Columnists M - Z
John Walsh: Tales of the Carnival
Published: 20 February 2007
Thomas Sutcliffe: Respect is not a right: it has to be earned
Published: 20 February 2007
We didn't worry a lot about respect when I was a teenager, but inasmuch as it crossed our mind at all I think we would have assumed that its defining quality was that it always travelled upwards. The outraged response that Catherine Tate's bolshy schoolgirl gives when contradicted by a teacher - "Are you disrespectin' me?" - wouldn't have made sense to us at all. No need to ask the question really.
Steve Richards: It will take real courage to solve our housing crisis (which is why it is so rarely discussed)
Published: 20 February 2007
When political leaders proclaim boldness or their capacity to take tough decisions I look for the small print. What are they saying that bravely risks short-term unpopularity for the longer-term interests of the country?
Andreas Whittam Smith: There is no need to fear private equity
Published: 19 February 2007
John Rentoul: Miliband couldn't win. Better to wait and, should the worst happen, succeed Brown
Published: 18 February 2007
Rowan Pelling: The photo that Cameron must regret
Published: 18 February 2007
Editor-At-Large: How can we trust 'research' by the food industry?
Published: 18 February 2007
How much crap do we read about food every single day? People of a nervous disposition must dread picking up a newspaper in case another hot news story means they have to rethink their daily diet from scratch. Dear readers, we are cannon fodder in the food wars being fought by rival PR men, marketing groups and supermarket chains. And the icing on the cake is a whole lot of dubious "research" by scientists published in an arcane publication, probably funded by - you've guessed it - the people who grow, sell or package food.
Joan Smith: Good luck to Hugh and Jemima. Who needs marriage?
Published: 18 February 2007
Who said "it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife"? Jane Austen, although the opening line of Pride and Prejudice is, of course, an ironic commentary on the marital ambitions of the wives of provincial gentry. Next question: who is reputed to have said that a man who marries his mistress creates a vacancy? The answer is the late Sir James Goldsmith, whose daughter, Jemima Khan, has, I hope, taken better note of her father's observation than Ms Austen's.
Alan Watkins: Will Mr Brown get the credit he is due in Mr Blair's retirement speech? I doubt it
Published: 18 February 2007
My friends in what is still called Fleet Street tell me that The Observer newspaper is planning a special commemorative issue to mark the retirement of Mr Tony Blair. In the last century, the papers were forever bringing out "souvenir'' editions to celebrate some event or other in the story of the Royal Family. There seem to be fewer of them these days, though the presses will no doubt be rolling merrily once again with a couple of royal marriages. Similarly, in the holidays, the comics of my childhood would produce a Bumper Fun Number.
Brian Viner: Deductions would make clear point to Planet Football's squabbling managers
Published: 17 February 2007
Deborah Orr: There is no magic formula for gun crime
Published: 17 February 2007
The data employed in compiling Unicef's report on childhood in affluent countries might have been a little too out of date for the Government's liking. But in south London over the past couple of weeks, the anecdotal evidence suggests rather too graphically that for three children things cannot get any worse. Boys being shot dead in their bedrooms by other boys does not speak of a society that is at ease with itself and with its young people.
Matthew Norman: Has anyone got the guts to challenge Gordon?
Published: 16 February 2007
Christina Patterson: A lesson in how to add insult to injury
Published: 16 February 2007
Excellent news for the young men and women who have had limbs blown off in Iraq. There they were, worrying about how they were going to find new ways to serve their country when they could hardly make it to the corner shop, when genius struck.
Thomas Sutcliffe: I like a demanding read, but...
Published: 16 February 2007
From time to time, a phrase will emerge from the verbal blizzard of advertising copy and stick to you like a burr. It happened to me the first time I saw a warning that a film contained "scenes of mild peril", a strapline that virtually orders you to think about how mild peril has to become before it doesn't qualify as peril any more - not to mention the archaic glamour of the word "peril" itself, so big in the silent era, so underemployed in recent years.
Steve Richards: If we want to help children, the state has to step in. But will ministers dare advocate this?
Published: 15 February 2007
Joan Smith: A myth that proves men prefer beauty to brains
Published: 15 February 2007
So Cleopatra wasn't a babe - neither Pamela Anderson in a toga nor an early Jordan, mixing geo-politics with a startling decolletage. In fact, she didn't resemble any of the long list of sultry actresses who have played her from Theda Bara (in a fine example of celluloid Orientalism, dating from 1917) to Liz Taylor and Sophia Loren, whose Egyptian queen displayed an hourglass figure better suited to Baywatch then the Roman forum.
Deborah Orr: These are the cold, hard facts: Britain is failing an entire generation of children
Published: 14 February 2007
Mark Steel: Anyone would think motorists were a minority
Published: 14 February 2007
Hamish McRae: We fail to work with China at our peril
Published: 14 February 2007
Brian Viner: Country Life
Published: 14 February 2007
In this space last week I mentioned Trees For Life, an enterprise also known, less lyrically, as Frank P Matthews. I wanted to plant some more trees in our small orchard and our gardener, Alan, said that Frank P Matthews was the place to buy them. The nursery occupies more than 400 fertile acres of Worcestershire, just outside the small market town of Tenbury Wells. It is one of the biggest in the country, with 600 mother trees from which to propagate fruit, not to mention a remarkable array of ornamental trees.
Steve Richards: Good policies should not fall victim to bullying
Published: 13 February 2007
John Walsh: Tales of the City
Published: 13 February 2007
Thomas Sutcliffe: No need to be a dope over a youthful error
Published: 13 February 2007
I think David Cameron told a lie the other day. I can't be sure you understand - and my uncertainty is compounded by the ambiguous nature of the utterance in question. So let me state now, should his lawyers give a damn one way or the other, that I am happy to accept that Mr Cameron's fidelity to the truth is unspotted. And yet still the suspicion sidles back, like a dog that's smelled a hidden treat. Shall we call it a fib instead? An understandable economy with the verité? A modest sacrifice to the god Humbug?
Andreas Whittam Smith: Hats off to Madame Royal for a bold experiment
Published: 12 February 2007
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