A “gold mine”: that is how the Tories would regard Alastair Campbell’s unexpurgated diaries, according to Campbell himself. In an interview with Andrew Marr, the great spin doctor admitted that his relationship with the press went “horribly wrong” and that Bill Clinton urged him to look in the mirror and ask if that had something
During Terence Stamp’s summing up speech at Live Earth, I very nearly lost the will to live – a self-defeating performance by the actor, given that the whole point of the concert was to rev up our collective instinct for survival. Five minutes in to Terry’s oration, we were longing for a nearby glacier to
Sir: What is this ‘Brown bounce?’ There would be no bounce at all if our media had not reverted to their favoured toecap-kissing mode. Brown-nosing Sir: What is this ‘Brown bounce?’ There would be no bounce at all if our media had not reverted to their favoured toecap-kissing mode. When Tony Blair came to office
There are few sights in Western civilisation to compare with Spinal Tap performing ‘Stonehenge’ and it is at least arguable that the risk of impending apocalypse caused by climate change was worth it to get Nigel, the boys and the dancing dwarves back on stage. Two billion people watching around the world are surely happier
Teatime has come and gone here at Tree-Stock, and we have yawned our way through tepid sets by Corinne Bailey Rae and the insufferably wimpy Keane. Don’t send a bunch of boys to play a man’s stadium. Thank God for Metallica who are presently restoring some sinew and cojones to proceedings. Front man James Hetfield
Call it ‘nan-archy’: the anarchy of rock’n’roll grafted onto the spirit of the nanny state. The Red Hot Chili Peppers bounce and rave pleasingly in front of a huge rolling message board which instructs us to recycle our old mobiles, not to wash our towels too often, and to ‘rethink’ how we bring our shopping
Almost exactly 24 years ago, in July 1983, the IRA planned to kill Charles and Diana by bombing a Duran Duran concert at the Dominion, Tottenham Court Road. I was at that gig, aged 15, and here I am again, aged 39, watching the same band and trying to work out whether Simon Le Bon
Al Gore’s message to the planet is that the cavalry are not the cavalry: the American Indians are the cavalry. An Inconvenient Truth? More confusing than inconvenient, I would say. Never mind: Al looks the part in earth tone polo shirt. One might be forgiven for thinking the man was planning another run at the
At Wembley Stadium for Live Earth: host Chris Moyles has just tried to sell a used 4×4 to two billion people watching the great eco-event. The atmosphere is indeed amazing. Uh-oh. Genesis -combined age 380 – have tottered on stage and struck up Turn It On Again. Is this a terrible warning from Al Gore?
Al Gore has done a Q&A with Independent readers ahead of today’s Live Earth concerts and while most of the exchanges are rather predictably about carbon offsetting, food miles, Gore’s political future and the like, this one rather stands out: You shared a room at Harvard with the actor Tommy Lee Jones. Of the two
‘Among all criminals and murderers, the most dangerous type is the criminal physician.’ ‘Among all criminals and murderers, the most dangerous type is the criminal physician.’ So said Dr Miklos Nyiszli, a Jewish prisoner at Auschwitz who acted as pathologist to Josef Mengele. The unspeakable depravities of the Nazi doctors were catalogued at the Nuremberg
Yesterday, I rode up the Ballon d’Alsace, a mountain in the Vosges range that was the first hill ever included in the Tour de France, which starts this Saturday in London. By the standards of the Tour, it’s a minor climb — just five miles uphill, with an average gradient of seven percent — nothing
Earlier in the week Coffee House asked who would be the first public figure to fall foul of the smoking ban and it appears we have an answer. BBC News 24 is reporting that Charlie Kennedy, the former Lib Dem leader, has been spoken to by police for lighting up on a train.
Gordon Brown told the BBC this morning that he’ll be holidaying in Britain this year. Dick Morris will be proud! With all his Middle Britain pleasing micro-initiatives–flying the flag over Number 10 and the like–the strategy of the early weeks of the Brown premiership bear an uncanny resemblance to Clinton’s between his drubbing in the
Fiona Millar has a piece in The Guardian today defending herself from some of the implicit criticisms made of her in the Cherie Blair documentary. Much of the criticism Cherie received might have been excessively harsh, but Millar is surely right in this criticism of Blair: “her famed intelligence clearly deserts her if she still
The Spectator last week ran a piece by Andrew Neil saying “Memo to Gordon: it’s the Broken Society, stupid.” Was his memo intercepted? Because David Cameron has today given a speech entitled “Empowering local communities can heal our broken society.” It’s setting the stage for next week’s IDS report. Here’s my take on his speech.
British police are infuriatingly tight-lipped about terror investigations. But they do talk to American counterparts, who are less guarded with American journalists, so often the US media is first with the British anti-terror news. So this report from ABC News is worth reading.
Mark Halperin has a great piece in Time magazine about the Clintons going on the trail together in Iowa and how Bill is adjusting to playing second fiddle.
Buying the Big Issue magazine is never an act of charity. Its content is well worth the cover price, especially when John Bird, its founder, writes on social issues. His cover story this week is an open letter to Gordon Brown (not online, buy the mag!). It exposes how Labour sees homelessness as a financial
So farewell, George Melly. There isn’t much fun left in jazz any more; it takes itself so seriously. George didn’t — always having fun, listening to his favourite Bessie Smith records. He was one of the last generation of jazz musicians to enjoy his work and to convey that feeling to his audience; he