According to Nick Clegg, “somebody is going to hold the balance of power on 8 May. It is not going to be David Cameron or Ed Miliband. It could be Alex Salmond, it could be Nigel Farage or it could be me and the Liberal Democrats”. Well, if you put it like that, Mr Clegg….
There is no mystery to the Ministry of Defence’s continued use of the anti-malarial drug Lariam. It comes in at half, or a third, of the price of the alternatives. The cost borne by those troops given the drug, however, can be high. A string of warnings that Lariam can induce psychotic episodes, even suicide, has convinced the United States military – along with those of Germany, Denmark and Canada – to ban Lariam, or offer it only as a “last resort”. The MoD’s persistence in giving out the drug... Читать дальше...
Samuel Beckett plays afford ample opportunity for wild experimentation but a possible first will occur at this year’s Happy Days Beckett Festival in Enniskillen in Northern Ireland when a production of the Irish dramatist’s All That Fall is staged in complete darkness.
With the lucrative successes of Matilda the Musical and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory still going strong in the West End, you might have thought that jumping on the Roald Dahl bandwagon was a relatively risk-free exercise for a theatre. The Royal Court's new stage version of his 1980 book, The Twits, has the dubious distinction of being the first show to destroy that illusion.
The vaults of Baroque opera continue to yield up their treasures: this time a work by Johann Christian Bach which was last staged 250 years ago.
Right to Buy was one of the totemic policies of Thatcherism, embodying the Iron Lady’s philosophy of promoting aspiration, individual responsibility and rolling back the frontiers of the state.
Rarely is the failure to find a human voice on the other end of the telephone line so painful as in the case of Brendon Currie. The Independent reported last week on Mr Currie, who lives in Norway, and his struggle with the labyrinthine British visa system as he attempted to visit his dying grandfather, a decorated Second World War veteran. Only when this newspaper covered the story did the Home Office move into action. Mr Currie first dealt, as everyone seeking a visa must, with Teleperformance ... Читать дальше...
Jessica Ennis-Hill will return to the venue that will for ever define her, the Olympic Stadium, for this summer’s Anniversary Games.