Monthly Archives: August 2012

Disabled people: heroes or scapegoats?

I wish the Paralympics well, but I can’t help noting a certain discrepancy between the celebration of the Games and the distinctly less celebratory attitudes towards the disabled that are prevalent in British society. Yesterday David Cameron said that the … Continue reading

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Nostalgia for the Light

On a rainy Bank Holiday evening, we drove through the last murky dregs of the-summer-that-never-was to Sheffield to see the Chilean director Patrizio Guzmán’s wonderful Nostalgia for the Light (Nostalgia de la Luz). Guzmán is a documentary  filmmaker and a … Continue reading

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Damages

It’s an unwritten law of international relations that some lives matter while others don’t matter at all.   In practice this means that some people – or peoples – can be killed with complete impunity by more powerful states, while civilians … Continue reading

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Michael Gove: Failure is an Opportunity

Downstairs on the living room table, the envelope containing my daughter’s GCSE results sits unopened, awaiting her return from Edinburgh later today.  We have resisted the temptation to fling ourselves upon it – or steam it open and take a … Continue reading

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