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Articles by J S Bird

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About J S Bird

A retired academic, Jeremy will contribute article on subjects that attract his interest. More Posts

Driving disqualification developments

Yesterday I was interested to come across a media story that, following a Freedom of Information Act request from the Press Association, the DVLA has revealed that some 8,632 UK motorists who have amassed 12 points on their driving licences for either speeding and/or drunk-driving offences – and [...]

November 30, 2021 // 0 Comments

A visit and then a disagreement

A couple of days ago, three weeks into the occupation of our new house on the south coast, we received our first (semi-formal) visit from friends rather than family. In typing “(semi-formal)” and “friends” in the above context I was referring obliquely to the fact that, having never [...]

October 17, 2021 // 0 Comments

It was grim back then (or was it?)

These days it isn’t unusual – when recounting to modern listeners nostalgic tales of the more bizarre and hair-shirted practices experienced by those of us who went to British boarding “public schools” [what might more properly be described as “private schools” anywhere else in the [...]

September 21, 2021 // 0 Comments

A sense of proportion, perhaps?

From time to time, it seems to me, events or developments both at home and around the world remind us of the variety and randomness of each individual’s life chances, opportunities and indeed whatever are deemed to be our “human rights”. In the past week I have seen – on the one hand [...]

August 18, 2021 // 0 Comments

It’s about everything – and nothing …

As I begin my post today, reflecting upon some of the issues thrown up by the Olympics currently belatedly taking place in Tokyo, I’m conscious that I’m sailing gingerly into choppy and potentially hazardous waters and also simultaneously at significant risk of losing my thread or even [...]

August 3, 2021 // 0 Comments

Positively ignoring my first Olympics

In accordance with what seems to have become a newly-adopted Rust policy stance that elite sporting games/events staged in the absence of crowds are unedifying to the extent of being unwatchable, I am currently “not watching” the Tokyo Olympics. Despite whatever brave and noble performances our [...]

July 27, 2021 // 0 Comments

Par for the course, I’m afraid

Today, courtesy of the pages of The Rust, I present to the world my uncompromising and woke-free sixpenny-worth on the troubling subject of the background, the circumstances and, of course, the crowd control and innumerable other events and incidents surrounding the staging of 2020/2021 Euros Final [...]

July 13, 2021 // 0 Comments

Funny how things can change, isn’t it?

Not being a football fanatic – and having declared myself a Euros 2020/2021-free zone for the duration – I had a hard time of it this morning upon rising at my usual unearthly hour and perusing the UK national newspaper websites in order to catch up with what has been happening in the world. [...]

July 4, 2021 // 0 Comments

Get your hand-cart ready, we’re all going to Hell

I make no apology for the fact that my post today runs the risk of being pigeonholed as the pathetically-sad ramblings of a sterotypical old, out of touch, git who epitomises everything that 21st Century, “woke” ‘Generation X’, Millennial youngsters around the globe waste their time blaming [...]

June 7, 2021 // 0 Comments

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