Archive for November, 2013


A new definition of a crisis – or what happened when Catrin came to stay

November 30th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

Our granddaughter Catrin stayed with us overnight for the third time in her near three years. This was so that her parents could celebrate one of them having a significant birthday. There was only one crisis and one episode. The crisis occurred when Catrin was all ready to go to bed dressed in her nappy […]

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A review of the film “Ender’s Game”

November 29th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

As a portfolio worker, I have lots of meetings which do not always slot one after the other. If I have an hour or two between meetings, I go to a book shop. If I have longer, I try to find a film. Yesterday, in between meetings with South East Water and the Tinder Foundation, […]

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How the Mother of Parliaments might be brought into the 21st century (1)

November 28th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

Speaking to the Hansard Society this week, the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow said: “I am announcing today the creation of a Speaker’s Commission on Digital Democracy, the core membership of which will be assembled in the next few weeks, supplemented by a circle of around 30 expert commissioners and reinforced I […]

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The new Cold War: China vs Japan

November 28th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

In the East China Sea, there is a a group of islands which the Japanese call Senkaku and the Chinese call Diaoyu. Japan currently owns them but China wants them. This is the most current and visible point of conflict between China and Japan, but the divisions between the two Asian giants runs much deeper […]

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If you give a little love …

November 27th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

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What would Scottish independence mean for the rest of the UK?

November 26th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

The big news in the UK today is the publication by the Scottish Government of a 649-page White Paper setting out the case for an independent Scotland in advance of the referendum on Scottish independence in September 2014. My general position politically is that I want to see nations coming more together which is why I support […]

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Iran comes in from the cold

November 25th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

I am really pleased that there is an international agreement with Iran over its nuclear programme which has cooled the Iran nuclear crisis. For seven years, I have been blogging about the twin dangers of Iran developing nuclear weapons and Israel attacking Iran to prevent such a development – see here. If the Iranians honour […]

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The rise and rise of “The Hunger Games”

November 24th, 2013 by Roger Darlington

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the trilogy by Suzanne Collins: “The Hunger Games” [my review here], “Catching Fire” [my review here] and “Mockingjay” [my review here]. I always knew that it would make a terrific set of films and I thought that the casting of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen was perfect. Last year, I saw the first […]

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The day Kennedy died

November 22nd, 2013 by Roger Darlington

The media is full of reflections on the assassination of President John F Kennedy exactly 50 years ago today. At the time, I was a teenager of 15 attending a Roman Catholic secondary school in Manchester. I reproduce below, without comment, what I wrote in my diary that day: “The Beatles were No 1 in […]

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Our attendance at “The Book Of Mormon”

November 21st, 2013 by Roger Darlington

Although we live in London, Vee and I do not take as much advantage as we should of the city’s theatres. However, this week we ventured out in the cold and rain to see the musical: “The Book Of Mormon” at the Prince of Wales Theatre. This is a very funny, very rude, very irreverent […]

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