One hour before deadline for this column, I had a panic attack. Panic attacks aren’t sudden bouts of fright, as the name might suggest, but episodes of acute, debilitating anxiety. Your heart palpitates, you struggle to breathe, and you break out in a cold sweat. You feel dizzy, nauseous and your hands and arms areContinue reading “It’s taboo to say a word against the NHS but it’s failing on mental health”
Monthly Archives: July 2018
Some replies to a tweet about Margaret Hodge
On Tuesday evening, I tweeted about a HuffPo story on Dame Margaret Hodge and Jeremy Corbyn. The site reported that the Labour MP had confronted the party leader and called him ‘a fucking antisemite and a racist’. (Dame Margaret quibbles only with the word ‘fucking’.) Pretty soon, I had to mute my notifications. Below isContinue reading “Some replies to a tweet about Margaret Hodge”
A wake-up call for Scottish Labour
Holyrood may be on summer recess but politics never takes a break. Fresh polling released on Friday had MSPs leaving the latest John le Carré behind on the sun lounger and heading off in search of a WiFi hotspot. Sunshine is one thing but nothing beats the restorative power of political gossip. The research fromContinue reading “A wake-up call for Scottish Labour”
The brave boys of Tham Luang give us hope in a world of despair
Television screens across the world, in every country and every language, are beaming the same images today. They show the rescue of children who have been trapped in a cave in the northernmost tip of Thailand. The twelve boys and their coach from the Wild Boars youth football team went on an outing to ThamContinue reading “The brave boys of Tham Luang give us hope in a world of despair”
Brexit tests that must apply to secure the Union
The SNP hysteria over imaginary power-grabs is galvanising the party faithful. But a bad deal as we leave the EU will allow Nationalists to ramp up the rhetoric – and encourage their fresh attempts to tear Scotland out of the UK, Stephen Daisley writes in the Scottish Daily Mail. ***** Will Britain survive Brexit? NestledContinue reading “Brexit tests that must apply to secure the Union”
It’s time for May to play her joker and reshuffle her troublesome pack
Nothing holds you back in politics quite like the millstone of received opinion. Leaders take soundings, study the polls and apply the lessons of history but they are not captive to them, servants of circumstance praying the Fates will turn benevolent soon. Leaders draw on instinct and principle to change their lot; they make their ownContinue reading “It’s time for May to play her joker and reshuffle her troublesome pack”
Stephen Daisley 