I’m a sucker for animals of any kind, so this was quite a harrowing court case to sit through. What also took me aback was the complete lack of respect the defendants showed the court – like most who appear before magistrates they were dressed in shell suits, caps and dirty hoodies; they put their feet up in the dock when the magistrates and clerk were out of the room; they sat with their mouths open throughout the hearing – paying little attention to what was being said; and picked at their nails and noses.
They showed no remorse whatsoever for the cruelty they had shown these dogs, and were rude and abusive when they knew a reporter was covering their case. When the photographer took their picture one of them actually made as if she was going to ‘pull a moonie’ – right in front of the court building. I was disappointed that they weren’t sent down.

It’s not even Christmas yet and I’ve already received a mail-out about Valentine’s Day gifts – “ties with hearts on them, and even a tie that carries a secret romantic message.”
Somehow I don’t think my beloved would thank me for buying him this:

At risk of sounding a bit like the “hell in a handcart” lot (see below), don’t these people ever tire of trying to push tasteless, commercial tat down our throats?
The shallowness and consumerism of Christmas (and by extension all other festivals) is grating on me even more than usual this year, after spending a month in a country (India) where many people have nothing – yet seem so much happier than people here.

I guess I’m asking for it by even looking at the Daily Mail, but I think it’s important to read papers with a range of political viewpoints. It’s a vicious, hate-filled paper at the best of times, but today it has had me almost screaming at the computer (I read it online) on three separate occasions – each time for immigration-related stories. I still feel cross about these pieces.

a – isn’t the headline more than a bit melodramatic, given the actual quote from the report?
b – from what I understand, the point is that a lot of unemployed young Britons are not prepared to work as cleaners and in other jobs they consider ‘beneath them’

a – Do they seriously believe people will travel to Britain in the backs of lorries, be separated from their loved-ones and go through the the whole asylum system just to get a grant of up to £4,000? I’m sorry but that’s bollocks.
b – I don’t understand what the Daily Mail thinks the answer is. They don’t want these pesky darkies to be here in the first place, and they don’t want them to stay. Yet they complain about any initiative aimed at tackling the backlog and don’t make any attempt to add anything constructive to the debate. It just throws stones at everything.

My piece from the Guardian’s arts blog on last night’s Liverpool Nativity:

Before I went away I wrote one of the most interesting pieces I’ve been asked to do for ages, for the Big Issue in the North’s World Aids Day coverage. It looked at the phenomenon of “bug chasing” – a minority of gay men who claim to be actively seeking the HIV virus.
There’s plenty of big talk about this on the internet, but no one’s quite sure whether it’s really happening or not. Most within the HIV field are sceptical but others swear there’s more to it than just an urban myth.
Whatever the truth is, there’s no doubt that some people are now eroticising HIV, if only in their fantasies. It’s a difficult one to get your head around. Click on the jpegs to read it in full…

Two of my features are online here and here, on the resurgence of manufacturing in the region and the North West science strategy. The third, on the regeneration of Scarborough, has not been uploaded. Some background on the pull-out can be found here.

Officially there were 12 honour killings in Britain last year but campaigners believe the real number could be much higher…

* From the Big Issue in the North

Well I’m back, and not exactly happy about it. The cold and pouring rain are only making it worse. I’ve spent the past four weeks travelling down through south-west India, from Mumbai to the Keralan town of Varkala. I’ve seen some fascinating places and met some fascinating people. It’s my second visit to India and has only made me more obsessed with the place. But rather than bore people with my ramblings I’m just going to post a selection of photos that sum up my experiences, plus a few brief thoughts.

The first thing that hits you in Mumbai is the chaos; the second is the poverty. Sixty per cent of its 16m inhabitants live in slums, the largest of which, Dharavi is home to more than a million. Perverse as it sounds, its residents are the lucky ones. There are of course destitute people everywhere in India, but there is way more visible homelessness in Mumbai than in Delhi or Calcutta, both of which I visited three years ago. In our 40-minute drive from the airport, at 2am, we must have passed thousands of people sleeping on the streets – either out in the open, lying on the pavements, or under pathetic makeshift shelters made of plastic and anything else they can find. Every day we saw tiny children alone and begging. What makes this all the more shocking is that the affluence and consumerism of modern India coexists with such misery.

We got up early one morning to watch these fishermen bring in their catch. It was back-breaking work – they started pulling in their nets at 5.30am and didn’t finish until around 9am. They asked anyone who was passing – us included – to help them pull. We lasted about 10 minutes before our arms hurt too much and our hands were raw. This, above, was all they caught – 800 rupees (£8) worth of fish, between 30 men. It made me realise how easy we have it.

I’m going to find myself and eat lots of curry in India so won’t be about in November. Bye for now.