There’s a hell of a lot more to a heat wave than a perennial disco classic from 1977. OK, so it was very warm yesterday and I was out in the worst of it. Being of Northern

We all know some people who talk bollocks the moment their mouth opens; the likelihood is the speaker is probably the only person in the room unaware of this fact, which is why they keep talking bollocks.

Surprise! Surprise! A new survey has revealed that hopeful candidates for the top jobs tend to be judged on their appearance, their speech and – most shocking of all – which school and university they attended;

Those of us who are old enough watched it on TV just hours after it happened; footage has been shown repeatedly in the years since. This footage constitutes what used to be known as evidence. It’s pretty

Forty years ago this month, a country that had lived through two General Elections in the space of a year went to the polls yet again; in June 1975, however, voters were participating in Britain’s first

Artistic licence is an often necessary aspect of turning life into art. Unless the subject under the biographer’s microscope has recorded every waking moment of their life, there are inevitable gaps the imagination needs to fill. Most

As far as heads of multi-conglomerates go, I’ve always found Richard Branson less objectionable than most; perhaps it’s because he convincingly wore the laidback gait of the hippy entrepreneur to mask a hard-edged business nous and

Parental neglect at its most extreme is rightly recognised as a hideous dereliction of duty, something that appears to go against the grain of what is supposed to be an instinctive gut reaction to care and nurture

The 1997 comeback of celebrated 80s Indie artisans Echo and the Bunnymen, one that benefitted from the brief vogue for sweeping majestic rock ala The Verve, more or less began and ended with an unintentionally prophetic hit called

Okay, I’m not going to talk about the EU or feminists or immigration or the NHS or Tony Blair or all the other subjects that get the Raccoon regulars hot under the collar – bar one. I’m

Cliff Richard dressed as Austin Powers, a ‘legal’ Dana looking about twelve, Agnetha’s sequinned tea-cosy hat, Clodagh Rodgers’ hot-pants, the Bucks Fizz girls having their skirts ripped-off, Russian lipstick lesbians Tatu drowned in boos, Jemini’s nul points, transsexuals

One of the first moves of a regime averse to criticism is to imprison or ‘liquidate’ its critics; traditionally, these tend to be political opponents, a tradition Mr Putin is proudly upholding in Russia at the moment.

It’s certainly easier to take criticism and absorb advice if it comes from someone who knows what they’re talking about, someone whose knowledge of the subject under discussion inspires respect for their opinion. On the odd unfortunate

Nelson may have said that England expects every man to do his duty, but whereas an act of self-sacrifice for the good of one’s country may be a noble gesture at a time of war, when it