World

Our Parliamentarian of the Year awards continue to makes the news. I’m reliably informed that this item in Dominic Lawson’s Mail column is the result of a jolly exchange at last Thursday’s lunch: ‘There are two television programmes which I watch regularly: Newsnight and University Challenge — both presented by Jeremy Paxman. But which Jeremy Paxman? On Newsnight he wears a beard.  On University Challenge he is clean-shaven.  I am unsettled by the divergent appearances of the presenter in my life — though I know it is because the current series of University Challenge was filmed before he abandoned his razor. At a lunch last week I asked Jeremy if it

Michael Fallon, who among his many roles is the minister in charge of fracking, has told the Telegraph’s Jame Kirkup that ‘right across the South’ people should prepare for fracking coming to a neighbourhood near them. Considering that fracking will bring with it jobs, growth and cheaper energy this is good news. But it is also good news because it should prevent a north / south fracking divide. There was a danger that fracking would appear to be something that the Tories were happy to have happen in the north but not in their own southern backyards. The former Tory Cabinet Minister Lord Howell’s call for fracking to be concentrated

It is now 35 years since Deng Xiaoping gained mastery of China and launched a process that changed the world. The diminutive, chain-smoking ‘paramount leader’ adopted market economics to make his nation a great power once again and to cement the rule of the Communist party with no room for political liberalisation. The formula he adopted at a Party plenum after winning the power struggle at the end of 1979 that followed the death of Mao Zedong has been amazingly successful by its own lights, but is fast running out of steam. A new plenum opening this weekend will show whether Deng’s successors can surmount the challenges thrown up by

Parents who have taken their little angels to see Father Christmas in his grotto at Selfridges got a shock: he’s not there this year. No lists, no photos on the knee, no overpriced gift. Uproar has ensued. The store’s PR team tells Mr Steerpike: ‘Selfridges will not be having the traditional Santa’s Grotto this year. We felt a different direction was needed for 2013’. Santa has been downgraded to a roaming personal shopper who ‘advises customers on the perfect, and personalised presents.’ But one source has a different view: the store’s international clientele aren’t bothered about Christmas so the space required to recreate Lapland is no longer economically viable. But, ye traditionalists,

All the best apologies these days are celebrated with a nice autotune session on YouTube. But this afternoon’s apologies, if you can call them that, from Detective Sergeant Stuart Hinton and Sergeant Chris Jones didn’t quite deserve that sort of treatment. In fact, the two men, appearing separately, had managed to tune their own evidence rather well. They both said that they ‘cannot apologise for something I haven’t done’, when asked to apologise for lying about the meeting. Hinton said he regretted ‘any distress caused’ to Mr Mitchell and his family. Keith Vaz pressed Jones on whether he wanted to apologise to Mitchell and his family, saying ‘you don’t believe

Those of you who wonder why the BBC is so politically correct, so craven in its expressions regarding, for example, Islamic terror, may find a partial answer here:  Stephen Whittle Director of Editorial Policy at the BBC Dear Stephen, We have received many complaints over the last 24 hours from British Muslims regarding the use of the phrase ‘Islamic terrorists’ by your news reporters in connection with the struggle for Kashmiri independence. We believe this phrase is totally inappropriate and adds nothing to the story and even distorts what is a long-standing struggle by the Kashmiri people to gain control of their own destiny. We have noticed that your news reports

Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson had an affair that lasted at least six years, a jury heard today. A letter which revealed the affair was described as part of evidence produced by the prosecution in the trial of the two defendants. The letter had been written from Brooks to Coulson in 2004 and was found on her computer. Speaking for the prosecution, Andrew Edis said that ‘what Mr Coulson knew, Mrs Brooks knew too’. The pair deny charges relating to phone hacking. The trial continues. Comments have been switched off for legal reasons

Up north, there’s an intriguing battle going on between the local press and Newcastle United. The football club has declared war on three local newspapers over their coverage of a rally this weekend, protesting at the club’s management.In an extraordinary press release, Newcastle United’s head of media stated because ‘the turnout at the march renders your extraordinary coverage completely disproportionate’, all reporters from the Newcastle Journal, Chronicle and Sunday Sun are personae non gratae: ‘…the club’s owner, director of football, board of directors and team manager have reached a unanimous decision that the three NCJ Media titles, The Chronicle, The Journal and Sunday Sun, will not be permitted access to

In the past few days, my colleagues on the Guardian have been publishing stories of national and international significance – indeed, if truth be told, they have been publishing them for most of the autumn. The international scoop was that America’s National Security Agency tapped Angela Merkel’s mobile phone (along with the phones of many more world leaders). As the shock of the revelation has sunk in, most observers have grasped that the shrug-of-the-shoulder explanation that ‘spies spy’, doesn’t really work in this instance. Spies in democratic countries are meant to be under democratic control. Elected politicians have few problems authorising surveillance on their country’s enemies. But when it comes

The Tories were expecting Ed Balls to be a little grumpy today after the ONS’ latest figures showed the economy was growing at its fastest rate in three years. And the Shadow Chancellor didn’t sound his cheeriest when he popped up to respond. In his official response, Balls said: ‘After three damaging years of flatlining, it’s both welcome and long overdue that our economy is growing again. But for millions of people across the country still seeing prices rising faster than their wages this is no recovery at all.’ And on the World at One, he said: ‘For people who are seeing their living standards falling, being told that somehow