Trying to understand the plight of the refugee crisis in Europe is a thorny subject, dear reader. Life’s precious I responded to an impassioned post on Facebook about the ad placed in the Guardian newspaper by a group of liberal-minded Danes saying they would welcome refugees in Denmark. I ticked the ‘like’ box and commented…
Hot on the heels of the election in the UK, it’s election fever here in Denmark, where we’re in the midst of hearing the pledges and promises from the many and varied political parties. Beware of the nationalists! The next Danish prime minister will either be Helle Thorning-Schmidt, a Social Democrat, or Lars Løkke Rasmussen…
It’s hard to imagine the Danish prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, getting flummoxed by a question about which football team she supports (it’s Brøndby by the way), just in case she put off some voters. Danish politicians don’t really go in for ingratiation. They have spin doctors – that’s true – but to advise them on…
We have finished our run of ‘Shakespeare’s Women’ at Krudttønden – the theatre now infamous around the world after the fatal shooting. We had to cancel eight performances following police advice and eventually opened on February 25, a whole week later than planned. A part of history now The National Museum has taken the window…
Why do we dislike whistle-blowers so much, I wonder? There seems to be a general misplaced feeling that whistle-blowers are somehow being disloyal to their masters: of biting the hand that feeds them. We need whistle-blowers to wake us up to dreadful things being done. Without them, people in positions of power can…
You can’t actually make this stuff up. Fact is stranger than fiction. British supermarket chains Tesco and Asda have withdrawn several Halloween outfits from sale due to concerns they made light of mental health issues. Asda’s ‘mental patient fancy dress costume’ is no longer available, and Tesco followed suit by removing its ‘psycho ward’ outfit.…
One of the most feisty football fixtures in the world is that between England and Scotland. The word ‘friendly’ when attached to this match is as fictitious as the unicorn on the front of the British passport. One day many moons ago whilst waiting at passport control leaving England, I was asked by my daughter,…
Dear Reader, I’ve just returned from a week in the United Kingdom. It was a lovely trip, but it didn’t get off to the best of starts as an over-zealous passport control officer told me that my boys couldn’t travel on their own because they were under 16. I politely pointed out to her that…
Dear Reader, I can’t avoid referring to the divisiveness still caused by Mrs, sorry, ‘Lady’ Thatcher. With her death, old wounds are being opened and we are reminded of the deep divisions that still exist in the Dis-united Queendom. Perhaps though, we all ought to make efforts to bury old enmities for the sake of…
I have the honour of being Saint Patrick on Sunday for the parade through the fair streets of Copenhagen. I have to address the gathered crowds. I might begin with something that he might have said: “Once again the poor are being made to pay for the wickedness of the rich.” Although to be fair,…
Dear Reader, As you sit reading this, I’ll have two weeks to go until the premiere of our next theatre production, ‘Shakespear’s Women’ (See G2 in InOut for details). At this point in the proceedings, we always think that’s there’s far much to do and that it’ll never get done and that time is running…
It actually takes quite a lot of effort to get away from it all. I have just done just that and, as a result, I went to bed at 7:45 on New Year’s Eve due to exhaustion. I travelled about 10,000 kilometres to get here to this paradise on Earth. So where am I? Well,…
