Posted by Lucy Reese

Celebrity Big Brother: hyper-sexualised link bait, and bloody entertaining

Big BrotherShoot me now – but I’m loving this year’s Celebrity Big Brother. The last rites have been said over the format many times, but it’s almost as good as when Galloway became a cat or when Vanessa Feltz went mental.

I caught the end of it on Tuesday, and soon found myself cackling at the sight of reality no-marks from TOWIE and Luisa from The Apprentice hob-nobbing with the light entertainment legend that is Lionel Blair. What was columnist Liz Jones doing there, nervously twisting her mane of dark hair? Or boxer Evander Holyfield, or the strangely angry Linda Nolan? Or Jim Davidson? Or the idiot savant rapper Dappy. They had some bloody good bookings. Continue reading →

Free schools are Marxist? Then I’m a banana

Michael GoveMichael’s Gove’s latest pronouncement is that free schools are a Marxist ideal, a comment so outlandish and preposterous that it might at first seem that the hot weather has gone to the Education Secretary’s head.

If free schools are a Marxist idea, then I’m a banana. What’s Marxist – or even democratic – about schools that are set up without any consideration of the needs of the wider community and are largely run by ‘educational charities’ like Ark? Surely this is just the ultimate example of trolling – coming out with ridiculous statements that make minimal sense and cause maximum offence.

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Cathy Come Home: then and now

Although I’m a child of the 70s, I’ve always had a fascination with the 60s. A strange time of change and experimentation that seems so different from the world we live in. I love the music, fashion and art of the 60s and am inspired by the radical ideas that emerged from this turbulent decade. Proof that you can do things differently if you want to; that the social order isn’t set in stone.

As a fan of all things 60s related, I’d obviously read about Cathy Come Home, Ken Loach and Jeremy Sandford’s iconic film about homelessness. I’d always meant to watch it and noticed someone on Facebook the other day talking about how they’d bought a DVD. So I ordered one myself from tax-dodging Amazon using my Barclays debit card – don’t you just love the contradictions of capitalism!

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Fight for our local hospitals – or we’ll lose the human touch

At the end of last year I felt a bit tired. I’d been working hard, looking after the kids and doing a lot of political stuff on top of it. I felt I was spreading myself too thin – something had to give and the politics seemed the obvious choice.

But sadly, in the world we live in at the moment, we don’t really have a choice. I’ve said many, many times that the personal is political. And reading this story in my local paper – the selling off of half my local hospital – has made me determined to get out there and get campaigning again.

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What Women Want – beyond Mel Gibson

One of the worst films I’ve ever had the misfortune of viewing goes by the title of What Women Want.

The plot is wafer thin and so bad it’s almost good: everyone’s favourite fascist Mel Gibson plays advertising executive Nick who electrocutes himself and then gains the uncanny ability to hear what women are thinking.

The film obviously descends into a string of cringeworthy cliches and will have any sane person swearing and throwing missiles at the screen.

I only mention this by means of an introduction to a thought I’ve been pondering as we near the end of 2012. What do women want?

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