I’m going to try to do something perhaps unwise, perhaps impossible; I’m going to try to write something serious about David Cameron and “pig-gate” - because for all that this story is gleeful tabloid filth, at its beating heart there is an important story about control, about authority and about the nature of power in modern Britain.
Can powerful words, can rhetoric, really make a difference to difficult political problems, where opposing positions have become entrenched? I think history tells us that the answer is, sometimes; and so I will be joining countless others in listening to every word of the two major speeches which Pope Francis will be making later this week in the United States.
I am horrified by the suggestion that the military might consider a coup if they were to dislike the actions of a future Prime Minister Corbyn. Even if that is simply the musing of a possibly unhinged general, it is worrying in the extreme.
It was always comforting to know that in the battle against the architecture establishment I was not entirely alone
Did anyone really know Brian Sewell? I somehow much doubt that anyone did – which is probably why, as soon as I heard of his death, my first thought was, “I hope someone is looking after Brian’s beloved dogs.”
Where is the centre ground and who is closest to it? Who are modern and who are backward looking?
As Dowager Countess Violet Crawley sneers through her final pithy asides in Downton Abbey’s closing series, it’s easy to forget the resounding non-enthusiasm which greeted it when first trailed in 2010. But then, Downton Abbey belonged to ITV – the channel celebrating its 60th birthday this week. “Aw, bless,” was the general media chunter. “ITV has paid that toff Julian Fellowes a whack of cash to make them a Gosford Park-lite for Sunday-night ITV dummies. It looks awful.”
I’m not sure if you can win “Never Have I Ever” but if David Cameron was to play the drinking game he probably would do. While Jeremy Corbyn was sticking it to apartheid in his younger days, David Cameron was allegedly sticking it to a pig. That would be quite a striking thing to tell people during a student binge, but it is even more startling for it to be claimed while the protagonist of the story holds the role of Prime Minister.
Science, like life, is a complicated affair. So portraying the lives of six scientists over a febrile two years of discovery, in a 90-minute, one-act play, was never going to be easy. But this performance pulls it off – brilliantly.
David Cameron’s alleged misbehaviour with a dead pig has evoked surprising empathy in me – as I’m sure it would in most people casting their minds back to their own misspent youth. Unfortunately for me, one particularly grotesque example of ill-judged behaviour has too been caught on camera.
A drunken photo exists of me in a semi-naked yoga position, but I doubt the public would think it should affect my career
Yesterday, Britain made history, and not because the story of Dave Hameron supposedly porking a dead pig’s head broke on the Daily Mail website at 11pm. We made history, because in our affluent, highly developed nation, it came to light that for the first time, a coroner has determined that a man died due to being found ‘fit for work’.
The unnamed general who has threatened a coup against Jeremy Corbyn if he's elected prime minister should be careful what he wishes for.
Last night, Viola Davis became the first black woman ever to win an Emmy for Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
The BBC likes to say that, when a really big story breaks, the nation turns to the corporation for its take on the news.
True, you might want to think twice before declaring that this play about the last public hangmen in Britain is “drop-dead hilarious” or “perfectly executed”. But that's a pretty exact description both of the blackly comic brilliance of Martin McDonagh's writing in the piece (which marks his long-awaited return to the Royal Court) and of the sterling virtues of Matthew Dunster's consummately well-cast and performed production.
Neither the Prime Minister, nor any member of his cabinet, has said unambiguously that Britain staying in the EU is a good thing
At the end of the day, I don’t quite know who to feel more sorry for: the pig, or the people of Britain
The Tories may have tried to bring him down, but anyone would be pleased with the coverage Corbyn's been getting
Of course, the Conservative Party had its advertising salvos ready and aimed. As soon as Jeremy Corbyn was confirmed as Labour leader, the Tories triggered their social media attack on the opposition chief.
Whether the claims against the PM are true or not, it's an issue worth probing
“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.” – George Orwell, Animal Farm
Michael Ashcroft’s motive in writing his biography of David Cameron remains obscure. The first thing mentioned by the Daily Mail’s serialisation is that Cameron knew in 2009, not 2010, that Lord Ashcroft was a non-dom. Which makes you wonder which of them the book is about.
With Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party we will hear a great deal from his opponents that his economic policies are not “credible”. At the moment we do not have a clear idea of what these policies will be, but it is worth asking beforehand what exactly a credible economic policy is.
