2024

’Tis the Season for Jingling and Mingling!

Christmas is coming. The geese are getting fat. So please put a penny in the old man’s hat… Christmas is not only coming. It’s here. If you have visited some leading department stores around the country, it seems to have been around since August. Christmas is a time for sharing….

Crime Doesn’t Pay? You Think…?

I watch a lot of crime programmes. The real true crime ones. Not the fictional nonsense that has the CSI (Crime Scene Investigators) sending blood samples off to the lab and getting the results back in five minutes or the police catching criminals, getting them convicted and locked up in…

Make Crime Pay?

Who says, crime doesn’t pay? Whoever did needs to think again. The phrase “crime doesn’t pay”, I believe, is an example of a Victorian saying that was meant to encourage morality and work. It is supposed to mean that crime or any illegal method of earning is not a profitable venture,…

BB (Bad Boys) at the Beeb

The BBC – that is, the British Broadcasting Corporation – can’t seem to keep themselves out of trouble. What have they done wrong now? Well, let me tell you. But before I do that, let’s look at the case of Jay Blades. You know Jay Blades, that lovely amiable character…

Déjà vu? Huw!

Here we go again! Another celebrity [remember my piece on Katie Price?] comes before the courts, magistrates court that is, charged with a serious crime, and is basically let off. Huw Edwards. That’s who we are talking about just now. That doyen of the great British Broadcasting Corporation who, whilst…

It’s All In The Game – Or Is It?

They think it’s all over – but it is now. “What is she on about?” I hear you ask. The Olympics, of course. What else? So, the Paris Olympics of 2024 departed the French shores like a bat out of hell. I’m thinking of Tom Cruise. Did you see him…

girl looking sad with hands against window

Silence is Not Golden – It’s Criminal!

I am absolutely horrified. I have just heard about a case of sexual abuse. Familial sexual abuse. This is bad. Really bad. But it’s worse than that. Much worse. Here’s the case. Andrea Skinner, a Canadian woman, now aged 58, was sexually abused by her stepfather, Gerald Fremlin, her mother’s…

Rough Justice – Tell Me About It!

Hey up! This can’t be right. Prisoners residing at His Majesty’s pleasure, claiming and getting state benefits? When they are already being housed, fed, and looked after at taxpayers’ expense? Something wrong here, methinks! It has come to light (although the practice has been in place for years) that nearly…

Don’t Sushi Me!

Just over a year ago, I took myself off to Aberystwyth Crime Festival. From the train station, I took a taxi up to my lodgings. As the kindly Welsh driver removed my luggage from the boot and placed it on the ground, with a nod and a wink he told…

There’s Nowt So Queer as Folk!

Folks are funny! Death in Paradise, that beloved BBC television comedic cosy crime caper, set in the (fictional) Caribbean Island of Saint Marie, that regularly pulls a whacking eight million viewers per episode, has come under a bit of fire. Man, are they getting it in the neck? They seem to have upset the…