Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
It is one of the last taboos – a woman who dares to say she does not want children. So when writer Holly Brockwell, then aged 26, asked doctors to sterilise her, she unleashed a storm. First, NHS staff said she was too young. Then the personal abuse rained down, much of it vile. It…
The Radio Times is reporting that Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat will be leaving the massively successful British sci-fi series at the end of its upcoming tenth season. Moffat—who took over showrunning duties from Russell T. Davies in 2010, just in time for the fifth season of the long-running time-travel show’s current iteration—will be replaced…
Anyone wishing to understand why thousands of Western-born Muslims are leaving comfortable homes to fight with Isis would do well to watch Deeyah Khan’s powerful new film Jihad: A British Story. The award-winning filmmaker spent 18 months interviewing some of the founding fathers of jihad in the UK out of a “personal obsessive curiosity” to…
A British Muslim family heading for Disneyland was barred from boarding a flight to Los Angeles by US authorities at London’s Gatwick airport amid concerns of an American overreaction to the perceived terrorist threat. US Department of Homeland Security officials provided no explanation for why the country refused to allow the family of 11 to…
Police have launched an investigation into the distribution of abusive cards on the London Underground purporting to be from a group calling itself Overweight Haters Ltd. A number of people have reported seeing passengers being handed the cards, said to come from an organisation that “hates and resents fat people”. A Twitter user named Kara…
A café that specializes in novelty breakfast cereals has been targeted in protests against the gentrification of London’s East End. Paint was thrown at the windows of Brick Lane’s Cereal Killer Café, and “SCUM” was written across the window. A nearby real estate agent was also attacked. Customers were locked inside to protect them from the demonstrators. Several…
Every time I see that Samuel Johnson quote, I get a bit pissed off. You know the one, it’s the one that goes, “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.” Well, I can safely say that London’s tired me out. I’ve not even made it halfway through this life and…
Jeremy Corbyn has been elected leader of the British Labour party, in a stunning first-round victory that dwarfed even the mandate for Tony Blair in 1994. He won with nearly 59.5% of first-preference votes, beating rivals Andy Burnham, who trailed on 19%, and Yvette Cooper who received 17%. The “Blairite” candidate Liz Kendall came last…
Edwina Hart is expected to answer questions in more down-to-earth languages on Wednesday Klingon was the chosen language for the Welsh government in its response to queries about UFO sightings at Cardiff Airport. While English and Welsh are the usual forms of communications in the Senedd, it opted for the native tongue of the enemies…
remove the whitespace added by escenic before end of tag London Underground drivers will stage a 24-hour strike next month in a move that union leaders have warned will shut down the entire network during Wimbledon. Members of Aslef will walk out from 9.30pm on Wednesday, July 8 in a long-running row over pay and…