There seems to be a new tactic being adopted in Gaza of striking people queueing for food and water. Twice in the past couple of days have we had reports of such strikes, both killing significant numbers of people with a high proportion of children amongst the victims. The first, hitting a queue for...

I've always been deeply suspicious of charities. I'm absolutely sure that there are many individuals who are motivated by nothing more than - well - charity, to set up funds and organisations in order to deal, support or otherwise pay for this or that situation, but I'm also acutely aware that there...

Now I wonder if we're talking the same thing here? We call the crispy skin you can get on a well cooked leg of pork 'crackling'. But we also have a thing we call 'pork scratchings' that is essentially the same thing, but produced commercially and sold in bags, without any lean meat as it were. Maybe...

The BBC's Jeremy Bowen says he's spoken to senior Western diplomats about their government's nervousness that they may be seen as "complicit in future criminal investigations", if they don't speak up about "the catastrophe inside Gaza." And well they might be. Given the material ...

In a lovely bit of juxtaposition that I don't think the BBC intended, their website this morning features a piece this morning recording that actress/designer Jane Birkin's original Hermes handbag has just gone under the hammer for a whopping 7.4 million pounds - and another telling us that in New Y...

Defence Minister (Israel Katz) says Israel plans to concentrate all Gaza's population in 'humanitarian' zone built on Rafa's ruins. So runs a headline in Haaretz, Israel's oldest and most widely read left wing newspaper - an organ which to its credit has chronicled the post October 7th operation in...

Been back in the Commonwealth (Fallout 4) for the last couple of days. Literally just wandering. There's no other game that is quite like it for just wandering around investigating stuff. I start by heading off somewhere (on foot with Dogmeat, my constant companion) and simply see where it goes. I f...

Now I always struggle with crackling. I love it - particularly on a nice leg of pork - but I find it difficult to achieve on belly pork for some reason. I know you should salt it, and score it etc (you can even start it off with a good dousing with boiling water) but for me it's never been very succ...

385 to 26. That's the number of MPs who voted 'aye' as opposed to 'no' in respect of adding activist group Palestine Action to the Terrorism Act 2000 (proscribed organisations) list. That they would not support the activities of the group is not necessarily surprising. Some will simply not be in sup...

Only those who have been living under a rock can have been suprised at the Financial Times revelation that the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) was balls deep in the notorious Donald Trump plan to relocate all the Palestinian population from Gaza and turn the place into a "riviera" and technolog...

Just a quick post to share my sympathies for the terrible tragedy unfolding in Texas. Children on their Summer Camps lost and heartache of epic proportions in the devastated communities affected. God speed to those lost and prayers for the safe return of those missing even at this late stage in the ...

Belly Pork is a cheap cut of pork that done properly can rival the very best cuts that you can buy. Good pork is really difficult to find these days; the tendency for the meat to have 'boar taint' is widespread and while I'm not sure what causes this (ie what changes in production methods) I find it...

I recently watched the documentary Gaza: Doctors Under Attack , originally intended for airing by the BBC, but suspended and then finally cancelled (allowing for its showing on Channel 4 instead), due to "impartiality concerns." Impartiality concerns? Of course it's impartial! The story re...

29 Protesters were arrested yesterday in Parliament Square, London, "on suspicion of terror offences," following the coming into effect of the ban on the now proscribed group Palestine Action. I'm not suprised that the BBC didn't want to report on this on its 6pm broadcast [or maybe there'...

If you take the lower 50 percent of the American population - the base of the earnings pyramid if you like - they earn 2.5 percent of the national income. Half the population: 2.5 percent of the total national income. Take the forty percent of the population that sit above that, and their share of t...

I'll just put a follow up to yesterday's post in first, in that the Labour minister replying to Jeremy Corbyn in the House, when the latter was making just the compliant I'd made about the lumping in of Palestine Action in with those other groups, made exactly my point. He said there was "prece...

It might be assumed that some number amongst the 650 UK MPs may be concerned about the home secretary Yvette Cooper's decision to proscribe the affirmative action group Palestine Action as a terrorist group, membership or promotion of which can land you with up to 14 years in prison (and that's even...

James O'brien was yesterday trying to make sense of why disability claims have gone up by forty percent in the UK since the end of the pandemic. He tentatively suggested that "perhaps the virus might have had something to do with it," and then immediately said with scorn in his voice, &quo...

(Continued from the above post, and if you haven't read that one I urge you to do so - it contains important background to the following report without which you might struggle as I do, to give it credence, so unbelievable is its content.) First thing I'd say is I really struggle to think I'll have ...

Haaretz , founded in 1918, is Israel's oldest running newspaper. It is described by Wikipedia as "Israel's newspaper of record," meaning that it is the newspaper with the biggest circulation who's news gathering is considered "authoritative and independent." It, says Wikipedia, ...