“We’re thinking of hosting a refugees from the Ukraine. Since insurers are not renowned for their humanitarian instincts, would premiums increase or would a new policy be required?”. This was the anxious query from an Observer reader based in Leicester to the newspaper’s consumer advice section on 20th March. The response was that, indeed, in […]
For a brief moment, it felt as if the good times were back. The day after it had ended, the Guardian’s fashion editor, Jess Cartner-Morley, hailed the latest LFW (18 -22 February) as having been “shiny and happy”, with sequins and satin symbolising the new mood of hope. For her, the “pop of champagne […]
Have you made any New Year resolutions yet? If yes, how long do you think you’ll keep to them? In an article for the Guardian on 5th January, the freelance journalist Ellie Hunt expressed her determination to complete the first draft of a novel – and then admitted that this is something she’s been trying […]
So was COP26 a success, a complete waste of time & effort, or somewhere in between? As the Sunday Times noted in an editorial on 14th November, everybody will have their own verdict. For that newspaper, although the two-week event (31st October -13th November) had been a “hard slog”, it nevertheless signalled that “change is […]
“He was the future once”. It was with these teasing words in the British Parliament on 7th December 2005 that the new conservative opposition leader, David Cameron, portrayed the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, as a politician whose best days were behind him. Blair nonetheless remained in 10 Downing Street until 27th June 2007 and […]
“There are boy jobs and girl jobs”. This was the opinion expressed by a British Prime Minister, not in the 17th or 18th century, but on BBC TV’s “The One Show” in May 2017 during an interview with the then PM, Theresa May and her husband Philip, who confirmed that he’s assigned the “traditional boy […]
What, if anything, do you have for breakfast? Perhaps a French-style croissant and cafe-au-lait, or an expresso and panino, like the Italians? Or possibly nothing at all. Research carried out in February 2020 by Curry PC World, cited by publicsectorcatering.co.uk, revealed that although 46% of the 2,003 people questioned across Britain still eat breakfast at […]
“It’s one of the greatest games ever invented”. When the Amerícan mystery-comedy author Louis Sachar made this remark, he wasn’t referring to football, rugby, tennis or any of the international sports with mass-media coverage. His passion is for bridge, which he admits to playing at least three or four times a week. This enthusiasm is […]
Have you any idea how many satellites are currently orbiting the world? You may think it’s at the most a couple of thousand. In fact, it’s considerably more than that. UNOOSA ( United Nations Office For Outer Space Affairs) has calculated that there are now more than 6,000 of them circulating above us, albeit only […]
“They’re a medical marvel which has saved more lives than any other human innovation apart from clean water”. This was the view expressed by the Guardian columnist Leo Cendrowicz on 24th February in his analysis of the reasons for the “vaccine hesitancy” currently evident across much of Europe. Instead of being shunned, he declared, “the […]