Contrast the spies of yesteryear with Ryan Fogle, the forlorn-looking CIA officer who was paraded on Russian television in 2013 after being caught red-handed on a mission in Moscow. Apart from a hilarious wig, a pair of shades, knife, compass and a large wodge of €500 notes, his main piece of kit was a typed letter that instructed a would-be Russian agent on how to create a Gmail account to communicate with the CIA.
When my husband and I first moved in together, the only book we had in common was Delia Smith’s Complete Cookery Course. We’ve kept our two Delias because each falls open at different classics, two lives revealed through recipes: scones, pastry, all the roasts….
After every election I like to review the first speeches of the new MPs – and the first surprise this time is that everyone still calls them maiden speeches. I would have thought that would have died out by now.
As one of the 19,000 free and independent electors of Norwich South whose vote helped to elect the newly fledged Labour MP Clive Lewis to Westminster last month, I have naturally been following his parliamentary career with interest. What has Lewis been up to since he put the sitting Liberal Democrat, Simon Wright, to the sword on 7 May? He began promisingly by declaring that New Labour was dead and making a maiden speech in which, abandoning the tradition that such debut appearances are non-contentious... Читать дальше...
Six months ago many American economists thought that the first rise in US interest rates would come this week. There is a tiny chance that it will, but it would be a huge shock if it did. The setback to the US economy in the early part of the year, while mostly weather-related, has pushed the date back three months. The overwhelming probability now is that the move will come in September.
Let’s hear it for the world’s oldest billionaire. Why, you may ask – especially when the widening gulf between the super-rich and everyone else is turning into a social and economic obscenity? Well, simply because he is David Rockefeller, owner of what still may be the most recognisable family name in America. And, 48 hours ago. David, patriarch of that family and of a vanished Wasp establishment, celebrated his 100th birthday.
David Cameron seemed genuinely chastened by Harriet Harman at Prime Minister’s Questions last week, when the acting Labour leader accused him of “gloating” about the Conservative election victory. Cameron spent the rest of Wednesday’s session showering MPs from all sides of the house with love and magnanimity, putting on his glasses to look more serious and less Flashman. This exchange prompted some speculation in Labour circles about how Cameron would deal with a woman elected as Labour leader on 12 September. Читать дальше...
Seven years on, British politics still hasn’t come to terms with what happened to our economy in 2008. Arguably, none of the parties has yet fully learned the lessons of the Noughties boom or the 2008-09 bust.
It’s that time of year when “ordinary” people are supposed to express their everlasting gratitude for being given titles that have no place outside a pantomime. Part of the deal is fielding questions from smarmy broadcasters who think nothing of tossing out questions like this one: “Did you ever imagine, when you were growing up on a council estate, that you would one day be Dame This or Sir That?”
The chitter-chatter of the chattering classes last week was all about how first Kate Moss then Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie flew economy class. People seemed divided between the Kate Winslet school of “they’re just normal people like you or I” and the PR savvies who claimed the stories had been leaked to “make them look more likeable.…”
Here’s the perfect fable for our “post-racial” times and no, it’s not the 2004 Wayans brothers comedy White Chicks – although, incredibly, there are some similarities. This week a 37-year-old woman called Rachel Dolezal was “outed” as white by her parents, both of whom describe themselves as Caucasian. For the past few years Dolezal has held a part-time teaching post in the African Studies department at Eastern Washington University and is the local leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Spokane... Читать дальше...
The Independent on Sunday refuses to share the fashionable gloom about the state of democracy today. Not because there is nothing wrong with our politics, but because we are irritatingly optimistic. As the youngest Sunday newspaper, we see every problem as an opportunity. It cannot be doubted that many, many people feel shut out from politics, excluded by big money, big business and a professional political class. But that ought to inspire us to be more active, more inventive and more assertive... Читать дальше...
People are private by their very nature: if you raise the topic of personal pleasure people will tend to blush or laugh uncomfortably and change the subject. That's not out of malice; it's out of a desire for their private life to remain exactly that: private. Sex, then, is not the taboo. It's the public discussion of sex that's taboo.
"We live in a dystopia now.” So claims playwright Dawn King.
A comment piece published on Wednesday considered women at work: “Women may make up less than a third of Britain’s entrepreneurs … but this is not because of some gender-specific character trait that turns female workers into drones best suited to a robotic production line.”
Up your wristwear game with a super-stylish timepiece
Life seems to get ever more complicated. Transparency, for example, was intended to improve the lives of consumers and investors alike. In many cases, I feel the effect has been quite the opposite.
I've been taken to task for my article about introductory and teaser rates. I warned that savers and borrowers were in danger of ending up in the wrong deal once they'd been tricked into opening a savings account or taking out a mortgage or credit card that they'd chosen because of the headline rate.
Travelodge is celebrating its own 30-year anniversary, while Stena Line is offering car crossings from Harwich to the Hook of Holland from £49 one-way
There's no doubt that comparison sites have helped change the way in which many of us buy financial products. Rather than taking the often uncompetitive deal from our own bank or energy supplier, we've learnt how easy it is to shop around to get a better deal.
Do you know anyone celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary this year? If so, they qualify for a free night's stay at any of Travelodge's 504 UK hotels. The company has made the offer to celebrate its own 30-year anniversary.
From the start of next month, if you call a premium-rate number starting with 084, 087, 09 and 118, you will be told the cost of the call but also that an access charge will be added depending on which phone supplier you use. Meanwhile your phone company will have to let you know what your access charge is.
Flying is on the increase again, with the total number of air passengers nudging its pre-crisis peaks, according to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). But what happens if your plane is delayed? In what circumstances can you claim compensation?
There were rumours swirling this week that we could see yet another old banking brand returning to the high street. HSBC announced a restructuring that will see the loss of around 8,000 jobs in the UK and the closure of up to 120 branches. But it also said it was considering renaming the retail branch network ahead of an expected sell-off of the UK business, as the bank concentrates on its Asian operations, where it made almost four-fifths of its profits last year.
