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
Alastair Campbell has a great line in a waspish article in The Daily Telegraph today on the virtues of keeping a diary rather than writing a memoir based on hazy recollection. Just in case we were unsure to whom he was referring, he corrects a point of detail in Peter Mandelson’s The Third Man, serialised [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Wednesday, 14 July 2010 at 2:22 pm
Under Godwin’s Law,* the North Iowa Tea Party has lost the argument:
*Godwin’s Law: “The first person to make a Nazi analogy is out.”
Via The Staggers.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Tuesday, 13 July 2010 at 11:09 pm
I haven’t opined on Andrew Lansley (right) and his reform plans for the NHS because I haven’t read the white paper or spoken to anyone who understands it. Judging by the coverage, I am not in a minority among the journalistic class.
As a holding position, therefore, two things.
One, the reforms may well be the the [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Tuesday, 13 July 2010 at 3:12 pm
It is not so much that “the Mail has a healthy scepticism of conspiracy theories” as that it is rubbish at them. Take today’s green-ink story about the David Kelly paranoid fantasy. It is based on Sir John Chilcot (who is not pictured, right), chairman of the Iraq Inquiry, saying that Kelly’s death was “not [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Tuesday, 13 July 2010 at 2:58 pm
Only a week after I reported it here, The Guardian has caught up with the news that Tony Blair has changed the title of his memoir. Yes, it may be old news but the Guardian has added value! An anonymous quotation from a “leading literary agent” saying Blair does look a bit crazed, messianic and [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Tuesday, 13 July 2010 at 9:50 am
A new offering from the Iraq Inquiry Coverage Rebuttal Service: the Iraq Inquiry Coverage Prebuttal Service. Up before Chilcot this afternoon is Carne Ross, a former Foreign Office official who didn’t agree with the war. He resigned from the Foreign Office. Eighteen months after the war.
The IICPS confidently predicts that, when he gives his evidence [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Monday, 12 July 2010 at 10:26 am
Got to the bottom of the Great Cheddar Cheese Sandwich and Sugared Tea Mystery. I noted on Saturday that John Spellar had asked a strange parliamentary question:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he plans to ban the sale of (a) tea and coffee with sugar and (b) cheddar cheese sandwiches in hospitals.
The answer was [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Monday, 12 July 2010 at 9:49 am
Paul the psychic octopus has correctly “predicted” the result of eight games out of eight in this World Cup. Allegedly.
Now, the chances of getting that right by accident are 1 in 2 to the power of 8, or 1 in 256.*
Frankly, I don’t believe it. Alex Bellos in Alex’s Adventures in Numberland, a new book [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Sunday, 11 July 2010 at 11:08 pm
John Spellar, Labour MP for Warley and former defence and transport minister, asked a curious written question that was answered on Wednesday:
Hospitals: Food
Mr Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he plans to ban the sale of (a) tea and coffee with sugar and (b) cheddar cheese sandwiches in hospitals. [5340]
Anne Milton: No.
Thanks to [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Saturday, 10 July 2010 at 5:54 pm
Interesting words from the Prime Minister in his interview with the Daily Mail today:
‘While I don’t support the alternative vote, and I can’t get that excited about the whole issue of electoral reform, this is incredibly important for the Lib Dems,’ he said.
‘They have wanted a referendum or some chance of a referendum for 60, 70 [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye - Breaking views from commentators - | Saturday, 10 July 2010 at 5:02 pm
1How the Mail Online turned us into misogyny addicts
2It was Bayern who denied the Germans victory in the Champions League final, not Chelsea
3Charitable rape: Peacekeepers’ dirty little secrets
4Islam is not “the enemy” – irrational hatred is
5The next couple of months could shape the future of Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal
|
|
