Right. My sister‘s coming to stay with me today, so you lot can spend the weekend reading other ‘Blogs or dead trees or just talking amongst yourselves. How about this? “The so-called ‘Iron Lady’ of the international stage, Margaret Thatcher was, for the most part, a pragmatist in domestic matters, who disguised the timidity of […]
Read MoreThis week I have had three emails from the Labour party. The first two asked me to be a candidate (again), this time for the Cambridgeshire County Council elections. The third, yesterday, invited me to a Labour “auction of promises”. Conservative/LibDem readers can now provide their own punchline to this post. To make things a […]
Read MoreThis story is just wonderful.
Read MoreVia Sgt. Missick, A Line In The Sand, I came to this short, fascinating, and hawkish piece by a military writer about the continuing fighting in Iraq. The author, Richard Hart Sinnreich, endorses the outlook ascribed to Ulysses S. Grant by one of his biographers: “He had no liking at all for the cruel weight […]
Read MoreGlobe-trotting teacher of English as a foreign language and funnyman ‘Blogger Harry Hutton puts me right over at Chase Me Ladies. It isn’t the Jooos who are to blame for the World’s ills; it’s the Joes. UPDATE: Ever alert, US Homeland Security bans Joes from flying. UPDATE UPDATED: Ted Kennedy is one of the main […]
Read MoreAdvanced Level Broadsheet Columnism: Section 1 Choose any one question. You have 45 minutes to complete and file your answer for sub-editing. How arrogant exactly is George W. Bush? Support your answer with half-remembered things you heard at a dinner party earlier in the week, stereotypes of American people, and two of the following clichés: […]
Read MoreSomeone called “Tony” has been posting on Stephen Pollard‘s ‘Blog lately. By his own admission, he is a Leftie, recently turned to the Right by the various mad outpourings of the Left since 9/11. His own opinions also scare me somewhat. I enjoyed this exchange: “Tony”: “It’s reckoned that a stupid proportion (90%?) of crime […]
Read MoreIn a time of dying ‘Blogs, it’s good to see that “Dear John“, the ‘Blog of a twentysomething assistant and self-proclaimed “newsletter bitch” to a Labour MP, has returned after a long absence. The proprietor claims he has only one reader—another MP’s lackey—but how could I resist a ‘Blog that has had Geek and Kamm […]
Read MoreGolan Cipel, the man at the centre of the sex scandal engulfing former New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey declared to the press today, “I am a straight Israeli.” He continued, “Many people in the World today believe that there is something unnatural about my nationality; some even refuse to believe that citizens like me […]
Read MoreOn Monday evening I took a brief and long-planned break at a busy time to have dinner with friends in a good local French restaurant, Bruno’s Brasserie. The food was excellent. The company was lovely. The only flaw in an almost perfect evening was the nightmare that followed. In it, Michael Moore was firing a […]
Read MoreWorst U.S. presidential election headline for, er, at least three days: “GAP WIDENS BETWEEN CANDIDATES ON IRAQ, PARKS“
Read MoreOne. Two. Three.
Read MoreCourtesy of my dad and this agency piece in the Guardian, the latest gem from George W: “Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we,” George Bush told an audience of military brass and Pentagon chiefs. “They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do […]
Read MoreIt’s not big and it’s not clever, but it’s a measure of how grim things are for the Conservative party that Labour can get away with a gimmick like this. Bet the Democrats wish they had such a divided opposition to deal with. [Free registration required; contains parochial British politics that may render overseas readers […]
Read MoreOver at Who Knew?, Jeremy Brown commented as-it-happened on (Hillary's introduction and) Bill Clinton's speech to the Democratic convention. He did it with the kind of wicked mockery that friends and sympathisers specialise in: “[Clinton is striking the right tone, somewhere between that stadium enthusiasm and the sound of an actual human speaking as if […]
Read MoreOliver Kamm's latest post about Paul Foot is stonking. One sign of Kamm's return to (literally) forensic form is the proprietor's reponse to the “suicide commenting” from Chris Lightfoot that immediately follows the 'Blog entry I link to. I'm sure that, having regained my approval, Oliver can now rebuild his self-esteem and learn to love […]
Read MoreI like watching Right-wingers flip between saluting Singapore as an “Asian tiger” and squirming at its cramping nannyism. Lately, as this week's Economist reported, the city-state has been doing its best to persuade the rest of the World that the country that banned oral sex between consenting adults and the sale of the magazine Cosmopolitan […]
Read MoreCourtesy of the Anonymous Economist, here's a short, sharp, myth-cracking article from the New York Times opposing a return to the draft in the USA: a professional soldier writes in praise of the professional soldier. Read it before it goes subscription-only.
Read MoreIn an effort to keep PooterGeek ahead of the rest of the 'Blogging competition I bring you a new feature: “Pooter's Futures”—stories obtained anything up to twelve months in advance using tachyon-based Web time-travel technology. Arafat Kidnapped By Arafat Following his refusal to accept his own resignation as Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat today took himself […]
Read MoreTrust me, I didn't set this up as some kind of parody. The Kerry and Kamm question here seems to have settled down into a reasonably good natured discussion about my being an irritated fan and the difficulty of inferring foreign policy intentions from campaign rhetoric. Over on the corresponding entry at Harry's Place, posters […]
Read MoreI've both praised and mocked Tom Watson MP in my time, but he deserves recognition for his part in Labour's holding off half of the entire Liberal Democrat party machine in a by-election on the day after the Butler report, and he deserves congratulations for earning his spangly new award. Nice work.
Read MoreSo far, I've had five pieces of non-comment-box correspondence about the “Oliver Kamm Is Getting Sloppy” post. One, from a non-partisan US voter, might best be summed up as “ouch”. To which my answer is: if Oliver Kamm wants to go around beating up the idiots in school, he'll have to deal with it when […]
Read MoreNow, in a dazzling demonstration of ninja 'Bloggology, I am going to link all three of my preceding posts with a single weird image. [Drumroll] I took this screen grab of an ad' that appeared while I was browsing the Washington political gossp 'Blog Wonkette a week or so back, but for technical reasons I've […]
Read MoreI don't know if it's because half of my best friends are Jewish, but every single time I see the cover of Bill Clinton's autobiography I imagine him shrugging his shoulders and delivering the title in a north London accent. For example: “My life! The girl has this einredenish that I loved her! And that […]
Read MoreAh, we've been expecting you, Commander Blair. Do please sit down. Thank you, schir. I and my fellow members of this inquiry are fully aware of the sensitivity of your role. Rest assured that no information about you nor any specifics of your professional activities will leave this room and that the transcript of our […]
Read MoreA couple of weeks back, I saw Shrek 2 with the Anonymous Economist and the Clandestine Celt—not only do they not want to be named in my 'Blog, they want their romance to be kept secret too :-O —and afterwards said to them that it was the kinkiest, campest mainstream cartoon I'd seen in ages. […]
Read MoreThis week the west bank of the Thames was witness to yet another of the Blogosphere's attempted character assassinations. It is believed that the revered leader of the Humafis group, the blind cleric Sheik Mohammed Blunkett, was intended to be the victim of what the government of Blogland admits is an official policy to stop […]
Read MoreHi. Tony here. My friend and colleague Damian has kindly let me onto his Interblog to say a few words to you, our allies and friends in America, on this special day. [Blokey twist of head. Adjusts tie. About-to-tell-joke half-smile.] Y'know, it seems only yesterday that I was practising the chords of Steppenwolf's “Born To […]
Read MorePeople who love English because the language can be precise and powerful can't protect it from people who love English because they love the sound of their own voices speaking it. Words like “disingenuous”, “chaotic”, and “appalling”, for example, have distinct and useful meanings. To the journos and pub bores and politicians they have become […]
Read MoreTalking of blowing it, Tom Watson (Labour) MP attacks his Lib Dem tormentors by denouncing their party for being soft on drug addicts. This is like attacking the Monster Raving Loonies for supporting representative democracy. [Once you've read the parent post on his site I warn you no to go any further; some of the […]
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