And so it starts. The news that suicide bombers have attacked the military base at Shabqadar, northern Pakistan, sounds a chilling note. The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attacks, committed in retaliation for the assassination of Osama bin Laden. Security experts and politicians warned that it would be so. It is, we are
A trickle of documents from the Chilcot Inquiry have been released today, among which is the written witness statement of former Europe Minister Denis MacShane. It’s rather intriguing. MacShane told the inquiry that it was his understanding that France ‘would not leave the US, Britain and other allies alone in any action against Saddam’ and
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Sir John Lyon, has delivered his report on David Laws’ expenses claims. The headline is as expected: ‘Mr Laws was guilty of a series of serious breaches of the rules’, and it is recommended that he be suspended for 7 days from 7 June. It is a stern punishment for
The House is united in loathing of IPSA, which explains why Tory MP Adam Afriyie’s amendment to the Parliamentary Standards Bill 2009 is proving so popular. Afriyie’s aim is ‘to simplify the way in which expenses and salary payments to Members of Parliament are made’ and attempt to limit IPSA’s costs. The government, however,
As I wrote before the Easter break, Jennifer Egan’s A Visit From the Goon Squad is a captivating novel. Reviewers are clamouring at its brilliance, but I agree with Will Blythe of the New York Times that it is ‘unclassifiably elaborate’. You should believe the hype, but I can’t quite say why. Here is Egan
Sir V.S Naipaul is the subject of this month’s Literary Review interview, conducted by Patrick Marnham on this occassion. ‘LR: You went to see a fortune teller in West Africa on your recent journey. What did you ask him? VSN: Oh, I always ask them a few specific questions. Will I own a house of
Can Tom Elliott lead the Ulster Unionists? That’s the question commentators in Northern Ireland are asking, after the party suffered yet another reverse at the polls. Elliott was elected leader on a landslide in September and he is already under pressure, seemingly powerless to arrest the decline of the once dominant force in Northern Irish
Nigel Farage is in a bullish mood. Also, the True Finns Party has shot a warning at Brussels by winning nearly 19 percent of the vote in a general election. Mr Farage hopes that the combination of an unpopular and insufficiently Eurosceptic coalition government, the EU’s budget increases and the European Court of Human Right’s
One might have thought that the TV debates would become an immovable fixture in British general elections. But apparently not. Speaking at the launch of a new study of the 2010 election a couple of nights ago, Adam Boulton said that it was far from certain that they will feature at the next election. Will
Historical fiction has been a staple of the reading public for more than a century. Fashions change and there are eras when these novels are more fictitious than historical. The current fashion sees history trump fiction, particularly in the realm of real crime. Colquhoun’s new novel, Mr Briggs’ Hat, is the story of the first
Nigel Farage is in a bullish mood. Buoyed by the coalition’s unpopularity, Labour’s listlessness and the success of the True Finns Party, he has declared that Ukip is “no longer a minority party“. I interviewed him ahead of tomorrow’s local election, the first test of his second leadership stint and the new direction in which
“It sometimes makes me wretch, just the thought of writing,” said an author whose book launch I attended last night. This was not said in jest as part of a routine of good natured badinage, or as a novel sales pitch. He meant it. “There’s a moment of deep anxiety. A quandary. A kind of
Essentially, Alan Bennett’s new book is about its title: Smut. Here the National Treasure reads extracts from this duet of sly and unseemly stories.
How would the newspapers have reacted if Osama bin Laden had been killed on the same day as the Royal Wedding? No doubt tragedy would have ensued as 1,000 despairing picture editors hurled themselves into the sea. I’m glad the two events didn’t coincide, not least because the death of the military historian Professor Richard
Here is a selection of articles on the Royal Wedding from around the web. For those, like me, who wouldn’t know an Empire Line if it slapped them in the face, Vogue’s fashion live blog has all the details and photographs of what broadcasters have called a “festival of British fashion.” Sam Cam was wearing
How would you behave if you were at the Royal wedding? I concede that at this stage the contingency is remote, but humour me anyway. It’s a grand sight, the sort of pageant that Britain does best. The royal family, bishops, assembled dignitaries, guardsmen lining the route: all that’s missing is a Spitfire, Vera Lynn
The government’s strained relationship with the Civil Service is a recurring story at the moment. Much of the disquiet seems to be the normal tit for tat exchanges immortalised in Yes Minister. In the main, ministers and their advisors express high regard for their officials. But there are some resilient bones of contention between the
As Roy Greenslade notes, the Orwell Prize aims to reward those who have come closest to achieving Orwell’s ambition of ‘making political writing an art’. The Orwell Prize’s shortlist has been released today. Shortlist is something of a misnomer, as a glance at the exhaustive categories will reveal. Perhaps, in time, there will be a
Gonzalo Rojas, the arch enemy of General Pinochet, has died aged 93. The former exile was regarded as the equal of Pablo Neruda among South American poets. His death has been described a “great loss for Chilean literature”. Charles Nicholl charts the renaissance of Thomas Wyatt, epitomised by Nicola Shulman’s new biography. Thomas Wyatt was