I did not quite see Narnia the Welfare State born, but it looks as though I may see it die.
As a historian I can see that things do sometimes change in unpredictable ways and directions no-one had anticipated; but possibly I have the optimism of someone of that generation of my gender and class, for whom life was pretty much getting better as we ( Read more... )

The conference in Montreal in early June to which I submitted a paper proposal has accepted it!!! (now I have to write the damn thing.)
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The ongoing weirdness of Amazon recommendations. I marked Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage Volume 1 as 'owned' and have had a plethora of weird things come up on the list because I own it: none of them are ( Read more... )

It will not have escaped the vigilance of my dr rdrz that culinary posts have been thin on the ground of late weeks: Bank Holiday weekend en famille, conference, house-sitting/father-visiting from last Sunday to this.
Still, back whoam today - Had I But Known that the High Speed Train to St Pancras was not running today, necessitating taking the ( Read more... )

So, today my Aged Parent was moved from the hospital to a care centre where he will get 3 weeks of rehab, followed by 3 weeks home care visits. All free on the NHS.
We were anyway coming down to the family place this weekend (Aug Bank Hol) and in spite of minicab taking ages to turn up, train we were aiming at being cancelled, did achieve this aim ( Read more... )

Though I don't think that's quite the same thing?
Another one of those 'how privileged are you' set of questions is going the rounds, and as usual it's very US-ocentric (because access to healthcare in the UK, hello NHS, not really a marker of privilege - how good the care was, and how long you had to wait, okay, postcode lottery, changes over time ( Read more... )

I have been depressed on more mornings after General Elections than I have been elated over my voting life.
I am feeling a bit that thing where, although I didn't quite see Narnia the Welfare State and the idea of a caring society born, I am now seeing it very sick if not dying.
On the other hand, one is, after all, a historian, and at least this ( Read more... )

That end of year list meme.
( In case you don't want to read a long list, much of which goes 'n/a' )

Dept of of, gender and sexuality, ORL B MOAR COMPLYK8D: Guillaume Gallienne was different from his three athletic brothers - he liked to dance and dress up as a woman. His mother treated him like a girl and told him he was gay. The thing is, he was actually heterosexual
Dept of, there are reasons for this: Home is where the greatest accident risk ( Read more... )

Actually, David Cameron, you know what I would choose? Given a choice I would prefer to pay higher taxes for decent public services and a social safety net. And no, choosing to give my money to charitable enterprises would not in any way be equivalent
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O, Coca-Cola! When I saw the poster for their latest new brand (Cocoa-Cola Life) with 'natural ( Read more... )

I was just thinking today (perhaps inspired by browsing around on this amazing resource on UK public health provision) that when I was a tiny tot, yes, we played out in the streets, and on neglected bombsites, and so on, and so forth, why, it was totally a combination of Just William and Enid Blyton, except, on the whole, not in the least...

But ( Read more... )