Theodore Dalrymple

Global warning | 21 July 2007

Public affairs vex no man, said Doctor Johnson, and I know what he meant. He, however, did not live as we do in an age of information in which, without retiring entirely to bed, it is next to impossible to dodge the headlines altogether.

issue 21 July 2007

Public affairs vex no man, said Doctor Johnson, and I know what he meant. He, however, did not live as we do in an age of information in which, without retiring entirely to bed, it is next to impossible to dodge the headlines altogether.

Besides, there’s something extraordinarily tonic in vexation: it is to my muse what Galvani’s electrical current was to frogs’ legs. Is there anyone so dull of soul that he does not enjoy a little light indignation now and then?

It would not be right — it would be advertising, in fact — to mention by name in which magnate’s publication I read a story recently about a schoolteacher who took a concealed camera into her classroom and recorded pupils who, inter alia, smashed furniture, tried to access anal pornography on the internet and made false accusations of assault against the teacher in class.

Needless to say, there were serious consequences — for the teacher, Mrs Angela Mason.

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