HomeViews & BlogsColumnistsPeter Elson

Living a long life can have its own downsides

ONE of the reasons that young people seem to want to grow up so fast is that we are tending to live much longer. Read

A day-trip on the ocean wave had one hack all at sea

I WRITE to you as someone guilty as charged of once sending hundreds of readers and their trusting loved ones on a trip aboard the Scottish paddle steamer Waverley, which became so rough that the old girl had to turn back at Bar. Read

The fight to feed the world and stop a global crisis

WHILE gloom and doom envelops the western world as it comes to grips with the credit crunch, the collapse of house prices and recession, it is worth remembering that these are the ills of rich economies. Read

A corner of England that is forever Wales

THERE’S a great saying that “Wales kept Liverpool dry” – thanks to all the slate on the roofs of not only the city, but across Birkenhead and Wirral, too. Read

We’re on the eve of destruction – but it’s not too late

IT WAS the words “halibut destruction” that caught my eye and I wondered how this caused a major cause of population decline in many species. Then I realised what was wrong – not for the first time I was looking through the wrong quarter of my vari-focals. Read

Keep Britain healthy – protect our green spaces

I REALISED the problem as soon as my wife asked why on earth was I muttering and grinding my teeth so vigorously. Read

Not just looking but kicking a gift horse in the mouth

IT’S always a surprise when you hear somebody who should be keeping the show on the road start rubbishing the metaphorical vehicle in which they are travelling. Read

It’s full steam ahead for the anorak artists

MICHAEL PALIN surveyed his audience with approval. He revealed that he knew the gathering at Liverpool’s Walker clashed with another at Goodison Park between Everton and Chelsea. Read

Lands End to John O’Groats? That’ll be £1bn, please

THERE’S no contest that this week’s award for Best Barmy Brit – And Proud of It is awarded to Richard Elloway, who in an epic journey of courage, endurance, perseverance and heroism became the first man to travel by bus from Land’s End to John O’Groats. Read

Why banish our own Britannia from her realm?

RULE Britannia? Not on our coinage if our Prime Minister has got anything to do with it. Although Scottish-born, Scottish constituency-representing Gordon Brown is keen to emphasise (well, south of the border) that his regime is all for Britain with an extra dose of Britishness, he has done nothing to prevent the removal of the figurative symbol of the British Isles from our coinage, namely Britannia. Read

Use leftovers or we could soon be running on empty

CAN Birkenhead YMCA save the planet with rotten cabbages? Too much pressure, you’d probably cry, but it has an opportunity to take some steps towards a better world for all of us. Read

Was Liverpool’s fate sealed in the city itself?

DID globalisation originate on a Liverpool railway station platform bathed in watery sunlight, shortly before 11am on September 15, 1830? Read

I didn’t do well in exams because . . . uh, I can’t remember

AT LAST I can relax. I know I’ve got an excuse for decades of under-performing in exams. Read

And the rich just keep on getting richer

AS MOST of us busily toil away in the termite hill batting away the next bill, there’s little time to wonder about who really has most of the money. Read

A Royal boost for the heritage of our beautiful city

SAILING into the Mersey or simply crossing the river over the last few years has treated observers to the rapidly changing face of Liverpool. Read

Where does progress come from?

WHERE does progress come from? Several hundreds of years ago, Francis Bacon wrote that “The benefits inventors confer extend to the whole human race”. Read

This is what express service is really all about

IN MY quest for family days out that involve industrial heritage, nostalgia and, crucially, the chance to sit down and drink steaming mugs of tea, I bring you The Cotton Mill Express. Read

Make a monkey of the boss and succeed in business

THE politics of the office are thought to be a matter peculiar to western culture. For the office politician to be able to deploy his or her Machiavellian tactics and chicanery, it is necessary to have a large corporate setting to manoeuvre among staff and management. Read

24-hour drinking at the last bastion of clean-living

It's a sign of the times when those former bastions of clean-living, albeit somewhat spartan and rather chilly, are now set to join the country’s drinking culture round the clock. Read

Where have all the yuppies gone?

ASK anyone who has lived through the past 30 years or more and they will concur that life in Britain has changed by an astonishing amount. Most of the old certainties have gone, yet one aspect which has remained entrenched and seemingly immovable is the stark gap between rich and poor, which is as rigid as it was in the 1970s. Read