Archive for July, 2006


The seige of Nándorfehérvár

July 31st, 2006 by Roger Darlington

This month sees the 550th anniversary of Hungarian victory at the seige of the town then called Nándorfehérvár (today known as Belgrade) – an event subsequently said by Pope Callixtus III to have “decided the fate of Christendom”. This anniversary – indeed the whole event – escaped me too, but it was pointed out to […]

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And the prize goes to …

July 31st, 2006 by Roger Darlington

… the charity Mencap for being the first organisation to send me a Christmas card catalogue (on 31 July with five months to go!). Even though I’m a great planner, I refuse to order any Christmas cards before October.

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Forgotten world (21): Cyprus

July 31st, 2006 by Roger Darlington

On four occasions now, I’ve had a week-long feature on NightHawk devoted to parts of the world that tend to be under-reported or even forgotten. You can check out the previous 20 entries here. This week, I plan to run a fifth series of postings on this theme. Let’s start with Cyprus. On the one […]

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Farewell to “Top Of The Pops”

July 30th, 2006 by Roger Darlington

This evening, BBC2 television broadcast the last programme of “Top Of The Pops” after 42 years of the feature. It started on 1 January 1964 when I was 15 years old and the Beatles were at No 1 with “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and it was made in a converted church in south Manchester […]

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An atlas of global inequality

July 30th, 2006 by Roger Darlington

Global inequality has grown dramatically over the last 300 years. At the end of the 20th century, global income inequality was greater than ever before. There is debate amongst academics, between street protestors and global institutions, and elsewhere, about the whether inequality is rising or falling. The Atlas of Global Inequality – created by the […]

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How many are dying?

July 29th, 2006 by Roger Darlington

The events in the Middle East over the last few weeks have been horrific – but they are taking the media’s attention away from other killing fields. Today’s “Guardian” newspaper states that, over the last 17 days, the death toll in Lebanon, Gaza and Israel has been 616 – each death a terrible tragedy. Yet, […]

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“Will that be all, Mr President?”

July 29th, 2006 by Roger Darlington

Last night, on channel More4, I watched the penultimate episode and the last episode of the seventh and last series of “The West Wing”. I am a massive “West Wing” fan and have watched all 22 episodes of all seven series as they have been broadcast and I’ve even watched all of the first five […]

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What’s it like to be a worker in China?

July 28th, 2006 by Roger Darlington

According to a New York-based labour rights group called the China Labor Watch (CLW), over 1,000 workers have rioted over poor working conditions at a factory in Guangdong province which produces toys for McDonald’s and other firms . The CLW’s investigation found that employees at the factory typically work 11 hours a day, six days […]

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Should we be supporting Israel? (2)

July 28th, 2006 by Roger Darlington

I wasn’t able to attend last night’s debate between my friend Eric Lee and Sean Matgamna of the Alliance for Workers Liberty and, in any event, I confess that such far-Left fora are not my natural habitat. But I care deeply about what is happening in the Middle East and welcome Eric’s publication online of […]

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Why truth matters

July 27th, 2006 by Roger Darlington

I’m one of those people who, when I start watching a film, I finish it and, when I start reading a book, I finish it. I feel that it’s not right to judge a narrative without concluding it. However, even I have exceptions – and today I made one of them. I’ve been trying to […]

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