Gair Rhydd

Poor old John Prescott

John Prescott has had a hard time of it lately. In fact, with attacks from all sides – journalists, the Tories, his own party – it is something of a wonder that he has resisted both a call for his head and a call to arms. For John Prescott does not back down from such situations, and it is a sign of the weakening of the Labour Government that he has not, in his own British Bulldog way, come out fighting. Yet.

Had almost any other male member of the Cabinet ended up in the situation ‘Prezza’ now finds himself in, a Ministerial Resignation On Personal Grounds would have been on the cards; a petulant, but most importantly quiet, backdoor exit. An army of government spin doctors would have caught the poor sod (“He jumped, m’lud”), and even though all the King’s horses and all the King’s men couldn’t put his reputation back together again, Humped-Her Dumped-Her would enjoy a comfortable retirement on the backbenches. But Prescott is a tough egg to crack, and as a number of sources have suggested, he won’t go down unless he takes Blair with him.

Dreadful state for gay refugees

The asylum process is prejudiced against those persecuted because of their sexuality

Remember Israfil Shiri and Hussein Nasseri? Probably not: people like them are quickly forgotten. I wrote about them at the start of the year. Hussein shot himself in the head in an Eastbourne car park; Israfil set himself on fire in a Manchester office. Better that, they thought, than being deported back to Iran.

I also mentioned a third – ‘AT’, whose last appeal for asylum was rejected in July. Now 30, AT had first committed the ‘crime’ that led to him fleeing Iran at the age of 14, with a young man called Dawood. He has since been disowned by his entire family, save one uncle.

The monarchy

The monarchy is useless, but we should not get rid of it

It was the anniversary of the Queen’s coronation last Friday. She’s also just turned 80, but that’s positively youthful compared to the medieval notion of having a monarch.

From Prince Charles’ political meddling to Prince Harry’s infamous decision to party as a Nazi, the Royal Family has repeatedly shown a knack for the misguided, inept and downright foolish. Why do we, a democratic country at the beginning of the 21st century, still have such an anachronistic and pointless institution as the monarchy, especially when they’re often such idiots?

What’s the big deal about suntans?

Noel Coward once wrote that only mad dogs and Alan Shearer go out in the midday sun. Well, not quite, but if the great wit had been watching the former England captain on pundit duty during England’s 6-0 defeat of Jamaica he may have found himself a new set of lyrics.

Did you see Shearer? Since retiring last month the famous fence-creosoter looked like he’d turned the paintbrush on himself. At least after Messrs Atkinson, Venables and Lineker, Shearer was continuing a long line of tikka-tinged talking heads.

The politics of faith

It’s time that religious beliefs stopped undermining democracy

As anyone who has played the post-pub favourite Balderdash will know, America, when taking breaks from pursuing its favourite hobby – bestowing freedom through the barrel of a gun – spends its time revealing the depths to which democracy can sink by implementing the most ridiculous municipal laws on the planet.

Amongst the innumerable gawp-inducing regulations, lurking in the nooks and crannies of the land of the free, there exists such gems as the law in California, which states that it is illegal to eat oranges in a bathtub. The law in Indiana, which forbids men who have a ‘tendency to habitually kiss other humans’ from growing a moustache and, my personal favourite, the law in Texas, which asserts that it is illegal to put graffiti on someone else’s cow. With your own cow, presumably, you can get out the spray cans and just go nuts.

SOUL less

It’s no secret that moral posturing is the default of the Students’ Union, but the morals in question do often prove to be somewhat disposable things.

The new favourite plastered around the Union building are notes that the Union promotes responsible drinking, on the bottom of Drink The Bar Dry posters. It flies in the face of the whole point of the event: one last gloriously irresponsiblechance to lose control of your self-restraint and gag reflex with your friends before the end of term.

Big brother

Are we really a nation of people who are ready and willing to prostitute their dignity and sell out their self-respect by taking part in something they believe will move them forward further in life more than a bit of good old-fashioned hard work?

Many of us might consider ourselves relatively happy with our lots; however, even a brief look at the seasonal televisual train-wreckage that is Big Brother reveals a number of people who are desperate for something more and are using the show to achieve this.

Masters in deception

Paid-for dissertations say more about university greed than student cheats

Sat up here in gair rhydd towers putting together our final paper of the year, we’ve been blessed with a university that seems more than willing to give us lots of material to work with.

An enormous carnival of ineptitude seems to be slowly edging its way around campus, be it cancelled graduations, the absolute farce of exams at the medical school, or the fact you can now just buy your qualifications here without bothering to do any work.