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Articles by Jon Pigott
Creative Environmental Exhibition: Revealing Insights through Multi-Sensory Museum Experiences and Vignette Analysis for Enhanced Audience Engagement
1. Introduction For the sustainability of our world, we have reached a stage where we need to engage people in environment education and climate action. Data are key here to know what solutions and actions will drive impact on climate change. As Crowley et al. highlight ‘understanding how to engage with and empower people to achieve shared biodiversity conservation goals is crucial’ ([1], (p. 2)). However, as Grainger et al.
Putin's come-back: Western leaders would look 'disgusting' topless
Playground insults appear to be the latest military development to come out of the war in Ukraine, as Vladimir Putin tells Western leaders they would look “disgusting,” shirtless. Do you need some ice for that burn, G7? “I don’t know how they wanted to get undressed, above or below the waist. But I think it would be a disgusting sight in any case,” the Russian leader said during a visit to Turkmenistan. He’s not wrong.
Johnson and Wallace get personal on toxic small-man Vlad
Are the Defence Secretary and the Prime Minister coordinating on attack lines? Ben Wallace, speaking on LBC, told listeners that Putin is a “lunatic” who suffers from “small man syndrome” and holds a “macho” view of the world. In the noughties, Putin cultivated an image of “strongman” virility, having himself photographed riding horses without his shirt on, fishing in the Taiga topless and out hunting… again, topless.
Dominic Cummings needs to get a job
As a bored and self-indulgent fifteen-year-old during her lengthy school holidays, this writer used to sit on her bedroom floor and create league tables of her favourite albums, books, films etc… to decide which one was truly the best. This activity usually killed enough time until she found something better to do. The following summer when she had turned sixteen, she had a waitressing job and no longer had the time to ponder at length which Sofia Coppola film she really liked the best.
Ben Wallace speech: A real danger that Russia will lash out against Europe
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut mollis, enim ac feugiat lobortis, odio magna hendrerit ante, id pretium ligula enim vel purus. Cras blandit magna sed tortor egestas tempus. Proin congue augue in dapibus ullamcorper. Donec bibendum, erat sit amet dictum tincidunt, sem libero eleifend nulla, vitae porta turpis erat eget metus. Aenean posuere porta est. Vestibulum venenatis mauris libero, ut tristique turpis blandit vel. Vivamus elementum lorem dui.
Who are the Tory MPs planning to defect to Labour?
Westminster is awash with chatter about the identity of the mystery Tory MPs threatening to defect to the Labour party. Nigel Adams MP even tweeted a picture of himself pointing accusingly at Jacob Rees-Mogg, along with the caption: “It’s important to leave no stone unturned as we aim to identify potential defectors to Labour.” So far, we have a few tantalising hints.
Wordwatch: One of those things
“….the presenter was one of those American journalists who is only known as “a famous American journalist” in Moscow” — Spectator, March 26 2022. Yikes! How on earth could the (perfectly literate) writer of this sentence not cry out in pain at this construction? “…one of those … who is …?” I find myself grating my teeth more and more frequently as this construction appears repeatedly in modern English, both written and spoken.
Books Digest - The Missing Cryptoqueen, Notes on Heartbreak and The Last Days of Roger Federer
Welcome to our weekly Books Digest where we round up the new books you should and shouldn’t, be reading. This week features Notes on Heartbreak by Annie Lord, The Missing Cryptoqueen by Jamie Bartlett and The Last Days of Roger Federer by Geoff Dyer. For more books, take a look through our Books Digest Archive. Bill Bowkett The story of cryptocurrency OneCoin and its founder, Dr Ruja Ignatova, was first told in The Missing Cryptoqueen, one of the BBC’s most popular podcasts.
The Great Escape - Taking a bite out of the Big Apple
New York City has an instantly identifiable soundtrack with its cacophony of sounds. Whether it’s the apocalyptic whirr of sirens, the honking of horns from a fleet of yellow cabs, the hiss of steam pulsating from the ground or the chortle of laughter spilling out into the streets, the city’s beat bounces off skyscrapers and reverberates all around. The exoskeleton of the city feels as if it were a theatre set for you to make your debut appearance as its shining star.
Strengthen NATO, resist Russian tyranny
“Look here, upon this picture, and on this…” Two European summits within a week — the EU Council in Brussels and the North Atlantic Council in Madrid — invite the scrutiny that the Prince of Denmark (a member state of both organisations) urged upon his mother. As in the original comparison, one picture is heroic, the other banal. The EU summit has concluded in its usual deceptive style; much better is expected of NATO next week. The two bodies began as equal contenders.
Michael Howard puts knife into Johnson
Former Conservative leader Michael Howard – the man once described as someone “who has something of the night about him” by a fellow Tory- is the latest to call for the PM’s resignation after two devastating by-election losses.
Ursula Von der Leyen forgets LNG is a fossil fuel
The EU has announced its intention to end its reliance on fossil fuel… by switching to another fossil fuel. “We must get rid of our dependence on fossil fuel,” President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, tweeted. “And we already see the results: for example, American LNG deliveries are up 75%.” An admirable commitment, you might think.
Third of uni students want teachers of offensive material fired, new poll
One in three university students say tutors should be fired if they “teach material that heavily offends some students”, according to a troubling new report which warns of a growing higher education monoculture.
Who is Mick Lynch?
He is the shaven-head militant trade unionist responsible for bringing Britain to a standstill and is now making his name poking fun at some of the country’s top TV broadcasters. But who is Mick Lynch, the man behind the biggest railway strike in 30 years? Lynch was born in 1962 to Irish Catholic parents – who moved to England during the Blitz in search of work – and grew up as the youngest of five siblings on a council estate in Paddington.
Kate Bush running up that hill to the top of the charts
Kate Bush, the queen of art-pop, has given a one-off interview to Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour to discuss the resurgent success of her 1985 hit song Running Up That Hill. Speaking to the show’s host Emma Barnett, Bush described the situation as “just extraordinary… quite shocking really, isn’t it?
Picketing frontbenchers ignore Keir Starmer's ban
Labour frontbenchers are standing in solidarity with railway unions by appearing at picket lines outside train stations, despite warnings by Sir Keir Starmer they face the sack for doing so. Several members of Starmer’s shadow Cabinet – such as Kate Osborne, the Shadow Northern Ireland Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS), and Paula Barker, the Shadow Defence PPS – have ignored orders against joining any protests coordinated by the RMT Union. Labour whip Navendu Mishra also defied Starmer’s ban.
Ian Blackford under pressure to quit as Paul Grady saga snowballs
An SNP MP has apologised for calling on her party to “rally together around” disgraced MP Patrick Grady, adding to the pressure on the party’s leader in Westminster, Ian Blackford, to resign. Grady, the party’s former chief whip, was last week found guilty by an independent expert panel of caressing a 19-year-old staffer in 2016.
Watch: Iain Martin and Michael Crick on One Party After Another: The Disruptive Life of Nigel Farage
Iain Martin in conversation with the journalist Michael Crick about his latest book One Party After Another: The Disruptive Life of Nigel Farage. Nigel Farage is arguably one of the most influential British politicians of the 21st century. His campaign to take the UK out of the EU began as a minority and extreme point of view, but in June 2016 it became the official policy of the nation after a divisive referendum.
Books Digest - Happy-Go-Lucky, A Brief History of the Atlantic and Watersong
Welcome to our weekly Books Digest where we round up the new books you should and shouldn’t, be reading. This week features Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris, A Brief History of the Atlantic by Jeremy Black and Watersong by Clarissa Goenawan. For more books, take a look through our Books Digest Archive. Happy-Go-Lucky by David Sedaris (Little, Brown Book Group, £18.99) Alice Crossley Since his first collection of essays in 1994, David Sedaris has been making the world laugh.
Stop and Look - The Procuress by Dirck van Baburen (1622)
Here are three people we almost feel we know personally. The artist Dirck van Baburen gives them such energy, such conviction as characters engaged in a dynamic relationship, an exchange that is progressing as we watch: we are irresistibly involved. The sharp light that brings out details of their clothing, their expressions and gestures also illuminates their psychology so that we know exactly what is going on between them. Or do we?
Franz Kafka's failed drawings
Franz Kafka died from tuberculosis of the larynx at the age of 41 in 1924, leaving no Will. But to his great friend and first biographer Max Brod he gave the impassioned instruction: “whatever diaries, manuscripts, letters from myself or others, drawings, etc. you find among the things I leave behind … please burn every bit of it without reading it, and do the same with any writings or drawings that you have, or that you can obtain from others …”.
Anna Higham - Food for Thought
As we ascend into midsummer, it is hard not to notice the blushing fruits hankering for a picking or the medley of vegetables and herbs enlivening gardens and hedgerows. The arsenal of fresh produce available to green thumbs in sun-drenched months feels limitless; whether it’s a punnet of ruby-red strawberries that could be blended into a sorbet, blackcurrants for cordial or coral-tinted peaches that could be roasted and served with a cool sorbet, rosemary and olive oil ice cream.
Taiwan must not be allowed to become another Ukraine
Even while we watch tragedy unfolding in Ukraine, following every ripple of advance or retreat in a war now being waged in a more restricted, but still deadly, theatre than before, we are haunted by an unsettling awareness that what we are witnessing is possibly no more than a prelude to a more disastrous cataclysm waiting in the wings of history for the cue to move centre-stage. China has maintained a remarkably self-effacing posture with regard to the Ukraine conflict.
The cancer wonder drugs making waves in the world of oncology
While cancer continues to claim 167,000 lives every year in the UK and ten million worldwide, research on a variety of treatment options is continually improving and expanding. Only last week, we learnt of the results of a clinical trial which found that the drug Enhertu doubled average survival rates in women with breast cancer. Another revealed that after taking Dostarlimab, all patients in the drug trial seemed to be in remission.
Lord Geidt resignation letter - in full
Downing Street has published the resignation letter of Lord Geidt, who quit his post as Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser on Wednesday night. Here is the text in full: Dear Prime Minister, I appeared before the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee in Parliament yesterday.
Bank of England ups interest rates to 1.25%
The Bank of England has raised interest rates to 1.25 per cent and predicted inflation could top 11 per cent this year. The Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee voted to up the cost of borrowing by 0.25 percentage points, rather than a more aggressive 0.5 percentage points which three of the Committee’s nine members voted for. It’s the MPC’s fifth successive hike. The Bank said it will “act forcefully” if it needs to, to prevent persistent inflation.
Lord Geidt: why did the PM’s ethics adviser quit?
The departure of Lord Geidt as Boris Johnson’s ethics tsar felt like a long time coming. A highly-respected crossbencher, who previously served as the Queen’s Private Secretary, Geidt was appointed as Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests in April 2020 because of his “distinguished record of impartial public service”.
Starmer Wars: Jedi puns galore in unruly PMQs
Sir Keir Starmer accused Boris Johnson of playing “Jedi mind-tricks” over the state of the economy, during the latest session of PMQs. The Labour leader arrived in the chamber determined to disprove recent suggestions, from his own side, that he is extremely boring. Putting on a voice similar to Obi Wan-Kenobi in the Star Wars franchise, the Labour leader compared the Prime Minister to the space slug Jabba the Hutt and said the “force is not with him anymore”.
Banks v Cadwalladr: Brexit legal battle equivalent of Iran-Iraq war concludes
It was Henry Kissinger who is reputed to have said of the Iran-Iraq war that the ideal outcome would be for both sides to lose. For some reason that saying comes to mind in relation to the Carole Cadwalladr case. Today she won her legal battle against arch-Brexiteer Arron Banks. The founder of Leave.EU tried to sue the Guardian and Observer journalist over comments she made in a 2019 TED Talk and a tweet about his relationship with the Russian state.
UK economy shrinks for second month in a row
Fears of a recession have grown after the UK economy shrunk for the second consecutive month amid spiralling living costs. Gross domestic product (GDP) unexpectedly fell by 0.3 per cent in April, according to the Office for National Statistics, after shrinking by 0.1 per cent in March. Most analysts predicted the economy would grow by 0.1 per cent. GDP is still just 0.9 per cent above pre-pandemic levels.
Wordwatch: Crescendo
“The Today programme carries an interesting item about how jackdaws decide when to take flight. They judge by the amount of noise from the jackdaw crowd. If it reaches a crescendo, they fly” – The Spectator, 28 May 2022. I suppose the word “crescendo” has to be counted as a technical term, though it’s familiar enough and used frequently in precisely the way it’s used here.
What to Watch This Week
Welcome to our weekly What To Watch television and streaming guide. This week features season two of Hacks, the new BBC series Sherwood, live coverage of Queen’s Tennis, The Wrath of God and more.
Boris Johnson is on life-support unless he comes up with better housing reforms
“Benefits to Bricks” is every bit as cringeworthy as its parent mantra “Build Back Better.” It does not augur well for Boris Johnson’s reset that he is still employing advisers who feed him such pap. However, a bad slogan may be attached to a good policy just as easily as the opposite process.
Billions up in smoke as unusable PPE burned
The government is being forced to burn some £4bn-worth of personal protective equipment (PPE), in what has been branded “perhaps the most shameful episode of the pandemic”. A damning cross-party report by the Public Accounts Committee found that the Department for Health and Social Care lost 75 per cent of the £12bn it purchased on highly-inadequate and grossly-inflated PPE for frontline workers. Of the £9bn wasted by officials, £4bn will now have to be recycled or incinerated.
Alok Sharma eyes the exit on Boris's sinking ship
What is the thinking behind Alok Sharma’s bid to be the United Nations’ global warming chief? According to The Guardian, “No-drama Sharma” has been approached about taking over from Patrica Espinosa as the outgoing Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Despite his “boring” persona and lukewarm approval within the Conservative Party, Sharma is being touted by sources as a worthy replacement for Espinosa.
Johnson comes out swinging in rapturous PMQs
Boris Johnson was greeted with rapturous cheers from Conservative MPs and declared that “nothing and no-one” can stop him in his first Prime Minister’s Questions since surviving a no-confidence vote. Sir Keir Starmer attempted to trample the Prime Minister after 148 Conservative MPs voted to oust him as leader. The Labour leader said he “couldn’t make out whether that introductory noise was cheers or boos”.
Pound-shop Machievelli Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor? Dream on
Westminster has proposed some comical ideas over the years: a people’s assembly, a second Brexit referendum and an all-female emergency Cabinet, to name just a few. None, however, are more absurd than Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor of the Exchequer. According to the Daily Telegraph, Boris Johnson is being urged by loyalists to put the “pound-shop Machiavelli” in charge of the nation’s finances in an effort to shore up his brittle leadership.
Swedish government survives no-confidence vote by a whisker
If you thought Boris Johnson’s victory in Monday’s no-confidence vote was too close for comfort, take a look at what has happened in Sweden. Sweden Justice Minister Morgan Johansson, backed by Magdalena Andersson’s Social Democrats, narrowly survived a vote of no-confidence on Tuesday by one vote. Of Sweden’s 349 parliamentarians, 174 voted against Johansson – who is under fire for surging crime rates – falling just short of the simple majority needed to remove a minister.
Badly wounded Boris clings to power
Boris Johnson survives as Tory leader, for now. The vote of confidence among his own Conservative MPs leaves him badly wounded. The Prime Minister won the secret ballot by 211 votes to 148 – a majority of 63. To put this into context, 58 per cent of MPs backed the Prime Minister, with 42 per cent voting against him. By contrast, Theresa May won a similar vote with 63 per cent voting for her, with 37 per cent voting against her. She was gone the following summer.
Over half of Tory members want Johnson to lose confidence vote
Over half of Tory party members want their MP to oust Boris Johnson in tonight’s no-confidence vote, according to the latest polling from ConservativeHome. In a snap poll of the Tory membership, 55 per cent want their MPs to vote against Johnson. Last month, in the wake of civil servant Sue Gray’s report into Partygate, as well as the government’s emergency measures to combat the cost-of-living crisis, that figure was 41 per cent.
Boris Johnson's letter to Tory MPs - full text
Boris Johnson has written a letter to all Tory MPs pleading for their support ahead of his confidence vote this evening. The PM is set to address Tory MPs at 4pm in a bid to secure the 180 votes he needs to survive. Here is the Prime Minister’s letter in full: “Tonight we have the chance to end weeks of media speculation and take this country forward, immediately, as one united party.
Jeremy Hunt will vote to oust Boris tonight
Former Conservative party leadership contender Jeremy Hunt is to vote against the Prime Minister in tonight’s no-confidence vote. The former health and foreign secretary tweeted: “Having been trusted with power, Conservative MPs know in our hearts we are not giving the British people the leadership they deserve. “We are not offering the integrity, competence and vision necessary to unleash the enormous potential of our country.
Jesse Norman letter - payback from a former friend treated badly by Boris
Jesse Norman MP’s letter to the Prime Minister calling on him to go is a belter, a deadly missive, one for the ages. It takes Boris Johnson apart and has gone viral. There’s an added piquancy in that it is a letter written by someone who knows Boris well. Norman and the Prime Minister used to be friends.
Boris Johnson to face confidence vote tonight
It is crunch time in Westminster. Boris Johnson will face a confidence vote tonight after Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, announced that the “threshold of 15 per cent of the parliamentary party seeking a vote of confidence in the leader of the Conservative Party [54 letters] has been exceeded”. The secret ballot – the first since Theresa May was leader in 2018 – will be held on Monday evening between 6pm and 8pm, with the result announced “immediately afterwards”.
Stop and Look - Queen Elizabeth II by Pietro Annigoniby
In the first three-quarters of the 20th century Modernism rather sidelined portraiture as an art form. It was rarely concerned with the depiction of individuals whose personalities spoke for themselves: it was more interested in aesthetics and ideas: the way a work of art is constructed, the way an artist can impose a personal vision or style on his or her experience.
Stop and Look - Queen Elizabeth II by Pietro Annigoni
In the first three-quarters of the 20th century Modernism rather sidelined portraiture as an art form. It was rarely concerned with the depiction of individuals whose personalities spoke for themselves: it was more interested in aesthetics and ideas: the way a work of art is constructed, the way an artist can impose a personal vision or style on his or her experience.
God save the Queen
A Platinum Jubilee is a unique event in the millennium-long history of the British monarchy. Despite the increasing longevity of human beings, it is possible this country may never again witness a 70-year occupancy of the throne, or at least not for several centuries, the timescale on which our historic Monarchy is calibrated. Of her three rival platinum monarchs, the Queen has already overtaken Johann II of Liechtenstein and within two weeks she will out-reign the late King Bhumibol of Thailand.
The Queen has shown us how important a living institution is for any nation
“The Queen”. Say the words anywhere in the world and almost everyone will know who you are talking about. She is both an international icon and the living embodiment of an institution which represents our nation. Our other institutions exist under the umbrella of the crown, whether it is Parliament, the Law, the armed services or a myriad of others — right down to those little battalions in the private sector which so often and profitably seek royal patronage. What makes the monarchy endure?
Ingrid Seward - Favourite Things
Ingrid Seward is a Royal biographer and commentator. She has been Editor of Majesty magazine for over 30 years and has written more than a dozen books on the Royal family, the first being about Diana, Princess of Wales in 1987. She is acknowledged globally as an expert on the royal family and regularly appears on radio and television to share her insights into the Monarchy. Her latest book, Prince Philip Revealed: A man of his century, is out now. These are a few of Ingrid Seward’s favourite things…
Happy Jubilee, Boris (and Your Majesty)!
There’s much to see and do over the big Jubilee Weekend, so there’s a good chance you’ll miss some of the major events. To help you get your bunting in order ahead of the celebrations, our regular columnist hands over to royal and constitutional expert fawning lickspittle Alastair Puce OBE to give his view from the top of the flagpole.
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