Sometimes I am ashamed to be “a leftie” and the response to the Brass Eye programme is one such occasion. There’s a consensus building in this quarter that the programme was a valid, nay brilliant, satire “about the media hysteria surrounding paedophilia”.
Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2001/jul/31/childrensservices.comment1
Goran Ivanisevic thinks women bring bad luck – because his mother told him. Why, asks Ros Coward , do such superstitions live on?
For those who followed the whole of the Wimbledon tournament, the absence of Goran Ivanisevic’s girlfriend was a puzzle. While the other players’ wives were scrutinised for their fashion sense and set against one another in the beauty stakes, Goran’s beautiful partner remained notable for her absence even during the spectacular final. Yesterday, however, it emerged Goran had banned her from attending not because he wanted his freedom (as the tabloids unkindly concluded) but because of his superstitions. “I do not watch him play,” said Tatjiana Dragovic, “because he thinks women will bring him bad luck.”
Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/jul/12/gender.uk2
Yes, James Bulger’s mother is bitter. She has every right to be.
Perhaps the most distasteful aspect of the furore surrounding the release of James Bulger’s killers is the subtle but persistent vilification of the Bulger family in the liberal media. Sunday’s Panorama programme presented Ralph Bulger as “chilling” in his intention, stated last year but since withdrawn, to harm Venables and Thompson. Meanwhile, Denise Bulger (now Fergus) is under constant scrutiny for bitterness towards her son’s killers. Charlotte Raven’s description in this paper of her “pinched-lipped grief” was the most extreme, but others have also compared her unfavourably with more forgiving mothers.
Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/jul/03/bulger.comment
Gifted creator of the Moomins, a fantasy family for children and adults alike
Tove Jansson, the Finnish artist and writer who created the extraordinary world of the Moomins, has died aged 86. She became famous in England when the London Evening News published a daily Moomins comic strip that ran from 1952-70. Books about the characters were translated into 35 languages.
Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/jun/30/guardianobituaries.books
Globe-trotting Michael Palin has been from Pole to Pole and Around the World in 80 Days, taking the worst that third-world transport can throw at him. So why does travelling in Britain make him quail, asks Ros Coward
Michael Palin is back home during a brief pause in filming his latest journey. He’s been in the Sahara and loved it. “I’m visiting countries I didn’t know existed. The cultures are fascinating and I’ve met great characters.” And, of course, for the man who has become the nation’s best-loved intrepid traveller, he especially enjoys the journeys. “I made one amazing train journey to Dakkar. The train was 10 hours late, it took forever but it was incredible. I met up with a fantastic woman and discussed Muslim attitudes to sex.”
Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jun/14/greenpolitics.transport
In the mass of commentary surrounding the election, no one is talking about emotions. This is pretty incredible, considering how big a factor they are in politics. For most of the electorate the exact policy differences between parties is only part of more nebulous issues like confidence, betrayal, contempt and especially trust.
Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/jun/05/election2001.politicalcolumnists3
If more people drove like a woman fewer children would be dying in road accidents
After four years trying to get “joined-up government”, there’s still a long way to go, if the new child road safety initiative is anything to go by. Laudable in itself, it fails to link up with the wider issues of quality of life and health.
This latest initiative offers local councils £10m for child pedestrian training projects. Most will go to deprived areas with high numbers of ethnic minorities where new research shows that child death rates are appreciably higher. The new initiative includes pamphlets in relevant languages but mainly focuses on training schemes to integrate road safety lessons into “personal social and health education”.
Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/may/09/comment.roscoward
The Journey Home – Olaf Olafsson
WITH ITS strong narrative voice and acute observation of nature, The Journey Home immediately presents itself as an exceptional novel. Despite this, it is essentially about ordinariness. Set in the Sixties, the central character, Disa, is a mundane figure; a middle-aged Icelandic woman running an English country hotel with a good reputation for its food. There’s almost no dramatic action apart from a slow, solitary journey back home to Iceland, which she undertakes on discovering she has terminal cancer. Most of the journey is spent in a wistful reverie.
Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/may/06/fiction.reviews
Lord Stevenson says hairdressers shouldn’t be made people’s peers as they might not feel ‘comfortable’ in the House of Lords. Ros Coward took celebrity snipper Nicky Clarke along to test out the theory
Another New Labour attempt at populism has gone awry. Criticised for the predictably safe, middle-class list of people’s peers, Lord Stevenson compounded the crime by saying that they could not select people, like hairdressers, who would be uncomfortable in the Lords. Roy Hattersley, suitably appalled, responded in Monday’s Guardian. The people’s peers ought to be real people like hairdressers, he said, and gallantly offered to acclimatise a couple.
Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/may/04/lords.politicalnews
Blair is very fond of the countryside – as long as it is in France or Italy
Sophie Wessex, like all those Tory tittle-tattlers, is wrong about Tony Blair not liking the countryside; he does. The question is whether it’s the British countryside or somebody else’s.
From the evidence of their holiday destinations, it is clear the Blairs prefer holidays in rural Tuscany or France. John Smith could think of nothing better than climbing Scottish mountains. Blair, pleading for the resumption of the cream-tea trade, looks even more out of place in the UK countryside than Nick Brown (and that’s saying something).
Full article: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2001/apr/10/greenpolitics.politicalcolumnists