Published in The Independent (February 20th, 2013) The headlines were dominated yesterday by an alleged murder in South Africa, a huge diamond heist in Belgium and the Prime […]
Disability / Policy / Social care
We’re all living longer. How afraid should we be?
Published in The Independent (February 11th, 2013) On the day I was born in 1962, the number of British centenarians was in three figures. Since then numbers have […]
Health / Policy
Victims of our blind faith in the NHS
Published in The Independent (February 7th, 2013) It is just seven months since the NHS was presented to a baffled world as one of the great features of […]
Afghanistan / Africa / Aid / Mali / Politics / World
Save lives Mr Cameron, but don’t imagine you need to save Africa
Published in The Independent (February 2nd, 2013) This week, the Prime Minister went to Africa.Struggling to achieve anything at home thanks to the shaky state of her coalition, […]
Economics
Tax, transparency and a titanic fight for power
Published in The Independent (January 26th, 2013) Davos is a rather absurd jamboree– so important to those who attend it and so irrelevant to the rest of the […]
Africa / Mali
Stop the march of these deadly extremists
Published in The Independent (January 14th, 2013) For centuries, Mopti has been one of the most important cities in the Sahel, the trading post where the Saharan desert […]
Africa / Aid / General
Aid groups have blinded Britain to the realities of Africa
Published in The Independent (January 9th, 2013) Recep Erdogan, the astute prime minister of Turkey, is on a tour of Africa. His entourage includes 300 business leaders from […]
Politics
Churches’ hostility to gay marriage only underlines their impotence
Published in The Independent (December 28th, 2012) Like millions of other Roman Catholics, Ruth Hunt attended mass on Christmas Day. She was joined by about 150 other devotees at […]
Africa / Equatorial Guinea / Politics
When naive good intentions meet corrupt kleptocracy
Published in The Independent (November 24th, 2012) Having been flown over on the luxurious presidential jet, we sat for a while in a hotel bar, watching a local […]
Politics
Tories picked the wrong person for the job
Published in The Independent (November 19th, 2012) No textbooks have been written in homage to the brilliance of the Libertas campaign for the 2009 European Parliament elections. The […]
Police / Policy / Politics
Polls, policing and a poor public service
Published in The Independent (October 24th, 2012) Are you excited over the prospect of voting next month for your local police chief? I suspect not; you may not even […]
Disability / Social care
Killing kindness with red tape
Published in The Independent (October 9th, 2012) Kenny’s life in not easy. He is blind, unable to speak, needs help with eating and drinking and suffers seizures that […]