World Cup commentary

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Thursday, 27 May 2010 at 9:07 pm From Tony Blair, in Long Beach, via Doug Krikorian: I ask him if he thinks England’s World Cup Soccer chances have been seriously impaired by the injuries to David Beckham and Michael Owen. “Not really. … Those guys were pretty old anyway”, he says. For …

Robert Harris on Alan Watkins

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Sunday, 30 May 2010 at 7:33 pm The best thing in The Independent on Sunday today is Robert Harris’s eulogy to Alan Watkins (right), which Harris delivered brilliantly at the funeral in St Bride’s last week. The two best bits made fun of people who were in the congregation, both of whom took it well. …

Danny Alexander: As I was saying …

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Monday, 31 May 2010 at 7:18 am I do not approve of the use of foreign or dead languages, but a fortiori. What I said yesterday was that at least David Laws had rendered the public service of puncturing Liberal Democrat sanctimony and hypocrisy. Now his successor as Chief Secretary, Danny Alexander (right), has …

Alastair Campbell on Ed Balls

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Monday, 31 May 2010 at 8:40 am Alastair Campbell’s unexpurgated diaries for 1994-97, to be published this week and extracted in The Guardian on Saturday, were pushed down the news order by David Laws in the Sunday newspapers. The Guardian’s news story was feeble: “Alastair Campbell’s diaries reveal Tony Blair's doubt over leadership bid.” …

Did Twitter censor the #flotilla hashtag following the Israel attack?

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Monday, 31 May 2010 at 12:12 pm Number 329 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No is asked (and answered, actually) by Charles Arthur at The Guardian. Thanks to Arieh Kovler.

Is Gaza our fault too?

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Tuesday, 1 June 2010 at 6:19 pm Number 330 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No is asked by Jon Snow. I do not think he means it is the fault of the British because of the Balfour Declaration and all the rest of it. His bleeding-heart-ism is woollier than …

Where is Tony Blair?

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Wednesday, 2 June 2010 at 9:24 pm The third line of cliché from the Blair-haters is that he hasn’t condemned the blockade of Gaza. Except that he has, repeatedly. Here he is on CNN, pointing out that he has been calling for an end to the blockade for two years, and rather eloquently …

Did David Miliband’s dithering blow Labour’s election chances?

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Thursday, 3 June 2010 at 10:39 am Number 333 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No is asked by frequent contributor Mike Smithson at Political Betting. Easy to misremember in retrospect, but the Foreign Secretary’s resignation would never have dislodged Gordon Brown, much as it should have done. Brown would have …

Will all six candidates make the ballot?

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Thursday, 3 June 2010 at 2:55 pm Number 334 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No is asked by Left Foot Forward. Nor should they. I simply cannot believe the softheadedness of some colleagues who think it would all be jolly nice and pluralist if poisonous anti-Labour elements such as …

A complete ignoral

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Thursday, 3 June 2010 at 8:56 pm   I remember Richard Heller from when he used to work for Denis Healey (right). He wrote about the joys of working for the best prime minister Labour never had most entertainingly. Today, though, he has excelled himself, writing a satire for the Yorkshire Post that is so …