It isn’t right-wing to expect a decent education for the poor

After plans to scrap the GCSE were leaked to the Daily Mail last week, I tweeted: “Can anyone anywhere tell me why it’s massively right wing to believe in an academically rigorous education for the poorest students? #Gove”.

By Amol Rajan | Notebook, Opinion | Tuesday, 26 June 2012 at 12:00 am

The intellectual foundations of the Tea Party – a stunning essay

Not by me, obviously.

This essay in last week’s New Yorker by Sean Wilentz is one of the finest essays on American politics I have ever read.

By Amol Rajan | Eagle Eye | Monday, 18 October 2010 at 3:06 pm

Is Nick Denton really the new Rupert Murdoch?

With thanks to the usually superb John Cassidy, I humbly submit the above question to my esteemed colleague John Rentoul, for consideration for his outstanding series on Questions in Headlines to which the answer is No.

By Amol Rajan | Eagle Eye | Friday, 15 October 2010 at 3:03 pm

Why Obama fell out with the Chamber of Commerce

Gerald Seib has written a typically well-informed piece on the surprising dispute between President Obama’s White House and the US Chamber of Commerce.

He has spoken at length to the Chamber’s Chief Executive, Thomas Donohue, and provides illuminating quotes in his colum from this morning’s WSJ.

By Amol Rajan | Eagle Eye | Friday, 15 October 2010 at 12:41 pm

Populism, not conservatism, is the Tea Party’s creed

Is the Tea Party mad as hell, or just plain mad? Gideon Rachman comes down on the side of the former in his typically cogent column this week, which I’ve only just caught up with.

By Amol Rajan | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 14 October 2010 at 4:06 pm

India’s economic miracle is not a miracle

My short profile of Sachin Tendulkar, the brilliant Indian batsman, for the Sports pages yesterday contained an appalling error.
I referred to how the Little Master has come of age during India’s “economic miracle”.
That this is an exhausted cliche is bad enough.
Alas, it’s worse than that. It’s completely untrue.
Miracles don’t exist, as David Hume pointed out in [...]

By Amol Rajan | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 13 October 2010 at 4:34 pm

Kay Burley rides again!

The amazing story of Kay Burley’s on-air absurdities continues!
Back in May, after her astonishing attack on a voting reform campaigner during an interview, Iain M Hepburn documented a list of the presenter’s total screw-ups. 
They demand to be read, which they can be, here.
This lady - who was forced to apologise on-air after describing an Ash Wednesday [...]

By Amol Rajan | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 7 October 2010 at 2:49 pm

The world turned upside down: Mail, p5 vs Mail, p11

Mail, p5:  “Being slim ‘makes a woman happier than any man could’”.
Mail, p11: “Having a big bottom and thighs could shape up to a longer life, claim researchers”. And the intro in the paper that doesn’t get into print: “Curvy women such as Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez and Nigella Lawson may live longer thanks to their [...]

By Amol Rajan | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 5 October 2010 at 11:50 am

Marquanded!

I wrote a few weeks ago about what it’s like to be Aaronovitched.
Last week, alas, I was Marquanded.
Several days before seeing a preview for the latest edition of Prospect, I asked Laurence Earle, the Executive here who was looking after the Viewspaper, if I could write an essay for him on Edmund Burke. He said [...]

By Amol Rajan | Eagle Eye | Monday, 4 October 2010 at 2:23 pm

Brand Obama is more popular than Brand Democrat or Brand GOP

Marvellous snippet in Clive Crook’s typically elegant and incisive column this morning.
***
“… Yet voters are not choosing the Republican alternative. On this, the polls could hardly be clearer. Mr Obama, despite his slide in popularity of the past two years, is better liked than either party in Congress. According to Gallup, the president’s job approval [...]

By Amol Rajan | Eagle Eye | Monday, 4 October 2010 at 2:06 pm