Back from Ireland and, whaddyaknow, it’s like summer has finally arrived here. By which I mean that temperatures have soared into the 70s. Regular blogging to resume soon. Meanwhile, here’s a picture two of my mother’s hens…
A friend asked me that question this weekend. There are, of course, plenty of answers to that, but this screen shot showing the location of recent visitors to this blog helps explain part of the appeal I think: Hello World! The last 25 visitors alone have come from: the UK, the USA, Canada, Pakistan, South Africa, Poland, Belgium and Germany. Obviously there’s a certain egotism to this sort of exercise, but it’s also kinda cool to think that, for whatever reason, folk from all manner of different countries and of all kinds of different persuasions can stumble into the same tiny corner of the blogosphere. [Hat-tip: Englishman in New York who
Speaking of country music, I’m going to guess that this is the sort of thing that’s not news to anyone but me. But did you know that you can create your own music TV station? If you have a lastfm account*, just enter your user name here and, by the magic of youtube, you’ll get a stream of music videos chosen to fit your lastfm preferences. That’s too cool for me really. *Even if you don’t, just enter a band name and you’ll get all their youtube goodness delivered straight to your screen.
I’m at Obama’s election night event here in Raleigh. It’s been held in the basketball arena at North Carolina State which gives the press section with its rows of wooden desks and folding chairs the feel of a school exam hall. The early exits are a mixed bunch but suggest that Hillary will both fail to secure the double victory she needs to really turn the race around and that Obama’s margin in North Carolina will be bigger than Clinton’s in Indiana. But looking ahead to the general election, the Obama camp has to be worried that 48 percent of voters in both states said that the Rev Wright affair was important to how
A late breaking poll has Hillary up by seven against Obama nationally among Democrats, this follows an earlier poll which also had Hillary up nationally. At this point, national poll numbers mean little—the majority of states have already voted—but they are signifiers of momentum. So, if Hillary were to beat expectations in Indiana and North Carolina these numbers could help turn around perceptions of the race. Certainly, Bill Clinton was doing little to downplay expectations at his late night rally, suggesting that Hillary might even win in North Carolina. If she were to do so, the race would look very different on Wednesday morning.
Over on Americano, I’ve just posted on Bill Clinton’s shot at redemption, the campaigns differing attitudes to the press and what they say and why North Carolina is so important to Obama. Check ‘em out.
Raleigh, North Carolina For a long time, many observers have had tomorrow marked down as the day that the Democratic primary would end. It was thought, and rightly, that Clinton couldn’t survive a double-loss. But the conventional wisdom is now that Hillary will win Indiana and that she’s closing strongly on Obama in North Carolina. Certainly, Obama’s final event in North Carolina, which I was at earlier, was surprisingly low key and his campaign seems oddly flat on the ground. I’m off to a Bill Clinton event in a few hours and I’ll be intrigued to see if Bill is prepared to make any bold predictions about how Hillary will
Chapel Hill, North Carolina Being away from the States, I had not realised just how much Obama is now on the back foot. While Clinton and her surrogates seem, to borrow a phrase, fired up and ready to go in their TV appearances, Obama and his team appear weary and as if they wish this contest would end. Partly this is because Clinton has little to lose and so the pressure is off, but it is also a sign that the momentum is flowing in her favour. A new poll out today suggests that Clinton has now pulled comfortably ahead of Obama among Democrats nationally. If Clinton can win big
I’m out in North Carolina for the next few days for the latest instalment in the Hillary and Obama show. North Carolina is the biggest state still to vote and of Obama can wrap up a big victory here he would make it pretty much impossible for Hillary to get ahead of him in any measure of the popular vote and if Hillary can’t do that she won’t win the nomination. I’ll be reporting on the last days of campaigning over on Americano. To start, here’s my take on why Obama has been so rocked back on his heels these past few weeks.
Call that a crisis? Sir: Ian Hay Davison (‘How to rescue a bank’, 19 April) is right that the Northern Rock episode was far from unprecedented. But there is much more to say. The difficulties of a number of relatively minor institutions in the early 1990s, including National Mortgage Bank (to which he refers), were small beer compared with the crisis of the mid-1970s. The classic account was given by Margaret Reid in her 1982 book, The Secondary Banking Crisis, 1973–75. Using banking industry sources, she suggests that the total amount of finance exceptionally provided to support banks in trouble was three billion pounds. In the end all the loans
This week’s column should be guest-written by Hillary Clinton, who has shown herself a master at sinking the knife into Barack Obama’s all-too-yielding flesh. But at home we can learn valuable lessons in wielding the knife from our own politicians. The knife itself is not, sadly, a glorious child of Britishness. The first knives made of metal appear to have been fashioned by brutes living in Mesopotamia and Egypt, though both regions of course would eventually fly the imperial Union Jack. Before the Industrial Revolution, high-quality knives were made of carbon steel, easy to sharpen but prone to rust and to discolour in contact with acidic food. The Industrial Revolution
New York So there I was, at the Waverly Inn, Graydon Carter’s little toy, which has been the hottest ticket in the Big Bagel for two years, when the booth next to mine filled up with young people, all of them scruffy and dressed like the homeless, their girls rather plain and some of them even ugly. Par for the course, I thought to myself, then I noticed everyone looking at them. My son and daughter, with whom I was celebrating Greek Easter, set me straight. The boys were Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire and Robert Downey Jr, the last two unknown to me, Leo baby hiding under a 19th-century working-man’s
Experiments don’t always come off. Like the train company trying out new safety glass for drivers’ cabins. It adapted technology from an aviation manufacturer which had developed new cockpit protection against bird strikes. But when the bird projectiles were launched the mocked-up train windows shattered and the dummy driver was decapitated. In dismay, it messaged the results to the aviation specialists. Only to receive in reply the terse message: ‘Try defrosting the chickens first.’ So no experiments, then, in selecting this year’s Twelve to Follow for the Flat. It is the usual mix of racecourse observation, the gleam in a few trainers’ eyes, and a long flight with the invaluable
So a little light housework or gardening cuts your stress levels, does it? Well, I never. I long ago developed a ‘ten-minute gardening’ scheme for stress-busting, and I could not recommend it more highly. I keep a bucket near to hand, containing hand fork, kneeling pad and Atlas Nitrile gardening gloves. (These are like surgeon’s gloves, and ideal for weeding, since they are as sensitive as rubber gloves, but breathable, and easier to get on and off.) Then, whenever I have a spare ten minutes – waiting for the rice to cook, or a telephone call, or a programme to start – I go outside to weed. In a week
Vanity thy name is Nikki Bedi. I’ve just been for one of my biannual visits to my ‘derm’ Dr Nick Lowe. The Times recently called him Dr Botox. I’ve been his patient for 13 years; the first seven in Santa Monica, where my skin had begun to resemble a chamois leather. Years of sun worship in India and overactive facial muscles had left me prematurely lined. Rather than spend money on expensive promises in pots, or facials, I treat myself to Botox. This visit, however, Dr Lowe felt I didn’t really need much of the injectable elixir of youth. It’s this restraint I admire. You won’t see his patients with
‘Twenty-five years ago,’ writes Mr Peter Gasson from Aylesbury, ‘policies were implemented; services were provided; changes were made or brought about; promises were fulfilled. Now they are uniformly delivered. I suppose the word has become so popular because it sounds emphatic.’ I know just what you mean, Mr Gasson, and so must we all, which suggests that politicians and managers who use the word deliver should think again. To give the cliché its full deficit of originality it is coupled with solutions: business solutions, catering solutions, heating solutions, bovine health solutions. All will be delivered, at a price. By delivered they do not mean brought to your door in a
Monday Dear me! Why does everyone take what we say so literally? When Dave declared that he wanted to end Punch and Judy Politics he was speaking metaphorically. He didn’t mean he was literally going to stop shouting abuse at Gordon. That would be silly. We need to hold the government to account. The British people would never forgive us if we didn’t tell the truth about Gordon — for example that he is useless and weird! Not to mention overweight, miserable and — yes — a loser. What’s more, these insults aren’t random. They have been scientifically worked out. I personally sit on the working group that comes up
Boris has played me like a violin twice in my life — even appealing to my conscience At the time of writing, the outcome of the London Mayoral election is still unknown, but I am rooting for Boris, obviously. Doubts have been raised about his ability to run a city like London, but he possesses at least one essential attribute of a great leader: he is a fine judge of men. I discovered this in 1985 when we were both undergraduates at Oxford. I was in my second year and, by some miracle, I had managed to secure the editorship of a magazine called Tributary that was modelled on Private
Q. Since I now live alone and have spare bedrooms my house in London has become something of a destination for old friends who want to stay overnight. I love seeing them. I love making them welcome and giving them drinks and food if they want it but the one thing I have to admit I do resent is the domestic drudgery aspect. I cannot bring myself to pay the going rate for a cleaner and it seems to take four hours or more to bring the house up to scratch. Even if people left tips — for some reason those who do in the country never seem to do
Boris Johnson has vowed as mayor to emulate his hero Pericles, turning London into ‘an education to Britain’ as Athens was (Pericles claimed) to Greece. In one sense this will be difficult since the mayor has limited responsibilities, mainly transport and police, none of which feature in any known Periclean policy document. But if Mr Johnson is referring to a generally Periclean tenor to his period in office, there is much he could usefully achieve. First, Pericles (like every other Athenian citizen) wielded power over the decision-making Assembly (all Athenian males over 18) only by his ability to persuade it that his policies were best. He was, in other words,