Home News Columnists Ken Oxley

Truth about vitamin pills is hard to swallow

WOULDN’T it be wonderful if there were a range of magic pills we could take once a day to protect us from all manner of diseases? Read

Judging Lily is a little harsh

THOSE who slated the organisers of the prestigious Orange Prize for fiction after choosing pop singer Lily Allen as one of the judges will be feeling rather smug right now. Read

Plan to cull Gibraltar’s monkey is cruel

I’M rarely sentimental about animals but it seems to me that the planned culling of around 25 of Gibraltar’s famous Barbary macaques is plain wrong. Read

Sewer vision

THOSE bright sparks at Ofcom have come up with a radical idea to cope with the soaring demand for online video content . . . installing broadband cables in sewers. Read

Laws targeting mediums spot on

HOW many psychics does it take to change a lightbulb? Just the one . . . but they need the help of a dead relative whose first name begins with the letter J. Read

Well done you slags

CONGRATULATIONS to all the student slags in Durham . . . you’ve done the city proud. Read

A law too far

IT’S a sign of our times that a council has admitted spying on a family to find out if they were really living in a school’s catchment area. Read

Ill-informed are not a blessing

WITH his white hair, dark eyebrows and prominent Roman nose, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, bears a passing resemblance to another religious figurehead . . . Father Ted Crilly. Read

V Miners went on strike for an extra two shillings (10p) a week.

V A pint of beer cost thruppence. Read

Let’s not be dopes

THERE are times when the difference between B and C really matters. Like when you’re doing your A-levels, for example . . . or if you’ve just gone 50/50 on the final question of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and the computer has deleted A and D. Read

Perks of the trade

I HAVE never had the pleasure of meeting Ronnie Campbell, pictured below, but the MP for Blyth Valley strikes me as a decent chap, albeit somewhat accident-prone. Read

KO for Hilary?

BLOODIED but, as yet, undefeated US presidential candidate Hilary Clinton — who is trailing Democrat rival Barack Obama in the polls — has compared herself to Rocky Balboa. Read

Lost for words

I AM indebted to a friend working in the public relations industry for drawing my attention to a rather embarrassing error made by those lovely people at One NorthEast, the region’s development agency. Read

Two Jags equals two faces

CORRECT me if I’m wrong, but aren’t Government ministers supposed to lead by example? Read

And now, a ward from our sponsors

NHS hospitals will soon be allowed to advertise to attract patients. Read

Trixie decision for dairy farmer

I CAN’T help but feel dairy farmer Clive Keam missed a trick when one of his pregnant cows gave birth to a heifer with one leg missing. He called it Trixie. Read

Pat on the back for yours truly

IT’S not often I get letters telling me how great I am (I wonder why? . . . Ed). Read

Time to lose the leeches

THERE is no way of saying what I’m about to without causing offence, but deep down I suspect we all know it’s true. Read

Terry Pratchett’s illness has silver lining

I WOULDN’T wish an incurable disease on my worst enemy. But if — and I require you to suspend your disbelief here — I had the God-like power to make someone ill, and I chose to exercise it, I’d curse a celebrity. Read

Tory spoof is spot on

LABOUR MP Sion Simon got his knuckles rapped some 18 months ago after he posted a spoof video on YouTube, in which he poked fun at David Cameron. Read

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