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A heroic trip to Swansea’s Quadrant Bus station
Last Tuesday (21st February), BBC Radio 4′s pm programme broadcast a memorable interview. It was part of their ‘take a leap’ campaign, challenging people to do something extraordiary on 29th February...
View ArticleLet’s hear it for constitutional amendments (or: the Demands of Democracy)
It’s rather early on a Sunday morning, and I am already on the train to Cardiff, determined to get there in time to vote on a few constitutional amendments. Yes, it’s that time of year again – it’s a...
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Greek Treasures: ancient and modern
I just came across this opinion piece in the LA times of 26th February by James Romm, a scholar I admire greatly. Portrait bust of Pericles (Roman copy). Inscribed: 'Pericles son of Xanthippus,...
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Subject to a right royal confusion
(with thanks to Don Kranz, whose blog is a real inspiration, for luring me out of work-induced blog hibernation!) It’s Diamond Jubilee weekend, and a time to think about the role of the monarchy, and...
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What the Church of England is really saying about same-sex marriage
Guest post by Alan Renwick, Reader in Comparative Politics, University of Reading @alanjrenwick Confused about the Church of England’s arguments concerning same-sex marriage? Here is a brilliant...
View ArticleBritish Academia: abandoning the next generation
The fate of young academics in UK universities looks increasingly bleak: the chance to reach paid employment as an academic in the Arts and Humanities increasingly depends not only on talent and a...
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London 2012 and the Pastoral Idyll
(Do shepherds dream of idyllic sheep?) Danny Boyle’s set for the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony A few weeks ago, when the design for at least part of the Olympic opening ceremony was revealed, I...
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Open Access Publishing – but who will pay?*
Guardian front page, 12th July 2012 Today’s Guardian front page offers an encouraging headline: Free access to British scientific research within two years. The idea is that by 2014 all publications of...
View ArticleWelsh Higher Education Madness
During the last few days universities have been concentrating on Clearing, the process whereby students can find places in university courses in the days after they receive their A-level results, and...
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Critical Reading, Online Scare Stories – and the Death Star
Yesterday, a petition from avaaz started going round the internet. It spread very rapidly, through twitter and Facebook. Many generally thoughtful, concerned people passed it on, some with words of...
View ArticleI am back!
Wipes away the cobwebs… I have been absent for a long time. There are reasons, and I hope to blog about that sometime in the future. In short, I haven’t been very well, but I hope things are getting...
View ArticleCall the Royal Baby Mohammed – here is why:
As everybody is still speculating about the names for the royal baby, there are two distinct approaches: one is to find the name that would seem silliest with the royal number I behind it, and the...
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On Pledges Carved in Stone
Milistele unveiled Yesterday, just four days before the election, the Leader of the UK Labour Party, Ed Miliband, unveiled an eight-foot limestone slab, carved with his six main election promises....
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Why we should all get our roofs from Sparta*
Work on my Peloponnesian League book is finally starting to happen, so it’s time to dust off the blog again. I hope odd little things like today’s discovery will go here. At the moment I am working on...
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How to make history historical…
Yesterday, an entirely farcical event took place on the Thames in London, as a stunt by the Brexit campaign, designed to highlight the concerns of fishermen, turned into a scuffle carried out with...
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Why Boris should have remembered the Ostracism of Hyperbolus
UK Politics is just too distracting these days. Today we arrived at a point where both main parties are in the middle of differently shambolic leadership contests. These last few crazy days have...
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What’s a person’s REAL name?
As Iceland is playing another game in the European championship we shall yet again see the international media struggle with Icelandic names. The typical newspaper article talks of say, Kolbeinn...
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On the Freedom to Travel and Unified Continents
I admit it. When it comes to politics I will always remain a dreamer. I put it down to the fact that I grew up so close to the Iron Curtain, and that 1989 was the most formative year of my life,...
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Olympic Superstars – ancient and modern
Some of yesterday’s papers (for example the New York Times and the Daily Telegraph) have a report that Michael Phelps has just beaten a 2167* year-old record which had been held, for all that time, by...
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Caster Semenya and women at the Olympics
I just came across this excellent article about gender and Olympic disciplines or competitive sport more generally, starting with the case of gold-medal winning runner Caster Semenya who has faced so...
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