I said we’d organise something, so here’s a very important date to put in your diaries – 19th November 2015. Previous get togethers have been in London, generally organised round Old Holborn’s annual Guy Fawkes
Continue reading →The Divine Ms Raccoon’s Annual Beanfeast….
Oh! Revoir!
Paul Revoir is a journalist. At least, heâs portrayed as such on Journalisted. He grubbed around in the bowels of the Daily Mail for years, delivering earth shattering opera to his Editor:
Continue reading →The Pied Pipers of Paedo Panic.
In times of yore, Kelvin MacKenzie, then at the helm of the great ship âSunâ, was of the opinion that the
Continue reading →Slack Narcissus
Cate Blanchett is an intriguing actress â interesting-looking, androgynous, a touch of Garbo about her. She climbed higher in my estimation last week when expressing her exasperation at her peers indulging in endless selfies when attending a
Continue reading →Watson Tide
If we were to think of those who voted for the 2003 Allied invasion of Iraq and did their utmost to block any investigation into the affair, certain obvious names would leap forward; itâs significant that these
Continue reading →Thoroughly Modern Morals
A long-time commentator on here pointed me in the direction of a Channel 4 programme looking back at TV from the 60s the other week; I was tempted solely by the fact that an ageing Peter Wyngarde
Continue reading →Angels with Dirty Faces
An 11-year-old in Jefferson County, Tennessee this week shot dead his 8-year-old neighbour because she wouldnât let him play with her puppy; the shotgun belonged to his father. Across the Atlantic almost fifteen years earlier, Bristol
Continue reading →The Ring Cycle
Back in the 1980s, I was an avid reader of the music press, and my favourite weekly was âMelody Makerâ. Within a few months of purchasing my first issue, I became familiar with the different writers on
Continue reading →*Exclusive* Esther Baker and David Hencke.
The allegations of historical child sex abuse made by Esther Baker were always going to be a âbig challenge for Staffordshire Policeâ to investigate, to quote David Henckeâs own words. David,
Continue reading →Publish and Be Damned
Hitlerâs Germany, Stalinâs Russia, Maoâs China, Honeckerâs DDR â mandatory reporting to the authorities by friends, families and neighbours, phone-taps, wire-taps, cameras tracking the moves of every citizen, persistent persecution of targets by a police force making
Continue reading →Proctor Gambles on Fairy Transparency.
Harvey Proctor has unsheathed his ‘sword of truth’ and come out fighting; unwilling to cower in the closet any longer whilst rumours swirl around the Internet.
Taking the lectern in the Marlborough Suite, he issued a
Continue reading →Global Swarming…
Listening to Radio 4 in the car the other day, to a sympathetic voice interviewing one of the sad ISIS fighters migrants refugees trafficked persons, that had just been hauled out of the briny by an Italian rescue boat, something about their story
Batman n' Robbin'.
There can be no sadder sight than a hot air ballon collapsing in ignominy. Speaking as someone who once spent some months working for a hot air balloon company, I know just how many hours go into stitching
Continue reading →'High' Church.
America is the land of opportunity if you have a desire to establish your own church. No other country is so relaxed about ministries that amount to just the one true believer. They even have a tax system
Continue reading →Toki Pona with grilled asparagus and a dill sauce…
No, I’m not about to give you the recipe. Toki Pona isn’t the latest tasteless but quick growing Vietnamese fish foisted on us by desperate supermarket fish finger suppliers. It’s a language; a remarkably constrained language, and
Continue reading →End of the Peer Show at the Maison des Crétins.
Alas poor Buttifant*! The fashion police have busted him.
On Sunday he was a mere coke snorting, tart romping Peer, barely distinguishable from his colleagues – by Monday The Sun had played their master stroke and
Continue reading →Milk Marketing.
A reader of this parish, a blissfully content new grandfather, which makes a change from his usual curmudgeonly, contrarian, argumentative self, in between making coochy-coo noises and blowing bubbles at his new granddaughter, decided to do something practical
Trumps, Tramps, and Trims, and Peeping at Tom's.
Trumps. What Donald Trump actually said:
âI like Mexico, I love the Mexican people, I do business with Mexico,â he said. âBut you have people coming through the border who are from all over
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The Filth and The Fuehrer
Viewing the past through the prism of the present is slowly becoming accepted practice. At one end of the scale, we have the conspiracy industry that has now turned its attention away from the JFK assassination and
Continue reading →Childline.
Back in July 2011, around the time that Meirion Jones was first making a move on the story of great personal interest to him and his family:
Mr Jones told me
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The Fat Lady is Singing
Once a vital lifeline to pop-picking teenagers when the pirates had yet to set sail and the BBC Light Programme swung to terminally upbeat orchestral mood music, Radio Luxembourg finally gave up the ghost of the 208 wavelength
Continue reading →Equality of Gender.
Did you know that a thumping 50% of those who enter the Family courts emerge ‘deeply dissatisfied’, ’emotionally traumatised’ and ‘cynical about our Justice system’. Some of the 50% could even be accurately described as ‘hysterical’ and ‘paranoid’. The majority
Continue reading →What's Gove got to do, got to do, with it?
The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP was appointed Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice on 10 May 2015.
The Secretary of State has oversight of all of Ministry of Justice business and is responsible
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When is a Lie not a Lie?
Part One – When is a Lie not a Lie.
Andy Coulson emerged from the Edinburgh High Court his old confident self.
“This prosecution was always wrong. I didn’t lie and the prosecution,
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Give the Cattle Plod a Pat on the Back!
In Waco, Texas, a widely advertised gathering of hundreds of armed Hell’s Angel style bikers to celebrate Memorial Day erupted into armed warfare as the choicest ‘Turf’ was fought over, and was policed by a handful of men.
Continue reading →Beating the Tattoo.
A perfect spring day yesterday; blossom fighting its way through the bark of the apple trees, not a cloud in the sky – just the day to take the dog for a walk on the beach.
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Even Grimmer Fairy Tales.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.
Long, long ago, in a leafy Sussex village, not far from where Piltdown Man was discovered to be a hoax, there came a man who had fallen
Continue reading →Mark Williams-Thomas – 'It weren't me, Guv' – No: 276.
Mark Williams-Thomas has blundered into the bizarre Northern world of Owen Oyston.
Across pages 8 and 9 of the Sunday
Continue reading →Maverick Meltdown.
Our mirthless, Eeyorish, lumbering dinosaur of a national broadcasting corporation has finally managed to plant its flat feet firmly in the middle of a contretemps it cannot win.
Astonishing remarks on Top Gear affair as senior BBC
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The Problem Child
The current âsuspensionâ of Jeremy Clarkson and âTop Gearâ as a whole is a dilemma for the BBC. They know itâs a popular series that brings in some of BBC2âs largest viewing figures as well as earning
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