John Rentoul is chief political commentator for The Independent on Sunday, and visiting professor 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
Maybe Andrew Lansley knows what he is doing after all.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 7 December 2010 at 10:35 pm
“So far as I can tell, I’m not mad.”
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 7 December 2010 at 5:30 pm
Before we leave Nick Clegg’s interview with Matt Chorley on Sunday, a maths exam for you:
1. Reconcile:
(a) “I spent months, much to the anguish of officials here, getting them to work up proposals on a graduate tax. There is no way you can work up proposals on a graduate tax which are either more workable [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 7 December 2010 at 1:25 pm
Crime and punishment has looked like one of the Coalition’s weak spots since the start, and Kenneth Clarke would have been specially vulnerable if Ed Miliband had not decided to try to out-liberal the Government on the issue.
Now Clarke is telling the BBC that he is ditching Tory election promise that anyone found carrying a [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 6 December 2010 at 6:38 pm
Number 459 in the world-famous series is asked by the Daily Mail today.
Thanks to Torybear, aka Harry Cole.
As a bonus pedantry point, I think that Doctor Who does not take the contraction Dr. This is something that I discovered years ago in the steam age of Google, when searching for the short form.
Meanwhile, the great [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 6 December 2010 at 3:06 pm
This is the first sentence of Ed Miliband’s article in The Observer:
A defining test of this government will be whether their plans to cut the deficit and roll back the state will entrench privilege and inequality still further.
What does he mean “still further”? Is he saying that privilege and inequality were further entrenched during the [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 5 December 2010 at 9:27 pm
We’re up to number 458 now in my Questions to Which the Answer is No. This one is asked by Max Wind-Cowie at Muscular Liberal, apparently seriously, about today’s spy scandal concerning Katia Zatuliveter, a Russian research assistant to a Liberal Democrat MP.
File under Reds Under the Beds (Comedy).
Thanks to farneygirl1.
Photograph via the BBC.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 5 December 2010 at 7:31 pm
The Independent on Sunday carries a letter today from Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of the Child Poverty Action Group:
John Rentoul suggests government child poverty targets are arbitrary or unachievable, but they have been achieved by other European nations, so there is no reason we cannot achieve them, too (“The right to speak truth unto prejudice”, 28 November).
Around a [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 5 December 2010 at 1:48 pm
The Deputy Prime Minister was interviewed on Friday by my colleague Matt Chorley for today’s Independent on Sunday. It was a combative and defiant performance, with a trace of arrogance – ”Vince and I have been living this [tuition fees] for months, they [other Lib Dem MPs] haven’t.” I have written about Clegg, a lucky politician, in [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 5 December 2010 at 12:01 am
Also in pedantry, I am engaged in a debate about whether the Oldham East and Saddleworth election is a by-election or not (we’re currently leaning to yes, but someone has contacted the Electoral Commission for a definitive ruling).
Meanwhile, thanks to Paddy Briggs, number 54 on The Banned List is “storyline” as a verb. Not that [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 4 December 2010 at 5:26 pm
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