The double sickness at the heart of the USA – guns and racism – re-emerges with a mass shooting by a deranged teenager with an AR-15 at a supermarket in a predominately Black neighbourhood. 10 were killed with three injured. Despite having a mental health evaluation last year for making threats of shooting he was … Read more
Emmanuel Macron officially embarks this weekend on his Second Presidency for what looks like a tempestuous term ending in tears and tribulations. France itself is undergoing a seismic shift and series of convulsions between 2022 and 2025 and his own chart indicates banana skins galore, misjudgments and ultimately failure. He had a low-key swearing … Read more
There was a bizarre and slightly pathetic mise-en-scene for the Queen’s Speech with the Imperial State Crown minus its keeper sitting centre spotlight on a cushion, effectively upstaging Prince Charles who had to perform the political ritual. If it was a pointed reminder that the Queen had sworn lifelong devotion to the throne, it didn’t … Read more
The Good Friday agreement – ‘one of the great achievements of the turn of the century’ – brought to an effective end nearly thirty years of violence in Northern Ireland. The UK attorney- general Suella Braverman is now accusing the EU of putting the peace process at risk by holding the Johnson government to the … Read more
Sigmund Freud’s thinking had a profound effect on the 20th Century, becoming embedded in literature and movies as well as across the psychological field. Credited as the founder of psychoanalysis, he had a professional partnership then disagreement with Jung with both going their separate ways as egos and theories clashed. Both were ambitious men keen … Read more
The polls for the Australia election show a solid lead for Labor and Anthony Albanese over Scott Morrison’s coalition government. But the Australia country chart reeks of confusion and indecision; and neither of the two leaders looks cheered by the result, nor does the main financial backer of the independent candidates. The gap at … Read more
Carl Jung left a profound mark on the 20th Century, imprinting his ideas and theories across a wide field of psychology, anthropology, archaeology, literature, alchemy, the paranormal and religious studies. He focused on individuation, the process of integrating the opposites, the conscious and unconscious, and left behind important concepts like archetypes, the collective unconscious, extraversion … Read more
Fur is flying in an unbelievably nonsensical £3 million libel case – ‘a fiesta of fake tan and fury’ – in London between two mega-rich footballers’ wives over the leakage to the tabloid press of trivial social media gossip from a private group. Coleen Rooney, wife of bad boy Wayne, sourced the offending tales to … Read more
Mother Teresa, a global icon of compassion with an empire of orphanages for the poorest of the poor, who pulled favours from presidents, attracted a celebrity following, and raised hundreds of millions a year in charitable donations, was never the exalted saint she appeared. She won the Nobel Peace Prize, was canonised after her death … Read more
The SNP were the clear winners in the local elections in Scotland, collecting 453 seats, a gain of 23 on the 2017 result with Labour trailing behind on 282. Tories were down 63. Despite which a recent poll showed that less than a third of Scots voters want an independence referendum next year. The polls … Read more