Archive for July, 2013


“So, what exactly do you do, Roger?”

July 19th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

I am regularly asked this question, but it is not an easy one to answer. Since I took early retirement from the Communication Workers Union 11 years ago, I have not have a full-time job, but I have had a changing portfolio of appointments in the field of consumer affairs. You can check out my […]

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A British Government programme to combat modern day slavery

July 18th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

A very close friend of mine is Cindy Berman who is Senior Social Development Adviser, Asia Regional Team, at the Department For International Department here in the UK. She has been working on a programme to tackle modern day slavery which was launched this week. There are an estimated 21 million people living in forced […]

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A very happy 95th birthday to Nelson Mandela

July 18th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

Over the last few weeks, many of us feared that it would not happen, but today we celebrate the 95th birthday of Nelson Mandela, the most inspirational leader of my life time. I have visited Robben Island where Mandela was imprisoned [my account here] and where I bought his biography “Long Walk To Freedom” [my review here]. […]

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Does the British electorate know what it wants – and can the opinion pollsters actually measure it?

July 16th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

As a lifelong Labour supporter, I was disconcerted by today’s news that apparently Labour and Conservative are now equal in the polls at 36% each. Last month, the same opinion poll (ICM) gave Labour a lead of 7% and currently the YouGov poll gives Labour a lead of 11%. What is almost certaintly true is […]

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Sometimes I think that Britain needs a revolution

July 15th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

Here in Britain, we are experiencing a heat wave – mild by the standards of many other countries around the world, but temperatures that are unusually high and consistently so for us. So, in London where I live and work, most days recently the temperature has been around 30C (86F). Now I normally wear a […]

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Lie and death in Pompeii and Herculaneum

July 13th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

In AD 79, the volcano at Mount Vesuvius erupted, destroying and burying the two Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Since the rediscovery of the cities in the 1700s, the cataclysmic event has had a special fascination for many around the world. I have always had a particular interest because my mother was born and […]

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Malala Yousafzai’s address to the United Nations

July 12th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

Malala Yousefzai, who was shot in the head by Pakistani Taliban last year, today addressed the UN Youth Assembly on her 16th birthday and made an impassioned call for children’s education and women’s rights.

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10 popular misconceptions of the British public

July 10th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

Are crime levels rising or falling? What is the scale of benefit fraud? What proportion of the population is immigrant? What proportion of the population is Muslim? A new survey by Ipsos MORI for the Royal Statistical Society and King’s College London shows just how wrong public opinion can be on key social issues such […]

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My meeting with the British Member of Parliament for Kurdistan

July 8th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

I’m thinking of taking a holiday in Iraq. Not immediately but perhaps in the spring. Not to Baghdad but to the Kurdish north. So today I was at the House of Commons to see my friend Gary Kent who is the Administrator of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Kurdistan Region in Iraq and has […]

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A review of the film “Before Midnight”

July 7th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

First, there was “Before Sunrise” (1995); then there was “Before Sunset” (2004); now there is “Before Midnight” – each nine years apart, each with the same directors and stars. The three films are the best trilogy of my half decade of movie-going. You can read my reviews of all three films here.

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