Meet the Panelists – BBC Question Time 2009-2012

Apropos of my last article on tokenism and gender balance in the composition of BBC Question Time panels, I’ve now pulled together a complete list of the people who have made at least one appearance on a Question Time panel since January 2009 and am looking for a […]

In Defence of BBC Question Time

Via Cath Elliott I find that BBC Question Time has been criticised by a BBC ‘diversity report’ for allegedly featuring ‘token women’ on its panels: BBC1’s Question Time and Mock the Week have been criticised in a report about television diversity for featuring “token women” on their panels. […]

Did Paul Dirac turn down a Knighthood?

With the media showing a considerable degree of interest in the Cabinet Office’s list of people who declined to accept honours between 1951 and 1999, it is a matter of some considerably irony that something as simple as typographical error may have led the press to miss one […]

The Great Five GCSE Myth

One of the more interesting and widely cited, empirically verified, facts to emerge from the field of psychology in the last few decades is the fact that people have a marked propensity to overestimate their own abilities relative to other people. To put another way, if you ask […]

Who died and made you Allah?

Quite how or why LSE’s came to be called ‘The Beaver’ is not a matter on which I care to speculate. It has, however, published an article by a Tasif Zaman which nicely illustrates when the real cause from which the recent outbreak of the religious asshole virus […]

Policy vs Reality and the Limits of Law

One of more fascinating articles I’ve read of late is a commentary by SkepticLawyer on a developing defamation case in Australia in which a prominent anti-porn campaigner, Melinda Tankard-Reist, is threatening to sue a skeptical blogger, Jennifer Wilson, for having the temerity to pose awkward questions about Tankard-Reist’s […]

Abortion Counselling consultation resurfaces

As one idiotic idea fades temporarily (?) into the background with the withdrawal of Nadine Dorries’ misconceived abstinence education bill from last Friday’s House of Commons order paper, another resurfaces in the form of proposals to alter the current framework for pre-abortion counselling which are, in part, a […]

Rape and CJS/CPS performance (revised)

CORRECTIONS When dealing with statistics its important to check not only your figures but also your assumptions. For example, if a government agency, such as the CPS, publishes a report with the title ‘Violence Against Women’ then the natural assumption is that all the data in the report […]

Little Dorries

If it hasn’t already registered, 2012 is the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Dickens, and if Dickens is your kind of thing then you’ll be well catered for over the next few months as there are something of the order of 18 separate radio and television programmes […]

Abortion and Mental Health – Why Choice Really Matters.

Having read the Christian Medical Fellowship desperate attempt to put their own spin on the outcome of the NCCMH’s newly published systematic review of the mental health impact of induced abortion I’ve come to the conclusion that the organisation is in dire need of a change of name. […]