Forensic Architecture and Violence
Thresholds of Detectability and Investigative Aesthetics The state, via the police and criminal justice system, is normally responsible for the investigating the crimes of individuals. But what happens when the state is the alleged criminal and those seeking to uncover...
More…
Tory landslide Was Averted
So, there is a general election tomorrow. Maybe one of the most critical elections in the post-war period. If you are reading this blog, the chances are that you deeply care about the NHS, schools, universities and believe in having...
More…
Logan Review: “The world is not the same as it was”
Is Logan the first post-Trump era movie? The movie Logan marks the end of a nearly twenty-year period in which Hugh Jackman has played the character Wolverine (AKA Logan). He is a mutant who has retractable metal claws, enhanced physical...
More…
Three Weeks in June and One Night in November: Brexit and Trump
The year 2016, with both Brexit and the election of Trump, has been extraordinarily bleak. In June, following a nasty campaign, peppered with a barely concealed racist venom, Britain narrowly voted to leave the EU. Then in November, after an...
More…
‘Narcos’ and the ‘War on Drugs’
“Magical realism is defined as what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something too strange to believe. There is a reason magical realism was born in Colombia” When we think about the devastation and harm that...
More…
On Brexit, Hamsters & Hungry Pythons!
As we move towards the referendum on membership of the EU, British citizens face a bewildering array of claims and counterclaims. The conventional wisdom is that the voting public will favour the ‘status quo bias‘. Unfortunately, we seem to be...
More…
We are all Dr Strangelove now
It could be argued that there is no greater threat to our health than the possibility that we may be wiped out as a species. The 1964 Kubrick movie ‘Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love...
More…
Abandoned but not forgotten: hospitals, decay and urban exploration
Do you find the picture above, taken by an urban exploration photographer, unsettling, provocative or even beautiful? It appears to show an old delivery bed set against the clinical white tiles of a hospital maternity room. But the image is...
More…
NHS Nu-Speak
This email has been scanned for viruses; however we are unable to accept responsibility for any damage caused by the contents. The opinions expressed in this email represent the views of the sender, not [name removed] NHS Foundation Trust unless...
More…
Lazing on a sunny afternoon? A historical perspective on risk and sunlight
As we emerge from the wettest winter on record most of us are looking forward to the summer and the chance to maybe get out into some sunlight. The pleasures associated with lying on a beach, going for a bike...
More…
‘BREAKING BAD’: markets, healthcare and drug money
The TV series Breaking Bad reached its conclusion at the end of September last year. This acclaimed drama has been described as: the most revered show of the modern golden age of television; as Dostoevsky in the desert; and it...
More…
The Doctors’ Trial: 70 years on from the Nuremberg Code