Iain Dale has made it to the Orwell Prize shortlist. Here is a tirade against this development: Everywhere you turn there he is doling out another gob of cliche with all the care of a prison kitchen cook slapping down a ladleful of mashed potato on a lag’s tray. An […]
Nick Cohen puts a grammatically challenged question: Who (sic) would you rather trust – the BBC or a blogger? Back in about 1992 I was moved for the first time ever to write a letter to the BBC to complain about a news-clip from South Africa (where I had just […]
Rummaging through my career files today I read again the 1997 letter to us from Diana, Princess of Wales expressing thanks for what the Embassy had done to help her on her visit to Bosnia to highlight the dangers of landmines – as it tragically turned out, the last public […]
My Blogoir statistics creep upwards nicely, with over 5000 Unique Visitors this month. Most visitors swing by briefly, such being the ephemeral nature of the genre. But up to 10% of visitors browse around for the best part of an hour. Which suggests that they are at least intrigued and/or interested/engaged in what […]
Here is the Independent’s Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on the allegedly awful treatment of Binyam Mohamed, anything which might cast light on his background conveniently omitted: The UN Convention against Torture states: “No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may […]
Here is a good account of where Mark Steyn hit the target and missed a few too when he met the Canadian Standing Committee on Government Agencies of the Ontario legislature recently, to explain why he is unimpressed with the state of free speech in Canada: Looking back, I can’t […]
Iain Dale carries a well-turned interview with David Cameron. Both interviewer and subject emerge well from a civilised and intelligent exchange. This caught my eye: How will you defend the right to offend?This goes back to the ‘do you listen’ question, because on the one hand you don’t want someone […]
A reader writes about FCO blogs: FCO bloggers try to keep to policy areas they have responsiblity for. Diverging from this has caused the odd frantic call from London to the offending blogger. There is nothing to say that staff cannot advance national interest behind closed doors AND engage in […]
The UK MP who is most frugal on his expenses is, says the BBC, Philip Hollobone, MP for Kettering in Northamptonshire. Affable article. Over 1130 words long. Just one minor point. It does not say which political party he belongs to. The Conservatives, in case you were wondering. Nice work, BBC […]
Back to earth with a bump. Here is a startling puff-piece for radical communism in the Independent. It is all about a neo-Trotskyist postman, one Olivier Besancenot, who it is claimed ‘defies the Trotskyist stereotype’ by having short hair and wearing well-fitting jeans and a black or white T-shirt. His […]
