Words Dept.: archive

Culture secretary James Purnell is now saying he didn’t read the e-mail that confirmed Tameside hospital was going to doctor a photo to make it appear that he was present at an event when he wasn’t. Last month, when the story broke, Purnell said: “I didn’t think a faked photo would be produced and I [...]

The Guardian’s “In praise of…” Leader comments are occasionally a little off-beam. But today’s eulogising of Britney Spears for making a surprisingly-not-that-bad record is surely taking the piss. The new album, as today’s Film & Music section points out, is often brilliant. And what is most brilliant is its musical risk-taking. This is pop, all [...]

Interesting take in the Independent on the reasons for Roger Alton’s resignation as editor of the Observer. According to the Indy, Alton was the victim of a “power struggle” with sister paper the Guardian, partly as a result of his paper’s support of the Iraq war, in contrast with the position of the Guardian. The [...]

Here’s an interesting piece in the New York Observer about the growing trend towards journalists becoming “brands”. According to the piece, gone is the “journalistic culture in which columnists were the only ones allowed to have a personality, and everyone else’s bylines were practically interchangeable”. Not too long ago only the giants of the mainstream [...]

On the day Tower Hamlets council decided to paint over some graffiti by Banksy, here (after the jump) is some less artistic but possibly more amusing vandalism of advertising hoardings. Sky’s ads seem to be a particular magnet for sarcasm… The second one is in Manchester. I recognise the hoarding underneath the advert. No, really.  

There’s a nice, unintentionally hilarious interview with Lib Dem leadership candidate Nick Clegg in the Observer today. The author, Jasper Gerard, admits he is a Liberal and “unabashed supporter” of Clegg. All of which becomes abundantly clear quite quickly. Near the top, for example, there’s a shameless attempt to merge the image of Clegg with [...]

Yes, you read it right. A character in a fictional children’s story has been outed as gay by the author of said book. For those of us who don’t know what gay is, the Observer helpfully suggests who it thinks are the three most heterosexual men in the world in order to help us visualise. [...]

While it’s probably advisable not to get sucked into the largely fatuous online “debate” Channel 4 is trying to stoke up, I found it a bit daft that Manchester was rated the 17th worst place to live in a “Best and Worst” list on Channel 4 last night. As is usual with this annual feast [...]

Kirsty Wark on Newsnight just confronted the Cowley Street Vampires (Vince Cable and Simon Hughes) about the demise of Sir Menzies Campbell as Liberal Democrat leader by quoting a fellow Lib Dem MP’s reaction to the news. Unfortunately I didn’t catch the full quote, nor the MP who spoke it*. But it included the line [...]

Presenter Nicky Campbell got into a spot of bother this morning on The Big Questions, a religious/”issues” programme I found myself watching on BBC1. The author Joanne Harris was on there as a guest and Campbell was talking to her about a religious experience she supposedly once had. He reminded her of the time she [...]