Another interview caught my eye in today’s Observer – this one with the new Culture Secretary, Andy Burnham. In it, Burnham outlines his plans to inject ‘punter power’ into the top sports and culture organisations across the land: “I’m a big believer that those who invest passion, energy and commitment in an organisation, whether that’s their football
James Purnell’s clearly trying to set some Stakhanovite record for delivering soundbites today. After the “full employment” claim on Marr this morning, he issues an even-more-startling declaration in today’s Observer – that “Gordon Brown is clearly the heir to Blair”. Whilst I’m sure Coffee-Housers will enjoy analysing which aspects of the Brown regime are a continuation
On the day that the Treasury Select Committee skewered the FSA for its role in the Northern Rock crisis, the Telegraph features a thought-provoking article by Charles Moore – suggesting that consumers join the financial regulators in taking a long, hard look in the proverbial mirror. Moore places Northern Rock’s downfall in a societal and historical context; characterising it as a symptom
Matthew Parris’ lucid article in the Times fuels my suspicion that Gordon Brown will come out of the past week in worse shape than Peter Hain. Media outlets may have given Hain a kicking, but they’ve delivered an unprecedented broadside into the hull of Battleship Brown. Parris outlines the main source of ire – Brown’s indecision – nicely: “Come on, Gordon,
BOOK I’m just coming to the end of The Last Titan: A Life of Theodore Dreiser – Jerome Loving’s critical biography of my favourite writer. Loving weaves together three narratives – Dreiser’s personal life; his literary development; and the history of early-Twentieth Century America – to create the definitive account of the genius behind Sister
If you think that Gordon Brown’s having a tough time of things at the moment, then spare a thought for Romano Prodi. For – following defeat in a vote of no confidence – Mr Prodi yesterday resigned as Prime Minister of Italy. Opposition senators even uncorked bottles of champagne to celebrate his departure – in the main debating chamber, no less.
This weekend, the title of must-see cultural monolith belongs to the From Russia exhibition at the Royal Academy. After much political wrangling, artworks from the the leading galleries of Moscow and St Petersburg have finally been made available to a London audience. And, oh, how it’s been the worth wait. The Matisse’s are electric; the Kandinsky’s are challenging; but, for me, the
This caught my eye in today’s Guardian: “The BBC is planning a controversial dramatisation of the run-up to the war in Iraq, to be broadcast over 10 days in March, ahead of the fifth anniversary of the start of the conflict. Starring Kenneth Branagh as Colonel Tim Collins, as well as Art Malik and Harriet
Recent events have been as nectar for the political blogosphere (no more so than for Guido – who’s claiming credit for Hain’s downfall), and Michael White has tackled them all with typical aplomb in an excellent post over at the Guardian website. Whilst I’m not sure about White’s characterisation of the fundraising scandal as a “moving traffic offence”,
I wrote yesterday that Gordon Brown’s New Year relaunch is in tatters. Now he’s in the uneviable position of having to relaunch the relaunch. How should he go about it? We’ve already witnessed Brown’s new approach to personnel – that is, to draft youthful faces into the cabinet. Now his comment piece in today’s FT indicates one of the central planks of
According to a new Ofgem report, rising fuel prices are behind a trebling in the number of homes disconnected by power companies over the past two years. And what lies behind rising fuel prices? Well, according to energy companies, around 50 per cent of the rises can be attributed to new costs – especially green
Call it incompetence, if you like – it may turn out to be criminality – but Peter Hain’s clearly underperformed as a Cabinet minister. After his resignation today, blogs, newspapers and politicians are quite rightly sticking their collective boots in. Just to strike a different tone, I thought I’d give Hain a bit of credit
Peter Hain has resigned as the donations made to his deputy leader campaign have been referred to the police. There’s no doubting that this will be extremely damaging for the Government. Whether or not Hain eventually clears his name, the public perception will surely be that corruption is endemic throughout the Labour Party – especially given that his was not
If you missed the Today programme’s interview with Ken Livingstone, make sure you tune in when it’s available on Listen Again – some quite startling revelations were made. When asked whether he headed a “personal fiefdom”, Livingstone seemingly assented and went on to say that (and – for now – I’m quoting as closely as
Although they look at it from different angles, I think that James Forsyth and Daniel Finkelstein have both identified one of the most interesting political questions of 2008 – will an economic downturn boost or deflate support for Brown’s Government? Contrary to James, Finkelstein claims in an article today that the gathering economic storm-clouds will
The news that ID cards will be delayed until 2012 perfectly characterises the Government’s modus operandi: namely, the politics of delay. Many of Brown’s policy approaches have a very long fuse indeed – a house-building programme to be completed in 2020; a new generation of nuclear power stations which will take a decade to complete;
After its victory at the Golden Globes – and its strong showing in the Bafta nominations – I suspected that the British film Atonement would be a shoo-in for the Best Picture Oscar in February. Now the Oscar nominations have actually been announced, I’m not too sure. Not only are the American films No Country
How worried should we be about the market crash? Turmoil continued in Asia today, but in Europe’s bourses there’s more stabilisation (largely down to US interest rate cuts). But do those red screens mean anything for the real economy? History suggests not. For all its drama the 1987 crash had “no appreciable impact upon economic growth”,
Global stock-markets have plummeted today, with the FTSE 100 share index suffering its largest one-day drop since September 11th, 2001; losing more than 5% of its value. The falls – which are being mirrored by rapid price drops for commodities such as oil – are being spurred by a fear of a recession in the
In a great post over at Centre-Right, Robert Halfon analyses the Sun’s return to the “Anarchy in the UK” line that it ran with last August. Halfon claims that the Sun’s campaign is indicative of wider worry about anti-social behaviour and crime in this country, and that this is a concern that the Conservatives can