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
Fair and balanced report from Stephanie Baker of Bloomberg on the state of Tony Blair’s post-prime-ministerial assemblage of good works and paid consultancy.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Friday, 5 April 2013 at 9:59 am
Guest blog by Martin Hutchison:
Dear John Rentoul
At the end of your recent post noting that “economists who support a looser fiscal policy to support demand tend to be left-wing, while those who prioritise deficit reduction tend to be on the right politically”, you ask: “What’s it all about?”
I have been thinking about and researching the [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 4 April 2013 at 10:47 pm
I was brought up short by Simon Landau yesterday. He asked, of my column for The Independent the day before.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 4 April 2013 at 4:09 pm
I was reading Paul Johnson’s Brief Lives (yes, I am so old and revisionist), when a friend said that Johnson’s wife, Marigold, had been a Labour candidate in South Bucks in 1974.
It turned out that this was one of those facts that is just on the edge of Googlable knowledge, from which I derive childish [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 3 April 2013 at 3:11 pm
A new version of an evergreen Question To Which The Answer Is No (QTWTAIN). This was asked by Myra Adams at PJ Lifestyles. This one was spotted by Chris Smith, to whom thanks.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 3 April 2013 at 10:34 am
I have written about Ed Miliband for The Independent tomorrow, and my fear that the worst outcome of the election, only two years and one month away, would be that Labour will win it in its present unprepared and happy-lefty state.
As I was writing, George Osborne was giving a speech that illustrated my argument. Not [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 2 April 2013 at 10:38 pm
I went away for only the long Easter weekend, but there is a lot to catch up on.
Mike McCarthy’s article in which he took his leave of 15 years as The Independent’s environment editor on Saturday was a lovely example of the apocalyptic eco-elegiac tradition.
If, over the past decade and a half, you have closely [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 2 April 2013 at 5:38 pm
A friend who is 10 years older than me, who was active in the Labour Party in the 1970s (I joined in 1981), urges me to remember 1974
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 27 March 2013 at 8:47 pm
David Miliband’s resignation as an MP to run a charity in New York is a loss to the Labour Party. More than that, though, it tells us what a state Labour is in.
There has recently been speculation about the possibility of Alistair Darling replacing Ed Balls as shadow chancellor – a change on which Darling [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 26 March 2013 at 9:40 pm
Haven’t had a full-dress straight up and down Question To Which The Answer Is No for a while. This is the real thing. Number 908, asked by Henry Farrell, The Monkey Cage, from an original article by Thomas Oatley.
Thanks to James Plunkett, who spotted it.
Meanwhile, we had number 907, asked by James Chapman of the [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 26 March 2013 at 3:50 pm
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