What excitement there was when Any Questions came to town. Members of the great Radio 4 tribe emerged from the Norfolk and Suffolk countryside - a querulous, bloody-minded, easily affronted cross section of the mature middle-class for whom the end...
Read moreSometimes politics writes its own jokes. This week's news, for example, that Pauline Hanson, who built her political career in Australia on a virulent anti-immigration policy, is herself to migrate to England would seem to belong to the world of...
Read moreIt was a good evening, Monday at the King's Head Theatre, Islington. Something Happened, ably assisted by Victoria Hart, launched its show TABOO-BE-DO! Hits and Misses from the Politically Incorrect Songbook to a sell-out crowd. No one walked out in...
Read moreIn the very funny American TV series Glee, one adult teacher of teenagers encourages another to be brutal to his charges. "They're children," she says. "They need to be treated rough." It is a good line because these days the...
Read moreOne of life's small treats is to see a philosopher being made to look slightly foolish. When the public pratfall involves a smooth, high-profile French philosopher, the pleasure is particularly acute. Bernard-Henri Lévy is a philosophe engagé who takes...
Read moreBetween you and me, all I can think of right now is scandalous music. This Monday, the duo Something Happened, of which I am 50 per cent, joins forces with the amazing singer Victoria Hart at the King’s Head, Islington...
Read moreAn enterprising sociologist might usefully write a thesis on lavatory paper as a reflection of the way our society has unravelled and unrolled over the past decade. In the early years of celebrity madness, the new queen of tabloid Britain...
Read moreThere is no fool quite like an English fool. In American films, the fool, usually played by Ben Stiller or Steve Martin, is essentially an ordinary person having a bad day. The French fool, from M Hulot onwards, has a...
Read moreThere are many practical advantages to government by panic, as our politicians have recently discovered. Fear is an excellent way to cut through awkward questions. In a pessimistic, timorous world, emotion beats reason into a cocked hat. Right now, government...
Read moreAlthough I'm relatively new to the blogosphere, I have received an on-line 'fisking' a few times. You know what a fisk is, of course. The blogger takes an article or blog with which he disagrees and rebuts (he thinks/hopes) point...
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