A good start by England, but let’s not get carried away

It was always going to be an improvement on England’s woeful experience in South Africa. I still cannot believe the blind support Fabio Capello is receiving but give the manager and players credit on Friday. 4-0 is a very good scoreline in a competitive match.
Bulgaria were clever but Jermain Defoe scored [...]

By Gary Newbon | Sport | Monday, 6 September 2010 at 12:42 pm

“An intense psychological discomfort redirected”

My good colleague and fellow Eagle Eye blogger Ben Chu has asked the question, “Is the British press biased against Blair?” in the hope of making an unexpected entry in my well-known series.
I am afraid his application has been rejected by the committee, on the grounds that the Pope’s religion is well known. Ben makes [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 6 September 2010 at 11:53 am

Independent/Yoosk Labour Video Hustings

Just in case you haven’t yet had enough of the Labour candidates, here’s a quick-fire hustings with a slight difference. Questions chosen by Yoosk (“you ask, we connect, they answer”); answers on YouTube video and collected here for your discriminating decision-making.
Do you think you would be well placed to lead a coalition government?

Ed Balls starts [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 6 September 2010 at 10:15 am

Is the British press biased against Blair?

Perhaps we should be sceptical of the hysterical argument made by some of his ardent supporters that the media as a whole has it in for the man.

By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 5 September 2010 at 7:36 pm

A Mormon-style Devotee Speaks

I see that the Daily Mail journalist John Kampfner has repeated his claim that I called him a Saddamite in a radio discussion. I am, indeed, the “Mormon-style devotee” of Blair’s “tiny army of defenders” to whom he referred in The Independent this week. (Mormon Temple, Salt Lake City, right.)
What I said was that it was [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 4 September 2010 at 5:40 pm

That “Blair is a Liar” Nonsense

My Times subscription has gone belly up, so I’m grateful to Norman Geras for reprinting part of Chris Mullin’s review of Tony Blair’s Memoires (that is what it is called in France, right). This is the key paragraph for the haters:
Nor do I believe any of that “Blair is a Liar” nonsense in relation to [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 4 September 2010 at 5:23 pm

“Don’t elect a fantasist”

Graham Stringer MP voted against military action in Iraq. So for whom is he voting in the Labour leadership election? He has a letter in The Independent today:
“Ed Miliband is glad he was against the invasion of Iraq from the start” and this is one of the reasons Johann Hari (3 September) is supporting him [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 4 September 2010 at 5:10 pm

Preacher, or General?

Well, that is more or less it. Ed Miliband’s campaign was built around a Guardian endorsement strategy and on Wednesday the newspaper failed to deliver, with a leading article of epic waffle true to the worst of the newspaper’s tradition, which failed to choose between the brothers.
David Miliband, meanwhile, has been endorsed by the Daily [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 4 September 2010 at 2:00 pm

Would Labour have won in 2010 if Blair had still been leader?

Roger Mortimore at Ipsos-MORI asks number 383 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No (I apologise for correcting his grammar).
This should keep the haters happy, but even I accept – even he accepted – that 13 years would have been enough, and that it would have been difficult for Tony Blair [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 4 September 2010 at 11:15 am

Blair protests: latest picture

Blair hate in perspective, from the Guardian report of last night’s The Late Late Show in Dublin:
Blair was greeted by about 50 protesters at the RTE studios – although they were easily outnumbered by the number of squealing teenagers who had gathered for another set of guests on the show – The X Factor twins Jedward.

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 4 September 2010 at 10:22 am