One does not need a degree – or indeed level 4 – in common sense to interpret the political meaning of Ed Balls’s most recent speech on Sats. In effect, the schools secretary is saying: We know this system needs radical reform, but we need to be seen to be doing it in our own… Continue Reading

Here’s a quick thought: in a week when political wives shone, and political husbands were shunned, why is it that we love the modern female political spouse so much? Granted, they do the job allotted to them with supreme grace and humour, but that’s the point: it’s a job and yet not a job. Increasingly,… Continue Reading

How many dimensions can one uncover to this trivial, slightly tawdry news item? The sight, yesterday, of the Home Secretary’s husband Richard Timney issuing a twenty two second apology outside the family home for downloading two pornographic films, which his wife then mistakenly claimed as part of her parliamentary expense account, fills me with an… Continue Reading

I love the work of Italian actor and director Nanni Moretti, that subtly animated stillness he possesses. I could happily spend my time watching him eat pasta, drive a scooter or simply sit on a bench doing nothing very much at all. So why did his most recent film, Quiet Chaos, out this month on… Continue Reading

Here’s an interesting looking group you could join………. Continue Reading