The death of Bernard Manning marks the end of an era in comedy and will force liberals once again to wrestle with the question: why was a man who ought to have been offensive so bloody funny? Answer: Because he was bloody funny. That’s it. That’s all there was to it. Those who think he
This New Yorker piece by Sy Hersh on the Pentagon’s indifference to the investigation into the Ahu Graib torture scandal makes for depressing reading, although the general in charge of it does come out as a honourable man. Donald Rumsfeld’s total contempt for reality still has the capacity to shock despite all that we already know about
Why Tooting Broadway? Of all the places in London, why would David Cameron choose this decaying corner of South London to launch his new agenda? It is in the public memory thanks to the opening credits of Citizen Smith, where Wolfie Smith started out shouting “power to the people”. And just a few yards away,
It seems that as part of the Cameroon mid-course correction, they’ll no longer be talking about being the heir to Blair. I think this is a big mistake, but I accept that I’m probably the only person outside W11 to believe this. Gordon Brown will ruthlessly demagogue any Tory plan for public service reform as
David Cameron’s rebalancing speech is getting strong reviews from Conservative Home, The Telegraph and Iain Dale. The speech is certainly more conciliatory towards his party than much of what Cameron has said recently. There’s no ‘swallow your medicine’ passage in it while the emphasis on marriage will be music to the grassroots’ ears. But I
A big day for David Cameron. His speech on what divides the Conservatives from Gordon Brown is billed in the Telegraph as the speech of his leadership. Their political correspondent has plenty of advance material, the most interesting line of which is ”We get the modern world, he [Brown] doesn’t”. This is Dave’s strongest pitch:
Denis Macshane, Blair’s former Europe minister, has an interesting piece in the Observer making the pro-European case against a grand constitutional-style treaty. He argues that Europe is working as it is and that an endless debate about structures will destroy this momentum. His conclusion: “If Blair’s last European hurrah is the production of a neat
With only ten days to go, the great mystery of the Blair era remains the PM’s failure to push Bush harder – or at all – on post-war reconstruction in Iraq. I gather Hillary Clinton regards this is a completely inexplicable failure on the part of her old ally (while understanding his need to stay
Blair’s conscience Sir: Charles Moore may be correct that Mr Blair wishes to become a Catholic on relinquishing office (The Spectator’s Notes, 9 June). Whether this is appropriate or not is another matter. Throughout his time in Parliament Mr Blair has failed consistently to follow the unequivocal teaching of the Church — on the protection
The FT has a story today about how Nicolas Sarkozy is touting one A. Blair as a possible president of Europe. I actually think this is distinctly unhelpful for the government, it will be much harder for it to resist calls for a referendum if it looks like Blair is one of the big beneficiaries
Salman Rushdie’s knighthood is bound to be criticised in some quarters, but, in its way, it is a historic moment, a collective rite of recognition for an author who paid a terrible personal price for his readiness to write candidly about the problems, confusions and vibrant possibilities of our post-colonial, mixed-up, multi-faith world. Midnight’s Children
In describing his relationship with the press, Thomas Jefferson said that he had been ‘used as the property of the newspapers, a fair mark for every man’s dirt’. Yet the third President of the United States was also a zealous champion of press freedom. ‘Were it left to me to decide whether we should have
Slate has a fun, little piece up on a possible ending to the final Harry Potter story. I expect we’ll see a lot more of these before the book comes out on the 21st of July. Indeed, William Hill are even running a book on who might kill Harry Potter with Voldemort the favourite at
In the whole debate over Iraq, this number struck me as important: 77% of Americans think that it is likely they’ll be all out civil war in Iraq if US forces leave. The strongest argument against leaving Iraq is that civil war would follow and it is reassuring to see that the US public accept
The indispensable OpenEurope has just done a guide to the leaked Merkel memo which appears in The Times today. So it’s official: this is a stitch up. The German presidency makes clear the substance of the old constitution will be enacted, but under different language. As I say in the cover piece, this is a
Having finally caught up with the Labour deputy leadership Question Time, I think that the bookies have it right: Alan Johnson must be the favourite. He was head and shoulders above the other candidates last night with the possible exception of Hazel Blears, though her 1st year Hermione Granger-style enthusiasm could grate with voters in
Garsington Opera on a warm, damp Thursday evening. I’ve been chairing a pre-performance talk on La donna del lago between the conductor David Parry and Rossini scholar Philip Gossett, and now I’ve been given a seat in the orchestra pit to watch the show, as the auditorium is completely sold out. Somewhere behind me, out
It is hard to see anything good coming out of this brutal civil war in Gaza right now. But Martin Indyk, US ambassador to Israel under Bill Clinton, sketches out a positive—and possible—end-game in the Washington Post today : Whatever transpires, Gaza has become Hamas’s problem. It’s a safe bet that the real attitude of
For some time, New Labour has been looking for a fresh-sounding name for the post-Blair era. I have heard “New New Labour” (too daft), “Neo-Labour” (too close to “neo-con”), “New Labour-Plus” (David Miliband’s formula), “Real Labour” (code for “Old Labour”) and even just “Labour” (code for “can we stop all this branding stuff please?”). On
Mostly I am feeling too depressed about what’s happening in Gaza to even find words to comment on it. Civil war has been looming for so long, and yet I kept hoping against hope that it wouldn’t actually break; that somehow, something would change to divert things from their inexorable path. For once, on this
