Columnists M - Z
Steve Richards: Gordon Brown does not have any foreign policies. And why on earth should he?
Published: 18 January 2007
Janet Street-Porter: Show caution with these stupid inmates
Published: 18 January 2007
On Tuesday 9 January I discussed the current series of Celebrity Big Brother on GMTV with Lorraine Kelly, and pointed out that the way that Jade Goody's mother, Jackiey, repeatedly asked glamorous Bollywood star and fellow housemate Shilpa what her name was, and continually pronounced it incorrectly, was verging on racism. I said this made for very uncomfortable viewing, and was surprised, as a former television executive, that Channel 4 had not edited the programme to remove the remarks because there are strict guidelines about such matters.
Deborah Orr: Give Scotland its economic independence and it will start to flourish like Ireland
Published: 17 January 2007
Mark Steel: Help the rich to save the poor
Published: 17 January 2007
Hamish McRae: If house prices keep rising, so will inflation
Published: 17 January 2007
Brian Viner: Country Life
Published: 17 January 2007
More than a fortnight has now passed since New Year's Day, but still I am incredulous at a turn of events that I will now attempt to describe for you.
Donald Macintyre: Glimpse of how breakthrough could transform whole region
Published: 17 January 2007
The disclosure that there were nearly two years of secret talks between Syrian and Israeli interlocutors is not in itself that historic. Successive prime ministers in the 1990s, after all, pursued the diplomatic track with Damascus - and much more officially. Moreover, Alon Liel himself told Ha'aretz that such unofficial meetings had been fairly common and that there had been "no official Israeli connection" to the talks.
Steve Richards: An injection of common sense, or the promotion of a reckless revolution?
Published: 16 January 2007
Thomas Sutcliffe: Don't even think about it - or you're nicked!
Published: 16 January 2007
It's the mark of a successful satire that it changes the way you see the world. In the immediate aftermath of The Thick of It, for example, many government pronouncements now tend to be accompanied in my mind by a lively playlet which fills out the back story of this policy initiative.
John Walsh: Tales of the City
Published: 16 January 2007
Andreas Whittam Smith: The truth behind the missed MRSA targets
Published: 15 January 2007
Editor-At-Large: Icons for our age. Shallow, inarticulate - but enthralling
Published: 14 January 2007
David Beckham signs a deal which makes him the second highest-paid sportsman in America, and what happens? The British press unites in sneering at its least favourite celebrity couple. She's too thin, too miserable, and can't be bothered to pout for the paparazzi. He's as tongue-tied as ever, coming up with a risible justification for their decision: "I don't want to go out to America at 34 years old [in three years' time] and have people saying, 'He's only going there to get the money' ... Soccer is huge all over the world except America and I want to make a difference."
Alan Watkins: An influx of one-legged Romanian roofers and plumbers? Someone had to pay
Published: 14 January 2007
John Rentoul: The confession and trial of Tony Blair - a simple fiction for happy haters
Published: 14 January 2007
Deborah Orr: Don't bother trying to exert yourself when everything has to be 'average'
Published: 13 January 2007
Can government education policy become any more confused? The headlines this week may have been dominated by the decision of the minister for communities to ship her child out of her community to be schooled. But the really gobsmacking thing is that the clumsy, weird legislation Ruth Kelly steered through Parliament as education minister precisely to wrong-foot all those ghastly middle-class state school users doing their best for their child, "like any parent", also came home to roost this week.
Brian Viner: False hunches about Notre Dame and true confessions of a homework cheat
Published: 13 January 2007
There was a wonderful response to this column's end-of-year quiz a fortnight ago, which just possibly had something to do with the marvellous prize generously donated by brewers Shepherd Neame: 365 bottles of Spitfire beer.
Matthew Norman: While Blair burns, Brown plays his fiddle
Published: 12 January 2007
Deborah Orr: She should not be sacked for these political beliefs
Published: 12 January 2007
I love it that the people who bandy around the word "fascist" as an insult to others, also want to see people fired from their jobs for believing things that they find unpalatable. The BNP has a right to exist, though to me this is an ugly and dangerous part of British culture. If Clarke wants to align herself, that's her look-out. And if ballet lovers don't want to see a BNP member dance, they can stay away if they wish to.
Janet Street-Porter: Set an example, Tony, and holiday in Britain
Published: 11 January 2007
How important is it to think of the environment when planning your holiday? If you're Prime Minister, not really. Although we are told all governmental activity will be carbon-neutral by 2015, and that Downing Street leads the way in energy conservation and recycling, Mr Blair clearly thinks that when he's relaxing, it's no one business but his own. His conscience stops when he runs up the steps of that jet whisking him off to Florida, Tuscany or wherever the sun is shining.
Mark Steel: Bush and English cricket have a lot in common
Published: 10 January 2007
Hamish McRae: The slow shift of economic power
Published: 10 January 2007
Deborah Orr: Face the facts: if we don't want a privacy law, we need to change our behaviour
Published: 10 January 2007
Brian Viner: Country Life
Published: 10 January 2007
Here in Docklow, the festive break contained more emphasis on the word "break" than we would have liked. A few days before Christmas, Richard, who lives a couple of fields away, appeared at our kitchen window looking unusually agitated for a man who is normally as calm and resourceful as James Bond.
Thomas Sutcliffe: Will Saddam's life be played out on stage?
Published: 09 January 2007
How long will it be, I wonder, before Saddam takes his bow on stage? Perhaps some assiduous writer is already at work now, penning the death cell monologue for this year's Edinburgh Fringe or working on the first draft of a screenplay. If The Last King of Scotland, Kevin McDonald's film about another murderous thug, Idi Amin, proves to have box office legs after it opens this week (or picks up an Oscar nomination for Forest Whitaker ) then it might not be a bad time to pitch Baathtime: The Saddam Hussein Story. And when such projects eventually appear we will no doubt have a minor fuss over the ethics of Saddam's representation. But however Saddam's post-humous career goes I doubt he will ever threaten the continuing supremacy of taboo achieved by Adolf Hitler - still able to stir unease in all his fictional appearances.
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