• OPINION

  Lots of promises as big day approaches

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 02/04/2023

  » With the Great Event, otherwise known as election day, just around the corner, like most countries in the world we will have to brace ourselves for regular helpings of political poppycock including plenty of promises from prospective candidates. Still, it could be fun.

• OPINION

  A good time to 'keep calm and carry on'

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 23/10/2022

  » There is definitely a "shifting the deckchairs on the Titanic" feel to the situation in Britain at the moment. If recent political events had been presented as a soap opera script it would have been rejected for being totally unbelievable.

• OPINION

  Taste of inflation from a reliable sauce

  Roger Crutchley, Published on 03/12/2023

  » I am not sure where Bangkok stands in the list of most expensive cities released by the Economist this week. Singapore and Zurich top the table but judging from recent visits to the supermarket, Bangkok must be racing up the inflation charts.

• OPINION

  Lonely sheep survives real cliffhanger

  Roger Crutchley, Published on 12/11/2023

  » Some rare good news last week was the rescue of the "world's loneliest sheep" from a rugged beach in northeastern Scotland. The sheep, a ewe named Fiona, had been stuck on the beach at the foot of a steep cliff in an isolated spot of the Moray Firth for the past two years without any woolly friends or non-woolly humans for company.

• OPINION

  It is what it is … whatever it might be

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 29/05/2022

  » An expression which is increasingly heard these days on television and in political comment is the rather cryptic "it is what it is". Not exactly an illuminating observation, and it prompts the question, "But, what is it?" Apparently it means a certain situation that cannot be changed however much you want and carries an element of resignation.

• OPINION

  Words you don't really want to hear

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 04/12/2022

  » It's that time of the year when publishers of major dictionaries bombard us with what they regard as the "words of the year". They rarely agree on the same offering, but there is one common theme -- nearly all words selected are frankly rather depressing.

• OPINION

  It all began with a soapy TV 'moustache'

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 18/09/2022

  » With Liz Truss becoming the 56th British prime minister, it got me thinking about how many PMs there have been in my lifetime. The answer is 16, going back to Clement Atlee, which is a bit scary. In fact, while I was still residing in the UK there were only six PMs.

• OPINION

  Tea for two and a sandwich at the Palace

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 12/06/2022

  » There seems to be a consensus in Britain that the best moment of the Jubilee was Paddington Bear taking afternoon tea with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace.

• OPINION

  Can't beat question time in the 'bear pit'

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 06/02/2022

  » While normally steering well clear of British politics I admit to having enjoyed recent live TV sessions of the UK Parliament. The weekly Prime Minister's Question Time (PMQ) held on Wednesdays is far more entertaining than any soap opera. Witnessing the verbal jousting as the PM attempts to side-step a withering grilling is sheer theatre. It is almost like being the accused in the dock at a court hearing.

• OPINION

  In the wake of the not so great debate

  News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 04/10/2020

  » While there might have been an element of entertainment in a perverse sort of way watching the US presidential candidates slagging one another off like squabbling children, these politicians still have a lot to learn in the art of insulting behaviour.

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