Mentoring Off

Fear and loathing in Salford Keys … it’s grim up North?

The BBC remains the last bastion of non commercial media (notwithstanding the constant stream of adverts for its increasingly CDE programming). But the Schadenfreudic euphoria of the latest self immolation leaves you with the same kind of sinking melancholy, as when a parent totally embarrasses you in front of your nearest and dearest (aka dad [...]

Terry’s all gold; too many choc ices!

The vernacular term for the Summer in media is the Silly Season, but our dreich Summer has yielded an unprecedented bloom of hard news stories, none more so than the John Terry soap opera. Teenage kicks The kick it out campaign has been derailed, as at last a few black footballers have stood [...]

Irrational exuberance … by jingo

As Jamaica celebrates its 50th year of independence from Britain today, and we are inundated with the wall to wall jingoistic olympic propaganda, it’s worth reflecting on what independence has meant for the West Indies, and it’s populations. Britain in the face of the breakup of the Commonwealth eventually opted for the European Union as it [...]

Promissory notes and mental cheques.

Victorian Values The latest debacle in the banking crisis was given an appropriately surreal backdrop during the Victoria (I ain’t really that tabloid niggah ) Derbyshire phone in , when a caller had the chumpatz to question her bona fides as a phone in host, by asking a schoolboy finance question ; Did [...]

Unnecessary Ruffness … the Genesis of an icon.

Along with Che Guevara, Bob Marley is perhaps the most identifiable icon of the Twentieth Century. All the more ironic in that iconography runs counter to fundamental Christianity (and Islam), yet was the scriptural base of Marley’s canon ; Kevin Mcdonald’s film has enough ironies to appease the most ardent infidel. Forum of Solitude The [...]

Hyporatic oaths ? Da Mechant of Menace.

The Leveson enquiry has caught the headlines again this week as the Iago of of Fleet St. held court for two days. You could smell the fear (and by inference loathing) in the sychophantic questioning of Leveson’s QC’s as they fumbled to confront the evil genius that could make or break their career with [...]

Salvador : postcard from da edge

Well it’s my sixth week in Brazil & I haven’t been robbed … yet, if you exclude the guy who tried to charge me R$3 for a post card (£1 – a card costs about 30p). I’m on the beach in Salvador, the Black capital of Brazil. Most of the slaves landed here [...]