Blog
Plastic bags don’t grow on trees
Banning plastic bags is one of my pet subjects, a topic close to my heart after researching and writing an academic paper on this subject. So I'm delighted to read that China, a great provider of plastic goods, is in fact banning free plastic bags, those horrid,...
Losing my cleaning lady
I hope I don't get any unexpected visitors over the next day or two. My cleaning lady has given up the mop for a new job and it has left me in a bit of a dither. Pat helped me out for four years and became a friend, and before that Nicky took care of my domestic...
Defra’s £100,000 staff trebles – and a £63 million fine
Here's one for Burning Our Money. The number of Defra staff earning more than £100,000 has trebled in the past five years. This cannot surely be linked to their performance as it struggles with waste and recycling, climate change, floods, coastal erosion, supporting...
How could pollsters get it so wrong?Does it come down to race?
Crikey, what an amazing result following pollsters' predictions of another sweeping victory for Democrat Barack Obama in New Hampshire. He seemed a dead cert to win ahead of rival Hillary Clinton, but virtually all of the late polling on the Democratic side proved to...
Changing cultural beliefs on prostitution
I had a very productive meeting with the dynamic Dr Carrie Pemberton yesterday, founder of CHASTE - Churches Alert to Sex Trafficking in Europe. She is thrilled that Home Office Minister Vernon Coker will be speaking at their major conference in London this month,...
Why does government refuse to regulate Botox?
While the government plans to regulate alternative and complementary therapists, should it not also offer a similar scheme for the treatment of Botox? The government has refused to regulate botox treatment, ignoring a recommendation from the Expert Working Group on...
Desperate Iraqis sell their children
Families are not only been ripped apart by death and destruction in war-torn Iraq, but have resorted to selling their children, according to this disturbing Aljazeera report. It is feared that children are being trafficked for the sex trade and the organ transplant...
Two portraits of a gay icon and mad arsonist
Whenever I visit one of my friends, my head instantly swivels in one direction - to the two fabulous drawings on each side of her fireplace. I find them so captivating. But then the subjects are two very extraordinary men. Full marks if you have identified them as the...
Divorce by text message
Would it have made any difference if Iqbal Abul Nasr had answered a missed phone call from her husband? Would he still have sent her a cruel text message stating: “I divorce you because you didn’t answer your husband.� I doubt it. In line with Shaira law, men do...