Home Blogs & Comment Birmingham Columnists Sarah Evans

So many reasons not to eat fellow mammals

National Vegetarian Week starts today! As a vegetarian of many years, I am using the occasion to stand up to be counted and point out to all those carnivores out there, the folly of their ways. Read

There is no place for inspectors in our schools

I wonder whether there are children who, when asked what they want to do when they grow up, say "I want to be an inspector" or "I want to work for the Audit Office". Read

Public turns its back on politics

I always remember on May Day, a story my grandmother used to tell my sister and me on our childhood visits to her home in Aberdare. Read

Derby day antics bring disgrace to human race

There are the great mysteries of life that most of us wrestle with from time to time. Is there a God? Why is there suffering? Are we alone in the universe? Is there existence after physical death? And then there is - why professional football? Read

A state of anxiety and a playful kitten called plato

The idea that pets are good for you because they reduce stress seems to me one of those pieces of scientific nonsense that like lots of other science flies in the face of all common sense. Since we acquired a kitten, Plato, last Autumn, I have been in a constant state of anxiety. Read

Throw open the vaults and let art see the light

There is something rather dreadful about locking works of art away. Paintings, musical instruments, jewellery sit in secure store rooms and dark vaults hidden away from human sight to appreciate in value, to protect them from damage and sometimes just because there is no where else for them to be. Read

Put the accent on the whole person

It was unfortunate that just as Birmingham was hosting its first major city 'style' event, the media should have highlighted a paper from the British Psychological Society's annual conference that showed Birmingham accents were associated with stupidity and criminality. Read

Reading 'progress' is enough to make you weep

I admit it. I am one of the adults derided by the Director of the National Year of Reading, Honor Wilson-Fletcher, in her comments last week on a survey about teens' reading habits. Read

Making the most of an early break

Last week Easter couldn't come soon enough. Even one more day at work would bring everyone to physical and mental collapse. Read

Values are fundamental to social well-being

More 'The Secret Seven' meets 20th century anthropology than earth shattering 2008 strategy, is how the headlines heralded last week's reports on Lord Goldsmith's review of citizenship. Read

Making the most of a lifetime

So - just believing you are taking some chemical to make you feel better, does the job just as well as taking the real thing. Read

A brave, new plastic-free world is in the bag

Eliminate plastic carrier bags and save the planet. That was the stirring message Marks & Spencer proclaimed to the world last week. Read

Take another look at city's heart of gold

Within a few days of each other, there appeared in this paper two front-page stories that illustrate the contrasting and conflicting challenges of the built environment. Read

Relief after lost kitten's adventures end happily

It is absolutely the case that there is nothing like personal experience to extend the range of your empathy with other people. I have never been able to understand how anyone could risk their life for an animal. Read

Building a community comes from the heart

All our political parties know strong local communities would help solve more problems than they create but because initiatives politicians bring forward always feed from the top down, the fire is never lit. Read

Cooking up a scary legacy

My fond family members might - just occasionally - call me bossy, but even I would not start laying down the law about other people's lunch boxes. The idea that anyone outside the home should stipulate what a child has in his or her lunch box seems to cry out "police state" - and yet that is what our government would like schools to do. Mother does not know best. Read