Has Marilyn Monroe been reincarnated as a shop assistant called Chris?

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Wednesday, 1 December 2010 at 11:23 am It really is the headline on page 29 of today’s Daily Mail. Number 457. Thanks to Jane Merrick and Stephen Pollard. Just to catch up, number 455 in the series: Is the answer to this question ‘No’? Asked by Martin “Smart Alec” Rosenbaum. And number 456: Tuition …

BBC bias on Iraq – delayed latest

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Thursday, 2 December 2010 at 1:12 pm Nearly a year on, the BBC Trust has still failed to rule on Stan Rosenthal’s appeal against the way in which the Corporation grudgingly, belatedly and wrongly tried to excuse its error in reporting Sir Christopher Meyer’s evidence to the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war. …

Phil Woolas and the Truth: the Re-Match

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Friday, 3 December 2010 at 2:03 pm The judgment of the three High Court judges in Phil Woolas’s appeal case makes fascinating reading and is a fine and rigorous clarification of the law. I draw the honourable reader’s attention to paragraphs 113, 117, 121 and 124 in particular. What the judges have done …

Verb Oten

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Friday, 3 December 2010 at 3:50 pm Number 53 on The Banned List is toilet used as a verb. Thank you to Tania Kindersley, who heard a woman on the radio talking of “toileting, feeding, etc”. No thanks to Simon Gardner, who says that the full Oxford English Dictionary has: toilet, v. “To perform one’s toilet, to wash …

Exponential growth in misuse of exponential

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Saturday, 4 December 2010 at 4:50 pm Guy Keleny proves, once again, that he is the finest exponent of pedantry with his philippic against the misuse of exponential in today’s Errors & Omissions column in The Independent: Last Saturday, one columnist noted the increasing number of people who consider themselves middle class. Once “middle class” had …

“What do we (not) want?”

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Saturday, 4 December 2010 at 5:26 pm Also in pedantry, I am engaged in a debate about whether the Oldham East and Saddleworth election is a by-election or not (we’re currently leaning to yes, but someone has contacted the Electoral Commission for a definitive ruling). Meanwhile, thanks to Paddy Briggs, number 54 …

Nick Clegg: Complete and Unabridged

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Sunday, 5 December 2010 at 12:01 am The Deputy Prime Minister was interviewed on Friday by my colleague Matt Chorley for today’s Independent on Sunday. It was a combative and defiant performance, with a trace of arrogance – “Vince and I have been living this [tuition fees] for months, they [other Lib …

Child Poverty Inaction Group

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Sunday, 5 December 2010 at 1:48 pm The Independent on Sunday carries a letter today from Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of the Child Poverty Action Group: John Rentoul suggests government child poverty targets are arbitrary or unachievable, but they have been achieved by other European nations, so there is no reason we cannot achieve them, too (“The …

Is Mike Hancock MP a threat to national security?

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Sunday, 5 December 2010 at 7:31 pm We’re up to number 458 now in my Questions to Which the Answer is No. This one is asked by Max Wind-Cowie at Muscular Liberal, apparently seriously, about today’s spy scandal concerning Katia Zatuliveter, a Russian research assistant to a Liberal Democrat MP. File under Reds Under …

Privilege and Inequality

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Sunday, 5 December 2010 at 9:27 pm This is the first sentence of Ed Miliband’s article in The Observer: A defining test of this government will be whether their plans to cut the deficit and roll back the state will entrench privilege and inequality still further. What does he mean “still further”? …