“You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.” One of the most enjoyable things about listening to George W Bush […]
Columnists
Richard Smith: A jolly afternoon with Dying Matters
Dying Matters is an organisation that aims to raise awareness of dying, death, and bereavement, and this is Dying Awareness Week. The organisation exists because of the mass denial of […]
Richard Smith: Buggered about by the NHS Sustainable Development Unit: a story with a moral
I’m an enthusiastic follower of the NHS Sustainable Development Unit, its director, David Pencheon, and its important mission of reducing NHS carbon emissions by 80% by 2050, but like all […]
Julian Sheather: On death, dying, and “Departures”
Dead bodies do not seem to have a place in the modern world. Death, dying, the dead—if they can be so unceremoniously bundled together—lie in our culture somewhere between the […]
Richard Smith: The editor thinks your paper is nonsense but will publish anyway
“If you want to get on in life, dear boy, don’t be too original. Originality is a curse. People won’t understand you. They’ll feel threatened. You may end up burnt […]
Desmond O’Neill: A grave beauty
When visiting a city for the first time, graveyards rarely feature high on my agenda. So, little did I suspect that a very beautiful graveyard would be one of the […]
Julian Sheather: Medicine, Strasbourg, and conscientious objection
The media made quite a fuss recently about the European Court of Human Rights finding that British Airways had unfairly discriminated against an employee, Mrs Eweida, in refusing to let […]
Richard Smith: A variation on the theme of the importance of publishing
I fully support the Alltrials campaign to see all clinical trials published, and I’m a signature to the letter of people who have participated in trials and are horrified that […]
Tracey Koehlmoos: Flu season in the US
To many people in the US, flu season is rather like world cup football is to the rest of us. Flu has been on the front page of many newspapers […]
Pritpal S Tamber: Why “paperless” is meaningless
The National Health Service (NHS) of England is enduring the enthusiasm of a new health secretary. As he gets to grips with his £110bn toy he is, as you’d expect, […]