It is generally accepted that there are two types of drinker. On the one hand, there is the acceptable recreational tippler who lowers stress levels at the end of a busy day with stiffener or two. Then there is the...
Read moreJon Stewart, the American TV presenter much adored by American liberals for his show The Daily News, is not quite himself at the moment. Although on screen he looks the same as ever – smooth, blandly handsome, generally pleased with...
Read moreThat great self-appointed spokes-person for the spurned wife, Margaret Cook, is at it again. Over the 10 years since her husband, the late Robin Cook, left her, Mrs Cook has been the first port of call for editors and producers...
Read moreThe director general of the BBC, Mark Thompson, is usually canny and sure-footed to the point of dullness when being interviewed but, on the Today programme this week, he allowed himself a moment of mild levity. Giving an advance puff...
Read moreThese are golden times, apparently, for the arts. Last October, a £1bn settlement on the Arts Council was confirmed. One of the council's senior strategists has predicted, as from next month, "the start of very, very exciting times in the...
Read moreBecause the English tend to take their language for granted, there is no equivalent of the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year. Over there, "subprime" has just squeezed home from "Googleganger" (someone who shares your name when searched on...
Read moreThere are certain well-used contemporary clichs which are more than lazy verbal shortcuts. They represent clichs of the mind and the heart. Substitutes for thought, they are weapons used by the spin-merchants of commerce and politics. They simplify complexity and...
Read moreReading a recent hard-luck story about Sir Steve Redgrave and a group of young rowers from Liverpool, it was difficult to keep at bay the remark that once landed Boris Johnson in trouble the one about Liverpudlians having a tendency...
Read moreThey will soon be all over the newspapers, the bright young faces of 2008, those sparkling, talented people in their twenties who this time next year will, we are reliably informed, be household names. The photographs which appear in the...
Read moreHeartbreakingly, news of the ultimate gift of the moment has been announced just too late for the great present-giving orgy of the year. Jordan is planning to auction her breast implants on eBay. All proceeds of the sale will, naturally,...
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