1056 days ago
The City of my birth is rapidly starting to rival Brighton as the woke capital of Britain. And thus it is no shock to see the local paper, The Oxford Mail, sending out a notice to all pregnant men in the county. In places like Oxford, it is offensive and sexist to suggest that only women, as in folks born with wombs, can get pregnant. No doubt, were a member of the University to flag up this madness, he or she would be censured for their intolerance and insensitivity. In a post fact world, what else should one expect?
1085 days ago
Being a Canadian, my best man Darren Atwater is a bearded uber-woke deluded lefty. Like his beloved leader Justin Trudeau, when he puts his socks up for the Winter holiday which he dares not call Christmas lest he offends someone of another religion or none, Darren always uses an Eid sock or a Pride Parade one. But even he must find it mildly disconcerting that many of his fellow countrypeople might think that my portly pal could be pregnant. We reactionary conservatives reckon that only women get pregnant but in Canada such a statement would be condemned as alt right freakery and – amid a twitter storm – there would be demands for instant career ending sanctions. It seems to be what the Canucks call progress.
1339 days ago
Long term readers and classical scholars will know that while Constantinople fell to the infidel in 1453, a few outposts of the Byzantine empire held out a bit longer. Among them was Mistras in southern Greece, the Despotate of the Morea which held out until 1460. Its citadel is Mistras: a collection of old churches and abandoned houses on the slopes of a hill near Sparta with a ruined castle on its peak. Lower down, but within the old outer walls, there are monasteries.
2260 days ago
It is great that gay couples can be parents and as such you have to wish Olympic diver Tom Daley and his husband the film director Lance Black the best of luck. But the BBC reportage seems to skirt around certain biological issues. We are told:
