This ought to be Tim Farron’s great moment. The Labour Party has been taken over by the hard left, which ought to be a huge opportunity for a party of the centre. Yet the leader of the Liberal Democrats seems peripheral to the historic reshaping of British politics.
There was an almost Proustian moment last week when, as Jeremy Corbyn began to address the massed ranks of the TUC in that dogged, put-upon and painfully earnest way of his, I felt the tug of memory twitch at my sleeve. Who did he remind me of? What alternative picture, hitherto lost in time, did the sight of Mr Corbyn’s anguished, bearded and curiously messianic face conjure up?
The tail wagged the dog. If you want a stark illustration of how power is shifting in the world economy, try this: had it not been for the slowdown in growth in China, the US Federal Reserve would almost certainly have increased interest rates last Thursday. “Heightened uncertainties abroad,” was the phrase used by Janet Yellen to describe what tipped the Fed to holding off – but the only uncertainties that matter to the world’s largest economy are those in the second-largest one. Could you imagine... Читать дальше...
The British ventriloquist Paul Zerdin has won America’s Got Talent. When I read that the prize was a million dollars, I was reminded of something another ventriloquist, the late Ray Alan, said when I asked whether he ever felt daft talking to his doll, Lord Charles. “Not when I get the cheque,” he said.
Enrolment for the new school term began on Monday in Lebanon. But this is no ordinary school term. This is the start of a an academic year so different from any other that I want the international community to wake up to the peril we face. By the end of this year the refugee population in our schools could exceed Lebanon’s state school numbers.
Ensaf Haidar appears so slight, so diminutive, that you wonder how she will manage in the surging human crush that forms at rush hour around New York’s Penn Station, from where she is waiting to catch a train to Washington DC.
I have to admit to a long-term obsession with Donald Trump. It began when my kids became obsessed with his US reality show, The Apprentice. In this show, Trump, flanked by downtrodden members of his family, lorded it over business hopefuls by setting them ever more pointless and humiliating tasks. Winners’ rewards would always take the form of further publicity for the mogul with a dead cat on his head.
The new leader of the Labour Party has had a rough first week, but this weekend he has shown signs of regaining the initiative. His plan for a “People’s Railway”, disclosed exclusively to this newspaper, is a welcome injection of new thinking into the public policy debate.
A feature article yesterday about Fawlty Towers recalled the state of the nation in the Seventies: “By 1976, Jim Callaghan was forced to appeal cap in hand for a significant bailout from the IMF.”
One of the recurring themes of Jeremy Corbyn’s young leadership of the Labour Party is that he’s guilty until proven innocent in the eyes of the mainstream media, which just goes to show how out of touch with Britain this industry is. Given this newspaper has a stake in that industry, is passionate about politics, and that Corbyn’s supporters have something of a point, I think we had better address this criticism head on.
The last time the Labour Party swung so hard to the left it gave Britain’s political centre a turbo-boost powerful enough for the then leader of the Liberal Party, David Steel, to tell his 1981 party assembly: “Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government”.
Credit card companies are battling harder than ever to take advantage of what is currently a buoyant market. The surge in competition has ratcheted up a level in recent weeks, as shown by two new stand-out credit card offers.
'I'm going to take you from being an eater… to being an evaluater!" said an earnest man from Kansas called Wayne, hoping to transform me into an international £50,000-cash-prize barbecue competition judge. We peered, as one, into a Styrofoam carton filled with barbecued brisket. I am not great – under normal circumstances – at eating meat while pondering its origin. Let alone after spending two hours learning how brisket is the scraggiest, most collagen-filled section of the doomed cow it's been pilfered from. Читать дальше...
To the Essex coast, to watch my cricket team in action. I have barely played this season, for all sorts of reasons: knee injury, then too much work, then mild depression, then too much work again, then ankle injury. I sustained this last one on my doorstep after a jolly evening, and should have put some ice on it straightaway. But no, I thought – it's only a twisted ankle, it'll be better in the morning. Six weeks later, I am still hobbling about.
Men just prefer younger women. It's biological fact." This was a message I got from an absolute moron on an internet dating site a few years back. My state of mind at the time was fractious and my patience levels were at zero, so when this bald 40-year-old messaged my 32-year-old self, I saw it as an opportunity to do some research. And, I admit, to get something off my chest that I'd been feeling for a while.
What's the case all about?
If you're on a fixed energy tariff, it's time to check your deal or face being caught out by a huge jump in the price of heating and lighting your home.
Everyone has an opinion on the economy and politics. They differ of course and it's interesting to compare and contrast conflicting opinions – even if it doesn't make my job any easier.
This week the Icelandic airline WOW air offered £99 transatlantic flights between London and the US.
Just behind the energy giants when it comes to poor service are telecommunications companies. The Which? annual survey of the UK's 100 biggest brands said BT was third worst, with a poor 63 per cent rating, followed closely by TalkTalk (64 per cent), Vodafone (66 per cent) and EE (68 per cent).
It comes as little surprise that energy companies were ranked lowest for customer service in the latest Which? annual survey of the UK's 100 biggest brands.
Things went for bad to worse for Leonard Saunders when his boiler broke down while he was already having to deal with heating problems in his Wirral home and trying to protect it against damp. Many of you may have had similar experiences and know that such a breakdown can be the start of a world of confusion and expense.
How much we all get paid to do our jobs is a tricky subject. While most people are not happy to tell you what they earn, many are delighted to show you – by means of what sociologists refer to as "conspicuous consumption". In other words, they spend their salaries on ostentatious displays of wealth. I'm thinking principally here of pirates (lots of gold teeth, gaudy jewellery and perhaps a parrot on the shoulder) and the kind of gentlemen who drive around south-east London's rougher thoroughfares... Читать дальше...
Q. Our bank no longer offers bridging loans, so to finance a house move, we agreed to sign an application for a £50,000 mortgage secured on a buy-to-let property we own, with interest-only payments over five years. (We only wanted £40,000 over six to nine months, but we couldn't arrange that.) Our intention was to redeem it after two years – there is no penalty for early redemption before this.