Ian Rees's Blog, page 14

Failure is an option

It is well known that football managers have a tough job, but if you are a Chelsea manager that job is several degrees tougher. So over the week-end André Villas-Boas became the latest in a line of talented coaches to fall in the face of the London club's perfectionism and impatience. From a neutral viewpoint (I don't really support any team) it has seemed inevitable that Villas-Boas was going to go sooner rather than later with Chelsea's failure to lead from the outset. Now that they are 'la...

Under the influence?

reuters.comI was asked over the weekend by an American visitor whether I thought the Anglican Church has any influence any more, a question I found rather difficult to answer. This is not because I am not a member of the Church of England – after all, anyone can express an opinion, based on their own experience, on whether they think the Established Church cuts any ice with general public – but rather because the answer seems to be both no and yes at the same time.

It is very much a 'no' if...

Look at the label

Carnival in Rio - nominal Christianity or an excuse for a party? (guardian.co.uk)The debate rumbles on: Richard Dawkins got into an argument with Giles Fraser on Radio 4 last week about whether Britain is still a Christian nation. Dawkins maintained that since a recent survey showed that most people who called themselves Christians held thoroughly secularised views on issues in public life and couldn't name one of the gospels into the bargain, these self-identified Christians therefore...

Rosebud

When I heard the news of Whitney Houston's death over the week-end I had just read an article in The Guardian about the top five regrets of the dying. The article in question was written by a palliative nurse who spent time caring for the terminally ill and she noticed common themes in people's regrets, so she writes a blog about this and has put her observations into a book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. I appreciate that Whitney Houston was not terminally ill and that her death...

Après moi, le déluge?

www.thediamondjubilee.orgWhat is British Christianity's greatest asset? According to Damian Thompson, writing in The Telegraph, it is the Queen. He says that she is "the most impressive religious leader in Britain", particularly in the way in which, usually in her Christmas message, she "affirms naturally, but unflinchingly and with no attempt at religious relativism, her faith in Jesus Christ." Her message for Christmas 2011 was particularly clear about God sending a Saviour with the power t...

Arise Fred Goodwin

Last night I cameacross the existence of an organisation I had never encountered before– not personally, you understand, just on the news – a shadowyagency at Westminster with a title worthy of George Orwell's 1984:The Forfeiture Committee. There is enough in that name to make theheart of the stoutest knight of the realm quake with fear - at leastafter last night - for this conclave of civil service enforcers hasthe power to strip the knight of his title, as Fred Goodwin ('Sir'yesterday, but ...

The truth about our leaders

It will be surprising if Meryl Streep doesn't win an Oscar (along with a Bafta and Golden Globe) for her mesmerising performance as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. There are naturally plenty of people who don't agree with Streep's interpretation of Thatcher's character – Norman Tebbit, not surprisingly, has been scathing about the film because he feels it portrays her as half-hysterical and over-emotional; others are unhappy with the way it focuses on her to the detriment of the men in...