I very occasionally write a film review on this blog so I thought this would make an excellent opportunity as I had waited for some months after the premiere of Sorry we missed you at the Cannes Film Festival, hoping it would come to Benidorm eventually. This is the latest Ken Loach film. Another of … More Sorry we missed you
I have noticed the growing use of the term anthropocene to describe this second epoch of our current quaternary geological age. It was called the holocene until recently, describing the epoch that began 12,000 years ago at the close of the paleolithic Ice Age. Anthropocene is now used to describe the same epoch as an … More In praise of the equocene
This blog has taken an unashamedly pro-Europe position for the past three years, for as long as the European Union became a contentious issue for some misguided and deluded British people. The UK’s madness has been a rather sorry business, but are Europeans depressed about it? No! Non! Nein! Europeans are happy as ever, according … More EUphoria
Rubí Donkey writes her Rubí Tuesday blog. Here at El Parral we like to think of ourselves as being at the cutting edge. Indeed, while cutting ear-holes in newspapers to make our Halloween costumes last week, our Peasant cut his finger with a craft knife. It was the kind of personal sacrifice for … More Low-speed Internet arrives at El Parral
It is good of the UK parliamentarians to finally decide to do something – to have an election – rather than carry on doing nothing. As I was travelling back from Alicante today on the train I saw the news from Westminster, and I decided that I would not use my vote. I suddenly came … More Why I shall not be voting in the UK election
Continues from The Brexit Letters, Volume 1 By 23rd October and another complete farce in the House of Commons at the beginning of the week, most people – whether Leavers or Remainers -were ready to strangle Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn, the Larry the Downing Street cat, and all missing the very obvious point that it … More The Brexit Letters, Volume 2
The entire Brexit mess has become such a destructive vortex of division and confusion that even some of us who have been totally engaged in the fight for the UK to Remain in Europe have now lost any sense of what the present situation actually means! Even after another million-strong pro-European demonstration in London, there’s … More The Brexit Letters, Volume 1
The title is from the foundation document of the Franco regime in 1936 and refers to him being head of state – elected by his fellow army generals – “for as long as the war lasts.” This is the title of the new film by Alejandro Amenábar which opened this weekend in Spain after launching … More For as long as the war lasts
Rubí Donkey writes her Rubí Tuesday blog. Morris donkey has been reading again. Sometimes it is good that Morris does reading because he tells me clever things to write on my portant blog and I improve my reputation as a world-class interweb source of intelligent debate. And I’m only ten which Morris says … More Asinine culture wars
Through the summer I have been deliberating over the possibility of returning to academia. Having passed my rather easy test for Spanish citizenship in June, I found the study sufficiently enjoyable to consider doing a postgraduate course of study at the University of Alicante. I explored the possibility through July and August and the course … More University of the wind in the trees
