Good news stories

1. This is entitled "When you browse Instagram and find former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's passport number" and I recommend it. Tony Abbott has been in the UK news recently as a little distraction from covid, so I should let you know that he makes his way into the story in person.

2. "It took decades, but Chuck Feeney, the former billionaire cofounder of retail giant Duty Free Shoppers has finally given all his money away to charity. He has nothing left now—and he couldn’t be happier." Full story here, but you have the gist of it from that quotation: happy man does good deeds.

3. How Women Won the Gender Self-ID War. "Even though a great many politicians privately came to see the flaws and risks of the self-ID proposal, very few of them engaged with this topic publicly. The real political opposition to self-ID came from 'ordinary' women who saw the proposal as a potential threat to their legal rights and standing. Some of them came to the issue via Mumsnet <waves to FWR board>. Others attended townhall meetings of A Woman’s Place UK, a group set up by women with their roots in the trade union movement. // This grassroots movement deserves a lot of attention and study. It shows how, even when politicians aren’t doing their job properly and listening to all sides, people with determination and organisation can make themselves heard." (Here's a sort of meta-question: how do you think Sir Keir would like you to think he reacted to hearing the news that gender self-ID is not going ahead? My guess is that he would like to think that he brushed it aside impatiently, saying, "OK, that's that - now let's concentrate on important things that affect serious numbers of people, not culture war distractions like that". And that's plausibly true. Which means he is going a decent job.)

4. Not exactly news, but here is a rather joyous performance of 'Sex Bomb' by an enthusiastic Russian military choir. Rather cheering.

And here are a couple which are not told as good news stories, but in many ways are:

5. This is about meritocracy from the Northcote-Trevelyan reforms to modern day America. It is both an entertaining read and, ultimately, a cheering way to think about both the past and the future. Replacing wholesale patronage by competitive exams, competence and professionalism was a good thing, wasn't it? But those who opposed it had good reason too. Our current rules for selecting our rulers are no doubt a similar mixture of good and bad.

6. This, again, is not told as a good news story but as a story about a mother's worry about race sensitivity in America. But it is also the story of Black-Jewish children being brought up in a welcoming environment. There are few times or places in history better for such families.