According to Wikipedia: “Elmer Gantry is a 1960 drama film about a con man and a female evangelist selling religion to small town America. Adapted by director Richard Brooks, the film is based on the 1927 novel of the same name by Sinclair Lewis and stars Burt Lancaster, Jean Simmons, Arthur Kennedy and Shirley Jones.” Continue reading →

I am writing this minutes after an unlikely England men’s Ashes cricket victory, bearing in mind that eighteen months ago they were comprehensively thumped playing when playing Australia in Australia. Continue reading →

Once again, some churches, supported by members of the community, are looking forward to running its night shelter program from late November, for four months, Continue reading →

When I popped into my favourite café this morning for an illicit breakfast, I happened to get to read the only paper that was available, “the Sun”, and the story that stood out had the same title I have used for this posting. Continue reading →

The issue of child protection (and come to that the protection of any vulnerable group in our society) has increasingly come to the fore in recent years, Continue reading →

When a couple of days back a Facebook friend, who does much by way of campaigning against more gambling provision in the USA, posted a link to a newspaper article on her page titled: Continue reading →

Less than a week ago, I posted a pretty damming report on what I titled “Crisis in Calais”. Continue reading →

Besides a lot of homeless related stuff in which I declare an interest, I couldn’t help noticing an article, along with editorial, in today’s Echo, noting 11+ success rates among Southend’s primary schools have risen. Continue reading →

A couple of weeks back I posted my first “We’re doing all we can” blog posting, Continue reading →

The thing about getting old is increasingly you find people you know or know of (sometimes well) dying around you. Continue reading →