Charles Hawtrey died an untimely death. The Carry On actor, famed for playing eccentric and effete characters, was in real life a cantankerous alcoholic so devoted to the pursuit of gay sex that he moved to a naval town to be close to the sailors. When he was advised by doctors that he needed to have both legs amputated if he was going to live, he refused, deciding that he would rather die with his boots on. The attitude of many Remainers…
Gambling doesn’t exactly have a good reputation. Most Christian denominations are very chary of it (my mother’s church had only recently relaxed the ban on church tombolas when we moved to the area in 1978). It is haram for Muslims. Even among agnostics and atheists few would regard it as a laudable activity. Some of these moral objections come from the greed that the lure of large prizes can provoke. Some comes out of the potential impact on losers. We all have…
When you bet on football, by and large you know whether you’ve won or lost. There are rules. There’s a referee. You can argue about whether a goal should have been given but you can’t argue about whether it was given. There is little room for interpretation most of the time. Betting on politics is not always so straightforward. The refereeing is more complicated. Even when dealing with something as granular as vote-counting, the participants can and do sometimes argue…
Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a ma … I’m an interesting and important character. I don’t exist, will never exist, yet I lurk in the minds of millions and am discussed and written about constantly. Most fear me, some worship, only the hardiest, most detached souls are indifferent. Am I the Devil? No. As I say, I don’t exist. The Devil might. And He is not trading at a ridiculously short price in the current betting markets. Who…
It’s not exactly gone as Leavers planned, has it? We’ve reached the stage where they’re angrily blaming everyone else for the outcome, while simultaneously trying to claim that it’s glorious. It’s hard not to wince watching them doing the splits. For it turns out that many of the things that Remainers said were true. It wasn’t possible to leave the EU with the exact same benefits. It wasn’t the easiest deal in history. The eagles aren’t coming and the German…
What important news has slipped by barely noticed recently? The planet continues to warm up If you aren’t worried enough about Covid-19, try a side serving of global warming to keep you awake at night. This year should have been relatively cool, given that it was a year with La Nina, the converse of El Nino. But it seems to have been the third warmest on record for the planet. The last decade (2011-2020) was announced as the hottest on…