Gerald Kaufman, who has died aged 86, was instrumental in saving the Labour Party, back when the Labour Party was something that could still be saved. It was Kaufman who pithily pegged the 1983 manifesto as ‘the longest suicide note in history’. He knew the phrase would hang around the far-left and dog any attemptContinueContinue reading “Gerald Kaufman: Labour hero, Jewish villain”
Monthly Archives: February 2017
The death of Jo Cox and why kindness must triumph over rancour and anger
Sixty-five million people went into the EU referendum but one of us didn’t come home again. The murder of Jo Cox should have been the defining moment of 2016 but in a year of infamies, one seemed to blend obscenely into another. When Ian Gow was murdered by the IRA, a cold dread hung overContinueContinue reading “The death of Jo Cox and why kindness must triumph over rancour and anger”
Enter the janitor – merrily mixing up MSPs and the SNP
He could have been the janitor, or a weary geography teacher begging the lower fifth to set his car the right way up again. But the shambling figure who made his way to the podium was the leader of the Labour Party. At least for now. Not because he’s likely to be opposed as LabourContinueContinue reading “Enter the janitor – merrily mixing up MSPs and the SNP”
Trump has done what journalists should have done: boycotted the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
The most dangerous place in Washington DC, the old joke goes, is between a politician and a television camera. It’s a wonder there are any such places left, so intimate have the third and fourth estates become. Periodically, American journalism gets itself into a funk over its proximity to power and the consequences for integrityContinueContinue reading “Trump has done what journalists should have done: boycotted the White House Correspondents’ Dinner”
Salmond’s National Party
The 21st century is shaping up to be the era of the angry, bitter man. On television, on social media, in the corridors of power, you can’t move for stroppy, overgrown teenagers who have lurched from puberty to middle-aged dyspepsia with no intervening period of maturity. Donald Trump wields all the power any man couldContinueContinue reading “Salmond’s National Party”
Sturgeon dodged a banana skin flung down by NatBot 58
When the presiding officer called on John Mason, two dozen notebooks flipped open in the press gallery. The Nationalist MSP is an odd wee polecat — you sometimes wonder if he joined the SNP for a bet — but he makes cracking copy. Like when he wanted creationism taught in schools or the time heContinueContinue reading “Sturgeon dodged a banana skin flung down by NatBot 58”
Flip-flops, U-turns and proof SNP can’t be trusted on taxation
They say one man alone can’t change things. Tell that to Alex Salmond: He just upended the tax policy of a government which he (in theory) no longer leads. Over the weekend Mr Salmond broke ranks and joined the chorus of condemnation over the SNP’s inaction on business rates. Entrepreneurs, especially those in the tourismContinueContinue reading “Flip-flops, U-turns and proof SNP can’t be trusted on taxation”
Uncle Sam’s Nato broadside should be a call to arms for the whole of Europe
Once upon a time, there were three little pigs. They lived not in a magical kingdom but a dangerous world where anyone building their house out of straw was liable to end up in a bacon butty. But straw was cheap and two of the pigs wanted to spend their fortune on creature comforts. PigContinueContinue reading “Uncle Sam’s Nato broadside should be a call to arms for the whole of Europe”
How to get away with murder
Given our seamy obsession with serial killers, real and fictional, one would expect the crimes of Stephen Port to have made more of a mark on the national psyche. Port was convicted in November of the rape and murder of four young men in Barking, east London over a 15-month period. His modus operandi was cold andContinueContinue reading “How to get away with murder”
Is Donald Trump good for the Jews?
Yakov Blotnik, world-weary custodian of the synagogue in Philip Roth’s short story ‘The Conversion of the Jews’, has a simple outlook on life: “Things were either good-for-the-Jews or no-good-for-the-Jews”. The Blotnik Test confronts us as the new administration in Washington begins to take shape. We’ve just seen the first hints of what to expect at today’s joint pressContinueContinue reading “Is Donald Trump good for the Jews?”
Stephen Daisley 