Year: 2005

  • The three lives of a photograph

    My Mother, Bridie, was born in rural County Kilkenny at the end of the twenties. I think this photograph was taken there by my Dad in about 1960, after they…

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  • I’m a blogdaddy!

    Clever Alex Barnett’s blogdaddy, in fact. How cool is that?

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  • Blunkett brutalised

    His offence was foolish but hardly a crime. The Ministerial Code is intended to prevent conflicts of interest from arising. None arose. He entered every transaction into the register of…

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  • A little local difficulty

    Local politics round my way is getting more interesting daily. An exciting and incendiary public meeting in the village tonight was about the nastiest and noisiest assembly I’ve seen since…

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  • You can call me guv

    Democracy is alive and well, if uneven as to outcome. The Iraqis have – heroically – produced something approaching a viable constitutional basis for the next round of elections. Morgan…

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  • Ancient practices

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  • The Tories’ Messiah?

    The Tory leadership fight is the best political entertainment for a decade – and I don’t like saying that because it suggests they’re closer to a come-back than they’ve been…

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  • Harry Potter: the verdict is in (in case you’ve been waiting)

    I know I’m late to this discussion but I’ve managed, somehow, to fail to connect with the Harry Potter phenomenon entirely. Until now. I’d never read the books nor seen…

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  • Cameron’s drug hell

    I honestly wouldn’t have dreamt of getting my oar in here (private grief and all that…) if the Tory Party leadership contest hadn’t become so God-damn entertaining. Cameron’s refusal to…

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  • Dodgy country reports send refugees back to their doom

    Important journalism from Dominic Arkwright on the BBC’s Broadcasting House Sunday Morning news show. It turns out that the ‘country reports’ produced by the Home Office on which immigration service…

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