Stephen Pollard



The most unfortunate person in Britain

By Stephen Pollard, May 17, 2007

From the BBC:

Beverley Silke, of the Stroke Association said: "Someone in the UK has a stroke every five minutes."

Who is he or she? How does he or she cope?

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Food as art, or pie in the sky?

By Stephen Pollard, May 17, 2007

I have a piece in the Times, here, about the Spanish chef, Ferran Adria, being invited to 'exhibit' at the five-yearly Documenta art show in Kassel, Germany. Here's an extract:

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My take on the grammar schools fiasco

By Stephen Pollard, May 17, 2007

You can read my take on David Willetts' grammar school speech here, in today's Daily Mail. (By the way, someone has inserted a nonsensical reference to assisted places in the piece - please ignore it as assisted places were, of course, nothing to with grammar schools.)

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What's Opera, Doc?

By Stephen Pollard, May 16, 2007

Tim Worstall, thank you. THANK YOU! I saw this, the greatest cartoon ever, when I was a kid, and have never seen it since. It is even better and cleverer than I remembered. It is sheer bloody genius.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in Wagner's What's Opera, Doc?

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So not antisemitic

By Stephen Pollard, May 16, 2007

Daniel Finkelstein puts Iain Dale straight for asserting that Borat is somehow antisemitic:

There has been a debate about this among Jews, with the US anti-defamation league attacking Sacha Baron Cohen. But I think (admittedly unscientifically, I haven't got a poll to hand) that the vast majority share my view. Borat is a vicious satire on anti-semitism.

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Turkey

By Stephen Pollard, May 16, 2007

I've been to Turkey a few times, the last a couple of years ago to speak at a government conference on EU entry. I didn't make myself the most popular person in the room when I pointed out at the start that, however critical I thought it was that the EU brings Turkey into the fold, it wasn't going to happen. France and Germany will simply not let it happen. End of story.

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Whodathunkit?

By Stephen Pollard, May 16, 2007

A truly bizarre story in the Telegraph:

Many families are experiencing inflation of more than twice the official rate published by the Government, according to figures produced for The Daily Telegraph by Capital Economics.

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Brogan's blog

By Stephen Pollard, May 15, 2007

Benedict Brogan of the Daily Mail has an excellent political blog, always full of insight. But for sheer fun, do have a read of his account of the Alan Johnson campaign launch:

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Macavity Watch!

By Stephen Pollard, May 15, 2007

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A mild spat, contd.

By Stephen Pollard, May 15, 2007

Call the dogs off.

The Lives of Others apart, I do agree with Clive's response to my post, not least about the preposterously over-hyped Quention Tarrantino. I found Pulp Fiction to be not just badly made as a piece of film craft, but really quite disgusting. And nothing he's made since has been other than embarrassing.

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Euston Manifesto

By Stephen Pollard, May 15, 2007

The Euston Manifesto, in case you haven't come across it before, was a statement signed last year by a group of sensible left wingers who believe, as their statement concluded:

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South Park on Scientology

By Stephen Pollard, May 15, 2007

Further to my Scientology post below...here's the take of the wonderful Matt Stone and Trey Parker:

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The oldest hatred, alive and kicking

By Stephen Pollard, May 15, 2007

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McDonnell not even fit to take the Labour whip

By Stephen Pollard, May 15, 2007

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The Lives of Others really is as good as the hype

By Stephen Pollard, May 15, 2007

Clive, Clive...I'm mystified by your post on The Lives of Others. I've always thought of you as a man of discernment and taste. So I don't understand how you could you write this: "[T]he characterisation is one-dimensional, the pacing is ponderous in the extreme and the storyline is full of unexplained holes."

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The cult of Scientology

By Stephen Pollard, May 15, 2007

One of my journalistic heroes is John Sweeney. A one-man justice machine, he is one of the few people in (to define it broadly) public life who is entirely a force for good, righting some terrible injustices. His most recent triumph was the case of Angela and Ian Gray (the couple wrongly convicted of poisoning their child with salt), which he wrote about in this Sunday Times piece.

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