On Radio Two’s Jeremy Vine Show today, there was, according to the Eastern Daily Press online report, a “heated debate” about Tesco, whose plan to bring a store to the centre of Sheringham was being discussed this morning by North Norfolk planning committee. As part of that discussion – the only one opposing the Tesco… Continue reading The Tesco juggernaut hits a bump
Read moreA rare moment of prescience. In Friday’s Independent, I released a brief but heartfelt cry of anguish about the narcissistic doings of Martin Amis, Christopher Hitchens, Anna Ford, Clive James and any other ageing literati who belonged to an informal dining club back in the 1970s. I mentioned at some point that the on-stage conversation… Continue reading Hitch, Mart and their “inexhaustible conversation about womanhood in all its forms”
Read moreIt has been a hot, exciting month for those who get a thrill out of sex and punishment – that is, it seems, much of the British public and almost all of its media. There may have been natural disasters, we might be living through a period of economic meltdown, an election may be on… Continue reading Sex obsession and primness: welcome to the new Britain
Read moreThe beautiful and ever-surprising cit of Norwich has always been good for a joke for the rest of the country. When a council behaves with lunatic officiousness – banning conkers or declaring hanging flower-baskets a health hazard – the story invariably comes from Norwich. The Turnip Taliban, a group of Conservatives who briefly dared to… Continue reading Alan Partridge or Norwich, City of Culture? No contest
Read moreHow the audience laughed at Islington’s King’s Head Theatre on Monday when, as part of an evening of politically incorrect music called Taboo-Be-Do!, the singer Victoria Hart delivered a heart-tugging little number from 1928 in praise of a woman’s domestic drudgery. The song “When I Am Housekeeping For You” came from the dark ages of… Continue reading You can never discount the past
Read moreAs the world gets progressively madder, it seems only right and proper that psychiatry is forever updating its list of hang-ups available to us all. This week, with the excitement of a fashion designer launching a new spring collection, American psychiatrists have unveiled what they call “the next generation of mental disorders”. The list, which… Continue reading ‘Disorders’ for the next generation
Read moreWhat 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 of civilized values, as represented by an apostrophe, a radio announcer’s accent or an iffy… Continue reading Soundbites and self-promotion: a tribal gathering for Radio 4 supporters
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 satire. Her announcement that she is moving to this country in search of “peace and… Continue reading A big, multicultural welcome to a new immigrant
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 disgust at our un-PC songs, from the past century although there were one or two shaking… Continue reading Celebrate the tunes behind a century of trouble
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 slightest hint of teacherly roughness towards pupils is unthinkable. Indeed, to judge by recent events,… Continue reading What children want, they must have
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