Over the past few months, a whole series of “events, dear boy, events” – as Harold Macmillan would have put it – have unfolded which no one could have predicted at the start of the year. The MPs’ expenses scandal has already destroyed a number of parliamentary careers, claimed the scalp of Michael Martin as Speaker of the House of Commons and quite possibly contributed to the election of two British National Party MEPs. The same period has also given us a new popular icon: Susan Boyle.
Archive for June, 2009
Rupa Huq: Brown down but not out should remember Boyle’s law
By Tribune Web Editor /Friday, June 26th, 2009Westminster Watch: In Ambridge for Armageddon
By Tribune Web Editor /Friday, June 26th, 2009MPs are still far too focused on their own affairs rather than what concerns the rest of the country, writes Ian Hernon
The right’s rise is not irresistible
By Tribune Web Editor /Friday, June 26th, 2009The Labour Party’s desperate situation can still be rescued says “Arkwright”, a senior government insider
By Tribune Web Editor /Friday, June 26th, 2009
Some expense is worth it, as page six of Gordon Brown’s redacted expenses show (pictured). Proof that if you want to reach into the lofty heights of power you have to be in Tribune. But what have the mad redacters found in this subscription form that requires such heavy censoring? The uncensored form shows just [...]
By Tribune Web Editor /Friday, June 26th, 2009
Award-winning (that will embarrass him) campaigner Peter Tatchell is feeling a bit miffed. Turning up at London’s Conway Hall to make a speech on “multiculturalism and the subversion of human rights”, Peter witnessed a speaker at another meet at the same venue being mobbed and abused. Douglas Murray, of the Centre for Social Cohesion, was [...]
JAZZ: Harmony and melody in perfect ornate symphony
By Tribune Web Editor /Friday, June 26th, 2009Meltdown Festival 2009
South Bank Centre, London
The history and influence of free jazz legend and avant garde icon Ornette Coleman always made him an ideal candidate to be the 16th director of London’s most eclectic music festival, Meltdown, following in the footsteps of Scott Walker, David Bowie and Robert Wyatt. Reviewing a Coleman concert at the newly reopened Royal Festival Hall in Tribune two years ago, I likened him to an alchemist in a musical laboratory and this pioneering and experimental spirit was evident in the artists, collaborations and appearances from Patti Smith to Baaba Maal and from Yoko Ono to Yo La Tengo which formed the best festival line-up for years.
TV: That’s light entertainment, folks – or is it?
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, June 25th, 2009It’s a fitting title – the new BBC drama series Hope Springs does represent the triumph of hope over recent experience. After the end of Life On Mars and Hotel Babylon, the BBC hasn’t had much in the way of light drama hits lately. Or should that be drama with its tongue in its cheek? Anyway, you know what I mean. It’s a very tricky genre to pull off. Gazing enviously at popular ITV shows such as Bad Girls and Footballers’ Wives, BBC executives decided to steal the writing team to bring some of this escapist flim-flam to their Sunday evening schedule. Sadly, the result is a rather uneasy hybrid of BBC cosiness and ITV sleaze.
Supreme Leader declares freedom and fairness but the protests continue
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, June 25th, 2009Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, during prayers last Friday made it clear that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the elected President of Iran and the demonstrations on the streets should stop. The demonstrators initially took little notice – until their protests were brutally suppressed by the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij militia. The crackdown has resulted in 10 people killed and 100 others injured according to official reports. The protests weren’t confined to the capital Tehran; there were demonstrations in cities on the Caspian coast, Tabriz in the north, Shiraz in the south and Kerman and Yazd in the interior.
Obituary: Hortensia “Tencha” Bussi
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, June 25th, 2009Hortensia Bussi, the widow of President Salvador Allende of Chile and a woman of outstanding character in her own right, died in her sleep in Santiago on June 18 and was buried amid much popular grief last Saturday.
Selection scrummages before starting gun is even fired
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, June 25th, 2009Two high-profile battles for key Labour seats in the party’s north England heartlands are under way before the firing gun has been officially started on the selection process.