John Rentoul is chief political commentator for The Independent on Sunday, and visiting fellow at Queen Mary, University of London, where he teaches contemporary history. Previously he was chief leader writer for The Independent. He has written a biography of Tony Blair, whom he admired more at the end of his time in office than he did at the beginning. Click here and 'like' to receive updates on Facebook
This graph from the British Election Study at Essex University shows a sharp increase in hostility to the UK’s membership of the EU in late 2010, which has been sustained since. That was when the crisis of the euro really started to come through in the British media.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Wednesday, 16 May 2012 at 4:05 pm
A most enjoyable session at Weber Shandwick this lunchtime on the outlook for the 2012/13 political season.
I was asked to speak about what I thought would happen over the next year, having been chosen for this task on the basis of:
1. My prediction at the start of 1994 that Michael Heseltine would be prime minister [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Tuesday, 15 May 2012 at 5:10 pm
The full version of number 807 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No is:
I’m reluctant to bring this up again, but is there a relationship between the decline of smoking (pondering things with a cigar) and the decline of profits at JP Morgan on smoke-free Wall Street?
Asked by David Hockney, in [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Monday, 14 May 2012 at 8:04 pm
I have still not settled on a suitable Question to Which the Answer is No with which to end the selection for The Book of the Blog Series.
The above, number 805, is very good, spotted by Stuart Ritchie, but as he says David Icke forums are easy pickings.
Meanwhile, in a different part of the internet, [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Sunday, 13 May 2012 at 6:09 pm
David Cameron is going to find himself pushed into a referendum on Europe that could mean Britain leaving the EU if he does not assert himself. That is the conclusion of my column in The Independent on Sunday today.
James Forsyth in The Spectator last week reported that the Conservatives were likely to promise in their [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Sunday, 13 May 2012 at 10:00 am
I have just finished the first draft of my book, Questions to Which the Answer is No, which collects the best of the 801 examples from newspapers and new media that I have listed on this blog since 2009.
There was one thing missing, though. I have listed the questions in chronological order, in the hope [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Saturday, 12 May 2012 at 4:17 pm
Guy Keleny’s Errors & Omissions column on Saturdays is one of the best things in The Independent. Today he dissects born and borne, reign and rein and “perfect storm”, a phrase which is on the Banned List.
But he also deliberates on a sentence of Andreas Whittam Smith’s:
The shareholders who engaged in such talks would thus [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Saturday, 12 May 2012 at 12:16 pm
I haven’t watched this YouTube clip (pictured), but it asks number 799 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No, although a similar question has been asked before.
Meanwhile, Live Science asks number 800:
‘Jackie’ the Ripper: Was the Infamous Serial Killer a Woman?
Thanks to Nick Stanton.
As the Independent on Sunday’s Katie Price correspondent, [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Friday, 11 May 2012 at 9:41 pm
The well informed James Forsyth may be right in the forthcoming edition of The Spectator that a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union is becoming more likely. But that does not mean that it makes any sense.
Forsyth writes:
One source intimately involved in Tory electoral strategy told me recently that a referendum in [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Wednesday, 9 May 2012 at 8:22 pm
A foolish article in The Daily Telegraph, a speech on production targets in a tractor factory and an interview with the Daily Mail complaining about the Liberal Democrats.
That does not seem like a strategy for turning round David Cameron’s average nine-point deficit in the opinion polls.
All of Cameron’s efforts seem to be directed towards telling the [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Wednesday, 9 May 2012 at 10:59 am
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