Monthly Archives: June 2017

Generosity and failings: thoughts occasioned by the Queen’s Grenfell Tower visit

Posted on 16/06/2017 by ValeryNorth

Today, HM Queen Elizabeth II visited a relief centre for the Grenfell Tower fire victims, and there praised the bravery of firefighters and the generosity of the volunteers now helping out. Hardly controversial, but I want to explain why generosity … Continue reading →

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Finding principles & faith: thoughts on Tim Farron’s “conflict”

Posted on 15/06/2017 by ValeryNorth

Tim Farron has quit as leader of the Liberal Democrats, claiming that he couldn’t negotiate the conflict between his faith and the liberal principles as regards LGBT rights that the party espouses. In some ways, I am sympathetic. As Farron … Continue reading →

Posted in Gender, Religion, Sex | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Meanings of forgiveness

Posted on 13/06/2017 by ValeryNorth

I have an issue with forgiveness. More accurately, I have an issue with understanding what people mean by forgiveness, because I keep running into articles or blogposts about forgiveness and what roles it plays, that say that the thing that … Continue reading →

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New Project! “Dragons, Dragons, Fairies, Boobs”

Posted on 10/06/2017 by ValeryNorth

(It feels good to be talking for once about ACTUAL writing, rather than politics and depressing stuff like that. Although this is still sort of politics because… well, you’ll see.) So last week on The Last Leg, Sue Perkins summed … Continue reading →

Posted in Gender, Kink, Writing about writing | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Digging into the pollsters (GE2017)

Posted on 04/06/2017 by ValeryNorth

So a few days ago I remarked on the YouGov article about how the different polling companies are all using different methods to weight their samples this time around, after the generally accepted model they all used in 2015 led … Continue reading →

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Question Time, Nukes, and Jeremy Corbyn

Posted on 03/06/2017 by ValeryNorth

In the wake of the apparent eagerness of the BBC Question Time audience last night to unleash nuclear holocaust on the world in a pre-emptive first strike against the middle east and North Korea, I have a few thoughts to … Continue reading →

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Polls, youth, and experimental weighting

Posted on 01/06/2017 by ValeryNorth

There seem to be very widely different predictions from the various polling companies in the run-up to the 2017 General Election, with some much closer than others. I was curious as to which polls I should put more trust in … Continue reading →

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