Here is an idea for a cracking new radio series. Called something like The Horse’s Mouth, each programme would bring together famous people who share a talent but who are separated by several generations. A grizzled old footballer would talk to an 18-year-old star of the future. Tony Benn could meet one of those new… Continue reading Forget fame – just aim for a gig on Cromer Pier
Read moreNow and then, events which are utterly disparate and different align themselves into a pattern of dreamlike logic. So it has been this week with the self-banishing of the eminent actor Hugh Laurie, an uncertain spasm of loyalty to the Crown from the former attorney-general Lord Goldsmith and the 30th anniversary of the death of… Continue reading I’d swap French pride for British cynicism
Read moreWe live in a golden age of bullying. Hardly a day goes by without some example of playground mobbing being enacted in politics (a minister or party leader on the ropes), television (the latest reality-show villain) or the press (some “troubled” celebrity being niggled and pushed to the brink). It is sometimes easy to forget… Continue reading Novelists have responsibility as well as power
Read moreHow Hilary Benn’s heart must have sunk at the arrival of yet another report on the state of rural Britain. New Labour has never quite understood the countryside, and those made responsible for it – Nick Smith, Margaret Beckett, Ben Bradshaw, David Miliband – have exuded the long-suffering air of professional politicians doing their best… Continue reading Rural dwellers are the victims of betrayal
Read moreIt has been difficult over these rocky past few weeks to find genuine success stories from the world of business but here is one which is positively heart-warming. Paul Ryan, a bricklayer from Bedford, spotted a money-making opportunity in the loyalty cards issued by Tesco. Having acquired 14 cards, he bought bulk quantities of goods… Continue reading It no longer pays to be a loyal customer
Read moreIt has become a difficult business being a conscientious consumer. In the everyday matter of buying food, for example, there is the ecological cost of transporting goods to consider, the carbon footprint of the manufacturing process, the environmental price-tag on ingredients, not to mention humanitarian, political and animal welfare issues surrounding its production. Never has… Continue reading We need to savour our bacon – and here’s how
Read moreSome news writes itself. A binge-drinking episode is only worth reporting if it involves the young. Drug use among the respectably middle-aged is not worth a paragraph. One murder or kidnap is fascinating, the other banal. The difference between the two is not the crime, but the social or racial profile of those involved. One… Continue reading When pubs die, we are all the poorer
Read moreSomething rather odd is happening. On those increasingly rare occasions when the most powerful man in the world appears on the TV news, I am no longer filled with despair at the state of the world. It is not just that George W Bush will soon be out of the White House, to be replaced… Continue reading It’s embarrassing, but I’ll miss George Bush
Read moreIllegal drugs, we have learned this week, fall into two broad categories. Some turn their users into hopeless victims who, if they are lucky enough to recover, are to be welcomed and congratulated by society. Others, equally illegal, demonise their users for ever, whether they have recovered or not. For the young, who are supposed… Continue reading Not all drug habits are so easily forgiven
Read moreWe are approaching a difficult weekend of decision for lovers and would-be lovers. The trickiest date in the romantic calendar, the moment when erotic opportunity and disaster are finely balanced, is almost upon us. What to say on your St Valentine’s card? Passion is important but too much of it, throbbing away inappropriately on a… Continue reading Exclusive: secrets of the stars’ Valentine cards revealed
Read more
