Sitting on the floor where Safa’s family live in Kawergosk Refugee Camp in Kurdistan, northern Iraq, I was struck by her disarming smile as she described life as she knew it. She told of surviving on the limited amount food available, worrying about the health and safety of those back home in Syria and her…
fs160510 FRIST spring newsletter The Friends of the Isles of Scilly Transport (FRIST) newsletter is published this month. It provides and update on the structure of organisations on the islands dealing with transport, the increases in charges and fares to and from the islands and the lack of response from the monopoly provides of transport…
It has been a very bad month for those who care about raising our children in a way that develops their potential to the fullest and equips them for a secure future. (It is always an indication of trouble when the headlines refer to them as “kids”!) First, the extraordinary action of so-called caring parents to keep their children out of…
On Saturday 10th May, this famous mosque, designed in the 16th century by the Ottoman architect Sinan, rose like a phoenix from its ashes. It had been totally destroyed by explosives, not by fighting, during the war in Bosnia. Banja Luka is the capital in the north-west of Bosnia of Republica Serbska, one of the…
Despite the deals, dual fuel and constant noise about changing your supplier, domestic suppliers of energy still appear to make the process opaque and painful. But if you think that’s pain, how about paying almost three times the market price for electricity, indexed to inflation for 35 years – that’s the Hinkley Point proposition. A…
I support the campaign of the All Party Parliamentary Group on the Baha’i faith for the release of the seven Baha’i leaders in Iran. They are now entering their eighth year of imprisonment, after a trial which was lacking in due process. May I urge those who see this blog to contact their MP. …
On Friday 5 May 2016, the Thames Blue Green Economy campaign group published a devastating critique of Thames Water’s Thames Tideway Tunnel (TTT), and calls on the Government and Thames Water to halt preliminary works and to set up an Inquiry into the suspect financing and institutional arrangements behind the project. The report, ‘The Case Against…
Refugees and Turkey The whole world is grateful to Turkey for taking in a very large number of Syrians. It has provided health care for many, while allowing some to work for their living, and perhaps one-third of the children attend school. On the other hand, if things are as good as the Turkish ambassador…
The House of Lords had earlier passed a number of amendments to this Government’s Bill. On April 26 the House of Commons sent them back with various reasons for rejection. Lord Alton of Liverpool moved a compromise amendment to allow asylum-applicants to take jobs, if their cases were still outstanding after nine months. This was…
