Commentariat

You are browsing the archives of 2008 June.

Or … emotional intelligence.

Cartoon: Gaping Void

Labour MP whose support for Militant led to his expulsion from the Labour Party and cost him his seat

‘Baby ballerina’ from the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo whose 10 years of stardom began aged 13

Letters: Peter Preston ignores the conspicuous social benefits of being a nation of sporting failures

Editorial: Years of bad government form habits, and create constituencies of interest, that are hard to change

Editorial: Who on earth tries to make a living from a tradition of classical music that is close to dying out?

Editorial: Medics are confused by endless change, and sometimes witness targetry trumping the real needs of the patient

Polly Toynbee: The new NHS plan will consolidate a golden age for the service - and protect it from Tory tampering

Response: Breaking up the monoliths is the only way consumers can get truly competitive prices, says Eluned Morgan

Libby Brooks: Piecemeal inducements may be effective, but are politically meaningless if the broader causes are not addressed

Nick Clegg: Henley proved the New Labour mode of social democracy is dead. There is only one alternative

Victor de la Serna: Attempts to claim Spain’s Euro win as a catalyst for unity are hasty

George Monbiot: Oil-dependent countries are focused on growth at all costs, and the pale green political consensus looks unlikely to hold

John Vallins: Somerset

Today’s corrections

Letters: If billions are needed to fund the 7,000 wind turbines (Renewable optimism, June 27), why make consumers pay all the costs?

Letters: Contrary to popular myth, New Labour inherited a buckling consumer economy

Hugh Muir: Tate trustees seek someone with media expertise to replace the broadcaster Jon Snow, and the word is that they see Dacre as ideal

Letters: Simon Jenkins is right to rail against the architectural atrocities committed in the name of social housing

Letters: While women should have access to a full choice of contraceptive methods, buying the pill on the internet presents huge risks

Letters: Motorway driving is proving less stressful and I’m getting an extra 40 miles out of a tank of petrol

So, John Motson, the master of the lateral one-liner and irrelevant statistic, has decided to pack up his microphone and sheepskin coat and retire to spend more time with his Football Yearbook. The BBC's voice of football has decided not to go to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010, bringing the curtain down on an era of live football commentary spanning three decades.

Gordon Brown's favourite children's book is The Snail and the Whale, which describes how a tiny snail hitches a ride on a humpback whale. Together they tour the world, passing icebergs and volcanoes, sharks and penguins. The snail begins to feel very small and powerless compared to the world he sees. But in the end, when the whale is beached, it is the snail who saves his life.

In an internal shrine set up to worship my own personal gods, there is a niche allocated to the television documentary producer, Roger Graef. I have never known Graef to make a silly film or to hold anything other than a sensible opinion. So to find him, yesterday morning on BBC radio, apparently arguing that Dr Crippen was innocent OK, was a little like being administered a cranial taser. “If he says it,” I thought, still in shock, “it can't be the load of old nonsense that these things usually are,” and I ordered up a DVD of tonight's Five programme upon which Graef's claim seemed to be based.

She - let's call her Jean - has been out for some years now. She's rehabilitated, has a flat, a mortgage, a job and a partner. I was one of the friends who supported her through a bleak and discouraging time in a woman's prison.