In a recent episode of the Beyond Gender podcast, psychoanalyst and former Tavistock governor Marcus Evans describes the crisis in youth gender medicine as “the biggest scandal since the lobotomies of the 1950s”.[1] It is a striking phrase, and it captures the sense of unease that many clinicians now feel about an experimental approach that has been rolled out as if it were settled practice.

This blog arrives the need to revive UK metropolitan governance to reverse decades of economic lag and social fragmentation since the 1986 abolition. Fragmented city regions hinder productivity, affordable housing, and seamless transport, widening regional disparities. Japan’s integrated prefectural and designated-city model delivers efficient services, high liveability, and sustained growth. A bold return to statutory metropolitan authorities – in name and spirit – is essential for functional, affordable urban areas that enhance daily life and drive national prosperity.

A comparative analysis of recent UK gender debates shows how competing rhetorical frameworks shape public understanding. By contrasting evidence-based safeguarding arguments with identity-led advocacy, and examining their alignment with the Supreme Court’s Women For Scotland judgment, this article clarifies how conflicts over sex, gender, and law reflect deeper tensions between idealism and realism in social policy. Public debate about sex, gender, and safeguarding is shaped not only by the substance of the claims made, but by the rhetorical worlds in which those claims are formed.

Why does Elon Musk’s claim that “poverty is an engineering problem” provoke such fury in the West—yet Japan’s engineering mindset has quietly built equality, safety, and freedom without our fragmentation? Isn’t it time we revived disciplined, outcome-focused thinking?

This blog explores the idea of the Golden Thread in Jungian depth psychology and applies it to the contemporary notion of the “transgender child.” Rather than treating gender distress as a purely ideological issue, the piece argues for a symbolic and mythological understanding grounded in Jung, von Franz and Hillman. It examines how archetypal images, projections and developmental conflicts may shape a child’s sense of identity, and raises safeguarding concerns where adults, including Dr Helen Webberley, frame medical intervention as “life-saving.” The article cautions against premature affirmation, suggesting that such dynamics can resemble conversion or grooming, and highlights the need for reflective, depth-informed guidance that protects children’s psychological development.

This week’s recording was shaped by the steady rain outside and the slow process of returning to everyday routines after two weeks in Japan. The journey was immersive rather than rushed, and it has left me thinking about how different social expectations shape the way people move, speak, and relate to one another. I have been easing back into work, catching up with admin, writing, and sorting through photographs.

In late October, I placed an online order with John Lewis for £260 in Japanese Yen, intending to collect the cash before a trip to Japan. What should have been a straightforward transaction turned into a revealing lesson in how corporate policy can drift away from fairness, common sense, and the law. When I arrived at the Leicester store to collect my order, I presented my UK Provisional photocard driving licence – a government-issued form of ID that has always been accepted in similar transactions.

This reflective blog contrasts Japan’s well-funded public services, clean civic spaces and cohesive cultural norms with the UK’s fragmented infrastructure, emotional volatility and declining public realm. Drawing on metamodern perspectives, it examines how engineering, funding and shared cultural narratives shape everyday life. The piece argues for renewed civic purpose, mythogenetic clarity and a commitment to rebuilding functional, dignified public systems capable of supporting a plural yet coherent society.

In Japan, order feels alive — an ambient rhythm of self-control and empathy that shapes public life without force or fear. Through Ikigai and metamodernism, this reflection explores how calm, humble gestures reveal a deeper social harmony and a hopeful path forward. When I first arrived in Japan, the sense of order was almost disorienting. The spaces felt both alive and inscrutable — crowded, fast-moving, yet calm.

This post explores Leicester’s proposal to expand its city boundaries and create a unified metropolitan authority, framing it as an opportunity to build a modern, integrated, and accessible urban system. Drawing inspiration from the efficiency and civic coherence of Japanese cities like Osaka, it argues that Leicester can become a model mid-sized metropolis—combining practical governance reform, improved public transport, and inclusive urban design.

I’ve just returned from my first trip to Japan, and I’m starting a series to make sense of what I experienced. I went in as a tourist—camera out, eyes wide—and came home with a working method for cultural life: Ikigai-informed cultural engagement. Ikigai, loosely, is orienting life toward meaning through usefulness, joy, and social embeddedness. “Ikigai-informed,” as I’ll use it here, is about carrying that orientation into how we meet places, people, and practices: with attentiveness, contribution, humility, and craft.