Words Dept.

David Cameron’s sweary outburst on the radio this morning has the unmistakable hallmarks of a media strategy about it. In an attempt to sound “edgy” – and presumably because the Absolute Radio Breakfast Show hits the numbskull demographic that Cameron’s advisers want to hit this week - the 42-year-old, Eton-educated Tory leader was heard to say the word ”twat”. (Audio here.) The whole thing [...]

A selection of my latest bookmarks. Christian Bale: Heroic swearing – "You don't fuckin' understand what it's like workin' with actors!" A fine selection of photos of Stockport – Surely England's most beautiful town. Stack: The blog, in newspaper form

As Jonathan Ross returns to our screens later, both ITV and the BBC’s flagship current affairs programmes have scheduled timely and hard-hitting investigations into the issue of very rich famous people saying “he fucked your grand-daughter” and stuff. ITV’s timely attempt to tackle to hard-hitting subject, part of the Tonight strand, was on earlier and [...]

I was discussing Joe Kinnear’s foul-mouthed press conference tirade with friends over the weekend and have been surprised to find quite a lot of sympathy for the nutter. The popular view, expressed also by football pundits in the past couple of days, seems to be that although he probably went a bit over the top, [...]

It’s touching the way the Times doesn’t allow swearing within its pages. It harks back to a safer time, before the Lady Chatterley trial and the subsequent decline in moral standards that ruined society. In a way, I can understand why they might balk at the “f-word”, the “c-word” or the “x-word”. But there’s no [...]