What a happy day it must have been for Melissa Jacobs when a silly old fool called Lord Triesman took a shine to her. She had applied for a job with him in 2007 when he was a Labour minister. He left the job soon afterwards to become chairman of the Football Association, but… Continue reading Entrapment is the name of the game
Read moreIn a tribute by Donald Trelford to his old friend Alan Watkins, the eminent political journalist who died last week, one particular anecdote snagged in the mind. Alan, said Trelford, was a man whose great interests in life – rugby, cricket, wine, the English language – were the same as his. “In El Vino’s or… Continue reading It takes one to know one far too often
Read moreToday, officially and in public, I was declared to be the biographer of Fergie, Duchess of York. It is a small embarrassment (what a terrible job that would be) but frankly I can only blame myself. In today’s Independent, I’ve written a piece about Fergiegate, pointing up the madness – not to mention the nastiness… Continue reading In Celebrityland, no one can hear you laugh
Read moreJulie Andrews is one of those public figures who, probably through no fault of her own, has become a larger-than-life representative of a range of contemporary clichés. For some, she is the wholesome, faintly sexless Englishwoman, a trilling, skipping optimist who embodies a lost age of virtue and kindness; for others, she is a ludicrous,… Continue reading What were Julie’s fans expecting?
Read moreIt’s exciting. It’s nothing less than a revolution in the way this country is run. But what exactly is this New Politics we hear so much about? To guide us through the tumultuous political future of Britain, when a wind of change – smelling faintly of Vince Cable’s shirt at the end of a busy day… Continue reading The New Politics – what exactly does it mean? An exclusive introduction…
Read moreAdopting her most serious tone, the BBC reporter standing outside Old Bailey intones that the courts had heard of many terrible acts but few were quite as disturbing as what has been revealed over the past few days. What had been revealed, according to the latest evidence, is a children’s game involving a mild piece… Continue reading Who exactly are the children at the Old Bailey?
Read moreWhenever a successful woman experiences some kind of career freak-out, the great Having It All debate is re-ignited. Sometimes it is a politician who decides to spend more time with her family who sets the whole thing rolling, sometimes a TV presenter who goes into emotional meltdown. On this occasion, the respected Daily Mail… Continue reading A little less blubbing from the Blues Sisters, please
Read moreIn a moment of perfect poetic justice, I have recently been on the receiving end of a mild act of political incorrectness within moments of completing a celebration of politically incorrect songs. With my musical partners Derek Hewitson (Suffolk) and Victoria Hart (Whitechapel), I had been performing songs from our show Taboo-Be-Do! at a London… Continue reading Political incorrectness: a country bumpkin writes…
Read moreIt is a strange, heady moment. We are at a time of change, yet no one quite knows what that change will bring. It happened in 1979 and in 1997 and, in some form or other, it will happen in 2010: a big electoral shift will seep into the culture, changing attitudes to more or… Continue reading Could there really be life after Piers?
Read moreWhat exactly is the problem? Why are both major parties struggling to reach any kind of agreement with those sweet, easygoing Liberal Democrats? Here, in an exclusive leak from the negotiations, is a list of what they are currently demanding: Colourful woolly jumpers for all TV newsreaders (to cheer everyone up!). The compulsory singing of John… Continue reading Puppies for pensioners, a niceness tsar and environmental police: an exclusive list of what LibDems are asking for
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