ARCHIVE: PETER HITCHENS ON SOFT DRUGS
Evidence piles up that cannabis harms us. Yet our laws have never been softer. Are we, asks Peter Hitchens, soft in the head? Image courtesy of N.ico via flickr.com ©©
Aug 31, 2012•3 min
Things Unseen
Things Unseen grapples with a spiritual climate that no longer conforms to orderly patterns – with fewer of us attracted to formal religion, but many still believing that there’s more out there than meets the eye. Thought-provoking speech radio for people of faith – and those who just feel intrigued by the spiritual dimension to life.
Episodes
ARCHIVE: OLYMPICS OVER, CAN THERE BE A LASTING LEGACY?
Politicians hope for a boost to the economy. Athletes look to a generation inspired to take up sport. Others see a resurgence of patriotism, and a greater confidence in who they are and in what they value. Nonsense, says Peter Hitchens, of the Mail on Sunday. The only legacy is ‘increased debt’. We have been ‘surprised by joy’, says Catherine Pepinster, of The Tablet, and ‘the feeling lingers’. They debate the London Olympics’ legacy - real or imagined? – with Emma Barnett. Image courtesy of som...
Aug 24, 2012•19 min
ARCHIVE: JULIE BINDEL ON CHILD ABUSERS
They choose, target, groom, and harm children. So punish them as criminals. Don’t label them weak and sick men who cannot help themselves. Image courtesy of Nick Atkins Photography via flickr.com ©©
Aug 24, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: JULIE BINDEL ON 70,000 VOLUNTEERS...
A success at the London Olympics, so let’s cash in and take them off the dole and employ them. Image courtesy of Andy Wilkes via flickr.com ©©
Aug 17, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: MICHAEL BUERK ON OUR GOLD MEDALS
‘It’s public schoolboys and girls wot won them. Social mobility hasn’t just seized up, it’s gone into reverse; state schools’ lack of ambition betrays our children’ Image courtesy of ahisgett via flickr.com ©©
Aug 10, 2012•4 min
ARCHIVE: MICHAEL BUERK ON THE OLYMPICS
'We're firmly in the grip of glorious delusions'. ... admitting you can learn to love them while acknowledging the delusions they foster
Aug 02, 2012•4 min
ARCHIVE: BUERK MICHAEL BUERK ON THE COLORADO KILLER
‘Obama promised “out of this darkness a brighter day will come”; it won’t, of course, because he won’t do anything about guns and the culture of his society which, like ours, is becoming ever more infantile.’ Image courtesy of esc.ape(d) via flickr.com ©©
Jul 26, 2012•4 min
ARCHIVE: MICHAEL BUERK ON A DESPICABLE HISTORY
Moral relativism of the worst kind: ‘lecturing others on human rights, while trying to escape responsibility for our abuse of them’.
Jul 18, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: MICHAEL BUERK ON ANDY MURRAY‘S SOB STORY
‘Self-control used to be a virtue. Now it’s thought of as dysfunctional. If we don’t display our feelings, it’s assumed we don’t have any’. Image courtesy of Nick J Webb via flickr.com ©©
Jul 12, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: MICHAEL BUERK SKEWERS FIFTY SHADES OF GREY
‘Our rubbish tells more about us than our art, and so it is with this ‘puerile tripe and mummy porn’ Image courtesy of crawford.I via flickr.com ©©
Jul 04, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: MICHAEL BUERK ON ARGENTINA’S ‘BREATHTAKING HYPOCRISY’
As its President accuses Britain of ‘naked colonialism’. This from a country of European immigrants ‘whose national policy has been to wipe out all trace of the people they snatched it from’. Image courtesy of ¡Que comunismo! via flickr.com ©©
Jun 28, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: SAME-SEX MARRIAGES: EQUAL RIGHTS OR ‘PURE POLITICS’?
David Cameron supports it, Nick Clegg says ‘when’ not ‘if’, the Churches worry about canon law and sin, and gays are split between ‘bring it on’ and ‘this is not the time’. Heat and light in our provocative and informative debate. Image courtesy of Guillaume Paumier via flickr.com ©©
Jun 27, 2012•21 min
ARCHIVE: MICHAEL BUERK ON THE EXHIBITION OF INVISIBLE ART
‘leaving judgment, intellect, and common sense at the door, and Instead fitting in with the vacuous as they glorify the vacant’. Image courtesy of Damien Cugley via flickr.com ©©
Jun 21, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: MICHAEL BUERK ON THE CASE FOR ‘UNIVERSAL’ BENEFITS
.....’partly selfish, partly economic, but especially moral: it’s about justice, social solidarity, and incentivising virtue’ Image courtesy of IanVisits via flickr.com ©©
Jun 15, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: MICHAEL BUERK ON MORMON MITT ROMNEY
'It's one thing believing what is inherently unlikely, but what about believing something absolutely, obviously, and provably wrong?' Image courtesy of More Good Foundation via flickr.com ©©
Jun 07, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: TREVOR BARNES ON ‘HATE’ CRIMES THAT AREN’T
Public busybodies delight in the depletion of our vocabulary and the policing of our thoughts. ‘It impoverishes us all’. Image courtesy of puuikibeach via flickr.com ©©
Jun 01, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: TREVOR BARNES ON AN UNEXPECTED (AND UNWANTED) GIFT
The King James Bible to every school ...’an empty gesture, potentially divisive, and a thinly-disguised attempt to tell teachers what to teach’. Image courtesy of bookchen via flickr.com ©©
May 24, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: TREVOR BARNES ON WHY INSULTS ARE GOOD FOR US
‘In a healthy democracy, it’s every citizen’s right to be insulted... Freedom of speech is at stake here’ Image courtesy of Stephen Dagnall via flickr.com ©©
May 17, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: BUT THEY ARE ONLY RUSSIANS
John Sweeney visits Ukraine to recall Stalin’s great famine with aged survivors, and to tell the story of two journalists – one who lied and won the Pulitzer, one who told the truth and was killed.
May 16, 2012•14 min
ARCHIVE: TREVOR BARNES ON THE APPEARANCE OF ROBOCOP
The pending Olympics are ‘an excuse for normalising the deployment of Action-men and women packing more heat than soldiers in Afghanistan’. [Image courtesy of Trojan631 via flickr.com ©©]
May 04, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: TREVOR BARNES ON ‘THE FRIGHTENERS’ BEING PUT ON US ALL...
Our children are in danger, yes, but ‘from the jobsworth’s mindset, and from the rule book untempered by common sense’
Apr 30, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: TREVOR BARNES ON WHY WE SHOULD BE ON OUR GUARD
‘I hate cigarettes, but as they’re legal people must be allowed to smoke them whether or not it hastens disease...’ Politicians should not intervene.
Apr 19, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: JULIE BINDEL ASKS WHY SO MANY BENEFITS FOR PARENTS
‘I often think that smug mums and dads will soon insist on pushchair lanes so that they don’t have to bother with us childless pavement pests’
Apr 13, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: JULIE BINDEL ON AN 'UNJUSTIFIABLE PROTECTION'
The mother of the Yorkshire Ripper’s last victim discovered the police cannot be sued for negligence. 28 years later, the situation is the same. This is a scandal – not least for rape victims, who are often not believed.
Apr 05, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: COLD WAR SYMBOL FOR A GENERATION part 2
The Berlin Wall, guarded for 28 years, saw many violent deaths and many ingenious escapes. Gerry Northam reports.
Mar 23, 2012•11 min
ARCHIVE: COLD WAR SYMBOL FOR A GENERATION part 1
How and why the Berlin Wall went up 50 years ago.
Mar 23, 2012•9 min
ARCHIVE: JULIE BINDEL ON THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN
Hundreds of troops die, yes, but thousands of civilians. And what do those soldiers – 404 so far – die for, exactly? [Image courtesy of AghanistanMatters via flickr.com ©©]
Mar 14, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: JULIE BINDEL ON WHY PAYING FOR SEX IS WRONG
‘Prostitution is a cause and consequence of women’s inequality... Men need to be educated out of the belief that paying for sex can ever be a right’. [Image courtesy of Cédric Puisney via flickr.com ©©]
Mar 09, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: TREVOR BARNES ON HEALTH AND SAFETY 'MADNESS'
Where exactly was common-sense while 'appropriately-trained personnel' had to be summoned to fish the body out of three feet of water? [Image courtesy of Tomorrow Never Knows via flickr.com ©©]
Mar 02, 2012•3 min
ARCHIVE: ASSISTED DYING DIGNITY IN DEATH OR SOCIAL PESSIMISM?
The clash on a call for legalised assisted dying, without fear of prosecution
Feb 28, 2012•17 min