One of those moral panic type surveys has been reported in the MSM today. Apparently people in the UK are getting less honest, and more willing to tolerate lies, adultery etc. For my 2ps worth I'd blame UK soap operas ( esp East Enders ) and programs like "The Apprentice" - where getting caught lying is just seen as evidence of how "passionate" and candidate is about themselves becoming Lord ...

The debate in the US about this SOPA legislation and the protests about it ("Stop Online Piracy Act"), has reignited debate in some circles about intellectual property as such. I have just taken delivery of this book, Justifying Intellectual Property, by Robert P. Merges, in which he gives an ethical, as well as economic, defence of IP (patents, copyrights, trademarks, etc). I have not read it in ...

Then essentially you would be a soldier in a forward position, or really anywhere, in Afghanistan! Imagine waking up everyday knowing that it has the potential to be your last. That you may have seen, written or spoken to your parents, friends, wife, girlfriend, etc. for the very last time. Unimaginable right? That's because in the morning when most of us are waking up in a heated house in a ...

After British government documents were recently released under the thirty year rule, the controversy has re-erupted over the ‘offer’ Margaret Thatcher’s government made in July 1981, in an attempt to end the IRA/INLA hunger strikes, then taking place in the north of Ireland's notorious Maze Prison. This issue first entered the public arena in 2005, when forme...

Off to the ‘Ore Mountains again. ‘Untin’ slags. The start of a new little business adventure. This week is to sort out a flat etc. Then will be based up there most of the time for the next 6 months. I’ll be like everyone else, coming to Portugal on hols……  

I have been receiving odd e-mails, comments etc, that suggest that I might be standing election for a New Nationalist Party, as an Independent Nationalist a Plaid Candidate or even as a Conservative Party Candidate for the Llansanffraid ward of Conwy County Council next May! NONE of these rumours are true! I will vote for and give my wholehearted support to the re-election of Graham (Gas) Rees,

Well, folks, the 2012 model of Ed Miliband sounds and looks rather like the unfancied 2011 model. Just compare the New Year message that he released today with the one that he issued a year ago; the similarities are plenty. His main argument this year is that the Tories are party of gloom — resigned to years of stagnancy, unemployment, pestilence, etc — whereas Labour are the party of ...

There's a thriving genre of Chinese porn, both filmed and written (mostly in the form of online stories), that turns around Japanese wartime atrocities. Lots of bound, whipped women, etc, a pretty close mirror to Israeli stalag fiction. It's the...

I cannot avoid coming to this conclusion - that there are too many great men in the world; there are too many legislators, organizers, institutors of society, conductors of the people, fathers of nations, etc., etc. Too many persons place themselves above mankind, to rule and patronize it; too many persons make a trade of looking after it. It will be answered - “You yourself are occupied...

Perhaps I am a bit thick, but I have difficulty in understanding the argument that the Tories are making ad nausium against today's strike. Apparently the unions are irresponsible for conducting a strike while negotiations are ongoing! Isn't the time that negotiations are omgoing the best time to protest and express strength of feeling? Wouldn't strike action, protest, complaint etc be rather