Derren Brown – the great mentalist
July 10th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Last night, Vee and I joined our friends Eric and Cindy to attend the Shaftesbury Theatre in central London for a show mounted by the British illusionist Derren Brown. It is called “Svengali” and it is the fifth of his theatre tours.
Brown asks his audience not to reveal the nature of the show to others and, of course, I will respect that in this blog posting. Suffice to say that he is a consummate performer.
He gives a fascinating display of talents that are so extraordinary that you could believe that he has supernatural powers, except that you know that it all a brilliantly clever illusion and he never claims otherwise.
But I confess that I didn’t enjoy the show as much as my companions. I couldn’t get over the sense of being manipulated, although of course everyone there is by definition paying to be misled and happy about it.
A while ago now, I read Derren Brown’s book “Tricks Of The Mind” and found it, like him, entertaining, scatological and somewhat odd. I reviewed it here.
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Thought For The Week now received by 1,700
July 9th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Each Sunday, I send out an e-mail with my Thought For The Week (and notes of new items on my web site). The circulation list – which is genuinely worldwide – has just reached 1,700.
You can check out the 600+ thoughts sent out over the last 12 years here.
If you’d like to receive Thought For The Week e-mail me.
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The “News of the World” scandal reminds me …
July 9th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
… of a short story I wrote two years ago entitled “The PM And The MP”. Check it out here.
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One million visits in first six months of 2011
July 7th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Like most people who have a web site, I regularly check the traffic statistics to see how much interest there is in my material.
I’m pleased to say that, if the first six months of this year, the total number of visits to my web site – which incorporates my personal and professinal blogs – exceeded one million. For the curious, the actual number was 1,060,644.
Many thanks for your continued support. Please spread the word.
Posted in Internet, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A review of “Green Lantern”
July 6th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
How many super-heroes movies can one take? In my case, quite a lot. “Green Lantern” – reviewed here – is not the best but it’s not the worst either.
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A review of “The Cement Garden”
July 6th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Ian McEwan is a really accomplished fiction writer and I’ve just read his first novel entitled “The Cement Garden” – my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
Income inequality grows in UK and USA
July 5th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
- UK income inequality increased by 32% between 1960 and 2005. During the same period, it increased by 23% in the USA, and in Sweden decreased by 12%.
- In the 1960s Sweden and the UK had similar levels of income inequality. By 2005 the gap between the two had increased by 14%.
- Since the 1980s, income inequality in the United States and the UK has increased substantially and has returned to levels not seen since the 1920s.
How do I know? These facts are extracted from this research digest.
Posted in American current affairs, British current affairs, Social policy | Comments (0)
Should regulation be light touch or right touch?
July 4th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I’ve spent most of my working life involved in regulatory debates.
This started when I worked at the Communications Workers Union which organises staff in the telecommunications and postal industries since both telecoms and posts are regulated. It has continued since I took early retirement from the CWU through my membership of the Communications Consumer Panel, Postwatch and Consumer Focus. Indeed, later this week, I’ll be lecturing on the future of regulation to an international audience at a course in London.
So I’m particularly interested in the efforts of the current Coalition Government to reduce regulation and I’ve been looking at the Cabinet Office web site called The Red Tape Challenge. Obviously regulation can be an excessive burden on industry and at its worst it increases costs and reduces innovation. But the banking crisis of the last few years shows the enormous price that we all pay if regulation is weak or inadequate.
The Government has a very simplistic attitude to regulation, encapsulated by its policy of ‘one in, one in’. It is not the absolute number of regulations that matter; it is the nature of those regulations and whether they are needed and efficacious.
Posted in British current affairs, Consumer matters, Social policy | Comments (7)
A walking day in sunny Kent
July 3rd, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Vee and I spent the day driving down to Kent to visit our friends Derek & Mandy Bright. They have a place in a hamlet outside Faversham and we ate lunch in the bright sunshine in their small orchard, before going for a long walk, and finishing up at a pub in the picturesque village of Chilham.
When I was Head of Research at the Communication Workers Union, Derek was my deputy and he took early retirement at the same time as me. Since then, he has built up a small walking holiday business called Walk Awhile and he has just had published a most informative book on “The Pilgrims’ Way”.
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A review of “Larry Crowne”
July 2nd, 2011 by Roger Darlington
I’m a huge fan of Tom Hanks but his latest movie – which I’ve reviewed here – is far from being his crowning achievement.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (2)