This year, 2012, is probably my thirtieth of not watching Hollywood’s Academy Awards ceremony.  Perhaps that entitles me to a special lifetime achievement award –…

The affluent citizens of Greece have a lot to answer for in their country’s dire economic predicament, but I can’t say I blame the rest…

Maybe it will be third time lucky for that vast unlovely white elephant, Battersea power station, and its surrounding 30-something acre site.  The place is…

The reputation of the press took a terrible, and well-deserved, bashing during the recent Leveson Enquiry, but news of Marie Colvin’s death in Syria ought…

My last ‘rant’, about the High Court ruling banning prayers at council meetings, attracted criticism for being wishy-washy.  The piece suggested that while I approve…

The high court ruling that Bideford Council should stop opening its meetings with prayers seems right to me, even if it does place me on…

Remember that ‘foul dust’ line in The Great Gatsby?   Nick Carroway, the novel’s narrator is musing on the sad fate of his friend.  “Gatsby…

Joey Barton’s tweeting boasts one million followers, I read in a newspaper today.  One million!  That makes him something of a cultural hero, not to…

I’m sorry to see Capello resign as England’s football coach, but apparently the players sometimes found his English hard to understand. In which case, why…

This may be my last rant for a while.  I’m going outside shortly and, in the immortal words of Captain Oates, I may be some…