A step in the right direction

I'm delighted we're finally going to see the introduction of a 5p charge on plastic bags. Whether it's enough to deter the laziest of litter louts remains to be seen, but hopefully it will eliminate the issuing of bags for the most minor items and spur many into re-using bags that needn't be disposed of after one use. Most importantly, we'll be sending fewer to landfill where estimates range from 500 to 1,000 years for them to degrade.


nick

Justice....eventually

There can't be many bigger chasms in law than the difference between one judge deciding imprisonment is an appropriate punishment and the appeal court deciding that it is not, particularly for the woman concerned and for her family.

She was poorly served by British justice for 18 days, she has much to feel aggrieved about. I really hope she can come to terms with the whole nightmare quickly and get on with her life.


nick

We deserve better than their contempt

David Cameron must wake with a shudder every day, worrying who amongst his ranks has dropped the daily gaffe. New Tory peers or old Tory peers, even Welsh Councillors are in on the act to offend the very people they profess to serve. There again Mr Cameron finds it easy to offend those who purportedly are his colleagues.

The truth is they simply aren't fit to govern. The country deserves better than this and the sooner the rickety old coalition falls apart the better.


nick

White Ribbon Day

While some men are part of the problem, all men can be part of the solution!

I'm delighted to be part of a team that will be out selling White Ribbons, but you can help online too, by making a pledge to never commit, condone, or remain silent about men's violence against women in all its forms.


nick

The tip of the iceberg

Is anybody seriously surprised by this story and Lord Young's attitude to those worse off than him? Nothing has or ever will change in the Tory psyche when it comes to those who live on what they perceive to be the grubbier side of the tracks. Every single day that passes where Clegg, Cable and all the other sycophantic Liberals allow this debacle of a government to exist, heaps more irreversible shame on them!


nick

Jennifer Jackson

I am deeply saddened by the passing of my friend and fellow AVOW trustee Jennifer Jackson. Jenny had a wicked sense of humour and I will fondly remember the cheeky laugh that went with it.


nick

On Passing the New Menin Gate

On Passing the New Menin Gate by Siegfried Sassoon

Who will remember, passing through this Gate,
The unheroic Dead who fed the guns?
Who shall absolve the foulness of their fate, -
Those doomed, conscripted, unvictorious ones?
Crudely renewed, the Salient holds its own.
Paid are its dim defenders by this pomp;
Paid, with a pile of peace-complacent stone,
The armies who endured that sullen swamp.

Here was the world's worst wound. And here with pride
'Their name liveth for evermore' the Gateway claims.
Was ever an immolation so belied
As these intolerably nameless names?
Well might the Dead who struggled in the slime
Rise and deride this sepulchre of crime.


nick

What did they expect?

It's very sad to see young people being reduced to this. Don't the LibDem MPs who signed the NUS pledge realise what they've done to the future hopes of so many young people?


nick

I never thought I'd say this!

I'm not sure that it's all down to cost as the cause of 20,000 empty seats at Saturday's game against Australia.

When I was younger, visits to these shores by Australia, the All Blacks and Springboks were on a regular cycle, but there were long periods of time between each visit. Autumn internationals on an annual basis make those visits far less special, in fact they make it easier to see Australia at the Millennium stadium than England or Scotland who visit every two years. Add that factor to Sky's coverage of Tri-Nations rugby and the aura and mystique of southern hemisphere teams is eroded by familiarity. A few weeks ago my sister in law sent me a text from Ellis Park saying she was at the Lions game. I replied saying I was watching it on Sky and whereabouts were they sitting! Moving rugby into the full spotlight of televised sport has not been 100% beneficial for the health of the game.


nick

Hypocrite

What's a pledge worth alongside a ministerial car & chauffeur and all the trappings of imagined power?


nick