Doing it for the greater good

"Is there any one of the Royal Family who wants to be king or queen? I don't think so," Prince Harry is reported as saying this week. A quote that's likely to have pleased his family as much as his divorced starlet/humanitarian girlfriend and his desire to "modernize the monarchy." His further explanation “we will …

Grieving together for the darling buds of May

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles to-day To-morrow will be dying. Robert Herrick (1648) And in this week of terror, terrible grief and collective mourning we may find some consolation to think of those killed and injured like Herrick's ‘rosebuds’; cherished and adored. The rosebud, simply the …

Born bad or grew bad? Our Teen Killers

Mary Bell in 1968 (who as an 11 year old strangled two little boys "solely for the pleasure and excitement of killing") and Jon Venables and Robert Thompson in 1990 (who aged 10, lured two-year-old James Bulger to his death on a railway track) shocked us deeply but they were thought an anomaly.  So rare, not even a thing. But …

Welcome to the pleasure park – the happiest place on earth

The grainy photo footage of the Alton Towers Smiler accident, released this week, put pictures of the smash in our minds forever as truly terrifying (and confirmed our instinctual fear of rollarcoaster rides. It's ok, you know, to question the sanity of taking a ride  with 14 inversions).  "Human error" was blamed for the serious injuries of  five riders;  two …

“My sin, my soul”. How Lolita can help us understand our sexual predators

It's a week the BBC hopes passes quickly, with other news becoming more dominant but the publication of Dame Janet Smith’s report on the sexual abuse carried out by Jimmy Saville will mean a permanent record is now part of it's history. The media is full of comment and opinion.  I have only a small thing to add to this; I …