The Critical Commentator

                                                                Travel Farms near Auvers,   Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) Photo Credit: Tate [CC BY-NC-ND] Do Plan your journey with an emissions calculator, such as ecopassenger.org. These use the haversine formula algorithm to plot air travel and the same data to work out alternative routes to your destination on the European railway network. You’re having a laugh, aren’t you? Pick a climate-conscious airline. No such thing as guilt-free air travel, but the Atmosfair Airline Index (atmosfair.de) of 200 major airlines sorts the good from the bad. I don’t feel guilty when I travel by plane. A climate conscious airline indeed. Do offset and inset. No chance. Don’t be silly. Take an eco-pledge. What? Airbnb it. Homes use less energy and water and genera...

                                              Hypersensitivity Colonel Mordaunt's Cock Match ,   Johann Zoffany (1733-1810) Photo Credit:Tate [CC BY-NC-ND] We live in an era of hyper-sensitivity, with nuance and tone far more important than 10 years ago. As a broadcaster and journalist, it’s sometimes hard to keep up to speed with what you can and can’t say in case it causes offence. On television and radio, balance is paramount, even when it is patently ridiculous. Polemics are forbidden unless we present an opposing point of view. When I dared to criticise Meghan for allowing her friends to talk to a US magazine, I was called a racist. It is impossible to make any comment other than adulatory about the Duchess without being trashed on social media. For pity’s sake, can we rein all that in a tad? The Duchess of Sussex even has George Clooney leaping to her ...

                                       Business Culture Timon (fragment of 'Timon of Athens')   John Opie (1761-1807) Photo Credit: Bolton Library and Museum Services, Bolton Council [CC BY-NC-ND] …it turns out that The Art of Quiet Influence makes a pretty convincing argument about how shouty behaviour and top-down command-and-control leadership is dead. In today’s modern and tight labour market you cannot force employees to do things at work by pulling rank, or by highlighting the rules they should follow: you have to persuade people by quieter means. Such as? Well, according to Davis, they include everything from demonstrating care for your colleagues to letting others know you welcome questions and disagreement, maintaining a good humoured demeanour, signalling your desire to work together rather than compete and being just as willing to follow another’s plan as to a...

                                        Letters on                                                Music at Cremations Sir, At the wake for my late sister’s cremation, I made a selection on the jukebox that I knew would have appealed to her sense of humour. It was Firestarter by the Prodigy. Our father was horrified, but the gales of laughter from her friends proved that it was an apt choice. (Ian Blair, Workington, Cumbria, The Times, 2019) * Sir, I had decided on the Doors version of Come on Baby Light My Fire for when my coffin disappears (report, May 2, and letters, May3). However, a recent edition of Desert Island Discs persuaded me that Gracie Fields would send the congregation happily on their way singing Wish Me Luck as You Wave me Goodbye. (Esther R...

                                     On Leaving a GP Practice The Doctor's Visit , Thomas Fahed (1825/6-1900) Photo Credit: Queen's University Belfast [CC BY-NC-SA] Two years ago, I left my practice where I worked as a GP partner. I left because I found trying to balance my clinical workload pressures with a life outside of work unsustainable. I loved my work as a doctor, but I detested the bureaucracy of it all. Constant negotiations and contract changes were hard to understand for someone new to the game, and I found the disconnect between government agenda and grassroots GP values mind boggling. We use outdated IT systems and are generally viewed as the backstop for everybody, taking on responsibility for all health needs of the public despite not being set up to do so. The Government and health boards want us to reach targets which are often unrealistic with limited resource...

                                                        Food                                           Some recipes from Nigel Slater. Kitchen Utensils, Meat and Vegetables ,   Floris Gerritsz. van Schooten (c.1585-after 1655) Photo Credit: The Fitzwilliam Museum [CC BY-NC-ND]   Mustard Guacamole, Mozzarella, Bagel – A surprisingly substantial sandwich, and one that requires a couple of perfect avocados. Not just a point, but unblemished. A sandwich to be eaten within minutes of the avocado being crushed. Chickpea, pea, sprouted seeds – one of those everlastingly useful “suppers in minutes”. Paneer, Aubergine, Cashews – Gentle spice for a summer’s evening. Freekeh, Peaches, Feta – A substantial salad of warm, chewy g...

                                     Shaking Hands Sign for the 'Salutation Inn' ,  unknown artist Photo Credit: Heritage Doncaster [CC BY] Schools are letting down young people by not teaching them the basics of interviews, including how to shake hands, according to Nilesh Dosa, a youth mentor at the accountancy firm Ernst and Young. “We’re churning out academically able students who just aren’t equipped for work,” he has said. The etiquette consultant Jo Bryant agrees. “You can have all the qualifications in the world, but if you go in with a poor body language, poor eye contact and a poor handshake you won’t get the job.” (The Guardian, 2019) Does it need an ‘etiquette consultant’ to state the obvious? MPs and Expenses Nearly 400 MPs including nine cabinet ministers and Jeremy Corbyn, have been blocked from using their parliamentary credit cards for breaking exp...

                                     Modern Thinking Shame In Disgrace,   Charles Burton Barber (1845-1894) Photo Credit: Lytham Art Collection of Fylde Borough Council [CC BY-NC-ND]  …It’s a funny thing, this business of shame. It seemed to be part and parcel of life when I was growing up. If you did something that was wrong you might or might not have been punished, but you were certainly made to feel ashamed about it. That was part of the punishment. …Nowadays if it’s shocking enough the culprit will get offered his own chat show on television. (John Humphrys, Devil’s Advocate) You were given a set of moral values when you were a child. You were taught the difference between right and wrong and when you transgressed, as we all do, sometimes shame followed. Now, it’s a strange old world where, perhaps, the same values are not transmitted. Compensation Cultu...