The NHS is pretty much constantly in the news these days. Having been tested to its limits and beyond during the pandemic, it now looks like being on the verge of collapse. This is illustrated by the fact that the Royal College of Nursing is balloting all of its UK members for strike action for the first time in its…

The car park at St Joseph’s used to be quite a dark place at night. To make it better lit, a company was asked to survey the location, propose a solution, and give us a quotation. The latter almost made me faint on receipt. The proposal to put some lights around the car park would be staggeringly costly. Then, one…

At the end of April this year a group of prominent German intellectuals published a public letter urging the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, to refrain from directly or indirectly contributing heavy weapons systems to Ukraine in its defence against the Russian invasion. A German governmental minister scathingly summarised the letter: “It’s basically that a little bit of occupation, rape and…

If you have followed the traditional mass media for the last ten days or so you’d be forgiven for believing that the world had stopped with the death of Queen Elizabeth and that nothing else was happening. Although the passing of the longest-reigning monarch was arguably a huge event of historical and cultural significance, the world keeps turning and people…

There’s one aspect of holidays at my mum’s that taints the experience a little; one that never fails to frustrate and irritate me a tiny bit. Wherever we go together she introduces me to her acquaintances and friends that we come across; in her small town that’s effectively every other person. That makes a walk more like driving in a…