So far as I can see almost all polite opinion is sure that Israel has behaved very badly in recent weeks in Gaza. I - rather tentatively - beg to differ. Read more...
Jarvis Cocker of Pulp seems like a good egg, if a little coddled. He was guest editor of the Today programme on New Year's Eve and agonised about climate and financial meltdown. Strikingly not-novel, his account was partly based on a trip to the Arctic made by a group of artists. How deliciously lacking in irony it all was. Read more...
Andrew Marr is so obviously nice that it seems unfair to criticise him. But Mr Marr is so infuriatingly, blandly, the decent liberal right-on that I am bound to have a go. Read more...
Hardly surprisingly the Baby Boomer media elite have been reliving their youthful rebellions and revolutions of 40 years ago. More surprisingly, many have lost their triumphalism. Sadly, too few understand the death of "institution" which characterised the Sixties. Read more...
I've been a bit of a feature at obesity and health conferences recently. You can imagine my line: Eat less, do more. Good right-wing stuff. And anyway, most young people seem pretty much like whippets to me, damn them. Seems I'm more right than wrong. Read more...
This is a diary of a few salient 2008 manifestations. It has been another year of young trendies doing more harm than good as they fool the media into thinking they are democracy refreshed. Read more...
It seems tasteless to look at the misery inflicted on two young girls from the point of view of the media coverage given to them. And yet these cases may be linked by the media attention they achieved. That is tasteless. Read more...
Look around any office. Whales wave their flukes at you. Cute dogs wear bows. Yes, there are baby-snaps and families get a look in. But animals really are it. This clever movie takes things a touching step further. Read more...
Unemployment is likely to get quite or very bad. The numbers unemployed may reach 1980s or 1990s levels, or even 1930s levels. Here's a comparative sketch of the miseries ahead. In a new way, they may be worse than ever. Read more...