Sticks and stones

The woman who spoke truth to power. A fantastic story in every respect.

Shall I give you my Prescott insult? It doesn't really compare with Mary Ann Sieghart's wonderful tale. 

Prescott was on a panel - in the days when Labour was in opposition - and was asked about something I'd written about selective schooling (I was in favour). His reply, which ripped my argument apart, was to call me a tit.

Email to a friend  |   Permalink  |   Comments (6)

Gore in Milan

This is (almost) beyond parody: an Al Gore opera is being written for La Scala. Not an opera about Gore (in Nixon in China vein) but an opera by Al Gore.

Well, sort of:

[A]n opera has been commissioned  to composer Giorgio Battistelli for the 2011 season, based on An Inconvenient Truth, the best-selling book by Al Gore (Gore had recently been hired by Milan's Mayor to prepare a presentation supporting the nomination for Milan as host city of the 2015 Expo, arguing that the shockingly gray, polluted, bike lane-deprived city is in fact a paragon of green virtue).

Email to a friend  |   Permalink  |   Comment

Noblesse oblige (Prospect)

I have asmall piece in this month's Prospect about Old Etonians and politics. It's behind a subscription wall, but here's an extract:

Does an education at an elite public school diminish a politician's legitimacy? Gordon Brown's dismissal of David Cameron as "just an Old Etonian" signifies not just his view that products of privilege have no place in politics, but also that the electorate will, as a matter of course, reject him ab initio because of his background.

Boris Johnson's election as mayor of London appears to have put paid to that idea. There could hardly be a more caricature Old Etonian than the foppish Johnson, but it did not stop voters in the most cosmopolitan city in the world from electing him. Far from seeing him as a pre-modern relic, they relished his postmodern idiosyncrasy.

It is difficult to understand why some people have a problem with

Continue reading...

Email to a friend  |   Permalink  |   Comments (2)

Rapists: welcome to the UK

Can someone explain to me please why this rapist has been allowed into the country - and to come here specifically to make money by exploiting his past.

UPDATE: I'm glad to see that one of his events has been cancelled. But it still doesn't explain why the Home Office allowed him in.

Email to a friend  |   Permalink  |   Comments (2)

Meyer Lansky?

Meyer Lansky?

Lawyers for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said a short time ago after a Jerusalem District Court hearing that he did not break any law in receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from American businessman Morris Talansky. Attorney Meyer Lansky added that the next step in the case will be his cross-examination of Talansky, who is to return from the United States next month.

Email to a friend  |   Permalink  |   Comment