From the library

Dylan was prevented from giving one of the great unwritten speeches. He might have put some flesh on his amorphous left-wing views and articulated his true attitude to the new National Health Service, the pearl of the new Labour government, when he baulked, perhaps alarmed, as often in the past, at having to make a public statement. His politics in this period did creep out, however. A couple of years later he had earned three guineas for his apothegm credited in the insults column of Strand magazine. “One should tolerate the Labour government because running down Labour eventually brings you along side the Conservatives, which is the last place you want to be.” (

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Scientists have now learned that chronic pain, often leading to anxiety and depression, can also promote permanent neurological changes. It can shrink the brain and impair one of the most valuable mental functions: the ability to make good decisions. Scientists at Northwestern University have demonstrated that the overall volume of regional grey matter density in patients who have chronic back pain is considerably less than those of non-sufferers. Since the prefrontal cortex is crucial for …