Archive for January, 2011
Say hello to my first grandchild (1)
January 17th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
It’s been quite a wait but, eight days after the due date, our son Richard and his wife Emily have become parents, making Vee and me grandparents for the first time. It’s a girl but no name has been announced yet. The weight is 8 lb and the length is 53 cm. We are so […]
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Forgotten World (231): Rockall
January 17th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
It’s one of the regular weeks of postings in my long-running series called Forgotten World – a look at parts of the world that too rarely feature in our media or thoughts. You can check the previous 230 entries here. Nobody lives on Rockall, a British overseas territory that is a rocky, volcanic outcrop located […]
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The political power of social media
January 16th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Last term, I attended a weekly evening class in a course at central London’s City Literary Institute entitled “International Relations & World Conflict”. This week, I started Part 2 of the course with the same lecturer Dr Dale Mineshima-Lowe. In this first session with a largely new group of students, we discussed the definition of […]
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10th anniversary of Wikipedia
January 15th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
For eight years now, I’ve been contributing a regular column on Internet issues to the magazine of the trade union Connect (now part of Prospect). Boy, have things changed online in that time. You can check out all my 64 columns here. In October 2007, I wrote a column with the title “Is Wikipedia The […]
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Tony Blair’s “A Journey” (1)
January 14th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
At Christmas, I received six books as presents and I’m now starting to read one of them: “A Journey” by Tony Blair which runs to almost 700 pages. The book begins with the entry of Tony Blair to 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister in 1997, the first time that he had held any ministerial […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Young and happy in Old and Sad
January 14th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Three and a half months ago, I did a posting suggesting that what British politics now needed was a by-election. I pointed out: “In the ‘old days’ of British politics, typically there used to be three or four by-elections a year. These days, Members of Parliament tend to be younger and healthier so there is […]
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If you’re thinking of travelling to another country …
January 13th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
… you might want to check with me first to see if I’m planning to go there shortly. We booked a holiday in Cuba and a few weeks before our arrival the long-serving President Fidel Castro decided to step down. We booked a holiday in Iran and a few months before we got there the […]
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My latest short story
January 13th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
For over a year and a half now, I’ve been writing short stories and putting them on my web site. I’ve now composed 26 and you can see all the titles listed here. I added my latest short story today; it’s called “The Heart Of The Matter”. Please check it out here and tell me […]
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Films you have not seen yet
January 12th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
Regular visitors will know that I’m a massive movie fan, so was amused by an effort to re-vision several well-known films as set out here. But, if it’s the real thing you want to see, you’ll find many hundreds of my film reviews here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A daughter mourns and warns
January 11th, 2011 by Roger Darlington
“My father’s assassination was a hate crime fuelled by jihadist fervour, abetted by some irresponsible sections of the media and sanctified by some political actors. All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing. The loss of one good man must not deter others. Pakistan’s very future depends on […]
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