The Critical Commentator

  In 2022 I developed functional neurological disorder (FND), a condition that disrupts how the brain communicates with the body. It caused mobility issues and seizures, but I would also sometimes develop a temporary vocal tic or slurred speech. So it didn't come as a huge surprise when, one day in June 2023, I woke up and my voice sounded different. I assumed it would pass, but two days later I still sounded strange. My neighbour said to me: You sound just like my aunt. She's from south Wales."... The Mumbles Lighthouse Taliesin Williams (1814-1890) Photo Credit: The National Library of Wales [Public Domain] My friends and family found it hilarious. I've never visited Wales... After two weeks, I went to the doctor, but it took months before I was finally diagnosed with foreign accent syndrome - a speech disorder that causes a sudden change to a person's accent, usually after a traumatic brain injury or a stroke. But they couldn't find a trigger for my sudden c...

  Children's residential care, foster care and special schools have steadily been taken over, with the blessing of successive governments, by profit-making companies. Private agencies now own 36% of the fostering sector in England, while profit-making corporations own 83% of children's residential care. "Blocks of provision" - which means numbers of children - are traded from one company to another. How much is a human being worth? The value of a child on the books, as the dedicated journalist Martin Barrow documents, is £100,000... Children in residential care, on average, generate £910 each in profit a week for the corporations that control them. Large commercial providers of children's residential care make average profits of 19%, according to a report commissioned by the Local Government Association - an astonishing rate of return. Ordinary businesses do well to make 5%. London Street Children Edward Robert King (1863-1951) Photo Credit: UCL Culture [CC BY-NC-...

  The procedure, otherwise known as keratopigmentation, is a recent development and can be used for therapeutic purposes to improve the appearance of eyes. It could benefit people who have been left with scars on the transparent front part of the eye, known as the cornea, as a result of infection, disease or injury, or who have aniridia, a condition where the iris has not formed properly. An Eye Surgeon Operating on a Man unknown artist  Photo Credit: Wellcome Collection. Public Domain However, experts have raised concerns the procedure is becoming a popular aesthetic trend, with influencers posting TikTok videos of them undergoing surgery to permanently change their eye colour - often from brown to blue or green. Alex Day, a consultant eye surgeon and ophthalmologist at Moorfields private eye hospital in London said the procedure was not available for purely cosmetic reasons in the UK, meaning those seeking eye tattoos tend to go abroad. He added that problems can emerge in t...

  A phone call from a number I don't recognise. Oh God, what is it? When a stranger calls me, I'm always slightly worried: why not drop me an email or text instead? Why this overfamiliarity with someone you don't know? At least I pick up. According to a new survey, a quarter of young people between the ages of 18 and 34 never answer their phones, even to people they know.They prefer the comfort of texting and voice messages to the stress of of a live conversation. Beata Beatrix Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) Photo Credit:Tate [CC BY-NC-ND] I understand where they are coming from. I am part of the generation that would never call someone unless it was an emergency or I was ordering a particular service. I always text first, because I don't want to interrupt the day of someone I don't know well in an abrupt way. With a text or an email I also enjoy the fact I can be precise because I can edit it. That said, I have never understood the appeal of voice notes - a mes...

 Everyone goes through it: a reckoning with one's own mortality in the mirror, poking at eye bags and tugging at folds of loose skin... It's part of the human condition to fear ageing, but among millennials and gen Z there seems to be a heightened anxiety around growing older, coupled with an increasingly casual attitude towards getting fillers and Botox compared with previous generations. Almost half of millennial women polled by the BBC in 2019 said they believed that having a cosmetic procedure was akin to having a haircut. I can say from experience that it is not. Like many I have fallen victim to negative anti-ageing rhetoric... Only a Lock of Hair John Everett Millais (1829-1896) Photo Credit: Manchester Art Gallery [CC BY-NC-ND]  I spent £700 on two rounds of filler with a trained doctor... But even though I paid top whack and went to the renowned Harley Street, my face did not take as well to the second round of filler, and it has left a visible dent under one of my ey...

  In losing on Wednesday to Stuart Bingham in the quarter-final of the World Snooker Championship, Ronnie O'Sullivan proved himself a contender for the world's most sporting sports star. He may have lost, but in doing so he showed that there are still standards in public life, and some people do care about doing the right thing. Not something we see often these days. The Awakening Conscience William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) Photo Credit: Tate Britain [CC BY-NC-ND] Leading by six frames to five O'Sullivan potted a black. When it was returned to its spot, it should have obstructed his next red, making it trickier for him to progress. But there was a tiny divot on the table, and the black ball wobbled ever so slightly from its spot, making  access to the red simple. The Rocket wasn't having any of it. He asked the ref time and again to replace the black to make it more difficult for him. But the black wasn't having any of it either, and kept bobbling away. In the end, R...

  The numbers of writers jailed in China has surpassed 100, with nearly half imprisoned for online expression. The grim milestone is revealed in the 2023 Freedom to Write index, a report compiled by Pen America, published yesterday. With the total number of people imprisoned globally for exercising their freedom of expression estimated to be at least 339, China accounts for nearly one third of the world's jailed writers. There are 107 people behind bars because of their published statements in China, more than in any other country on the index. It is the first time that Pen America's count of writers jailed in China has surpassed 100. Other databases, such as the Reporters Without Borders' tally of journalists and media workers detained in China passed that milestone in 2020. The index defined ""online commentator" as bloggers and people who used social media as their main platform for expression. James Tager, the director of research at Pen America, said... ...