Archive for May, 2014


Where now for Ukraine? – next step: the presidential election

May 15th, 2014 by Roger Darlington

This week, I attended a meeting in the House of Commons to discuss Ukraine’s presidential election. The meeting was organised by the Henry Jackson Society and featured three expert speakers: Orysia Lutsevych from Chatham House, Andy Hunder from the Ukrainian Institute in London, and Andrew Foxall of the Henry Jackson Society itself. The background to […]

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Intergenerational tale (2): what I would like to be doing if I reach 100

May 14th, 2014 by Roger Darlington

I love life, so I’d like to think that I might one day live to be 100. I love stories and really enjoy telling them or reading them to youngsters. I love children and like the idea of different generations coming together to enthuse each other. So I was fascinated to read of the experience […]

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Intergenerational tale (1): how my granddaughter and I fell in love with “Frozen”

May 14th, 2014 by Roger Darlington

I’ll always have a special affection for the Disney animation movie “Frozen” because it was the first film seen at the cinema by by granddaughter Catrin (then a month short of her third birthday) and I had the pleasure of taking her to see it [my review here]. Since then, she’s seen it again at […]

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Why big data can be helpful to health and why I’m wearing an activity monitor for seven days

May 13th, 2014 by Roger Darlington

We live in the era of big data when it is easy and cheap to record, store and analyse vast quantities of data.  This has huge implications for individuals, corporations and governments because we can learn so much from such data that can help individuals to live more healthily or companies to sell us more […]

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What does James K Galbraith think of the work of Thomas Piketty?

May 13th, 2014 by Roger Darlington

James K Galbraith is the economist son of the famous economist John Kenneth Galbraith. Thomas Piketty is the French economist who has caused a storm in the world of economics with his book “Capitalism In The Twenty-First Century” on which I have already blogged here and here and here. In this interesting essay, Galbraith reviews Picketty’s […]

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Word of the day: zephyr

May 12th, 2014 by Roger Darlington

It means a gentle, mild breeze. Why do I mention it? I just like the notion – and the look of the word.

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Remembering those who fought for freedom in World War Two

May 11th, 2014 by Roger Darlington

This afternoon, my wife Vee and I were at  Brookwood Military Cemetery, south west of London,  for a ceremony to mark the 69th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe. It was my first visit, but Vee has been once before. Brookwood is the largest military cemetery in the UK with […]

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The power of the story – four versions of different lengths for you to consider and savour

May 10th, 2014 by Roger Darlington

“Stories are memory aids, instruction manuals and moral compasses.” Aleks Krotoski, “Observer”, 7 August 2011 “Stories are compensatory. The world is unfair, unjust, unknowable, out of control.” “Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?” by Jeannette Winterson (2011) “Telling stories is our way of coping, a way of creating shape out of a mess. […]

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A review of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2”

May 9th, 2014 by Roger Darlington

This is the fifth time in 12 years that we’ve had a Spider-Man movie but it works and you can read my review here.

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Growing number of water customers find bills unfair or even unaffordable

May 8th, 2014 by Roger Darlington

The statuary consumer body for water and sewage services is CCWater and it commissions each year a survey of how customers feel about their services and their bills. The latest annual tracking research report from CCWater is published today and the key findings include: • One in five water customers say their water bill is […]

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