Archive for March, 2014
It’s 5 years since “The Spirit Level” was published
March 9th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
One of the most influential – of me and others – books that I have ever read is “The Spirit Level” by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (2009). I have reviewed this important work here. In today’s “Observer” newspaper, the book’s authors have written an article to mark the fifth anniversary of publication of the work and […]
Posted in Social policy | Comments (0)
It’s 25 years since the World Wide Web was created
March 9th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
To mark the occasion, “Observer” writer John Naughton has written an article entitled “25 things you might not know about the web on its 25th birthday” which you can read here. The web was, of course, invented by the British scientist Tim Berners-Lee who decribed the experience in his 1999 book “Weaving The Web” which […]
Posted in Internet | Comments (0)
Lord Biro of the Bus Pass Elvis Party beats Liberal Democrats
March 8th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
In a council by-election this week, a candidate standing for the Bus Pass Elvis Party managed to poll more votes than the Liberal Democrat candidate, such is the unpopularity locally of the Lib Dems. The by-election was in Clifton North, Nottingham and the Elvis candidate was David Laurence Bishop who goes by the name Lord Biro. Sportingly a national […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (0)
Almost 100 of my photos of our Central American tour
March 8th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Three weeks ago, Vee and I returned from our wonderful three-week tour of five Central American countries. I was able to create a narrative account for my web site quickly because I had been blogging about the tour day by day and just had to stitch together the separate postings. I have now managed to […]
Posted in My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
John Lewis overtakes Marks & Spencer in the battle for the consumer
March 7th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Following the crisis at the Co-operative Bank, it’s great to see another co-operative, the John Lewis Partnership doing so well. It does not have as many stores or as high profits as Marks & Spencer, but it does now have a higher turnover and a much better appreciation of consumer needs. As a partnership. John […]
Posted in Consumer matters, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A review of the new action-thriller movie “Non-Stop”
March 5th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Liam Neeson is back in another hard man role and you can read my review here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
The nearest I will ever come to an Olympic performance
March 5th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Together with Helen Milner, Chief Executive of the Tinder Foundation (on whose Board I sit), I hold one of the Olympic torches from the 2012 Games while on a visit today to the BT Tower in London for the launch of the 2014 Tech4Good Awards.
Posted in Internet, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
Once we visited Central America, something had to happen
March 4th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
Before our latest holiday, I did a posting about how, when we visit countries, things tend to happen while we are there or shortly afterwards. It’s just two weeks since we returned from a tour of five countries in Central America, spending most time in Guatemala [my narrative account here] and this weekend we had […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
What does an ordinary Russian think about the situation in Crimea?
March 4th, 2014 by Roger Darlington
An American friend of mine is still in touch with a Russian he met while visiting the country. She has just sent him this observation: “The events in the Ukraine are in the focus of attention in Russia. We get a lot of information every minute from different sources which are very contraversial and diverse. […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
A short guide to the Russian political system
March 3rd, 2014 by Roger Darlington
On my web site, I have short guides to the political systems of 11 countries [see here]. My guides to the British and American political systems are constantly in the top 10 pages of my web site for visits. In the past week, however, my short guide to the Russian political system [see here] has […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)