The election has just been, poll stations closed an hour or two ago. On the northern line, somewhere downtown before midnight, a middle class looking young white woman is wrapped in a red scarf and on her bag of leather, potentially fake (‘vegan’), a Labour sticker is already starting to peel off. Her pretty face is one of sadness this evening and as the carriage travels stubbornly along in …
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When everyone talks with one voice – You should get suspicious. As of healthcare, Johnson and Corbyn, and most others, don’t seem to be able to say anything else than “more money to the NHS.” Holy cows are subjects that have, for whatever reason, become so charged that a free and open-minded discussion is impossible. Through letting emotions rule over reason, they are distorting the …
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Faces of Jerusalem
November 2019 Arab girl playing in the old city. She and her friend insisted on giving me sweets. A young police officer shows flattered embarrassment when I asked if I could take her picture. If you come across a Haredi jew who looks you happily in the eye while he kicks off an English pop song for you on his guitar; you can be sure he is a Ba'al Teshuva. A Jew who has …
My friend, it’s never too late
Every other morning, on the stairs outside my door, there’s an empty bottle of Glen’s vodka. Someone sits there, very close to me, and drinks his Glen’s several times every week. Who is it? I’ve started to think about him (her?). This thirsty guy is my fellow Finchley resident and I feel sorry for him. It doesn’t have to be like this. Thing is, I’ve been in similar places myself, but I’ve …
I hurt more than you
I never looked after David Cameron’s son Ivan who died 2009. But colleagues did. The Guardian wrote in an editorial the other day that “Mr Cameron has known pain and failure in his life but it has always been limited failure and privileged pain.” Well, I knew this already. At the paediatric hospital where I soon after Mr Cameron’s family trauma occurred was going to do a seven-year stint as a …
Something new happening
George Bush Senior was in the white house, John Major in no 10 and no one knew what the internet was. I’d just been a week on a train and I was barely an adult. Beijing was sunny, the air cold and crisp (the smog was yet to arrive) and the streets crammed with bicycles. I’d never seen so many. Chairman Mao’s eyes looked down at me from a huge portrait on the red brick wall framing the …
