‘Silly banter between old mates’, explained John Humphrys about the rather less than edifying exchange it was revealed he’d had with Jon Sopel about equal pay. Just a bit of harmless fun then. And it was between friends. Well, how lovely. Who could possibly begrudge a couple of old pals having a bit of a […]
Author: chriscreegan
Why Trump’s state of mind is the wrong target
I’m not going to read Fire and Fury. I have a stack of books I want to get stuck into. Some non-fiction, some fiction and a bit of poetry too. Some will make me laugh, others will make me cry and all of them will, I hope, make me think. I’m sure Fire and Fury […]
Death doesn’t become us, so don’t wait
Returning from a few days away this week, I learnt of the death of an old friend from my trade union days. The revelation came via the dead hand of Facebook. A timely reminder that for all its faux intimacy, social media is brutally impersonal. It connects us for sure, but in ways we have […]
How stigma killed us too
It was just another Saturday afternoon in Stoke Newington, around the middle of January 1993. Lawrence had sent me to Safeway for the last few things we needed for dinner. I’d left him preparing mussels we’d bought earlier that day at Steve Hatt’s fish market on Essex Road in Islington. We were expecting guests. I […]
Historic sexual offences: A long night’s journey into day
Yesterday was a good day in Scotland. It was the kind of day that reminds us why politics matters. And we seem to have had precious few of those lately.
We really didn’t need to talk about Kevin
So Kevin Spacey is gay. It’s one of those rumours that has circulated for years. A bit like the one about, Olympic hurdler, Colin Jackson. And we learned recently that Colin is gay too. But there the similarities come to a juddering halt.
Confused about Weinstein? Wake up, guys.
As the Weinstein revelations have reverberated, I have, like every other man with a conscience, reflected on what it all means. In one sense that wasn’t difficult.
Rees-Mogg and the tyranny of liberalism
First Tim Farron, now Jacob Rees-Mogg. Two very different characters, the same stooshie. As with Farron, I initially shied away from commenting. But it’s hard to resist responding when it tugs away at something personal. It’s not that I find Rees-Mogg’s views on marriage surprising or that I think he has no right to hold […]
Colin Jackson: homophobia’s remaining hurdles
What does the news that Colin Jackson is gay and our response to it say about attitudes to sexuality in 2017 Britain? It tells us quite a lot has changed but that we can do better too.
What next after post-truth?
Back in the 1980s, I used to spend a lot of time with a journalist. My friend Tim, who sadly died more than 20 years ago, was a local hack. He was a sub and he loved to collect improbable headlines.