Discussion
When did we convince ourselves that having a vote is undemocratic?
This weekend I got into a referendum debate with a twist. Sat in a Swiss wine bar the case was made for and against subsidising farmers who don't dehorn their livestock, which was one of the issues voted upon in the latest referendum in the country. This year alone the Swiss have participated in ten national referendums covering all manor of things, and if a common consensus emerges down the line that they got it wrong then they vote again....
I wasn’t able to access adequate support before being sectioned by police
Karl is a 20 year old literature student. He blogs about his experience of depression, suicidal feelings and being admitted to hospital to receive treatment for his mental health. **This blog contains suicidal themes. Please read with care** The room was cold, and my only company was a camera in the corner of the room. I was being held under what is called a Section 136 of the Mental Health Act. After forty-eight hours of mind numbing boredom and isolation,...
Sexism & racism harms young people more than traditional forms of bullying
These victims are most at risk of becoming frightened, play truant from school and suffer academically.
Has the National Lottery become irrelevant? Or are its numbers coming up?
Since launching in 1994, the National Lottery draw has cemented itself as a staple of British culture. There was even a time when the televised weekly draw pulled in millions of viewers every Saturday night. But despite donating a large portion of their proceeds to good causes, fewer people are playing, and even fewer are watching. Here, we’ll look at why this declining interest in the lottery is happening, and whether interest can be salvaged for future generations. The National...
These are the most common ways to avoid getting a round in
Drinking slowly so someone else gets the drinks in, popping out 'to make a phone call' and vanishing to the loo are among the most common ways Brits avoid getting a round in, a study found. Researchers who polled 2,000 UK adults found many 'shirkers' have tactics they employ which means they go home having had a cheap night out - including claiming to have no money. Promising 'I'll pay you back later’ – despite having no intention of ever...
It costs Brits £43.92 a year to ‘spend a penny’
It costs Brits £43.92 a year to ‘spend a penny’, a study has found. The average adult will shell out for drinks, snacks and even full meals in order to use a shop or restaurant’s toilet guilt-free. And almost £3 is spent just paying to get into public toilets in places such as train stations and parks. But in a cruel twist of irony, a quarter of respondents have paid to use a toilet only to then succumb to ‘stage...
Report Card: Govt could do much better on children’s right to play
The UK is a signatory of the UN Convention on the Rights of The Child, whose articles include The Right to Play: A31: States Parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts. States Parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and...
We adopted and it changed our lives for the better
Anna and Jack adopted their daughters Olivia and Emily through Coram in 2013. Here Anna shares the joys and challenges of the family’s adoption journey. Adoption is something we first started to properly consider after unsuccessful IVF treatment. We’d been seeing a counsellor at that time due to everything we’d been through and they gave us some information to help us if we did decide to pursue that route. After our initial phone call to Coram we went along to...
One family’s journey to teacher their deaf daughter to speak & listen
When Susan Rosenthal and her husband James' daughter Aimee’s was diagnosed deaf the family’s journey began to teach her to speak and listen, this is their story... When our baby daughter Aimee failed her newborn hearing screening test and we thought nothing of it. It was only at the follow up appointment six weeks later when we learned that she had a bilateral moderate to severe hearing loss that we felt that our word had crumbled. Since Aimee was such a...