It was good to read a few years ago that faith leaders across the country had agreed that no one could possibly be offended by the celebration of the Christmas story in schools at this time of year.Read
You wait ages for a horseman of the apocalypse, and then several come along at once. First the economy collapses, then the climate changes, and then, to rub salt in the wound, along comes a pandemic.Read
Afghanistan has become like the weather: everyone complains about it but no one does anything about it, says Steve Hewitt, senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham. Read
There’s no doubt that public services switchboards have become much more professional recently. Not necessarily more helpful, but certainly more professional.Read
Last week we had one of our regular students and staff committee meetings at Newman. It’s an opportunity for our paymasters to tell us our lectures are not value for money, though thankfully they never have. Not yet anyway.Read
I’ve been in a lot of people’s living rooms recently. These are not, I hasten to add, the confessions of a full-time burglar or the boast of a regular socialite. It’s just that I was a talking head on Inside Out, the BBC Midlands’ magazine programme on Monday nights.Read
The annual address to the Girls’ Schools Association caused a stir because of its theme – that girls can’t ‘have it all’ after all and it’s about time schools started to wake girls up to the stark choices they will face as adult women.Read
I have recently finished uploading my venerable CD collection to my ipod so I can play what I want in the car. Proud as I was of being able to carry 7,375 songs around in my glove box, I was startled to hear my girlfriend complaining.Read
Last Saturday, as my birthday treat, we took ourselves down to Windsor. Remembrance Sunday is not the ideal day for negotiating the streets of this military town. Read
A once notorious miscarriage of justice in the Edwardian West Midlands, the Great Wyrley Outrages, is the subject for a new play by Birmingham writer David Edgar which will have its premiere at Birmingham Rep next spring.Read
