The Post-Partisan Emporium

They’re coming for your backyard chickens… Kit Knightly Since the “bird flu outbreak” first hit the headlines  OffG has been predicting  how the inevitable agenda would unfold. The first impact was as obvious as it was predictable – the price of chicken and eggs went up, this was just another front in the  war on food . The second planned impact was less immediate, but just as predictable if you know how to read the media, and potentially far more harmful in the longterm – clamping down on alternative chicken farming. This includes both organic farms and individuals keeping their own chickens in their garden. It didn’t take long for the media to prove us right. In fact the Guardian has done it twice in the last ten days. Firstly, last Thursday, the Guardian ran  this article :  “Spread of ‘free-range’ farming may raise risk of animal-borne pandemics – study” Sponsored by the NGO  Open Philanthropy , this piece reports that organic and free-range farming cou...

A Lesson in Being Human: 9 tips for new homeschoolers Young people & home education can teach us all a thing or two. Lucy Davies Home education is a hugely emotive subject at the best of times with its very presence capable of causing untold offence, so I want to preface this blog by saying that its purpose is absolutely not to judge or attempt to persuade. I realise that it’s not easy or even possible for some parents to just pull their kids out of school & crack on, & that many either don’t want to or their kids aren’t up for it. There are many factors to consider & each family has individual needs. That said, as is often the case with ‘a different way of doing things’, people are quick to criticise & condemn. Not just others, but themselves, & with this comes massive self-doubt, a feeling of needing to justify their actions, & for the outcome to be some kind of perfection, even when the conventional way of doing things is hugely flawed. So as ever, the mi...