Oct 5, 2016
How much should a top-level sportsperson be expected to take responsibility for themselves? That’s a question I find myself asking after the Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS) ruled that Maria Sharapova’s suspension from tennis for taking a banned...
Sep 30, 2016
I wrote a story this week that brought into sharp focus just what an awful decision the government’s green light for the Hinkley Point C power station is. The story was for the European NGO lobby group Transport & Environment, for which I’ve been writing for 25...
Sep 14, 2016
There are days when two separate but related news stories appear alongside each other on the same day, and no-one makes the link between them. Yesterday was one such day. All the morning media carried the story of the report by the House of Commons Women and...
Sep 9, 2016
As a journalist, I’m always interested in what words we use in different situations, and sometimes the choice of one word (or term) over another determines how something I write will be understood. This is why I was very interested in the essay by Carys Afoko in The...
Sep 3, 2016
As a broadcaster, I’m used to speaking to a couple of million people but seeing just a microphone in front of me. Yesterday I stood on a stage in front of several hundred people in the magnificent Great Hall of the main Aston Webb building at the University of...
Aug 29, 2016
If ever you want to know whether something that sounds important is a good idea, and you’re struggling to work it out, look at who’s in favour and who’s against. It’s not always reliable, but the journalist’s nose is good at sniffing out the advocates and detractors...
