As the political parties square up to one another during conference season, we can expect the usual sugaring of carefully scripted political jokes among the policy statements. The Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather set the tone this week with a...
Read moreAs another of the great soaks of England makes his woozy way into the great beyond, we should brace ourselves for a round of that now-familiar game, Spot-the-Euphemism. Keith Floyd is being celebrated as "a character" with "an appetite for...
Read moreI have a confession to make. In the past, I have had frequent, intensive contact with children. There were boys, sometimes as young as eight. There were primary schoolgirls. Over a period of a couple of years, I would drive...
Read moreThe Canadian author Margaret Atwood, as brilliant a self-promoter in her way as Jeffrey Archer, has hit on a bright new idea. Her latest series of performed readings have been presented as a showcase of caring environmental concern. The musicians...
Read moreThere will be dancing in the streets of Oslo at the breaking news that Norway has topped an important United Nations survey. The dancing will be decorous and well-behaved because, according to the UN's Development Programme, Norwegians now live in...
Read moreIt would take a heart of stone not to laugh at the wonderful tale of Liz Jones, the me-and-my-mad-life columnist, and her experience of life in the country. With shotguns, sheep, toothless locals and a tearful heroine, it is as...
Read moreSo here we are, after all those dates and dinners and nervous telephone calls. It's just us, alone together, in a romantic double room at the Novotel. And for a whole night! I have to tell you, darling, there have...
Read moreA highly promising research project into the power and effects of the popular song is being undertaken at the University of Hertfordshire. A lecturer in health psychology, Dr Nick Troop, has fed all the lyrics written by David Bowie into...
Read moreTake a look at the photographs of the nasty ruckus which took place at Tuesday's football match between West Ham and Millwall. The mood expressed on the faces of those involved is not angry, or even defiant. It is joyful....
Read moreThe much-publicised campaign which encouraged members of the public to photograph MPs enjoying their holidays in some unexplained sleazy way has not been going terribly well. The campaign group behind MP Holiday Watch must have hoped that it would produce...
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