Accounts of cricket in the United States are always endearing, generally on account of the enthusiasm of the converts to the greatest game and the manner in which the poor old journalist charged with scribbling this account labours to explain the game to a generally uncomprehending audience. This piece from the Baltimore Sun about a
This week’s (latest) head-in-hands, what-the-hell-is-going-on? moment comes courtesy of the Intelligence and Security Committee at Westminster. The Independent reports that: Britain’s security agencies and police would be given unprecedented and legally binding powers to ban the media from reporting matters of national security, under proposals being discussed in Whitehall. The Intelligence and Security Committee, the
Oh dear. I been had. Then again, pretty much everyone else was fooled too. Remember the amusement – the frightening hilarity, you may say – occasioned by Sarah Palin’s apparent African confusion? Country or continent? Well, it turns out that the whole brouhaha was an elaborate ploy, cooked up with some flair and wolfed down
In his latest Life&Letters column for the Spectator, my father has some fun imagining how different novelists might have treated the Curious Affair of Mandelson, Osbourne, Deripaska and Rothschild. For instance: Somerset Maugham, for instance, would have told it straight, dead-pan, through his favourite disillusioned, mildly cynical, narrator — old Mr Maugham himself, scarcely disguised
Gabriel Sherman’s written a very entertaining piece on the furious competition between Washington’s elite private schools to enroll the Obama daughters next term. Enjoyable as it is, you may find yourself wishing they could all lose. However, the piece reveals one of th egrubbier, more ghastly sides of the city. Nonetheless, the issue of where
Well, sort of. According to this report from Charles Bremner in the Times: With Russian tanks only 30 miles from Tbilisi on August 12, Mr Sarkozy told Mr Putin that the world would not accept the overthrow of Georgia, Mr Levitte [Sarko’s chief diplomatic advisor] said. “I am going to hang Saakashvili by the balls,”
Some numbers that terrify anyone with any skin in the newspaper game, particularly in Scotland: Sales of the Sunday Herald are down 15% this year. More worrying still, if not altogether surprising given the state of the global economy, the Johnston Press, owners of the Scotsman and hundreds of local papers, report that advertising sales
John Schwenkler makes the case for modesty and humility in politics. That’s to say, he’d like the United States to embrace federalism once again. As lont-time readers may recall, this is an old, well-worn, favourite hobby-horse of mine too. Presenting themselves, not as a single-minded party with an inflexible platform and no place for disagreement,
Jonathan Freedland warns Guardian readers today that Obama is not a dove but, rather, a “smarter hawk”. Fine. Here’s how he summarises Obama’s approach to Iran: The new disposition on Iran is similarly nuanced. The noises are much less warlike. Obama promises diplomacy and dialogue, and relegates force to where it should be: a last,
A friend emailed me this today. Some internet sleuthing tracked the original source to this forum. L’Obama, ossia L’Avvento del Messia Opera in Tre Atti Personaggi: Barracco Obama, Il Messia, Redentore del Mondo……………………….Tenore Miracoloso Santa Micaela della Revoluzione, sua sposa……………………………………..Soprano Amaro Giovanni Maccheno, Senatore, Avversario dello Obama…………………………Basso Buffo Sara Palino, Governatrice del Alaska e Reginetta
David Davis, in an interview with the New Statesman: “I mean you know what it’s like, you’ve worked here, making a speech in the House of Commons is a very good way to keep a secret.” There’s some interesting stuff too, on Afghanistan, civil liberties and David Cameron.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In
“Take a trip through the British countryside and note the number of war memorials and be struck by the number of names on each of them. Once, these hamlets and villages coughed up their sons and sent them off to France. And as the long lists of names attest, many of them never came back.
All Home Secretaries are ghastly, of course. But Jacqui Smith may be an even greater nuisance than previous holders of the office. That’s tough competition when you recall that the field also includes Michael Howard, David Blunkett and Jack Straw. The latter, of course, shopped his own son to the police. But here’s the lie
Condensed Shakespeare: nation’s tabloids report modern repeat of story of Romeo & Juliet under headline: KNIFE CRIME TOFF IN PAEDO SUICIDE PACT
Like Clive Davis, I don’t much mind that Peter Hitchens has some fun with the more extravagant claims being made for an Obama presidency. But then there’s this: I was in Washington DC the night of the election. America’s beautiful capital has a sad secret. It is perhaps the most racially divided city in the
Can this really be true? Why yes my friends it can. A teenager from Ayrshire who was caught posing with a sword on the social networking site Bebo has been fined £200 at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court. Anthony Bowman, 19, pleaded guilty to displaying the image on Bebo between January 2006 and July 2008. His case
The future? If only… [Thanks, Megan]
It’s all very well and good getting excited about the American elections. But let’s face it, they were but the appetiser before today’s Westminster by-election in Glenrothes. The Kingdom of Fife is a strange place indeed, a sentiment confirmed by the whispers we now hear that Labour have managed to hold the seat. On the
It’s time for a new occasional series! I’ve been reading a collection of parliamentary sketches written by the Irish nationalist MP T.P O’Connor that chronicle the course of the Second Irish Home Rule bill through the Houses of Parliament in 1893. Much of it is delightful and, I thought, worth sampling from time to time