Caught the end of Newsnight last night and the piece they were doing on whether the success of women at the Olympics (this Olympics has been all about the women in my opinion) and the wall to wall coverage of women athletes on the TV, will actually translate into greater exposure for them *after* the Olympics and improve equality of access, ( Read more... )

I've been glued to the TV all week but it took 'til today for the tears to start. Anna Watkins went to high school with my little sister and I remember her as cheery 15 year old, enthusing about my Mum's green mini. It was a real privilege to watch her win a gold medal. There are some jolly proud folks in a sleepy little Staffordshire village today

I'm really sorry the poor man is dead but am I the only person around here who has never owned an Apple product?? Or indeed, a cheaper copy of something first devised by Apple?

*Saturday started off very badly, when I woke up to Tony Blair being interviewed on the Today programme and wanted to stab his eyes out after about 2 minutes. I then spent the rest of the weekend avoiding all news and coverage of the 9/11 memorials like the plague, which did wonders for my sanity ( Read more... )

I think I'm more depressed by the people calling the rioters animals and advocating sending the army in to shoot them than I am by the wanton destruction and violence (not that I'm not appalled at people losing their homes and livelihoods you understand, but as this article points out, most of the culprits are thoroughly dispossessed and condemming ( Read more... )

So there was a wedding on Friday; rather nice, liked the dress which was nicely understated and more about the shape than the decoration which is just my taste (although I wasn't the biggest fan of the neckline), and the trees, and enjoyed critiquing the hats and frocks on twitter. Rather a lot of fuss for my tastes but there were no street parties ( Read more... )

So the Lockerbie bomber is being released on compassionate grounds so he can die at home with his family. This will no doubt cause considerable consternation to some, such as Hilary Clinton, while others doubt he was ever guilty in the first placeI don't know whether he was responsible for all those deaths or not, what I do know is that compassion ( Read more... )

BBrrrr! It's amazing how a few days in a milder area makes you feel the cold back in the Frozen North, although it's probably as much because I'm tired as anything, straight to bed after BSG tonight! And a nice cuppa and chocolate in the meantime ( Read more... )

I grew up in Leek, a sleepy market town in North Staffordshire, where, I kid you not, a little girl losing her teddy bear once made the front page of the local weekly newspaper. Not today. Today, it's the first headline on the national news, because a house has exploded in Cheddleton, the village just outside the town, killing a man and three ( Read more... )

When I'm agreeing with something coming out of the mouth of the Tory leader ( Read more... )