Houllier has some high expectations to meet

Gerard Houllier is a surprise appointment for Aston Villa. He has been away from English football for six years. Liverpool was his last Premier League job, actually his only one.
Like his successor Rafa Benetiz he started well with a Cup treble (although not the European Champions League), [...]

By Gary Newbon | Sport | Monday, 13 September 2010 at 1:23 pm

Why the Uefa Champions League is the world’s finest sporting tournament

Assuming we all agree – and I think we should, or else we’ll be here all day – that football is the world’s most exciting game (my disillusionment is with its culture, not with the spectacle itself), then I think it’s fair to say that the Uefa Champions League is the world’s finest sporting tournament.
And, [...]

By Mike Ward | Sport | Monday, 13 September 2010 at 1:15 pm

Godard, nudists and roaming cats

The best of the web.

By Alice-Azania Jarvis | Digital Digest, Notebook | Monday, 13 September 2010 at 11:59 am

Too Beautiful to Help the Poor?

Angelina Jolie – love her or hate her – has been splashed across headlines again, pictured wearing a dark veil on her recent visit to Pakistan to meet with the president and view for herself the widespread devastation caused by floods.

By Ilona Burton | Notebook | Sunday, 12 September 2010 at 7:22 pm

The Unexpurgated Ed Balls

Ed Balls was interviewed on Friday by my good colleague Matt Chorley for today’s Independent on Sunday. Apart from the bit where he said he had not just arrived from Mars, which I do not think he meant as an insult to the Milibands, I was most interested in his criticism of Gordon Brown for [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 12 September 2010 at 12:10 pm

A day of two festivals

Dancing, singing, food and sequins: India certainly knows how to throw a street party.

By Grace Boyle | Notebook | Saturday, 11 September 2010 at 10:34 pm

Summer holidays are too short

Frank Field is and always will be one of the Heroes of the People. Tony Blair is unnecessarily rude about him in A Journey, saying: “His thoughts were not so much unthinkable as unfathomable.”
But his thoughts about cutting the length of school summer holidays on the front page of today’s Times (pay wall) are not [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 11 September 2010 at 4:55 pm

How Journalism Works, pt 102

Today’s innuendo special in the Daily Mail about the former Prime Minister (right) has an eye-catching third paragraph about a hotel in Abu Dhabi in which Tony Blair sometimes stays:

Its proud owners have recently announced the acquisition of the world’s first gold bar vending machine, so its filthy rich guests can stock up on bullion, [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 11 September 2010 at 3:45 pm

Vote for a Stepping Stone

Sunder Katwala makes a good point about the launch of the first Yes campaign for the referendum on the Alternative Vote (right):
Curious that a six-strong steering group does not seem to contain even one person who is actually in favour of the Alternative Vote as their preferred electoral system.
All its members are supporters of proportional [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 11 September 2010 at 3:28 pm

Three Sorry Stories

I know this is old; I meant to note it at the time and then lost it. Kenneth Morgan’s historical take on Conservative-Liberal coalitions, in a letter in August’s Prospect, is a gem:
25th June 2010
Dick Leonard’s summary of past Lib-Con coalitions (July) deals admirably with those of 1895 and 1931. Both ended up with Liberals [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Friday, 10 September 2010 at 6:27 pm