Our favourite royal couple back on our screens
The long awaited Harry and Meghan documentary series landed on Netflix this week as royal correspondents and mainstream media outlets competed to produce the most damning assessment of the couple they could muster. Let’s face it, British media hates Meghan. It was never going to be easy for the first mixed race member of the Royal Family, but since the beginning Meghan has had it worse than many of us can imagine. Regardless of what you may think of her, she ended up in such a dark place as to contemplate ending her life. Can you blame them for wanting to get out of that situation? The Huffington post reported on the Nigel Farage’s response to the first volume of the documentary; he was quite clearly triggered by the couple calling out the obvious links between Brexit and racism. Glad to see he is just as fragile as the rest of us “woke lefty snowflakes”.
COP 15 pushes for biodiversity protection
In Montreal, governments are once again gathering for COP 15. They are aiming to produce a global framework for the protection of biodiversity, particularly with regard to exploitation, pollution, and unsustainable agricultural practices. The plan that was set out at Nagoya in 2010 included 20 targets to be met by 2020 with the goal of protecting our wildlife and natural plant life. Not one of those targets has been met. Not a single one! Campaigning for action on climate change has never been more crucial. I would happily spend a few hours in a traffic jam caused by Just Stop Oil if it means that governments start acting.
4 day week success
Working less has been found to actually benefit businesses, despite what your moody manager might say. A study piloted a 4 day working week in 33 companies across the US, Australia, Ireland and beyond. Powered by Cambridge University and Boston college, the study found that the participating firms saw increased revenue and greater engagement from their employees. Employees said they felt less stressed and burnt out (surprise surprise). As the UK announces new legislation to make it easier to request flexible working, it is quite clear that progressive businesses are going to need to move with these changes, not resist them.
The inclusive food bank
This food bank in Leeds is committed to making sure everyone that uses it feels valued and respected. Often, choice is not a luxury that food bank users have. The manager, Hana Agha, and her team saw inappropriate food packages be given during the pandemic, such as pork being given to Muslim and Jewish people. Hana and her team recognise that not only do different communities have different rules regarding the food they eat, but that communities have different traditions and tastes. They aim to cater to each individual and give food packages that enable them to make their favourite meals, rather than whatever they can create. As positive and inclusive this news is, it does not detract from the fact that we live in a country where food banks outnumber McDonald’s outlets at a ratio of 2 to 1. In the 21st century, this is despicable.
Is the sun setting on all-boys schools?
The Times published their league tables this week, prompting some interesting insights into the benefits of single-sex versus coed schools. The most well-known all boys boarding schools had a poor showing, with Eton dropping out of the top 15 fee-paying schools for the first time since the Times began producing rankings. Amid these poor results and scandals involving sexist behaviour revealed by the ‘Everyone’s Invited’ movement, some of these traditional institutions are beginning to open their doors to female pupils. Winchester, alma mater of the current Prime Minister, announced it would admit female boarders from 2024. Girls-only schools perform comparatively better, occupying many of the top spots in the league tables. As someone who went to a girls only school, I found the culture balanced on a knife edge between high performing and damaging. While we were all encouraged, and encouraged each other, to perform well in our academic subjects, this left a lot of us with a perfectionism complex. Anything less than perfect was seen as failure, with teachers often consoling us over grades that anywhere else would be good, but for us just didn’t cut it. With major schools making moves towards a coed approach, it may not be long before single sex education for boys is a thing of the past.
