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
The Australian election has finished counting at last, one week on. The final score is 73 to the Liberal-National Coalition, 72 to Labor, four independents and one Green. With a footnote, which is that one of the 73 is Tony Crook, a Western Australia National, which is apparently a slightly different beast. Crook wants to [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 28 August 2010 at 5:39 pm
Shamik Das and Will Straw at Left Foot Forward take exception to my suggesting that they are Ed Miliband supporters in a post yesterday (I have amended the last line). I am happy to put on record that Left Foot Forward has also been rather horrid to the younger Miliband, drawing attention to this ducking [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Friday, 27 August 2010 at 2:57 pm
Can anyone else hear an unattractive whine? Oh, it’s coming from Ed Miliband’s supporters. It seems that they do not like one candidate for the Labour leadership pointing out some important differences with another candidate.
According to Nicholas Watt at The Guardian, Ed Miliband “showed his irritation with what he regarded as a barely concealed personal attack”, [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 26 August 2010 at 11:47 am
Ed Balls has made another cake (right). Meanwhile, if you have missed any of the commentary on the Labour leadership election over August, Hopi Sen provides not only a useful summary but did so in advance:
To win again, Labour must do as I’ve always said
As we examine the entrails of the last general election, careful analysis [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 24 August 2010 at 7:08 pm
A question that will run and run and run and to which the answer will always be No, is asked by Asa Bennett at Total Politics. Number 381 in a long-running series.
Thanks to Graham, who also reports number 382:
Is Ed Miliband about to get into bed with John McDonnell?
But perhaps René Lavanchy was not being literal.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 24 August 2010 at 11:29 am
Shamik Das and Will Straw at Left Foot Forward have complained about the result of the “primary” vote among members of the Edinburgh East Labour Party. Sheila Gilmore, the MP, nominated Diane Abbott, and the party itself nominated Ed Miliband, but its members voted by a margin of 39.4 to 34 per cent for David [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 24 August 2010 at 8:54 am
Hear ye again. Mr Ian Leslie, curator of the superlative Marbury website blog thingy, has drawn the Committee’s attention to a new order.
Any news story beginning “They came” is hereby prohibited. There are several offenders in BBC television news. They know who they are.
Just to be fair, however, we remind patrons that Hopi Sen did [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 23 August 2010 at 5:06 pm
The fury that greeted an unusually generous donation to a popular charity said something sad and profound about British journalism and possibly about the British character. But what?
Tim Lott had a go at answering that question in The Independent on Sunday yesterday:
Why do so many people spend so much of their energy on a target [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 23 August 2010 at 2:15 pm
The second volume of Chris Mullin’s diaries – Decline and Fall – were serialised in the Mail on Sunday yesterday. Some of the anecdotes might have made a front-page lead story if there were still a Labour government, but I was surprised to see them picked up in precisely none of this morning’s newspapers.
Here are [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 23 August 2010 at 11:31 am
The great David Kelly silly season conspiracy story has produced one last spasm before it subsides back into the dank underworld of mere “normal” conspiracy theories.
Yesterday the BBC News at 10 led its bulletin on the comments by Nicholas Hunt, the pathologist, repeating his view, given to the Hutton Inquiry seven years ago, that Kelly [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 23 August 2010 at 10:16 am
1Doctor Who ‘The Name of the Doctor’ – Series 7, episode 13
2On The Road at the Giro d’Italia: Feeling ill and racing in the rain must be pretty grim
3Where have property prices been reduced most in the UK?
4Syria’s cannibal rebel defends himself
5Dish of the Day: How to… make one of the sublimest of cocktails, the Negroni
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