Public transport is the great theatre of the world, which is why I always take it (whenever I can) in preference to that frightful contraption, my motor car. You learn so much on public transport; in a car you just lose your temper. This morning at the bus stop, for example, there was an elderly man – three of four … [Read on]

Irritating though conversations on mobile phones may often be to those not involved in them, I nevertheless feel a compulsion sometimes to eavesdrop on them. They can be banal and boring, or they can be entertaining and illuminating. Oddly enough, people speak in public on their mobile phones as if they were surrounded by an invisible sound-proofed chamber. Ease of … [Read on]

Just because an economy as a whole does not grow it does not mean that no activity whatever increases. For example, there are now 4000 professional tattooists in France whereas ten years ago there were only 400. And in neighbouring Belgium last year the number of cases of euthanasia grew by a healthy 27 per cent (no pun intended). It … [Read on]

I was briefly flattered the other day to receive an e-mail from the General Medical Council asking me whether I could be its Chair (meaning Chairman). Then I realised that it was a circular, not an actual invitation to me personally: it had, presumably, been sent to everyone on its e-mailing list. What were the duties of the Chairman? The … [Read on]

A well-known conclusion of political philosophy, as well as of the most elementary reflection upon life, is that not all human desiderata are compatible one with another. This is so because Mankind not only is capable of desiring, but always desires something and its opposite at the same time. We desire, for example, both security and excitement, both freedom and … [Read on]

I have taken no interest in cricket ever since cricketers started to wear baseball caps and vulgar coloured clothes, and behaved like footballers or basketball players when they took a wicket, hugging one another and making neanderthlal gestures of triumph. Last weekend I attended, for the first time in several years, a village cricket match. It was a heavenly day … [Read on]

The account in The Times of the murder by stabbing of Mary Maguire, a teacher in Leeds, quoted a recent report by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) about the school in which it took place. ‘Students,’ said the report, ‘say they feel very safe in the school. It is clear they have a good understanding of how to … [Read on]

Travelling frequently as I do between England and France, I am always depressed almost to the point of despair when I see the English at the airport. Never in human history can so many people have been so determined to make the worst of themselves. Self-respect is unknown to them. Fat or thin, they dress in a more slovenly fashion … [Read on]