West of Centre

Notwithstanding the current involvement of Gordon Brown in the current political debate surrounding the Scottish Referendum vote, it is customary for former prime ministers of the United Kingdom to fade gracefully in to the background and make way for the new breed. Margaret Thatcher, Edward Heath, Jim Callaghan and Harold Wilson all achieved this simple task without too much fuss. John Major occasionally interjects with an opinion but usually long after the boat has left the harbour. Tony Blair alone seems quite oblivious to this unspoken rule of British political life. An eleventh year leading the country was quite enough for Lady Thatcher when her party dispensed with her services. It seems that Tony Blair can't get enough of power. He is beginning to come across as one of those computer viruses which just won't go away once it has been granted access. We begin to rue the day we ever clicked the "yes" button. The virus invades our entire system and seems ubiquito

Clearly worried about the recent levels of attention being paid to him, Richard Dawkins has just surpassed himself in an attempt to regain the spotlight. He has now turned his attention to fairy tales and warned of the danger of inflicting them on children because they “inculcate a view of the world which includes supernaturalism”. He urges us to promote a sense of scepticism in our children presumably so that they can become more like him. I was listening to a radio show yesterday in which a man phoned in to explain the difference between a doubting Thomas and a sceptic. A doubting Thomas will believe what you are saying if you can just show him an example for him to see with his own eyes whereas a sceptic is someone who still won’t believe you even when you have shown him. Dawkins sits firmly in the camp of the latter. For a seemingly educated man, his comments do him no credit. This is the same man whose considerable imagination has led to him proposing highly provocative theor

As the scale of the crisis in the NHS in Wales becomes ever more apparent, the First Minister of the Welsh Assembly has been forced to concede that Wales can’t cope in its existing format. Rather than continue to witness the needless spectacle of Welsh patients dying as they await major surgery on home soil, the First Minister has finally come down on the side of common sense. He would rather see Welsh patients treated over the border in England than have to wait as happens all too often under the current format. Border? That is as much a nonsense term now as it was in 1997 before the devolution vote. In practical terms, there is no border between Wales and England. There are road signs proclaiming a physical demarcation but they are just signs. The need for autonomy sometimes makes us lose sight of reality. A cultural border is fine as long as it doesn’t impinge on the health, education and employment of those living on the wrong side of it. Ironically, it has also just been announce