Forty years after his first drug bust in 1967, Keith Richards is still testing the limits of the law. But, as one would expect of a 63-year-old, the substances in question have changed over the years. So it was that, before an enraptured audience at the O2 Centre on Tuesday night, the pirate-captain of the
Further to James’s post, Bush’s invocation of The Quiet American in his speech was either compellingly smart or astonishingly foolhardy: The argument that America’s presence in Indochina was dangerous had a long pedigree. In 1955, long before the United States had entered the war, Graham Greene wrote a novel called, “The Quiet American.” It was
It is almost exactly a decade since the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, transformed the country into what Private Eye would call a ‘cellotaph’: grottos everywhere, great and small, full of cellophane-wrapped bunches of flowers, teddy bears, candles, the scenes of unrestrained emotion and group trauma the like of which had never been seen
James is right that the Tories are not ‘lurching to the Right’. There’s nothing intrinsically ‘rightwing’ about examining the case for tax cuts: if there were, why would Gordon Brown have been so keen to present his final Budget as a ‘tax-cutting’ package? No, the real problem is one of consistency. If the Tories are
Further to James’s post, when the prospect of a Darfur deal at the UN was raised on the PM’s plane to Washington nine days ago, I asked British officials this very question: where did the initiative leave Lord Malloch Brown, given that he is responsible for policy on both Africa and the UN? The answer,
It was a gamble, more than Gordon Brown’s aides had cared to admit. It was a gamble, more than Gordon Brown’s aides had cared to admit. Every last detail of the new Prime Minister’s press conference at Camp David had been planned, from the tone of the Prime Minister’s voice to the colour of his
Societies often have trouble assimilating those who return from war. Half a century before Vietnam, Wilfred Owen wrote of the survivors of World War One: “A few, a few, too few for drums and yells,May creep back, silent, to still village wellsUp half-known roads.” But there is something distinctively modern and distinctively shameful about the
Editor back online – I have been in the States with Gordon’s travelling party, and fascinating it was, too. Though an evangelical convert to blogging, I thought on this occasion I would break my own rule (Always Be Posting) and save my thoughts for a full report in tomorrow’s magazine. In any case, mobile phones
Geoffrey Wheatcroft has a bizarre piece in today’s Guardian attacking Dave for hugging the “centre-ground” and for surrounding himself with a Blairesque “junta”. Too much energy is expended on defining – usually as a prelude to trashing – the concept of the “centre-ground”: it means no more or less than the political mainstream, what animates
Coffee House guru Seth Godin has a great parting thought on the Harry Potter phenomenon, why books are useless for keeping secrets, but why they’ll survive as a still-treasured medium in the digital age.
Over at Guido, they are trying something very Web 2.0: namely, to test possible financial backing for a private prosecution in the loans for honours case. One poster suggests £50 a head, towards a pot of, shall we say, £50,000. Well, you’d need a lot more than that to mount such an action, which rests
The proposal by Ken Jones, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, reported in today’s Observer that the Government introduce powers of indefinite detention for terrorist suspects is already being presented by civil liberties campaigners as the end of Magna Carta, Orwellian and all the other clichés that are trotted out whenever this
After a jurassic start, the joint is jumping now: Razorlight were as sharp as their name, and Dundee’s finest, Snow Patrol, turned in a stunning set, the highlight of which was Open Your Eyes. Although lead singer Gary Lightbody should think twice about the golf jumper. Kasabian up soon. I feel I am doing my
Last night, The Spectator celebrated its (modern) birthday, July 5, 1828, and its move to the heart of Westminster with the magazine’s annual summer party. It isn’t for me to speak for others but, as host, I had a fantastic time. Inclement weather meant the elevation of a marquee in the garden of 22 Old
Go to the Newsnight site and watch last night’s discussion on the terror attacks of the past few days. Hassan Butt, a former jihadi and activist for the radical group Al-Muhajiroun, explains to Gavin Esler why the core assumption of most debate on the war on terror is fatally misconceived. The aim of the terrorists,
The Brown doctrine on the war on terror is emerging more quickly than we might have expected and certainly than he would have wished. In his interview with Andrew Marr, the Prime Minister rightly pointed out that al Qaeda’s campaign against the West began long before the liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq. He spoke –
I have a piece in today’s Wall Street Journal comparing Brown’s task to the famous ‘haiku’ posted by James Carville on the wall of the Clinton war-room in 1992: ‘1. ‘Change vs More of the Same 2. The economy, stupid. 3. Don’t forget healthcare’.
What will Gordon Brown say on the threshold of Number Ten? In 1990, Margaret Thatcher famously quoted St Francis of Assisi: “Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.” Seven
Gordon Brown is the 11th Prime Minister to have served the Queen, in succession to Churchill, Eden, Macmillan, Douglas-Home, Wilson, Heath, Callaghan, Thatcher, Major and Blair. But the first who was asked by Her Majesty to form a government was Eden (Churchill was already PM when her father, George VI, died and she succeeded to
Cherie just turned to the media in Downing Street and said: “Bye! I don’t think we’ll miss you!” Minutes before, John Prescott was on College Green telling Jon Sopel that he had never been happy about the Government’s relationship with the Murdoch press. No more pretence now, no more spin. The theatre company that ran