My dad taught me to swim the old fashioned way by throwing me into the water. It worked too. I’m a very confident swimmer. Although trying to get out of the sack was a little hard because he’d always tie the knot too tight.
Month: January 2018
Gavin’s Joke of the Day: 22 Jan 2018
A nun and a lawyer die on the same day and arrive at heaven’s gate together. St Peter is there to greet them and reassures them that they have been expected. “Follow me”, he says and he leads the pair through the streets of heaven. He arrives at an opulent mansion with gold embossed features, […]
Gavin’s Joke of the Day: 21 Jan 2018
We had a congregational lunch at church last week. Rather than the usual sandwiches and sausage rolls, the vicar had cooked up a huge batch of spaghetti carbonara. Which was great, because I was hungry. But he insisted on chatting with everybody as he dished it up; and after 20 minutes I was still queuing […]
Don’t believe the hype: it isn’t “Blue Monday” next week
Don't let people tell you that you should be miserable, just so a PR company can sell something.
Toby Young’s reserved un-reserved apology is to be welcomed
Toby Young’s decision to resign as a non-executive director of the embryonic quango Office for Students is to be welcomed. As is his “unreserved apology” for his past comments that made his appointment untenable. Even though his unreserved apology is somewhat reserved. His statement suggests that he doesn’t actually get what the furore is about. […]
Violence against women is a sin
Yesterday, during an interview with Ed Stourton on BBC Radio Four’s Sunday programme, I mentioned a video produced by church leaders in Fiji (listen here, from 12’22”). The ecumenical campaign saw Anglican, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Salvation Army, Methodist, evangelical and other church leaders deliver a very clear and unambiguous message: “violence against women and children […]
It is time to end the secrecy and infallibility of the Parole Board
The Parole Board has come in for a lot of attention in the past few days, after its decision to release serial predatory rapist John Worboys was announced on Thursday afternoon. But despite this attention, its work is shrouded in secrecy. Unlike any other aspect of the criminal justice system, the Parole Board’s work is […]
How many times can a man get away with killing his wife and girlfriends?
In 1981 Theodore Johnson killed his wife, Yvonne by hitting her over the head with a vase before pushing her off the balcony of their flat in Wolverhampton. He claimed manslaughter by provocation, saying that his wife wouldn’t let him go to church because he wasn’t dressed well enough. The CPS accepted his plea and […]
Just how dangerous is “Black Cab Rapist” John Worboys?
The Parole Board have decided that John Worboys can be released from his indeterminate sentence. He was convicted at Croydon Crown Court on 13 March 2009 of one count of rape, five sexual assaults, one attempted assault and 12 drugging charges, committed between July 2007 and February 2008. The judge, Mr Justice Penry-Davey, handed down […]