BBC
The left-liberal hold over the arts may be ending
If you happen to be reading this column at breakfast, I’d recommend you skip to something more agreeable like Dear…
The occasional ex-fascist is the least of the BBC’s problems
Duncan Weldon’s past – as a Labour adviser and elsewhere – doesn’t affect his ability to do the job
Barometer
Plane vanished Some other planes, besides Flight MH370, which have disappeared without trace: — A Boeing 727 cargo plane that…
Damn. I should have seized my chance to appear on BBC3
Are there enough black and minority ethnic people on our television screens? The comedian Lenny Henry thinks not and has…
What’s happened to Harriet Harman?
Watching Harriet Harman being interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg on Newsnight earlier this week was a strange experience. I felt as…
Flying boards and killer moustaches
You can trust the BBC to behave like a leaf blown by any breeze, but even that spineless leviathan (if…
Won’t some other quango come to the rescue of poor Sally Morgan?
Can someone please explain to me why the BBC newsreaders were not wearing black armbands last weekend when reporting the…
The Spectator’s Notes
Our neighbour Philip Merricks is a farmer on Romney Marsh, 90 per cent of whose land is below sea level.…
The end of innocence
Why are we so fascinated by the first world war? As its 100th anniversary approaches, we’re already mired in arguments…
Truths and fallacies
Immigration. Were you aware that this has become a bit of a problem these past ten years? I wasn’t, obviously,…
Yuletide joy
So I’m looking at the seasonal TV schedules trying to find something — anything — to watch. Britain and the…
Diary
I’ve worked for the BBC for years and have been listening to the Today programme all my adult life, but…
The Spectator’s Notes
There has not been much good news out of Greece since the eurozone powers decided to crush the country, but…
Curse you, Sandbrook
Gosh it isn’t half irksome when someone who went to the same school as you but is considerably younger than…
Why can’t the BBC be impartial in the climate change debate?
‘Well, you’re arguing facts against opinions. OK, I mean, the fact that the amount of carbon dioxide in the air…
Here we go again: say one word against an icon of the left and the phone won’t stop ringing
Ring, ring goes the telephone every minute God sends. Sometimes I pick it up and say hello, sometimes I don’t.…
Twitter looks much more expensive than Royal Mail, but which one will last longer?
Royal Mail delivers to 29 million UK addresses; last year it generated £9 billion of revenues, of which £324 million…
Anglo-Saxon disaster
‘Somerset. Winter 877,’ said the subtitles below an arty, BBC-nature-doc style close-up of a coot paddling amid the reeds on…
Digital dilemma
Will digital radio ever really take off? We were supposed to be switching over to digital-only reception in 2015 (three…
Celebrity triumphs
The licence fee is both a blessing and a curse for the BBC. The clue is in that nickname —…
Letters
Wild weather Sir: Weather and climate science is not an emotional or political issue — even though emotions and politics run…
Bedtime stories
It had begun to look as if Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime had been taken over by the zealous publicity-hungry…
Institutional Toynbeeism
Last week I was on holiday with my family on the Algarve. The good news was that, thanks to the…
An old-fashioned English eccentric
Daniel Swift 1 March 2014 9:00 am
The traditional story told about the first world war is that it changed everything: that it was the end of…