Monday 7 July 2008

 

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Liz Anderson

Liz suggests


Brogan's blog

Tuesday, 15th May 2007

Benedict Brogan of the Daily Mail has an excellent political blog, always full of insight. But for sheer fun, do have a read of his account of the Alan Johnson campaign launch:

If good one-liners, an easy manner and self-deprecating humour were criteria, he would walk it. He's also a bit of a Mystic Meg: he has kept a diary since he was 25 - "film rights available, Johnny Depp should play me" - and claimed his entry for July 1, 1992, recorded a meeting with Gordon Brown thus: "could this be a future Prime Minister I asked myself?"

When his analogy about the party started to go wrong - "we're on a long-haul flight, and we're doing a bit of in-flight refuelling at the moment. Come to think of it, we're changing the pilot and the co-pilot" - he had the sense to admit it and laugh.

And when he was asked if the deputy job should go to a woman, he said: "For those who believe it ought to be a woman there's not much I can do. The operation is expensive and it takes too long. And I'm very much in touch with my feminine side." (Not that he doesn't get the image-maker point: posing for photographs later with his team, he turned to an aide and said: "we need some women.")

 

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