Comment from Times Online

Would a soldier serving on the Chilcot committee be ruthless enough?

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Why are there two historians on the Chilcot committee investigating the Iraq war, but no military representative? In a sense we all know why we went to war; what we need to know is why we went to war so badly, without a coherent allied campaign plan taking us from first shots to transfer of power to the Iraqis — a realistic plan that could be properly resourced.

I do not accept that £64,000 a year for politicians is peanuts

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

I was dismayed to see recently that Sir John Baker, former chairman of the Senior Salaries Review Body, is calling for MPs to be given a substantial salary increase.

It’s OK, you’re allowed to laugh at Cast Offs

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

If you associate marooning disabled people on a desert island with Long John Silver and Blind Pew, then a new Channel 4 series, Cast Offs, will have you thinking again.

Dave’n’George: there may be trouble ahead

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

They are the Bullingdon Club boys who cycle to work together and are godfather to each other’s children. David Cameron and George Osborne are neighbours in Notting Hill and if the Tories win power they are planning to set up offices next to one another in Downing Street. In the Shadow Cabinet suite, they are always popping into each other’s rooms to share coffee and confidences.

Strip away the figleaf and reveal naysayers

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Yesterday in the late afternoon, after a day of leaving messages on someone’s Orange answerphone (an unnamed someone), I finally got a return call from the “new high-powered all-party think-tank”, the Global Warming Policy Foundation, promised to the world yesterday, via these pages, by Lord Lawson of Blaby. The foundation’s high-poweredness was clearly a forecast rather than a reality.

Alas, it’s the end of the road for petrolheads

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Poor Toad would howl in despair if he knew what the world was doing to his precious motor car. You will recall how the bumptious Toad of The Wind in the Willows, was spell-bound by the sight and sound of a “magnificent motor-car, immense, breath-snatching, passionate”.

A gross insult to the people of Europe

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

The appointments of Baroness Ashton of Upholland as European High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and that of Herman Van Rompuy as President of the European Council are an insult to European democracy. These are new posts under the Lisbon treaty. The candidates are not strong. This has been done with no due process, in a completely arbitrary way.

Rule the waves? Not any more we don’t

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

I have no idea how he would have come across on the GMTV sofa, but sometimes I think all our political problems could be solved if the man being lined up to be our next Foreign Secretary was not Lord Mandelson but Lord Palmerston.

They’re still wriggling to avoid the flak on Iraq

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Whitewash. Stitch up. Waste of time and money. Wrong people in charge. Even before the Chilcot inquiry opens tomorrow, and many months if not years before it completes its exhaustive trawl through the circumstances of Britain’s invasion of Iraq, many have already condemned the process as pointless.

Copenhagen will fail – and quite right too

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Exactly a fortnight from today, the United Nations climate change conference opens in Copenhagen. Its purpose is (or was) clear: to agree a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

Peter Mandelson bets on two sure-fire losers

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

A faint smile flickered across the lips of the Son of Heaven as Barack Obama left the Great Hall of the People in Beijing with a flea in his ear. The creditor-in-chief to America had given his suppliant a humiliating lecture about its spendthrift ways.

Sadly, most people with a learning disability should not have children

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

When my little sister was a child in the 1960s, we never said to her that she was mentally handicapped; no one in our family would ever have considered doing so. One day, though, when she was about 10, she received a visit from a social worker, as she did occasionally, perhaps because my mother was receiving money from the council, and this person left my sister in tears. “She says I’m mentally handicapped,” said my sister, sobbing.

Wind of deceit drives Labour’s green energy plan

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Blimey, what a hive of activity. In the space of 10 days we are told that wind turbines up to 50ft high are going to be allowed everywhere. We are given streamlined planning rules that will allow nuclear power stations and vast wind farms all over the place. And an energy bill is announced containing a levy that will make us pay more for our electricity to fund clean coal-fired power stations.

A game of two halves: cheating and whining

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

I am grateful to all the many football pundits and even politicians who have declared that France’s qualification for the World Cup finals after a disputed goal “casts doubt on the integrity of the beautiful game”. In these recessionary times we need all the laughter we can get; and what could be more comical than this concerted pretence that professional football has for years been anything other than an inordinately well funded assembly of inveterate whingers and cheats?

Belle lays bare the myth that every hooker is a victim

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Two things struck me in the aftermath of my interview with Belle de Jour last week. The first is that several of my female colleagues in the media appeared to be deeply personally offended by the fact that Belle, or rather Dr Brooke Magnanti, wasn’t at any point raped or beaten up during the 14 months she spent as a call girl.

Focus on the big issues, not the bananas

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Yesterday was a good morning for Europe. Now, for the first time, it has a common voice on the international stage. It must use it well and use it sparingly. That means worrying less about detail and concentrating on the big issues — a little less time worrying about the curvature of bananas and a little more devotion to energy security and the environment.

The pantechnicon of porn hits a roadblock

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

One summer evening I found myself in the bedroom of the owner of a lap-dancing club. I sat primly on a chair, he lounged grim-faced on his grubby counterpane. It was the only place we could hear each other talk, since outside was a large and shouty mob. He hadn’t slept for two nights. Someone had mischievously posted his phone number online in an escort advertisement for a “tall, blonde pole dancer”. This man was a pariah and he knew it.

Hot news – that old extinction story is back

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Look, I’m sorry to be the most frightful bore, but thousands of species are rushing pell-mell towards extinction. I feel bad about bringing this to your attention. Perhaps it’s better if you don’t know. Perhaps it’s easier all round if I keep quiet about the fact that 17,921 species are threatened with extinction.

Kate Moss: an icon of willpower and strength

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Asked during an interview with a fashion website if she had any mottoes, Kate Moss replied, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”. And the clouds parted, and the sky opened, and Hell rained down upon her.

No method in this Queen’s Speech madness

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

At Sunday school we were taught to say our prayers. Miss Silk told us to compile a list of things we hoped God might do for the world.

Win hearts and minds in Afghanistan to win the war

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

Three years ago I travelled across Afghanistan to make a film about what conditions for ordinary Afghans were like. We wanted to make it in the winter of 2006-07 because there was talk of a spring offensive from the Taleban — which indeed came, and came, and has kept coming ever since.

More promises, more children’s chances ruined

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

This week’s Queen’s Speech revealed that with no sense of incongruity the Government is to give all children the “legal right” to a good education. A number of “guarantees” concerning standards are pledged to parents who will be able to take schools to court if they are not delivered.

France would have preferred to lose than win by Thierry Henry's handball. Almost

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

France has secured entry to the World Cup finals by cheating. C’est normal — that’s what the French do. You could hear the ancient refrain about the dastardly Frogs everywhere yesterday. I hate to spoil a good cliché but the refrain in France was Quelle honte! — shame on us. The country was awash with embarrassment after Thierry Henry stroked the ball towards the Irish goalmouth with his hand.

Viewers’ choice: our talentless Everyman

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

When I was a child we had a canary. My dad always told me that if it ever escaped into the garden, the other birds — the scruffy starlings and extremely commonplace sparrows — would tear it apart because they’d be so jealous of its specialness. I imagined our lovely, yellow canary naively believing an audience of garden birds was gathering to enjoy its beautiful singing. Then the horror would unfold. Specialness is hard to like. At first it’s impressive, but pretty soon it reminds us that we ourselves are not brightly coloured or filled with beautiful music.

Care in old age: we won’t pay, the State can’t

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT

We all have different visions of retirement. Mine involves a hammock, an intravenous Pimm’s drip and the complete works of Trollope. Yours may embrace Saga cruises, extreme sports, gardening or just the simple pleasure of telling your boss where to stick his job.