First, I was a guest on the most recent House of Comments podcast, talking about the Big Society, the future of the BBc and various other stories. Also appearing was the lovely Claire Spencer of Noonday Thoughts and, of course, Mark Thompson and Stuart Sharpe who host the podcast each week. You can listen to
Here’s the text of the letter Alex Salmond has sent to Senator John Kerry, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. There’s nothing new here but it does state, clearly, the essential facts of the matter. Megrahi’s cancer is, again, to be regretted not least because it put an end to his appeal against
I’m not convinced I share James’s view that David Cameron’s “1940 moment” counts as a howler, far less a “quite spectacular mistake” (and I suspect James doesn’t really think it that either). It’s pretty obvious that the Prime Minister simply slipped-up. I think he knows that in 1940 the United States had yet to enter
Frailty, thy name is coalition. Right? That still seems to be what many people think. Take Simon Heffer’s column today, for instance in which he concludes: Whoever wins – and, at the hustings, the benign mood towards Miliband E is at the moment palpable, precisely because of his low profile during the Brown terror –
A while back, in the aftermath of Senator Robert Byrd’s death, Jonathan Bernstein looked at West Virginia’s unusual shift from a state that, in Presidential elections, tended to be more Democratic than national trends to being more Republican than national trends might warrant. I think this is interesting since it allows one to look at
Jonathan Freedland has some nice things to say about the Big Society (still a terrible name, of course) so it’s only fair to say some nice things about his column too: there’s some good stuff in it and Freedland is right that the ideas behind the notion aren’t owned by any one political party. Indeed,
A good deal of excitement on the left today as YouGov’s polling suggests the coalition’s “honeymoon” has ended. The government’s approval rating is now just +4 (41% approve of its performance, 37% disapprove). I don’t know why anyone should be surprised by this. Not only was the budget astringent, the coalition has launched any number
As Brother Blackburn says, David Cameron’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal today is a little better than the usual boilerplate trotted out on these occasions. This was perhaps the most refreshing bit and a welcome slap to the media-nonsense that invariably surrounds US-UK relations: Finally, there are those who over-analyze the atmospherics around the
You don’t get much more old school than Jimmie Rodgers do you? No you don’t. Here he is with the classic Waiting for a Train. Terrific and chock-full of the things that would become country staples.
As Marbury says, Peggy Noonan’s bizarre column offering advice to David Cameron ahead of his trip to the US makes “America sound like a weepy, insecure girlfriend in constant need of emotional reassurance”. True that: Advice on your visit? Love America. It not only deserves it, at the moment it needs it. Our morale is
First things first: it is extremely inconvenient, even embarrassing, that Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi is still alive nearly a year after he was released from Greenock Prison on the grounds that he was believed to have not much more, and perhaps fewer, than three months to live. Nevertheless, the fact that he has lived longer than
As Danny Finkelstein tweets, never mind Blair vs Brown vs Mandelson, the feud between Bob Hawke and Paul Keating is just as entertaining. The latest outbreak of fighting has been caused by a new biography of Hawke, written by his wife. Keating does not approve of its depiction of their time in government. As this
Surprise, surprise: Liberal Democrats like being in government. This, mind you, is only a surprise if you believe the carefully-constructed line, much-loved by the Labour party and some sections of the press, that Liberal Democrat members are appalled by Nick Clegg’s decision to take the party into government in partnership with those wicked Conservatives. This,
Never mind the Revolution and all that, celebrate Bastille Day and raise a glass to our French friends and relatives in the company of Serge Gainsbourg. Here’s the second-greatest Frenchman of the twentieth century with Je suis venu te dire que je m’en vais…
Tim Montgomerie has some recommendations for how David Cameron can bolster relations with the Tory right. He should be more polite and conciliatory, throw the right the occasional bone or opportunity to head a policy review, offer a way back for some of those, such as David Davis, who are no longer part of the
Lance Armstrong, shattered, is surrounded by the press after hauling himself to the finish line at Morzine on Sunday. Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images When a great champion cracks in the mountains it’s like the moment when a once-mighty battleship is superceded by a new competitor and rendered hideously obsolete. All sports have their moments like
Like Time’s Jay Newton-Small, I’ve never quite understood why so many Washington pundits have assumed Sarah Palin has no interest in running for President. Sure, she’s not been playing the game according to the Beltway Playbook but that’s exactly the point. As Jay reminds us, Mrs Palin has previous on this: In many ways, Palin’s
This hand-wringing, bed-wetting piece of Pootery is probably the funniest thing the Observer has printed in years. Written by a “senior civil servant” one could be forgiven for thinking that the End Times are upon us. In reality, of course, the government has decided to spend just £700bn or so in the final year of
I can’t say for sure if this is the strangest parliamentary question asked in recent years but, via John Rentoul, it’s certainly rum. John Spellar, Labour MP for Waring submitted this as a written question: Hospitals: Food Mr Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he plans to ban the sale of (a)
Four minutes of La Traviata at a Philadelphia market. Four minutes of spreading surprise and sweetness and just a little joy too. Splendid: Relatedly: The Sound of Music in Antwerp’s Central Station.