Archive for the ‘My life & thoughts’ Category


Should humanism have equal status to faiths?

September 14th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

This seems like a good question to pose on a Sunday in a country that still professes to be largely Christian. I think that humanism should be given equal weight in schools to the various religious faiths and there is currently an argument on precisely this subject.

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Fun at the festival

September 13th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

For the next few days, Vee and I are hosting a visit by a couple of her relatives from the Czech Republic (Vee is half Czech on her father’s side). The problem is that these relatives don’t speak any English and the little Czech we know we learned 20 years ago when the country was […]

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“The Bleeding Heart”

September 10th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

“Lady Elizabeth Hatton was the toast of 17th Century London society. The widowed daughter-in-law of the famous merchant Sir Christopher Hatton (one-time consort of Queen Elizabeth 1), Lady Elizabeth was young, beautiful and very wealthy. Her suitors were many and varied, and included a leading London Bishop and a prominent European Ambassador. Invitations to her […]

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The last day of ‘summer’

August 31st, 2008 by Roger Darlington

Officially it’s the last day of summer but, here in London, we’ve had thunder, lightning and heavy rain. It’s looks as if this August will turn out to have been the wettest in the UK for a century – but I still believe in global warning. Spare a moment though to think about the victims […]

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What were you doing when …?

August 27th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

The Conservative blogger Iain Dale has started a meme which invites those other bloggers who’ve been tagged to explain what they were doing on five key dates. I have been tagged for this meme by former Labour MP Harry Barnes, so I guess I’ll have to rise to the challenge – although I won’t inflict […]

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Pictures of the Baltics

August 25th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

Just over a week ago, I returned from a short holiday in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuanian and I quickly wrote up an account for my web site. Over the Bank Holiday Monday that we had in the UK today, I have added 52 photos to my account (I took just over 200 in all). Check […]

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The first sign of Christmas

August 18th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

This morning, the post brought us our first Christmas catalogue – the price of ordering and sending charity Christmas cards each year. The organisation concerned is Amnesty International – an immensely worthy body, but one that I would rather waited a while before encouraging us to order things for the Christmas season. After all, it […]

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Back from the Baltics

August 16th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

I’m just back from a six-day break with my sister Silvia. It was a short holiday in the Baltic States visiting Tallinn in Estonia, Riga in Latvia and Vilnius in Lithuania. This brings the total number of countries that I have visited to 52 – you can find the full list here. I’ll be writing […]

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The Night Hawk has flown

August 8th, 2008 by Roger Darlington

There’ll be no postings on this blog for a week or so, since I’m off now on a short holiday in the Baltic States visiting Tallinn in Estonia, Riga in Latvia and Vilnius in Lithuania. I’ll write up an account for my web site on my return. Meanwhile please look through earlier postings on this […]

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How do you spend your Saturday?

August 2nd, 2008 by Roger Darlington

For the last three consecutive Saturdays, I’ve started the day in a city centre hotel giving a short speech to consumers selected by Ipsos MORI for a deliberative research project on behalf of Postwatch, the consumer watchdog for postal services. Two weeks ago, it was Edinburgh; last week, it was Sheffield; today it is London. […]

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