Commentariat

You are browsing the archives of 2008 April.

The introduction of cheerleaders as part of India’s glitzy new cricket league has created a stir in a sport in which traditionally the only on-field show of bare flesh was the odd beer-bellied streaker, says Joe Leahy

The introduction of cheerleaders as part of India’s glitzy new cricket league has created a stir in a sport in which traditionally the only on-field show of bare flesh was the odd beer-bellied streaker, says Joe Leahy

What Gordon Brown has described as the most serious financial crisis since the
1930s, appears to be over as suddenly as it began.

Will the troublemaker who is going around saying that leftie pin-up economist Will Hutton has a butler please desist? There is talk that the former newspaper editor, now chief exec of the Work Foundation think-tank (more employee satisfaction means higher productivity), has his door answered by a Jeeves-like fellow in tails. There would be no shame in that: the old school gentleman’s gentleman has returned to the sculleries of high society, particularly for occasional party nights, to ferry trays and seat guests.

Tonight, I’m due to partake in a debate at the Cambridge Union on the motion “This House regards Jordan as a Feminist Icon” along with, among others, Edwina Currie and Abi Titmuss. Depending on whom you ask, she’s either an evil, amoral slapper who corrupts children and is bringing on the downfall of civilisation, or a modern-day heroine.

There are two diametrically opposed schools of thought when it comes to writing an after-dinner speech. There is the Clement Freud school of thought and the non-Clement Freud school of thought. I learnt this when as a young man I foolishly accepted an invitation to take part in a Cambridge Union debate.

So we’re starting to do the exciting things to do with the wedding – the wedding list. This is a fabulous opportunity to play your friends off against each other to force them to be more generous than each other. Victoria had this really dumb idea of asking them all to give to a chosen charity, but I soon stuck a spear in that balloon. The first thing to go in a credit crunch is charity donations – not my fucking wedding list.

Gordon Brown has secured a place in the record books. An opinion poll last
week put Labour’s rating beneath the low point achieved by Michael Foot in
the early 1980s.

Malayan administrator who was ADC to General Percival at the fall of Singapore.

Influential and popular Conservative backbencher who also won an MC in North Africa.

The past 30 years have been a sad story for the French textiles industry. The decision this week of DMC to seek bankruptcy court protection from creditors seems to have put a final nail in the industry’s coffin

The peaceful presence of puffins does us honour, and reflects a kind of blessing upon us.

The Government must commit to the exclusive use of English by all government agencies so that migrant families have a clear incentive to adopt it as their first language.

Gordon Brown says he is “very worried” about the impact of rising fuel prices on families and pensioners - so he should do something about it.

Forty per cent of British women who go on a holiday to Spain have sex with a stranger within the first five hours of their arrival. Believe this? Then you are ready to follow this week's local election results.

This month’s edition of the men’s magazine GQ carries a 22-page photoshoot by David Bailey, featuring the nation’s leading political movers. The Foreign Secretary David Miliband – spotted at the weekend vainly trying to coax his three-year-old son back on to his bicycle – stares steely-eyed from the glossy pages, flecks of grey in his hair. The small print reveals that Miliband, the son of a Marxist theorist, wore a £495 Hackett suit, a £69 Hugo Boss tie – and a Marks & Spencer shirt. Truly a man of the people!

“I was in Rome last week,” I said, as I took my foaming pint from the landlord and paused in order to get people’s attention before launching into my travel tale.

“Jesus. What have you done?” said a friend last week. No, I wasn’t dressed as an enormous tomato and I wasn’t in my, um, lumberjack outfit. It was a party at a friend’s house and I turned up as usual, sort of on time but not too freakishly early (don’t you HATE those people) and I was wearing jeans and a shirt. Nothing extraordinary so far…

The second cup of coffee and the second cigarette are the best of the day, I’ve realised. There’s something about the second time around that beats the first. I’m 40 this year and I’ve already seen most things I’m going to see, but I’m starting to appreciate that seeing things for the second time is when you see them best.

Research chemist who synthesised LSD and had the world’s first ‘acid trip’ on
his bicycle.

Chairman of the Alliance and Leicester who wrote an influential report on corporate governance.

Tailor who broke the old-fashioned mould and dressed actors, aristocrats and entrepreneurs.

School league tables are becoming the “tyranny” of the education system, a headmaster has claimed.

Britain faces gridlock within a generation without massive investment on road, rail and air travel, according to David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce.

Did you know that every time you recycle the Telegraph newspaper, you are losing a priceless work of art?