This is your government boasting…
Charles Moore in The Spectator: One of the running jokes in Private Eye used to be a list of benefits from some public service or other which included, inexplicably, ‘grapefruit… Continue reading
0 CommentsI, Criminal
Mr Eugenides has the details about how the Scottish government’s advertising campaigns presume that we’re all criminals. Depressing stuff. Mind you, when I saw this poster I assumed it was… Continue reading
0 CommentsWill the real Dave Cameron please stand up?
The British political and media classes are, naturally enough, obsessed with and fascinated by the American presidential election process. That leads to the temptation (always yielded to) of trying to… Continue reading
0 CommentsThe A Team
It’s late on a fiercely cold evening with the rain lashing and the wind howling down the Yarrow valley. Obviously, then, it’s time for an exciting new Debatable Land series!… Continue reading
9 CommentsNew look for 2008!
Thought I’d try out a new look; let me know what you think. Good? Bad? Better? Worse?
5 CommentsAnother Lost World
I’m not sure they make publishers like this anymore. Alas. As is so often the case we may count on the Daily Telegraph’s exquisite obituaries page to provide the details.… Continue reading
0 CommentsBooks do furnish the mind, but…
Wise old man* says: In the forthcoming volume of his Smoking Diaries (not out till April, but I’ve been reading a proof copy) my old friend Simon Gray makes a… Continue reading
0 CommentsThe Same Old Way
It would be something of a stretch to compare Hillary Clinton to Napoleon Bonaparte and Barack Obama to the Duke of Wellington. Nonetheless, as this campaign has progressed and Hillary… Continue reading
6 CommentsDepartment of Counting
Mike Crowley tracks Hillary’s latest desperate cry for help: "Democrats, the majority of whom have favored Hillary in the primary contests held to date…" Mike wonders how she can claim… Continue reading
0 CommentsDrudge Breaks Media Silence on Princes Mission
A defence* of Royalty: Prince Harry in Afghanistan. Oddly stirring stuff, actually. Good for him and, amazingly, good for the MoD and the media for ensuring that the Prince’s comrades… Continue reading
8 CommentsIf a Little Sparrow beats its wings, does that mean tall buildings fall?
On the other hand, some actors really are loopy to the tonsils. To wit, alas, the lovely Marion Cotillard, who is, it seems, a pretty keen conspiracy theorist: Marion Cotillard… Continue reading
3 CommentsLessons from the Tomb Raider
It’s easy, of course, to mock actors and pop stars and their worthy pretensions to saving the planet. But whatever else one may say of her, I think it’s true… Continue reading
1 CommentParliament of Fools
Further to this and this, I see, thanks to Mr Worstall, that no fewer than 72 Members of Parliament have put their name to this Early Day Motion: EDM 982… Continue reading
2 CommentsTiger vs Roger?
Ah, the great Tiger Woods vs Roger Federer debate continues. Muttblog suggests most scribblers taking part in this Slam-Fest plump for Woods as, comparatively speaking, the greater of the two.… Continue reading
1 CommentDepartment of Political Slogans and Charlatanry
If you need a quick explanation for why Hillary Clinton is about to lose to Barack Obama, consider that her chief strategist is Mark Penn and that he boasts of… Continue reading
0 CommentsQuestion of the Day
If it’s fine for Kosovo to declare its independence from Serbia, should it be OK for Montana to secede from the United States of America?
3 CommentsKlansmen for Barack?
Mike Crowley has a very droll piece in this week’s TNR on how white supremacists seem a) resigned to a President Obama and b) relatively OK with that. It’s a… Continue reading
0 CommentsWhat Happened to American Acting*?
Quick Oscar** thought: no American actor or actress won an Oscar this year. The four acting awards went to: Tilda Swinton (Scotland), Javier Bardem (Spain) Daniel Day-Lewis (England/Ireland) and Marion… Continue reading
3 CommentsFidel: Forever In Our Hearts…
Commenting on this post about Fidel Castro’s welcome retirement, a reader wrote, quoting part of my argument: "If conservatives – on both sides of the North Atlantic – were too… Continue reading
0 CommentsA Country for Old Men?
Looking at Americans’ desire to elect a 72-year old John McCain president, David Harsanyi digs up the story of William Henry Harrison – the President who one may fairly say… Continue reading
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