Roman Abramovich Roman Abramovich, erstwhile and longterm owner of Chelsea Football Club, was among the seven Russian oligarchs sanctioned this week by the U.K. government.  He has been part of the fabric of our football scene since 2003, almost twenty years.  But he has also been a close friend of Vladimir Putin (although he has […]

Categories: News · Sport

Invasion of Ukraine Added to the pandemic, and climate change, the world has a new threat: that of war between Russia and the Ukraine.  Wary of involvement after what transpired from the Iraq War, Syria and Afghanistan, NATO is trying to support Ukraine by other means than military forces.  Rhetoric has been ramped up against […]

Categories: News · Peacemakers

Boris, again It has been an unprecedented week for resignations and votes of no confidence in Boris Johnson, after weeks of scandal over parties held at Downing Street while the rest of the country observed his rules.  Will he stay or will he go?  If so, when?  Ian Blackford of the SNP was asked to […]

Categories: News

Review of the Year 2021 It’s that time again…Time for the Review of the Year!   Year two of the pandemic, we would hope the last.   Containing selections from the blogs, as usual… January 10th: Gerry Marsden (1942 – 2021) Singer Gerry Marsden, frontman for Gerry and the Pacemakers, died last week.  He and his band […]

Categories: News

Allegra Stratton – Part 2 I first wrote about Allegra Stratton a year ago, when she was appointed press secretary for 10 Downing Street.  I think her role has been fairly low key, nothing like that of C.J., the White House Press Secretary in “The West Wing”.  Her role this week was as fall guy […]

Categories: News

COP 26 The 26th U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow starts today, and lasts twelve days.  It is the last chance for the world’s nations (around 125 are involved) to commit to keeping warming from carbon emissions below 1.5 degrees C.  There is not a nation that won’t be affected by increased global warming, some […]

Categories: News

Alec Baldwin The actor Alec Baldwin found himself at the centre of a gun-related tragedy this week, at the time of the Mars-Pluto square.  The cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the film Rust died, and the co-director Joel Souza was injured. This haunting event has been described as “unfathomable” – it was an accident, but highlights […]

Categories: Celebrities · Film · News

William Shatner “I’ve heard about space for a long time now. I’m taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle,” ~ William Shatner At 90 years of age, William Shatner, aka Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise, travelled to the edge of space on Wednesday this week, in an example […]

Categories: Celebrities · News

Cressida Dick The currently serving Commissioner for the Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, has again come under pressure to resign following this week’s sentencing of ex-policeman Wayne Couzens, who murdered Sarah Everard on 3rd March.  Sarah’s murder is a watershed in so many ways, highlighting violence against women, and mistrust of the police, misogyny in the […]

Categories: News

Afghanistan Book Review: “The Places In Between” by Rory Stewart (pub: 2004 Picador) The horrific scenes this week of people trying to flee Afghanistan at Kabul airport, people being crushed, women throwing their babies over barbed wire fences supposedly to safety, has shown us this week how absolute is the plight of the Afghan people, […]

Categories: Book Review · News