Tag: Psychology
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Mat Gloss
I hadn’t realised that the Olympic Games was on, because it has all been somewhat low-key. Don’t worry if you too hadn’t noticed – it’s so far been excruciating but very 21st century, and that’s not just the skateboarding and BMXing. Russia has been banned, so all the Russians who haven’t been caught chewing horse…
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Bloody Clots
Probability is a funny only thing. We can become as despondent about our vanishing chances of winning the lottery as we might become paranoid about being afflicted by a rare illness, and both at about the same percentages. Current odds of a fatal blood clot after being spritzed with the AZ vaccine are approximately 1…
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Collars and Cuffs
Tragic news from Croydon where a Police Custody Sergeant has been shot dead in a secure custody suite. Nothing can detract from the awful reality that a man has lost his life. Most telling, though, is the gamut of reactions on social media. Pro-police commentators have trumpeted that the Sergeant was ‘murdered’. Others are beyond…
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The Competitive Hedge
Not many have been impervious to boorish professional sports stars banging on about how they hate to lose games with their colleagues – and even their kids – because they are ‘so competitive’. These dullards merrily recount how they storm off in a strop at any ‘defeat’ inflicted on them, wearing their hissy chagrin like…
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Building a Fence
I’m offended. Well, I’m not, but it seems that wherever you look, somebody is. Many whip out the offence card in an attempt to magic up come sort of legitimate censorship. Nobody has a right not to be offended and if they genuinely are, it doesn’t mean that they are either right or have the…
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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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Clap Doubt
The 8pm clap from Westminster Bridge on Thursday. Flashing blue lamps from rows of emergency vehicles and officers standing shoulder to shoulder mingling with the assembled crowds to offer their own tribute to the NHS. The Police Commissioner was leading the throbbing mass to boot. And at a stroke, we witnessed the most public flouting…
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Honour Marks, Get Set…
I’ve never been one for awards and medals – I sussed out the scam while a mere lad at school. After penning a superlative account of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s return from exile in France, I was awarded a coveted gold star. Emerging triumphant and euphoric from the headmaster’s office, I encountered the class dunderhead –…
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EU Never Know…
In case anybody had forgotten, it’s about a week to go until Brexit. Or Bregg-zit, as Tony Blair would say. It wasn’t that long ago that we couldn’t go for ten minutes before the subject of the impending Euro-divorce gate-crashed the conversation like a Burberried community service delegate looking for ‘Steve’. Leave and Remain is…
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Saved by the Bell
There’s something about our schooldays – and how we relate to them – that I’ll never truly understand. Particularly comprehensive schools, the like of which I frequented in the 1980s. When you were guests at these august institutions, the whole process felt torturous, and you couldn’t wait to leave. The desperation was palpable. Grey but…
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