Westminster Skeptics, convened by media lawyer and journalist David Allen Green, is one of the best places to go and hear interesting talks. I’ve been going for a couple of years now. Recently I’ve seen Juliet Jacques talk about transgender issues and the media, and Paul Lewis talking about the riots. Longer ago, I saw… [Read more…]
September 9, 2011
Here I am again in the Pod Delusion, episode 101. This time I’m talking about abortion in the light of the failed Dorries amendments. The excellent Pod Delusion is celebrating its second anniversary next week.
August 9, 2011
I was very fortunate, last night, not to be living near any shops. The rioters got to within a few hundred yards of me but no nearer. After five hours on Twitter, watching buildings being burned to the ground on the news, I was starting to wonder where the army were. Eventually I dragged myself… [Read more…]
July 25, 2011
I was very sad but not surprised to hear about the death of Amy Winehouse at 27. Whatever the circumstances this week, it’s fair to say she probably spent too much of her life surrounded by god-awful yes-people and hangers on bearing as many courtesy wraps and pills as they could carry. If I was… [Read more…]
June 11, 2011
On Thursday I went up to Manchester to talk to Manchester Skeptics about addiction. On the way, I experienced a dreaded awful Pendolino train which was a sort of vomitorium. (See what I did there? Yes, I know.) Luckily, the most excellent Danny from Newcastle Skeptics came and met me for tea when I finally… [Read more…]
April 30, 2011
I’m ba-ack! Drowned out a little by a certain wedding, here’s the latest Pod delusion, including my piece on censorship of internet comments. I find myself increasingly nauseated by the wretched snark and spite you sometimes find on the lower half of the internet, especially, sadly, in the Guardian comments section. But what to do?… [Read more…]
January 9, 2011
I’ve been meaning to blog about the professionally outraged for a while now. With great regularity, a social issue with strong opinions on either side will raise its head in the media, and the whole world goes berserk. Well, for ‘whole world’ read people in the media who follow each other on Twitter. I am… [Read more…]
October 23, 2010
Now that we all have the word ‘recession’ firmly branded in our brains, is there any more to say about the difficult situation faced by authors these days? Does anyone really need another writer’s opinion on the world of book publishing today? Well, stuff it – here’s mine anyway. To those interested, it may serve… [Read more…]
September 9, 2010
Now then, no laughing or fnarring. This is a serious matter. I’ve been putting together a sequel to The Prostitution Conversation – Part One, but I keep finding myself hitting a wall. As I wandered down the alleys of sexuality, male and female, paid and unpaid, I scribbled a few things down (I tend to… [Read more…]
July 23, 2010
This week’s Pod Delusion has a fine range of topics. This time I’m talking about Alcoholics Anonymous, as it’s their 75th anniversary this year. Among other things, I discuss the Higher Power and woo, some of the pros and cons, and why it works really well for some people, but not as many as everyone… [Read more…]
January 11, 2012
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