10 Million UK jobs at risk

Opinion Ten million British jobs could be gone in 15 years. No one knows what happens next John Harris The reality of automation is becoming clear – and it’s terrifying. So why is there so little thinking among politicians about those who...

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At last a pesticide ban

from The Guardian 27/04/18   The European Union will ban the world’s most widely used insecticides from all fields due to the serious danger they pose to bees. The ban on neonicotinoids, approved by member nations on Friday, is expected to come...

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Humane and enlightened liberals who love animals

Just as the S.S. killed people in gas chambers and did not think of themselves as committing a horrific crime but, on the contrary, persuaded themselves that they were performing a noble deed on behalf of the Reich, so...

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Information Overload

I.O.   (Woman is taking her husband to the doctor)   W: He’s really ill.  I think he’s got Information Overload.   D:  Does he talk in his sleep?   (M keeps surreptitiously reaching for the mobile phone in his pocket and wife keeps guiding away his...

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Which is more than be said for most of the bishops

Confronted with the New Testament accounts of the risen Lord suddenly appearing in the room and asking if you have anything to eat I feel much as one might when faced with a text which has letters you can...

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Le Gentleman Britannique that smug and complacent bounder

Are the air strikes against Syria justified?   In the frame of reference within which we habitually operate yes.  Within the frame of reference within which we ought to be operating no.  Clearly Russsia is telling lies and Putin is an...

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Chartres (4): The Statues

The extraordinary characteristic of sculpture is that it gives weight, solidity and inescapable physical reality to abstract ideas.    Think of those Greek kouroi again.   They are portrayals of impossibly beautiful human beings, ideals that on this earth never existed. ...

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Chartres (3) The Glass

An important source for the Chartrean philosophy of light was the writing of Pseudo-Denis.  He was called Pseudo- because he was thought originally to have been a companion of St Paul although he was probably, in fact, a fifth...

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Chartres (2)

Medieval churches and cathedrals were supposed to be images of the heavenly Jerusalem.   Hence Romanesque churches are nearly always decorated with pictures of mosaics of Christ reigning in majesty, and nearly always over the porch of the main entrance...

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What the eye doesn’t (absolutely doesn’t) see

I have never felt so close to Jesus in my prayer life as this past Lent because sympathising with someone who is suffering acutely I can understand. But meeting someone who has risen from the grave I can't understand,...

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