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
Some people did not like my article in The Independent on Sunday yesterday, such as The Fast Talker, who produced the picture on the left. And some people really did not like it, such as Mr Fux at Labour List, who is not much better at spelling.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 1 November 2010 at 4:57 pm
Number 413 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No is asked by Jonathan Derbyshire at the New Statesman. He quotes Andrew Rawnsley’s interesting column in which Rawnsley makes the mistake of assuming that the security services want to take away people’s civil liberties.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 31 October 2010 at 2:22 pm
How Journalism Works: another case study for my forthcoming book (forthcoming in the sense that I have no intention of writing it). Rupert Murdoch visited Julia Gillard, prime minister of Australia, in Canberra on Thursday.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 30 October 2010 at 3:42 pm
The weekly treat from Guy Keleny in his Errors & Omissions column in The Independent includes this item:
A story on Monday about the architect Le Corbusier included this: “But now the level of demand for such works means that even the most mundane items…are fetching thousands of pounds.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 30 October 2010 at 12:24 pm
Quotation of the day from Jill Lepore via David Aaronovitch’s review of her book, The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle over American History, in The Times (pay wall), in which she attacks: Historical fundamentalism, which is to history what astrology is to astronomy, what alchemy is to chemistry, what creationism is to evolution.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 30 October 2010 at 10:40 am
Polly Toynbee has apologised for using the phrase “final solution” to describe the coalition’s welfare benefits cuts. But she stood by the use of “social cleansing” to describe the possible movement, as a result of housing benefit changes, of claimants from expensive parts of cities to the banlieues on the outskirts.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 6:31 pm
Number 412 of my Questions to Which the Answer is No is asked by BBC Northern Ireland. Something about Charlie Chaplin using a mobile phone.
Next.
Thanks to Benjamin.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Friday, 29 October 2010 at 10:36 am
A friend writes:
If Alan Watkins were still with us he’d be writing about the leadership rules. Can EM be challenged before the end of the session?
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 28 October 2010 at 2:42 pm
Iain Martin has a great scoop this morning, quoting a Treasury source as saying that the Government’s plan to abolish child benefit for households with a higher-rate income tax payer is “unenforceable”, and predicting that it will be ditched before its scheduled introduction in 2013.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 28 October 2010 at 1:48 pm
Sunder Katwala is cheating again, because he knows the answer to the query implied in this story by David Hellier, formerly of The Independent. But let’s list this as number 411 of my Questions to Which the Answer is No.
Number 410, of course, was asked by Ed Staite, the former Conservative press officer:
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 28 October 2010 at 11:40 am
|
|
