someone would feel this way.

Album review: McCartney III, by Paul McCartney

A slightly different blogpost today: an album review, made at the request of my cousin Mike.

The lesson of this Covid Christmas farce is that sometimes rules have to write themselves

Who needs a pantomime this year! The public brouhaha over Covid Christmas rules; the ‘will they, won’t they’ and the constant cries of “they’re cancelling Christmas” have provided  quite enough theatrics for anyone.

Covid hysteria has sentenced us to psychological ruin – we must break free of its chains!

     

“Since we marched obediently into captivity last spring, we have turned servile. Look at us now, arguing about whether we should be in one tier of absurd limits on our lives, or another.”

Madness this week: vaccine Fascism, trouble in America and the victim princess

The insanity of the week commencing 9 November 2020.

Madness this week: Keir and Covid, sex bans, Phillip Schofield and Laurence Fox

    The insanity of the week commencing 12 October 2020.

Experts shouldn't be telling us how to run society – we need to use them more wisely

Let’s get one thing clear, I’m not an expert, thank God! That isn’t to say I’m particularly pleased not to be what traditionally passed for an expert – someone considered to be among the most knowledgeable on a subject.   I’m glad not to be a modern-day expert, namely someone who can apparently pronounce on new, evolving and unpredictable situations with such apparent precision that they can be deferred to as prophets of our times.

That’s exactly what the supposedly expert merchants of Covid doom do.

I'm too distressed to wear a mask because every argument for doing so is absolutely terrible!

There is one particular exemption to mandatory face nappies that is as wide-ranging as you want to make it. That is that the wearing of masks causes one severe distress. As a society, we could effectively end the compulsory muzzling tomorrow, before it is even extended to all indoor spaces.

It's an awkward truth, but white people are doing best out of the fight against white privilege

The increasingly bitter racial tensions of our times exploded again at the beginning of the week, when the BBC thought it wise to give a platform to 2 idiotic white women to pontificate on how other white women could not be ‘karens.’

The Thursday clap-tacular must now be put out of its misery!

Who is going to be the one to bring the peculiar spectacle of clapping at the sky every Thursday at 8 pm. To an end? Whoever they are, I sincerely hope they hurry up.

The elusory world of absolute safety is a bigger nightmare than the pandemic

    

Every day when you open your eyes first thing in the morning, no longer certain if it’s Saturday or Wednesday as every day under suffocating oppression feels much the same, take a moment to think about the Britain you are living in

Keep smiling – lockdown luvvies are there to give us a good laugh

Whenever one is prone to despair at the latest manifestation of the utter stupidity of one’s fellow man, it’s always worth taking a good look at who is most enthusiastic about it. It will inevitably give you something to smile about even through your cloud of misanthropy.

Transgender parents have no entitlement to rewrite their children's truth

“Once upon a time there was a Mummy who became a Daddy!”

Go figure how you would explain the rest of this story to kids.

Many of our elderly will forgo an excess of compassion for Bingo and book club.

IF there’s one thing that has always struck me about old people, it is how sanguine they are about their own mortality.

The case for lockdown falls apart more each day, but our leaders are in too deep to dig us out

Despite tragic mortality figures, Spain and Italy have not resisted the most gradual and tentative of easing in their national lockdowns. Yet the UK government continues to insist that the subject cannot even be discussed yet, apparently awaiting the passing of some kind of Coronavirus peak that will come and go at some point unknown.

Easter Reflection: the metaphor of light

Written for LinkedIn: view the original here.

 If these were ordinary times, tonight for many Christians would be the Easter vigil service. This takes place between sunset and sunrise the next day, and is the service of anticipation of the resurrection of Christ.

Lockdown is poorly justified, unsustainable and an assault too far on civil liberties

A prime minister in intensive care, and 6,159 people dead! Coronavirus looks serious – and it is, no question.

People are afraid and a country is hurting. Every day we await with sad resignation the latest death figures, now read out and poured over like some macabre cricket score card: 786 all out yesterday.

Adding Pronouns In Communication: what it is and why I don't do it

    

Written for LinkedIn: view the original here.

 The trend of adding preferred pronouns to one’s name in communications seems to be growing. At the moment, it hasn’t exploded, so you may well not know what on earth I’m talking about. But don’t be surprised if you come across it eventually. Perhaps a LinkedIn connection will have done it, or you’ll spot it in an email signature. Mine would be Aidan Kiely (he/his/him).

5 reasons why managers dislike staff working from home – and how to get over them

Written for LinkedIn: view the original here.

 As Coronavirus planning invariably ramps up across the business landscape, we will hear a lot about allowing staff to work from home. This is a topic that in my experience, divides opinion with as much ferocity as the scone/scon debate, or cream versus jam first.

Why I haven't written about politics for a while

If there is such thing as a seasoned reader to my blog, they will have noticed that I haven’t written about politics for a long time.

The office characters we all know and love – which are you?

Written for LinkedIn: view the original here.

 I’ve met quite a few people in my life who tell me with unshakable conviction that “I could never work in an office!” Why ever not? I find myself wondering.

Interview Survival Guide: top tips for introverts

Written for LinkedIn: view the original here.

 Interviews might look at first glance like a bit of a nightmare for introverts.

Poem: To Simba with love

To Simba with love.

So many years it’s been since you stole my heart,

Picked us, your chosen, your set apart,

The ones in whom you placed your hope,

For a brighter brand-new start.

Interview Survival Guide: top tips for extroverts

Written for LinkedIn: view the original here.

You might think that an extrovert would feel a lot more at home in an interview setting. The caricature of the sociable, talkative soul who is energised and enthused by interaction with others, might at first seem the perfect fit in a situation where, as we are constantly reminded, you have to sell yourself. But not so fast!

Attacking our top universities for being elitist solves absolutely nothing

I do not usually speak or write about my days as a student at Cambridge university. For one thing, it all feels like a lifetime ago.

For another, I’m not likely to be the one who brings it up in conversation. People’s reactions to it make me feel awkward.

But there is a third reason: attendance at a top university is, perversely, becoming an increasingly maligned achievement, with the fine universities of Oxford and Cambridge, together with London’s finest universities and a handful of other Russell Group names frequently being blasted for elitism. Oxbridge gets it worst of all.

Your 1950s housewife will not thank you for her hash tag

BBC News today featured a short film about the #TradWives movement: ‘Submitting to my husband like it's 1959': Why I became a #TradWife.’

The film features an extraordinarily tedious woman named Alena Kate Pettitt, who crows dreamily on about her life as a housewife, looking back with nostalgic fondness to a traditional England that once was, and explaining how, having grown up with a single mother herself, she rebelled and wanted a man to take care of her and to live as a housewife.