Author: Max Frances
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No-BAME Culture
‘Diversity and inclusion have never been more important’. They’re at it again, all those boorish recruitment consultants, so-called brand specialists, and advertising gurus churning out whatever toss they think might snag them a hatful of clicks. And it’s always been important. Not more so now. It’s the concept of diversity that has never been more…
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Reading the Room
Freud once said that an angry child would destroy the world if it could. How very apt for the prevailing climate. How many times have you seen somebody slapped down with the riposte that they have ‘not read the room?’ It’s favoured wordspew of the sage social commentator and wannabe urban Guevara. The problem with…
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24/7
On 23 June, the Government offered up a perspective on masks: ‘the evidence of the benefit of using a face covering to protect others is weak and the effect is likely to be small’. As we now know, the world can change very quickly. The new norm dictates that the same goes for science. Not…
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New Flack City
It looks like a fraught debate about cancel culture is raging. Now I’m sufficiently sage to appreciate the apocryphal source of the term, having watched New Jack City back in the day. I say back in the day; it was actually around 2008, when I had a penchant for the 4 ex-rental DVDs for £10…
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Pop Go the Weasels
Some time ago, I raised the possibility that the Black Lives Matter strapline had been appropriated by every fake woke bandwagon-bandit under the sun. It was not a popular suggestion. Neither was the view that many had taken up their woke standpoint after a lifetime of pretending that racism didn’t exist. They were knee-deep in…
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You Don’t Say!
The sleepy town of Nailsea in North Somerset has twice made the news in the last week or so. Firstly, some wag affixed sticky eyes onto a statue of former Wurzels frontman Adge Cutler. Vandal-eyes-ed, as surprisingly nobody said. And now, an anonymous urbane guerrilla has printed out five A4 pages reading ‘It’s ok to…
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Fiscal Clear
Leicester, it seems, has drawn the short straw for ‘second wave’ lockdown regression, but is it all that clear-cut? You might argue that the UK never really went into lockdown in the first place. Of course, the Government issued its guidance and its regulations, and it shut businesses. Yet many pubs remained open, parties continued,…
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Fiefdom of Speech
The Twitter police have been sharpening their pitchforks and have disabled a number of high-profile accounts, most notably those of Katie Hopkins and the writer Graham Linehan. Others who stand firmly outside the liberal thought-orthodoxy circle of trust are next up for a jolly good forking. Inevitably, this has raised a furore about attacks on…
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Pronouns (Ho/Hum)
I’m starting to see this more and more. People introducing their pronouns on their social media profiles and email signatures. All this relates to those who consider themselves non-binary, or who may be transitioning/have transitioned, and who want to make sure that others do not misgender them. They used to be called PGPs or preferred…
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Bannerna Skin
The chap who organised the Burnley banner has been fired by his company, as has his girlfriend. In its statement the bloke’s employer concerned cited the banner ‘and other related issues’. Predictably, this has been interpreted by many within the social media wilderness as an attack on free speech. Whatever the ins and outs –…
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