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Friday 22 August 2008

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The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Clemency Burton-Hill

Clemency suggests

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Shortly after the release of Alan Johnston from Gaza the website of Conflicts Forum, a group advocating engagement with Islamists and which is run by the former MI6 officer Alastair Crooke, posted a fascinating transcript.

The EU and stem cell research

Stephen Pollard

1st August, 2007

Stephen Pollard says that if embryonic stem cell research is banned in some parts of Europe — as it might be under the new EU treaty — old hostilities will resurface

Meet the wired retired

Amelia Torode

1st August, 2007

Oldies have taken to the digital age, says Amelia Torode, and so have their grandchildren. It’s the middle-aged professionals who fear and resent it

It's the PC Olympics

Rod Liddle

1st August, 2007

It takes all sorts to make a diversity team, but which is more important: equality or inclusion?
Rod Liddle is shocked by a recruitment ad for an Olympics quango -- and the evidence it offers that Britain is being bombarded by vaipid, deluded and meaningless pieties

Unruly rivers

Rod Liddle

25th July, 2007

England’s habitually well-mannered and inoffensive chalk streams have been uncharacteristically full of themselves this last week or so — as you may have gathered from your television evening news programmes or, if you’re unlucky, your kitchen.

English like it should be spoken

Graham Lord

25th July, 2007

We all know that correct English is no longer taught in most of our schools, but now at last the government seems to agree.

The SNP and the Islamist threat

Tom Gallagher

25th July, 2007

A civic reception will take place next month for the Glasgow airport workers and travellers whose courage on Saturday 30 June when bombers struck the terminal building may well have prevented horrific slaughter.

Oxford’s loss, Turkey’s gain

Harry Mount

25th July, 2007

It’s four in the afternoon in the Garrick Club and Norman Stone is steaming with rage. The steam is not alcohol-fuelled. Professor Stone — historically no flincher from the glass — is on the wagon at the moment but is feeling no undue withdrawal pangs. He is, though, longing for a cigarette, and his beloved Garrick has just outlawed smoking, in line with the new legislation.

I am proud to have been on Dave’s Rwanda trip

Clemency Burton-Hill

25th July, 2007

He was damned because he did, but he would have been equally damned if he hadn’t. David Cameron’s decision to come to Rwanda this week — which honours commitments he had made both to the country and members of his own party who are out here working on a two-week volunteering scheme called Project Umubano — appeared controversial because it was taken in the wake of terrible flooding in Britain and two thumping by-election defeats.

Cameron is still the best option

Fraser Nelson

25th July, 2007

It is horrible to imagine. It would be a tragedy, for party and country. Even contemplating it seems lurid and, given recent events, deeply mischievous. It is certainly not something for loyal Tories to discuss in public. But, in their darker moments, few Conservative politicians will have not asked themselves the question in the past turbulent week: if David Cameron were to be run over by a bus tomorrow, who would lead the Conservative party?

'I'm prejudiced in his favour'

Stanley Johnson

18th July, 2007

Stanley Johnson says that his son is no buffoon, that his ability to make people laugh doesn’t mean he’s a lightweight, and that he should not get bogged down in ‘consultation’

On the road with Boris

Toby Young

18th July, 2007

Toby Young, our campaign correspondent, says that the candidate’s prospects
in the London mayoral election hinge on his appeal as a great communicator,
and on the hysteria of the Left, which completely misunderstands him

Sex and the City has nothing on screwball comedy

Sarah Churchwell

18th July, 2007

Sarah Churchwell says the romantic comedies of the 1930s have more glamour, wit and sexual equality than the smash-hit television series now destined for the silver screen

Brown’s stand on Russia is a welcome correction

James Forsyth

18th July, 2007

Tony Blair was one of many Western leaders duped by President Putin, writes James Forsyth, but the new British Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary must stand their ground

‘British successes like The Queen are freaks’

Clemency Burton-Hill

18th July, 2007

Clemency Burton-Hill talks to the British director Stephen Frears and hears his strong views on the film industry in this country which, he says, barely exists now

The Cold War is back

Fraser Nelson

11th July, 2007

Fraser Nelson says that Putin’s bellicose strategy — spending his oil millions on a deadly new arsenal — is more dangerous than the actions of his Cold War predecessors because Russia is so vulnerable to economic and social collapse

The politicians we deserved

Stephen Pollard

11th July, 2007

Stephen Pollard, who as David Blunkett’s biographer longed to see Alastair Campbell’s journal, says it tells us as much about the nation as it does about New Labour

Stop making sense

Drew Westen

11th July, 2007

Drew Westen’s book on the political brain is the talk of Washington. Here, he explains why the path to electoral victory is not governed by reason

London is the new Venice

Ross Clark

11th July, 2007

Ross Clark says that our capital has the geographical, economic and social conditions that made the Venetian city-state of the 14th century — but all this is vulnerable