My maternal Grandpa was from Belfast. There would be very little to give that away among his children and grandchildren though. Obviously my uncles and cousins carry the Magee surname but none of us have a Northern Irish accent and there are no other characteristics to give away our origins. Meanwhile my Great Grandfather was… Continue reading Invisible racism is still racism -including anti-semitism
Category: ethics
Face mask experiments and asking the wrong question
A little while back I mentioned a study looking at cases of COVID-19 among families with children in the home. I observed that the study was being used by people to push conclusions that it did not and could not make. Something similar has been happening with a Danish study about mask wearing. The study… Continue reading Face mask experiments and asking the wrong question
Is it ever a good thing to lay people off?
We were sat in the meeting room off of the open plan office again. We had been through too many of these conversations. It was frustrating because I’d seen something in the lad during his apprenticeship and given him a job in our team. However he had coasted after that, he seemed lethargic, disinterested and… Continue reading Is it ever a good thing to lay people off?
When you have to make someone redundant
In a previous article, I wrote for those who are experiencing being made redundant. Today, I want to write about our responsibilities when we are the other side of the desk. If you are in a leadership position, then there is going to come a day when you will face the prospect of having to… Continue reading When you have to make someone redundant
Balance is often the enemy of truth
One of the idols we chase is “balance.” It is an established political fact that unless everyone else has headed off to the extremes, elections are normally won from the political centre. Opinion polls show that most voters consider themselves to be in the centre and judge the parties by where they believe they sit… Continue reading Balance is often the enemy of truth
Learning to see – the full picture
Going back a month or two, you may remember that when asked, Boris Johnson promised that if necessary, the armed forces would be made available to help with the effort against COVID-19. This led to predictable headlines and tweets about troops on the street and people claiming that the Government was using the pandemic as… Continue reading Learning to see – the full picture
Swallows and Vaccines
Yesterday was a good news day in the battle against COVID-19. The twin announcements of a mass testing trial in Liverpool and the positive results from vaccine trials were signs op hope. However, in the Prime Minister’s statement last night, we were reminded by him and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer that there is still… Continue reading Swallows and Vaccines
Beware of using experiments to support your argument
I am a firm believing in the helpfulness of both empirical evidence and forecasting models to help us make decisions. However, during COVID19, we seem to have run into problems whenever results are shared and there hasn’t been great care to understand what they are meant to be telling us. So, for example we get… Continue reading Beware of using experiments to support your argument
Bounced
Too often we can feel bounced into announcing and taking action before we are ready to. I’ve seen it in church life where someone suddenly pushes a major decision to a vote well before all of the information is on the table and before people are ready, emotionally, intellectually and spiritually to make a discernment. … Continue reading Bounced
The problem with Christian Exceptionalism and the distinction between submit and support
From this Sunday, church buildings in England will be closed again for public worship due to a second lockdown. I expect that most church leaders will comply with this, all with a heavy heart. Some will do this quietly. Others will have raised objections through blog posts, letters to MPs, petitions and possibly a legal… Continue reading The problem with Christian Exceptionalism and the distinction between submit and support
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