Simon Varwell's Blog, page 6
May 1, 2017
Review: Skating to Antarctica, by Jenny Diski
This post is a part of my year-long quest in 2017 to read only female-authored travel writing. Find out more about it on the project’s main page.
April 11, 2017
Preview: Skating to Antarctica, by Jenny Diski
This post is a part of my year-long quest in 2017 to read only female-authored travel writing. Find out more about it on the project’s main page.
March 30, 2017
Review: Travels With My Radio, by Fi Glover
This post is a part of my year-long quest in 2017 to read only female-authored travel writing. Find out more about it on the project’s main page.
March 13, 2017
Brexit, the EU and Scottish independence
I blogged a couple of weeks ago in what I feared might be the first in a second wave of posts about Scottish independence. Going by today’s announcement that the Scottish Government will seek permission to hold a second referendum, it looks very much like my fears will be realised.
A few thoughts I’ve had bubbling in my mind regarding the question relate to the very origin of this second movement for independence: the Brexit referendum of June 2016. In that controversial vote, the United King...
March 6, 2017
Preview: Travels With My Radio, by Fi Glover
This post is a part of my year-long quest in 2017 to read only female-authored travel writing. Find out more about it on the project’s main page.
March 4, 2017
Review: Full Tilt, by Dervla Murphy
This post is a part of my year-long quest in 2017 to read only female-authored travel writing. Find out more about it on the project’s main page.
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February 27, 2017
Here we go again
With the prospect of a second independence referendum beginning to dominate the already crowded political debate in Scotland, I had in recent days been dusting down my keyboard to prepare to enter the Scottish political blogosphere once more.
My first post was going to be about the chief reason for the return of independence as a question: last year’s vote for Brexit. And I will write about that in a later post.
But it’s been temporarily overtaken in the news and in my mind by a second issue...
February 11, 2017
A proportional response
It’s hard to know where to start on how and why the UK is a sick, failed country that is letting its people down and unfit for purpose.
The incompetent government we currently have, driving a vile, unethical foreign policy and wreaking havoc with a disastrous march towards Brexit? The deep-rooted racism in our country, which is a (literally) bloody legacy of centuries of imperialism, jingoism, ignorance and a bigoted media? The gross inequality? The march towards private sector influence inan...
February 8, 2017
What can I do?
These are politically extraordinary times. Though readers are welcome (and likely) to replace “extraordinary” with a whole host of (probably negative) adjectives.
Uppermost in the causes of these extraordinary times is the election of Donald Trump as President of the USA. Despite the USA having elected some horrible presidents in recent years (and a monumentally disappointing one in Barack Obama – but that’s another discussion), and the country seriously lacking in a number of areas (inequali...
February 3, 2017
Preview: Full Tilt, by Dervla Murphy
This post is a part of my year-long quest in 2017 to read only female-authored travel writing. Find out more about it on the project’s main page.
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