Go Seahawks

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Saturday, 1 February 2014 at 12:23 pm I have a short comment in The Independent magazine today about why I am supporting the Seattle Seahawks in tomorrow’s Super Bowl. Spoiler: it is because their quarterback, Russell Wilson, is black. It is not a good reason, as I admit, but it is how …

Spoonerisms

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Monday, 3 February 2014 at 4:58 pm I list my Top 10 Spoonerisms in The Independent on Sunday magazine today. Here are some bonus entries that came in after we went to press: Ache and Stale Pie. From Simon Box. And Phil Wood sent in the following: My parents are Dum and Mad. …

Judo Leadership, or Appeasement?

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Monday, 3 February 2014 at 5:01 pm When I was new to reporting on the House of Commons, John Major’s government, which also had problems with Conservative Eurosceptic MPs, was expected to lose a vote. The government whips avoided humiliation by a technique of which I had not heard: …

Contest of Names

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Tuesday, 4 February 2014 at 3:28 pm The Super Bowl was the most exciting one-sided game I have seen for a long time. Possibly this was because my team – you know, the one I have been supporting for two weeks now – won, despite having been the underdogs. The game started unexpectedly, …

Collins report on Labour rule changes: instant reaction

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Tuesday, 4 February 2014 at 8:12 pm Labour’s National Executive is now meeting, and is expected to approve the changes to the party’s rules drawn up by Ray Collins, the former general secretary (pictured), which will be put to a special party conference on 1 March. In this age …

The People’s Capitalism

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Thursday, 6 February 2014 at 9:18 am Phil Wilson, MP for Sedgefield, argued for a stronger fiduciary duty on the managers of investments yesterday. He moved a Ten Minute Rule Bill yesterday, which is a way to “test Parliament’s opinion” rather than to make new law. He said: Over the decades, the Labour movement …

A Government Exhausted

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Thursday, 6 February 2014 at 1:37 pm I have just caught up with this fine study of Labour backbench dissent under Gordon Brown, by Philip Cowley and Mark Stuart (subscription). It describes a government and parliamentary party in a state of advanced psychological and political decay. I remember being puzzled as …

Top 30 Tautologies

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Thursday, 6 February 2014 at 3:13 pm I did a Top 10 Tautologies in The Independent on Sunday recently, but there are so many common ones that I could have compiled a Top 30. Here are the next 20: 11 Pick and choose. 12 Raze to the ground. Nominated by Ben Stanley. …

That Surge in Favour of Scottish Independence

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Friday, 7 February 2014 at 8:19 pm This isn’t a great graph: best I could do quickly with Google Spreadsheet. But it shows those intending to vote Yes in all the polls on Scottish independence since January 2102 (when the referendum question was settled). The figure is the percentage, …

Two Minutes Blair Hate

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Saturday, 8 February 2014 at 12:26 pm From the casual, Boy George, in the Daily Mail: The crime you would commit knowing you could get away with it: I’d break into Tony Blair’s office and find out why he got Britain into the Iraq war. To the vicious, Brian Reade, in the …