In his song “Gave It a Name”, Bruce Springsteen circles around the question of guilt. A man who has done bad things “couldn’t stand the guilt or the blame/So he gave it a name.” It is a weird, offbeat psychological insight, but one which modern politicians would understand better than most. This week, and in… Continue reading You can’t kill off libraries and call it ‘creative’
Read moreHere is an unusual angle on a grimly familiar story. The constituents of an MP who has been caught up in the expenses row are, in the phrase of the month, very, very angry. Their faith in politics and politicians has been shaken to the core. Yet the focus of the rage is not their… Continue reading Angry voters who back their censured MP
Read moreThere has presumably been much back-slapping and high- fiving at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport after a rare item of good news for the government this week. The great New Labour dream of making Britain a land fit for gamblers has moved a step nearer to fulfilment. Most thrilling of all, it is… Continue reading Should children really be gambling?
Read moreThe week’s least surprising news is that the woman variously known as the Hairy Angel and SuBo has begun to behave oddly. In the few short weeks since Susan Boyle appeared on a TV talent show, she has been propelled from obscurity to über-celebrity. Her voice has made film stars, politicians and commentators quiver with… Continue reading Ms Boyle and a modern celebrity fable
Read moreIn a startling new survey, it has been discovered that not only are girls made of sugar and spice and all things nice, but that they can often induce niceness in others. Boys, on the other hand, have a slugs-and-snails influence on those close to them. Studies revealing the general superiority of female virtues are… Continue reading Why should a boy be more like a girl?
Read moreThe experts who have announced that the current crisis in our political system is the worst in living memory are already being challenged. The problem is far more serious than that. Like mad bidders at a history auction, the pundits are raising the stakes as they hype up the drama. Not since Ramsay Macdonald; not… Continue reading Believe the hype? We’re hooked on it
Read moreSome surprisingly positive news has emerged from local government. Across Britain, councils have been reviving the spirit of adventure and self-entertainment which many thought had died in the age of the computer; I-Spy, that game for all the family, is back. At least 17 councils are encouraging adults and children to play I-spy when it… Continue reading I spy a fly-tipper. And a litter bug …
Read moreThe people out there are angry, say the politicians. In a floundering attempt to play the sincerity card which has served them so well in the past, they turn their sheepish, plastic bag-claiming, moat-clearing, manure-collecting, property-flipping eyes to the camera, and bleat about the system and how voters are terribly, terribly angry. It is not… Continue reading Time to inject a bit of pizzazz into the Cabinet
Read moreThere is good news at last for the beleaguered motorist. The spying speed-camera may soon become redundant. There will be no need for that panicky, often dangerous application of brakes as one flashes past a speed limit sign. Soon it will be our cars which have a conscience; they will brake automatically as the speed… Continue reading Since when has our freedom been so readily sacrificed?
Read moreSo it was true, what the champions of multi-channel television told us. One day, they said, the variety of programmes on offer will herald a bright new dawn of choice. It will be incomparably easier for viewers to plan their evenings. How right they were. Viewing selection is certainly a straightforward matter these days. One… Continue reading TV shouldn’t exist to treat us like idiots
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