Hunter Biden.

 On Newsnight on Friday evening we had a fascinating interview with Hunter Biden (56) the son of the previous president Joe Biden. Hunter, has had a very turbulent personal history of drug and alcohol abuse, which brought him close to death. He said that after his brother Beau died from brain cancer in May 2015 - he went off the rails. Needless to say this had a devastating effect on the Biden family and in particular Hunter who was - very close to his brother. In talking about the travails of his own personal story he explained that his father - “always left the door open”. The president famously pardoned his son from life long prosecution as his final act as president. Joe Biden, has bone cancer and is extremely unwell and will die within the next few years. 

Working with mothers and their new babies.

 One of the foremost child and adult psychoanalysts, not only in Britain, but across the world was Dr Donald Winnicott (1896-1971). He worked for many years after qualifying as a paediatrician at the Paddington Green Children’s Hospital from 1923. He was a formidable clinician and teacher and also broadcast a series of talks for mothers with their babies. In WW2 he was asked by the BBC to do some talks for new mothers. They were entitled: The Ordinary Devoted Mother and Her baby. Although not being a father himself, he had a natural emotional connection to both mothers and their babies. As a consequence, he coined the term the ‘good enough mother’. This was emblematic of his natural intuition. He ran a group for mothers and their young babies with a Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN). Many years later my consultant psychiatrist in child and family psychotherapy - asked me to take over his group, that he took over from Dr Winnicott, some years previously. So I have an interesting connection with Dr Winnicott. I ran the weekly group with a CPN for about 5 years, before leaving the NHS in Easter 1995 to work in private practice. 

 

The origins of the ideas unpinning woke.

  I suggest the aetiology of the term - woke started to gain momentum post 1968 and the political awakening across Europe and America. The street riots in Paris and the intoxicating feeling of - power and insurrection was palpable. I have a friend who was in Paris during these exciting times - when revolution was in the air. Young people were breaking free from the Bourgeois attitudes of their - stuffy and repressive and repressed parents. Moreover the - birth control pill has just come onto the market - just it time to be liberated sexually. New norms and values were being forged. The Marxist ideology of alienation and anomie were endemic. It was a heady time to be young and active in student politics. The individual was now king, not complying to spurious goals - parents set for you. The - state was the opposition, the individual perception of reality now dominated - gone was corporate interests underpinning our society. We were now free in an existential way - not in a Bourgeois way. Mrs Thatcher summed this when she explained ‘there is no such thing as society’. We now lived in a - relatively world not an absolute one. 

When the - rubber hits the road.

 In Thetford, a small county town in Norfolk - there are street protests over the last few nights. And guess what all the hullabaloo is about - and you guess correctly - the opposition to asylum seekers in their local communities. These young alone men - it’s always men between about 18-30 are housed in - multiple housing occupancy (MHO). A number of police officers have been injured and one was bitten very badly. The men and women of Thetford are angry and fed up, saying ‘these houses, should be used by us, not foreign men’. So Andy Burnham, this where the - rubber hits the road. People feel the state isn’t on their side and working - for them and seeing asylum seekers getting into housing is - where the straw brakes the camels back. Welcome to reality. 

Liar, liar pants on fire.

 This saying came to life in about 1841 and is - particularly applicable to a case in the public eye at the moment about the black academic - Professor Jason Arday (41) of Jesus College, Cambridge University. The university on Wednesday decided to introduce a fresh investigation into serious claims of - plagiarism and not having the educational qualifications he claims to have. Moreover he has decided to resign his position as professor of sociology of education at Jesus College, forthwith. He made a statement last night saying to the effect - this whole farrago has caused him and his family great distress and has taken a psychological toll upon him and his family - in addition he also asserted there is a racist element to these accusations. Needless to say the university rejected these claims and reiterated its determination to - get to the bottom of the case. In the Old Testament, in the King James version it’s say explicitly in Numbers 32:23 ‘be sure your sin will find you out’. 

I always had this statement at the back of my mind and as a direct consequence - it saved me from the endemic rampant racism and corruption in the Metropolitan Police - where I served in Soho from May 1960 to September 1963. 

A political own goal.

 A serious error of judgement by Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party in supporting a previous neo-Nazi Joshua Bonehill-Paine as a potential candidate as a local candidate for the Conservatives in Somerset. He was an overt antisemite for many years and spent a number of years in prison for his political obnoxious political activities. He has decided today to withdraw his possible candidacy. However, this is an obvious error of judgment by Badenoch and indicated her naive level of political sophistications. 

Top of the class.

 L’ Express the French news magazine, spent three months approaching people in the various state security services - in order to discover and to rate their opposite numbers in western countries across Europe. Interestingly the top place by general agreement was the - British Secret Service, better known as MI6. They were considered best at recruiting high-level moles and penetrating the ruling class elites of Russia, China, Iran and Turkey. According to a senior member of the CIA “the United Kingdom has by far the strongest secret service in Europe by a long way”. Apparently we have the ability to play the long game of espionage and clandestine operations across many countries. Some have suggested this is connected to our - Imperial history, when we were in direct competition with other nations and in particular Russia for international influence. Another factor is that our secret service recruits from our top universities, like Oxford and Cambridge - and thereby have highly intelligent and resourceful agents. Whatever the causes it’s always good to be top of the class.