An exasperating battle for our children’s rights
Every year many parents of children with disabilities in the UK have to play an absurd game with their local education authority. In principle, it is a process to define the special educational needs for their child that puts in a legally binding statement the steps which the authority will take to make provision for [...]
Ten words soon to be extinct in British English
Over the last ten years or so, I’ve been noticing changes in the words that speakers of British English use. Some of those changes are due to the adoption of American English words, others are simply through misunderstanding. Here is an utterly subjective and unscientific survey of some of the changes that I have noticed. [...]
Down’s Syndrome: Things I wish I had known
A contributor to the UK Down’s Syndrome mailing list recently posted this list in respect of her daughter, Karen, who has Down’s Syndrome and is in her twenties. In many ways it reflected our own thoughts about Little A. It’s well worth reading if you have just been told that your baby has, or is [...]
Honesty and Capitalism
Those of us who live in capitalist liberal democracies are used to the idea of businesses having “mission statements”. Indeed they are so common, one wonders if they are bought off the shelf, so evasively coy are some of them: “To be the best supplier of X product in our chosen marketplace.” “To be the [...]
Male Bashing
This lady says some stuff that resonates with me. She’s grumpy, uses bad language and the idiom is American, but see past that and I think she makes some good points. See Idiocy Is Gender Neutral Incidentally, for those who have found some of my recent posts less jolly than they used to be, I’m [...]
Cultural prejudice and booksellers’ responsibility
I’ve just returned from a trip to a bookshop in Gloucester. Browsing the history section, I noted that the shelves containing books on German history were dominated by books on the Second World War, the Nazis and the Holocaust. One of the very few books that had significant coverage of Germany before 1933 was itself [...]
Dialect prejudice?
In dramatic shorthand, a working class character in a film is often given the dialect and/or accent of English of someone from from the southwest of the country, or perhaps a Midlands or northern accent. For example, consider the dialect and accent of Sam Gamgee, the gardener and manservant to the upper-middle class (Standard English/Received [...]
Barbados Free Press
21 Plus
Down’s Syndrome Association
Extra-Relish
MsMarmitelover
The Hardwick
Valentine Warner
De Void
Earthfiles.com
Forteana
Mirage Men
UFOs – Leslie Kean's site
Veddw Voice
Inky Fool
