Archive for September, 2023


Is Britain a world leader on reaching net zero?

September 22nd, 2023 by Roger Darlington

Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak says he’s “proud to be a world leader in reaching net zero by 2050”, but is it a world-leading target? A total of 27 countries plus the European Union have passed net zero emission laws, according to the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit thinktank. While most of them have set […]

Posted in Environment | Comments (0)

The threat to democracy from the rise of populist parties

September 21st, 2023 by Roger Darlington

Almost one-third of Europeans now vote for populist, far-right or far-left parties, research shows, with wide support for anti-establishment politics surging across the continent in an increasingly problematic challenge to the mainstream. Analysis by more than 100 political scientists across 31 countries found that in national elections last year a record 32% of European voters […]

Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)

A review of the streaming film “The Unforgivable”

September 18th, 2023 by Roger Darlington

This story started out in 2009 as a British miniseries written by Sally Wainwright and titled “Unforgiven”. Then, in 2012, it was turned into a film and transposed to the United States as a starring vehicle for Sandra Bullock who was a co-producer. Bullock plays a woman, released from prison after 20 years for killing […]

Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)

A review of the new action movie “The Equalizer 3”

September 17th, 2023 by Roger Darlington

I’ve been a fan of Denzel Washington since he played young Steve Biko In “Cry Freedom” in 1987. Back then, I would never have imagined that he would be portraying an action hero in his late 60s, but this is an actor with charisma as well as ability. Since 2001, when he starred in “Training […]

Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)

A review of the new film “Love At First Sight”

September 16th, 2023 by Roger Darlington

I guess that many would call this a chic-flic. After all, it’s directed by a woman, written by a woman, and based on a novel by a woman. But I’m a bit of a sucker for rom-coms, especially those filmed in my home city of London. I didn’t expect much from this Netflix offering but […]

Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)

A review of “Act Of Oblivion” by Robert Harris

September 7th, 2023 by Roger Darlington

Over a period of three decades, British novelist Robert Harris has written 15 bestselling novels, mostly works of historical fiction, many set in Ancient Rome or around the Second World War. “Act Of Oblivion” is the eighth that I have read. It is classic Harris but set in a different time period: the two decades […]

Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)

A review of the 1953 classic film “Tokyo Story”

September 6th, 2023 by Roger Darlington

When film critics worldwide are polled on the best films ever made, this Japanese work directed and co-written by the famous Yasujiro Ozu usually comes in the top batch. It is a classic art house movie: black and white, slow, minimalist, portentous and shot in a very distinctive style (lots of static, low shots and […]

Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)

Word of the day: pre-history

September 4th, 2023 by Roger Darlington

A friend recently told me that she was really interested in pre-history. I wondered how this term is defined and, of course, I found the explanation on Wikipedia: “Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins c. 3.3 million years ago and the […]

Posted in History | Comments (0)