Hodgson knew the score when he took over at Liverpool

Roy Hodgson was voted manager of the year by his peers after an excellent season by Fulham’s standards. However, Liverpool’s expectations are far, far higher. Today the club that have not won the League title for donkeys years (while great rivals Manchester United do it with the frequency of shampoo) are languishing [...]

By Gary Newbon | Sport | Tuesday, 5 October 2010 at 3:37 pm

Second class child benefit?

I can see the argument that public sector schools and hospitals might get worse if only the poor use them (although I don’t necessarily buy it). But how does your child benefit get worse if top rate tax-payers don’t receive it?

By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 5 October 2010 at 2:55 pm

George Osborne’s gilt complex

The problem is that Osborne still seems to see deficits as purely a result of government profligacy. And the interest payment, apparently, are all going to foreign states.

By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 5 October 2010 at 1:50 pm

The world turned upside down: Mail, p5 vs Mail, p11

Mail, p5:  “Being slim ‘makes a woman happier than any man could’”.
Mail, p11: “Having a big bottom and thighs could shape up to a longer life, claim researchers”. And the intro in the paper that doesn’t get into print: “Curvy women such as Beyonce, Jennifer Lopez and Nigella Lawson may live longer thanks to their [...]

By Amol Rajan | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 5 October 2010 at 11:50 am

Phone hacking & Andy Coulson: Where we’re at

That Andy Coulson must be damn good. Because David Cameron has shown extraordinary loyalty to a communications director who is not only still new to the PR business but who continues to break its cardinal rule of not becoming the story.

By Ian Burrell | Notebook | Tuesday, 5 October 2010 at 11:33 am

Jonny Franzen and the Disappearing Spectacles: an update

Last night, in my capacity as The Independent’s Jonathan Franzen correspondent (see previous Franzen-based examples of my work here, here and here), I attended the launch of his hotly anticipated, previously misprinted new novel Freedom – and witnessed the theft of the great man’s specs. This morning, some further developments. The perpetrator, who left a [...]

By Tim Walker | Arts | Tuesday, 5 October 2010 at 9:55 am

How Mark Zuckerberg could sue over The Social Network

Some of America’s finest legal minds have today been pondering the question of whether Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg could pursue lawsuits against the makers of The Social Network, which for all its undoubted brilliance as a piece of film-making takes more than a few liberties with his life story.
In the New York Times, (here) a [...]

By Guy Adams | Arts, The Foreign Desk | Tuesday, 5 October 2010 at 5:18 am

Post-Lula Brazil: a country of the future?

Brazil’s presidential election has gone to a second round. Victory for the Workers Party’s Dilma Rousseff, President Lula’s chosen successor and long-time frontrunner, now looks uncertain compared to a few days ago. Marina Silva, the third-placed candidate from the Green Party, had a strong showing and now turns potential king- or queen-maker in a run-off [...]

By Alex Hochuli | Battle of Ideas, Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 5 October 2010 at 12:01 am

Is the Channel Wider than the Atlantic?

I know the answer to this one! It’s number 394 in the series. Thanks to Robert for supplying this photograph.

Sorry – I missed number 392. That was asked on Saturday by champion contributor Mike Smithson at Political Betting:
Is Balls at Defence the coalition’s biggest fear?

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 4 October 2010 at 8:08 pm

Why Fox Might Have Leaked

A rather unenlightening “Diary of a Civil Servant” in The Observer yesterday. Its anonymous author opines that “leakers have different motives”, and suggests that ministers and their advisers sometimes leak “for political advantage”.
The most vulnerable time for any minister is when their policy proposal is sent round a cabinet committee for approval. If a colleague [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 4 October 2010 at 7:25 pm