I went to the Wellcome Collection’s exhibition of London skeletons, mostly found during rebuilding and renovation works, on Euston Road. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s a rather sobering experience. Nearly two thousand years of life and death in the capital are displayed, from the probably overweight, bon-vivant William Wood (84) to an unborn child, its bones still [...]

Chris ‘Stumbling and Mumbling’ Dillow asks five questions. Here are my answers; number two is the best. I’ve put Chris’s questions in italics.
1. The government wants children to learn about the slave trade. But in 18th century England, how much different were the living conditions of the average slave from those of the average unskilled [...]

One of Nadine Dorries’ most frequent lines in the debate around abortion has been that all religious people oppose abortion. This is clearly nonsense. The existence of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice gives the lie to that. It might just be possible to argue that the overwhelming preponderance of religious opinion is absolutely opposed [...]

Luke Akehurst has tagged me in the ‘what were you doing when you heard about…’ meme. Here we go…
Princess Diana’s death – 31st August 1997
Summer holidays, waiting to go back to school. Dad woke me up and we watched things unfold on the television.

Margaret Thatcher’s Resignation – 22nd November 1990
I would have been at school. [...]

Everyone has been talking about how wonderful the Beijing Olympics, particularly the opening ceremonies, were. The implication is that London won’t do as well. Jacques Rogge has been fulsome – excessively, perhaps – in the achievements of China for the games.
Given the difference in spending and the facility with which the Chinese Communist Party ignores [...]

The Government has responded on its new Number Ten website to the petition for locally employed Iraqis. It reads:
Thank you for your e-petition requesting that Locally Engaged (LE) staff in Iraq should be offered asylum in the UK.
In a written parliamentary Statement on 9 October 2007 , the Foreign Secretary acknowledged that LE Iraqi staff [...]

China is on the up.
All, however, is not rosy. China faces a few problems; these are my impressions.
Tibet and Xinjiang both have groups that seek more autonomy or even independence. They are in the interior of the Asian continent and a long way from the rich cities of the coast. With disparate geography, I do [...]

London needs greater media diversity.
I’m going to explain the situation, why it’s bad and then propose a solution.
The Evening Standard has something close to a monopolistic position on London news. It is, as we know, the only paid-for London newspaper. Metro, London Lite and thelondonpaper are meant to be read on the way to or [...]

I wrote on the first of April of this year about provisions in the Counter-Terrorism Bill for restricting the openness of inquests. It seems that it wasn’t just me who was concerned about some of the proposals; the Guardian reports that section 64 is under fire1:
A cross-party committee of peers, including a former lord chief [...]

From the Guardian:
The French anti-immigrant party, the National Front – campaign slogan: Keep France for the French – is selling its prestigious Paris headquarters to a Chinese university, it was reported today.

xD.