On 17 February 1894, the Sun newspaper published the last in a series of five articles which accused a lunatic of being Jack the Ripper. The British tabloids have a longstanding tradition of blending fiction and speculation, and this is a fine early example. The value to researchers lies in the response. Chief Constable Melville […]

This week I watched an ABC documentary that looked at how a group of refugees from the Congo settled in Shepparton, Victoria, and revitalised the local Lutheran community. Given the obvious success of this resettlement project, and the valid moral reasons for helping victims of war and persecution, why can’t Australia offer a home to more of […]

The news that Peter Capaldi is stepping down as Doctor Who has provoked the usual debate about his replacement being a woman or black. In recent times the series has established that either is possible but it should not be done for the sake of political correctness. Hopefully the production team will pick the best […]

This week I took my daughter to see the latest animated movie, Sing, on the day before she started school. We were the only people in the cinema, making for a very personal experience. Animation has moved on from the cartoons of my childhood and the current trend is anthropomorphism. Technological advances allow writers and […]

Keep it simple is the theme behind an increased push for a basic income. The idea is gaining momentum with trials in Finland, Holland, and Canada. By making a small payment to all citizens the government can move away from an increasingly complex welfare state, reducing fraud and incentivising acceptance of casual work. It also […]

The growing preference for quantity over quality has devalued university degrees and removed standards from television. Now it threatens the world’s greatest sporting event. This week it was announced that football’s world cup in 2026 will feature 48 teams, instead of 32. In defending the decision, FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, pointed to the success of […]

  Sometimes we can learn from old television programs. The 1970s sitcom Some Mother’s Do’Ave Em stands out in a golden era of British television comedy, and it can also help us find solutions to modern problems. There is an episode which features the manager of the employment exchange attempting to find a job for […]

31 December is an appropriate day to talk about perseverance. Lots of people make resolutions for at the start of a calendar year. Some are personal and others are career related. Few are achieved. Ten years ago, a University of Bristol study looked at 3000 people who had made resolutions, discovering that 88% of them […]

This Christmas Eve my cynicism is less than usual because of a man who died a century ago. My biggest writing project of 2016 was a biography of William Onion (also known as Spring Onions), the East End poet and possibly the most convicted person in history. He was born in poverty on Christmas Eve […]