Spectator articles from November 2008

Spectator archives from November 2008

Riders on the storm.(Viewpoint essay)
November 1, 2008... It is one of the peculiarities of a recession that it cannot officially be acknowledged until, often, it is already history. This week, we learned that the economy shrunk 0.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2008. It will not be until January,...

Diary.
November 1, 2008... Monrovia, Liberia Any kerfuffle is an interesting kerfuffle when you've been staring at the carpet in Brussels airport for two hours--and this one has some promising ingredients. Through the glass wall separating our departure gate from...

George 'three jobs' Osborne should focus his energies on a new tax-cutting message.(POLITICS)(George Osborne)
November 1, 2008... A nanosecond is easily measured in Westminster as the time between a politician's hearing of a colleague's impending resignation and wondering 'What's in it for me?' It takes perhaps a full second to construct a theory as to why the unfortunate...

The Spectator's notes.
November 1, 2008... What would happen if you or I or telephoned an old man we did not know and left a message on his answering machine saying that one of us had 'f--ed' his grand-daughter? What would happen if we then left three more messages, joking about her...

Diary of a Notting Hill nobody.
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MONDAY Yikes! Memo from Jed in California marked 'Urgent and F***ing Desperate'. It's v. bad news. It seems the brand is recontaminated. Lord A's latest focus group asked people to name the first four words that...

Obama is on course for victory. But he isn't ready for the White House: although McCain could still theoretically win, the Democrat candidate looks set for glory, says Christopher Caldwell. But Obama has even less to say about the economic crisis than his rival, and has prospered by keeping quiet on controversial issues.(Barack Obama and John McCain)
November 1, 2008... Two Sundays ago, I was sitting in the cafe in the Borders on L Street in Washington, a table away from a couple of middleaged black men who were discussing politics over cups of coffee and great piles of books. One of them, wearing a black...

Flash Gordon.(Cartoon)
November 1, 2008... I DIDN'T DO IT! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Brown has come full circle since 1988: Tom Bower, the Prime Minister's biographer, says that Gordon's reinvention as the socialist who can save capitalism is just the latest in a series of convenient masks he has donned.(Gordon Brown)
November 1, 2008... Gordon Brown would probably prefer to forget his magic moment in the crowded House of Commons exactly 20 years ago, on 1 November 1988. In the midst of a withering attack against Nigel Lawson's management of the faltering economy, the Labour...

Sarko's voodoo doll hissy fit tells you everything: the French President's strop is more eloquent than any policy or speech, says Celia Walden. He is a pint-sized de Gaulle regularly made to look a fool by his wife.(Nicolas Sarkozy)
November 1, 2008... The truth, invariably, is in the detail. Theresa May's leopard-print shoes, Jon Snow's refusal to wear a poppy, Prince Andrew's bedful of teddy bears, Nick Clegg's arithmetic (he counted up the women all right but got the weekly pension wrong...

Ancient & modern.
November 1, 2008... Last time we saw that the Romans did not have anything like a banking system i.e. a machinery for creating credit through various negotiable instruments. What they did have was minted coin--and that was the sole monetary instrument. So at a...

Probably the biggest financial crisis of all time: Martin Vander Weyer pours a whisky, sits back and observes chaos theory at work in the global markets: it could all end in Mad Max anarchy.
November 1, 2008... At this juncture, my best credit-crunch advice is to keep beside your armchair at all times an atlas of the world, a modern American dictionary and a bottle of whisky. If your constitution is strong, you might also want a copy of the Financial...

The real lesson is: the public don't like Jonathan Ross or Russell Brand: Rod Liddle says that the row over their radio 'prank' has exposed the fact that these two smug, overpaid performers aren't really that popular. There are no fans to defend them.(LIDDLE BRITAIN)
November 1, 2008... There's this new deal being offered by the telephone inquiry service 118 118. If you answer a question correctly, you get to ask as many questions as you want all day, free of charge, and they will answer them. The test question they asked me...

A quantum of respect for the forgotten master: Sinclair McKay hails the pioneering novels of William Le Queux, true inventor of the modern spy novel, whose thrillers prefigured the Bond books by more than half a century.
November 1, 2008... Double-dealing female agents. Secret ciphers. Car chases. Now that we have all ingested rather more than a quantum of publicity for Ian Fleming's gaudy fictions, it might be time for the true inventor of the modern spy novel--and the original...

Kabul notebook.
November 1, 2008... The grandson of the King told my wife and me at dinner that we were 'the only two tourists in Kabul'! In fact, we nearly did not arrive because on the eve of our flight, the aid-worker Gayle Williams was shot dead by the Taleban in broad...

Poorer each day.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... Sir: Patrick Macaskie ('The market needs short-sellers', 25 October) is indeed correct in suggesting that the problems caused by excessive borrowing could be solved by a round of inflation; in the same way the problem of a building having...

Name that city.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... Sir: I don't know how many Indians A.A. Gill ('Oh, Kolkata!', 18 October) spoke to before levelling patronising scorn at those Brits who still insist on calling the former capital of the Raj 'Calcutta', but some months back I quoted in your...

Can India help us now?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... Sir: May I pass on my congratulations to India for its recent success against Australia in the Second Test and its recent successful rocket launch as it embarks on its first lunar mission. These are exciting times for an exciting country. May I...

Shares not alike.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... Sir: Tim Congdon ('Keynesianism still isn't the answer', 25 October) doesn't fully understand the possibilities that preference shares can offer, which is a pity because his argument could be greatly strengthened. Preference capital can...

Meaning of the act.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... Sir: In an otherwise well-balanced piece (Liddle Britain, 25 October) Rod Liddle says 'The intention behind David Steel's [Abortion] Bill of 1967 was to prevent the maiming of women by back-street abortionists'. No doubt it was, in part....

Negative nonsense.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2008... Sir: What is all this 'negative growth' nonsense about? Growth is something positive, or increasing, so how is it that we now have this bizarre phenomenon? It is as absurd as a car manufacturer telling us that a new model can go forwards at...

What were Gladstone and Disraeli laughing about? Too rude to tell.(AND ANOTHER THING)(William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli)
November 1, 2008... V.S. Naipaul, that clever and often wise man, once laid down: 'One always writes comedy at the moment of deepest hysteria.' Well, where's the comedy now? There is certainly plenty of hysteria. Old Theodore Roosevelt used to say: 'Men are...

The real BBC scandal is that John Prescott has been allowed to talk about class.(SHARED OPINION)
November 1, 2008... Obviously, the senior powers at the BBC should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. What a cock-up. What a failure of leadership. What a grubby betrayal of Reithian values. Is our licence fee really well spent on this gibbering nonsense? What...

Chasing dragons: the Chinese army takes up art collecting: Elliot Wilson profiles Poly Group, a company controlled by the Chinese military which uses arms-sales profits to buy back artworks that have been illicitly flogged off abroad.(BUSINESS)
November 1, 2008... In 2003, during a long night of swilling fine French wines in Beijing, talk turned to China's rising economic fortunes. Old China hands at the table reminisced about camel trains clattering through the capital's dim 1970s streets. Then a...

The great downhill bicycle ride.(CHINA'S ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN)
November 1, 2008... A little over a year ago, when it was already obvious to virtually everybody that the boom was over, the City's Panglossian crowd came up with one last, seemingly profound, argument to allow them to continue to deny reality. Going by the ugly...

Is that a new boom on the far horizon? Richard Northedge identifies the signals that will tell us when the property slump has passed its lowest point.(THE HOUSING MARKET)
November 1, 2008... But for those who see the glass half full rather than half empty, from now on a series of signs will justify a degree of optimism in the housing market. We're probably not halfway into the property slump yet, but we should be very soon--and...

In a city of extremes, skyscrapers and teenagers grow taller as shares plunge.(JOHNNY REED IN SHANGHAI)
November 1, 2008... Moderation has never been popular in Shanghai. Over the years the city has been home to many types of excess, from opium and sing-song girls to Red Guards. At the moment the favourite is construction, and its partner, destruction. One of the...

A world too wide.(Soul of the Age)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... Soul of the Age by Jonathan Bate Penguin, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 500, ISBN 97806870914821 [telephone] 20 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Every new biographer of...

Life among the dead.(The Graveyard Book)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman Bloomsbury, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 312, ISBN 97890747596837 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 'There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife.' The Graveyard Book has one of the most...

'They Sat Together for a While'.(Poem)
November 1, 2008... 'They Sat Together for a While' There was something about her which drew him in. A quality of grace. Don't smile at me, he begged her with his eyes. Don't look at me. I don't know what to do. But she did look at...

The quarrels of brothers.(Masters and Commanders)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... Masters and Commanders by Andrew Roberts Allen Lane, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 720, ISBN 9780713999693 [telephone] 20 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Behind Closed doors by Laurence Rees...

The coven reconvenes.(The Widows of Eastwick)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... The Widows of Eastwick by John Updike Penguin, 18.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 308, ISBN 9780241144275 [telephone] 15.19 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Witches of...

A master of drab grotesques.(Craven House)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... Craven House by Patrick Hamilton Black Spring Press, 9.95 [pounds sterling], pp. 272 ISBN 9780948238406 [telephone] 7.95 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Patrick...

Hope and glory.(Home)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... Home by Marilynne Robinson Virago, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 336, ISBN 9781844085491 [telephone] 13.59 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Marilynne Robinson's...

They do things differently there.(Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles by Richard Dowden Portobello, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 576, ISBN 9781846271540 [telephone] 20 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

A question of judgment.(A Whispered Name)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... A Whispered Name by William Brodrick Little, Brown, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 352, ISBN9780316731546 [telephone] 13.59 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This is...

Wit and brio.(Thomas Beecham: An Obsession with Music)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... Thomas Beecham: An obsession with Music by John Lucas Boydell & Brewer, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 384, ISBN 9781843834021 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Damn awful thing, what! [The Ring]--Barbarian load of Nazi thugs, aren't they?...

The Ingmar Bergman Archives.(Book review)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Ingmar Bergman Archives, edited by Paul Duncan and Bengt Wanelius (Taschen, 120 [pounds sterling], pp. 592, ISBN 9783836500234) Like the crusader knight in Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal (1957), we all...

Live and let die.(Death and the Author: How D.H. Lawrence Died and was Remembered)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... Death & The author: How D.H. Lawrence Died and Was Remembered by David Ellis OUP, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 273, ISBN 9780199546657 [telephone] 16 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 66555 The...

This is America.(Homicide)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... Homicide by David Simon Canongate, 12.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 656, ISBN 9781847673114 [telephone] 10.39 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 Death Dyed Blonde by Stanley Reynolds ...

Flames.(Poem)
November 1, 2008... Flames It was chance that she'd sat down in a crowded churchyard by the grave of an old boyfriend who died young. And that her heart had just broken again. It was like he'd called her over to say, 'There,...

A dark and desolate world.(Dostoevsky: Language, Faith and Fiction)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... Dostoevsky: Language, Faith and Fiction by Rowan Williams Continuum, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 290, ISBN 9781847064237 [telephone] 13.59 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION...

In the footsteps of Herodotus.(The Man Who Invented History)(Book review)
November 1, 2008... The Man Who Invented History by Justin Marozzi John Murray, 25 [pounds sterling], pp. 333 ISBN 9780719567117 [telephone] 20 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

The everlasting man.(LIFE & LETTERS)(G. K. Chesterton)
November 1, 2008... Chesterton refuses to go away. You may think he should have done so. Orwell tried to show him the door: Chesterton was a writer of considerable talent who chose to suppress both his sensibilities and his intellectual honesty in...

Playing a public enemy: Toby Jones, Karl Rove in the film W, explains his character's relationship with President Bush.(ARTS)(George W. Bush)
November 1, 2008... Condoleezza Rice's teeth lie discarded beside her bottle of water. Colin Powell's wig needs adjustment. Across the table, Scott Glenn removes Donald Rumsfeld's steel-rimmed spectacles and continues his description of the seven months he spent...

Portrait of the artists.
November 1, 2008... Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian National Gallery until 18 January 2009 Sponsored by AXA When people think of the Renaissance, it's to Italy that their thoughts immediately turn. The names of Giotto, Masaccio, Leonardo and...

Distinctive vision.
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision Manchester Art Gallery, until 11 January 2009 Needlepoint nose-dived during the 19th century. This came about, like so many errors of taste, through a process of...

Rossini rarity.(Matilde di Shabran)(Theater review)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Matilde di Shabran Royal Opera House Aida English National Opera Iolanta Royal Festival Hall Matilde di Shabran is one of Rossini's least performed operas, and having seen the Royal...

Lead us not into temptation.(Blowing Whistles)(Theater review)
November 1, 2008... Blowing Whistles Leicester Square Theatre Faces in the Crowd Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Oh, what a gay play. The exhibitionist bravado of gay culture, its carnival antics and exuberant self-sufficiency convince us...

In unsettled times, it's nice to find artistic continuity.(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: In unsettled times, it's nice to find artistic continuity. For his first major show of works on canvas for 40 years, veteran Pop artist Gerald Laing has returned to his roots with a series of New Paintings...

Timely resprouting.(Pop)
November 1, 2008... No one quite believes it, but the new Guns N' Roses album is finally coming out. Axl Rose has been working on it for 17 years, demonstrating, as rarely before, the fine line between perfectionism and padded cell. It is a reminder, though, that...

Cold comfort.(Quantum of Solace)(Movie review)
November 1, 2008... Quantum of Solace 12A, Nationwide Quantum of Solace is the latest James Bond movie, which I thought I would make clear from the start. These films arrive with such little pre-publicity and hoo-ha they can often slip by quite unnoticed....

Traditionally, tapestries chronicled great moments in history in a wildly luxurious form, which helped warm chilly castles.(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Caption: Traditionally, tapestries chronicled great moments in history in a wildly luxurious form, which helped warm chilly castles. They were also used to display the colours of trade unions and, of course, for...

Dickens delivers.(Television)(Little Dorrit)(Television program review)
November 1, 2008... About 25 years ago, during a particularly bad acid trip, I had my soul stolen by Mister Migarette, an evil glowing man with a huge hat, like the mad hatter's, who lived in the ash on the end of my cigarette. It put me off smoking for a while...

Powerful prose.(Radio)
November 1, 2008... To the British Academy last week for a heartening prizewinning ceremony. No gongs, no red carpet, no dangerous stilettos on this occasion--not even a fabulous cheque to dole out to the winners. But instead tributes (and modest money) to...

Dazzler Darryll.(The turf)(Darryll Holland)
November 1, 2008... Last year's Flat jockeys' championship was a classic, an intriguing all-out battle to the last week of the season, with Seb Sanders and Jamie Spencer sharing the title. So it was in 1987 when Pat Eddery and Steve Cauthen slugged each other into...

Classic decline.(High life)
November 1, 2008... New York America's diminished intellectualism has made this interminable election period as boring as a Nat Rothschild Corfu party for respectable folk. Part of the problem is that presidential candidates try 'to reach out to younger...

A rude awakening.(Low life)
November 1, 2008... The help-yourself breakfast buffet was a single, waxed carton of orange juice (made from concentrate), and a stack of small upturned glasses. I filled one of these, tipped it down my throat, poured another and bore it to a table set for one...

Deals on wheels.(Slow life)
November 1, 2008... Being driven is one of the great luxuries. It's right up there with breakfast in bed, silence, sunshine, new socks and vast expanses of marble. It's elevating. It's relaxing. It's addictive. How lovely it is to fall into the back of a waiting...

Doctor's orders.(Bridge)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... They say that bridge is good for your mental health, but that's not always the case. Take the semi-finals of the recent World Mind Sports Games. England's Artur Malinowski and Nick Sandqvist were pitched against two German players, both medical...

Spectator mini-bar offer.
November 1, 2008... The Spectator wine club laughs in the face of recession. Not only do we intend go on drinking through the dark times, we insist on continuing to drink well. Thanks this week to Wheeler Cellars, offshoot of the celebrated merchants Lay &...

Hope floats.(THE MALDIVES)
November 1, 2008... I think I'm probably guilty of suffering from terminal 'holiday hope'. Holiday hope is basically just the denial of reality. It's the self-held carrot of optimism dangled precariously in the face of experience and I often find that travel...

Great shakes.(MARTINIS)
November 1, 2008... For years, I wondered how James Bond could be bothered with the stuff. After all, there he was, after a long day filled with car chases, trollops and countdowns; surely excitement on that scale would work up a thirst for something little more...

Clubs are trumps.(PRIVATE CLUBS)
November 1, 2008... There may be trouble ahead (as Irving Berlin warned)--but what use is sitting alone in your room (as Liza Minnelli added)? I am on the 33rd floor of Centrepoint in London, now transformed magnificently into the Viewing Gallery of Paramount, the...

Wicker's world.(HAMPERS)
November 1, 2008... If you have ever received a hamper, you will be familiar with that delicious quiver of anticipation as you unbuckle the creaking wicker lid to see what lies within. How often have you then suppressed a twinge of disappointment to find that,...

Simply divan.(BEDS)
November 1, 2008... I blame my back problems on a particularly recalcitrant Austro-Hungarian-Revival-style wardrobe. I single-handedly tackled the monstrosity while working at Bonhams ten years ago, and ever since I've been seeking palliative measures. One belief...

It's all in the wrist.(CUFF-LINKS)
November 1, 2008... Private Eye didn't need to caption the pictures of a gaunt, pinched Peter Mandelson--bittersweet smile playing about his pursed lips--as his Cabinet comeback was announced. The bubble above his head could only have read, 'The bitch is back'....

Rope trick.(CHESS)
November 1, 2008... We left the world championship match last week with Game 4, a draw where little harm threatened either contestant. Anand enjoyed a one-point lead, but nothing disastrous had overcome Kramnik. Starting with Game 5, however, the Indian world...

Who do you think they are?(Report)
November 1, 2008... In Competition No. 2568 you were invited to submit, in verse or prose, a profile of the typical Spectator competitor. The picture that emerges is not all together flattering: a monomaniacal oddbod, almost certainly male (even if he uses a...

1888: join the club.(CROSSWORD)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... One unclued light (of which 13 42 is a definition) combines with another unclued light (of which 10 39 is a definition) to form a definition of each of the other unclued lights. Elsewhere, ignore an accent. [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

Solution to 1885: Fieldwork.(CROSSWORD)(Brief article)
November 1, 2008... Answers to clues in italics are contravene (33), pilcrows (37), brookite (3) and crowdie (18), from which birds of the crow family are scared away by the TATTIE-BOGLE (16D) to produce grid entries defined by, respectively, 41, 11, 6 and 34. ...

I suspect Nat Rothschild was acting as a lone gunman, not as part of a conspiracy.(STATUS ANXIETY)
November 1, 2008... I am surprised by how ready my journalistic colleagues have been to accept Nat Rothschild's public explanation of why he behaved as he did. According to him--and his anonymous 'friends' quoted in the press--he was furious that George Osborne...

Mind your language.
November 1, 2008... 'I hate jokes,' said my husband affably, and added: 'Hwumph!' The latter was an oral marker as he heaved his body from his armchair to the sideboard where the contents of the whisky bottle needed adjusting. With the former remark, I concurred,...

The Wiki Man.(Column)
November 1, 2008... An amazing piece of financial analysis has been circulating by email recently. If you had purchased $1,000 worth of AIG stock a year ago, you would have $44.34 left. With Wachovia, you would have had $54.74 left of the original...

Dear Mary.(YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED)
November 1, 2008... Q. As a parent of boys, one can use the word 'willie' or 'winkie', but as a parent of a little girl, I have been at a loss to know how to refer to the female equivalent body zone. The French have an elegant term for it--'zizi'. Now I have...

Unyielding hope.
November 8, 2008... One of Robert F. Kennedy's favourite passages of poetry was drawn from Tennyson's 'Ulysses': 'Come, my friends,/ 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world./ Push off, and sitting well in order smite/ The sounding furrows... strong in will/ To...

Diary.(Viewpoint essay)
November 8, 2008... 'So, do you believe in God?' That is the Nth time today I've been asked that, where N is starting to be quite a big number. I was bracing myself for the God question after it was announced this week that I will be succeeding Richard Dawkins,...

McCain's failure is a warning to Cameron: offer tax cuts before Brown does.(POLITICS)(David Cameron)(John McCain)
November 8, 2008... There was something almost comic about Gordon Brown and David Cameron's rush to associate themselves with Barack Obama's victory, each offering their own quite different interpretation. The Prime Minister declared that people are looking to...

The Spectator's notes.
November 8, 2008... It is so important that the first black President is only half-black. The black side of Barack Obama's heritage is the non-American bit. His black, Kenyan father was absent. His Hawaiian upbringing was white. One day, he recalls in his...

Diary of a Notting Hill nobody.(Column)
November 8, 2008... SUNDAY Just had an absolute nightmare setting up one of those conference calls. Jed thought it would be nice if Dave rang Mrs Palin to wish her luck. Simple enough you might think. Oh no. First of all he had to explain who he was....

[Cartoon].(Cartoon)
November 8, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 'Well, if all it takes is charisma, wit, looks and being quick on your feet, I should go to the country and win an election right now!'

Obama's America will be more equal but less mighty: Reihan Salam says that the President-elect is no socialist and it was desperate of McCain to claim as much. Obama's policies more closely resemble European social democracy--with the attendant risk of economic sclerosis in the face of Asian competition.(Barack Obama)(John McCain)(Cover story)
November 8, 2008... While walking to work on the morning of Election Day, I was struck by the number of times I encountered Barack Obama's beaming countenance on posters and bumper stickers. To be sure, I live in a neighbourhood in the District of Columbia that is...

Flash Gordon.(Cartoon)
November 8, 2008... WHERE DID YOU GET THESE FIREWORKS? THEY'RE RUBBISH. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Obama has changed the world just by being elected: James Forsyth looks back on an extraordinary contest and the victory of a man who, even before his inauguration, has had a transformative effect upon American politics.(Barack Obama)
November 8, 2008... Washington, D.C. In 1968, as Washington burned in the riots that followed Martin Luther King's assassination, few would have predicted that in 40 years' time America would elect a black president. But on Tuesday night, a diverse crowd...

Meet the real Joe Biden: Vice-President Plonker: the scrutiny of Sarah Palin diverted attention from Obama's running mate, says Freddy Gray. Biden is not that popular, a 'gaffe machine', and he eats Snickers bars in one mouthful.(Barack Obama)
November 8, 2008... It has become fashionable to blame Sarah Palin for John McCain's election defeat. Sure, say Washington insiders, Palin invigorated the conservative base --add contemptuous sneer--but she alienated the independents and undecideds. The...