Embed from Getty ImagesPart of the allure of Antonioni's 1966 'Swinging London' film Blow-Up is the feeling that, if you watch it just once more, it will give up a deeper secret. I have come across two radically different online explanations of why the meaning of the film is so elusive. The first is in an interview with Peter Bowles, who played the agent of the lead character Thomas the photographer. He was played by David Hemmings. Bowles explanation runs: I had been given the script by Antonioni, and what excited me very much was a scene I had with ...
So Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has broken the ministerial silence since the BBC asked Gary Lineker to step back from presenting Match of the Day. In doing so he says that Linker "was a great footballer and is a talented presenter" before going on to say that that he believes that the government's policy is "fair and right? The question though should be is it? Firstly we need to rebuff the phrase branded about claiming there are illegal asylum seekers. The Refugee Council point out: There is no such thing as an 'illegal' or 'bogus' asylum seeker. Under international law, ...
Fri, 18:36: Nebula finalists - Goodreads/LibraryThing stats https://t.co/X2Ls3CFNE2 Sat, 10:45: Academics and the media: a view from Politics, by @PhilipJCowley (pdf) https://t.co/8BNk2X0W2o Hilarious and true. Sat, 12:56: RT @olivia__ms: distant (etymological) relatives: christ and grimace 💜 https://t.co/w3xfgx70lm Sat, 16:15: July 2020 books https://t.co/LcWXF0LSFT
Below, in full, is Alex Cole-Hamilton's speech to Scottish Lib Dem Conference. In it he paid tribute to Kira Rudik, Leader of our sister party Golos, who addressed the Conference this morning. He also, of course, celebrated our spectacular by-election victory in Edinburgh yesterday. But he also went further than any Lib Dem I have heard recently on talking about the need for closer ties with Europe and about the failures of Brexit: Friends, Boris Johnson said that Ukraine should be at the front of the queue to join the European Union. He's not wrong, but just think about that ...
Comments from three senior Liberal Democrats on the Gary Lineker affair: The MOTD saga has shown failure at the top of the BBC and the need to urgently protect its independence. We need leadership that can uphold British values and withstand Conservative attacks. Under Richard Sharp's leadership this hasn't been the case. He must resign. — Ed Davey (@EdwardJDavey) March 11, 2023
So the outrage over Gary Lineker's comments that some of the language used by the Home Secretary to launch and defend her asylum policy has wreaked havoc to this weekend's football schedule on the BBC. Now this is the thing, Gary only compared that language to 1930s Germany, anyone with a little knowledge of the diaries, biographies from pre-war British politicians will be able to point out to something a little closer to home. There are three types of sources we can learn from history. First there are straight forward history texts, these are often written long enough after the ...
Lib Dem Fiona Bennett became our 13th Councillor in Edinburgh at just before midnight on Thursday, securing our highest ever vote in a local government by-election in Scotland. We are now the second largest group on the Council behind the SNP's 17, Labour's 11, Greens' 10 and Conservatives 9. Here's Alex Cole-Hamilton gloating talking about it on yesterday's Good Morning Scotland ahead of our Conference in Dundee. Last night saw the biggest council by election victory in the party's history in Edinburgh. The sands of Scottish politics are shifting in big and unpredictable ways. By-elections and the council elections last ...
There was a moment last night when I wondered if we were going to see tonight's Match of the Day presented by Jacob Rees-Mogg and Nadine Dorries after pundits and commenters alike responded to Gary Lineker's suspension with solidarity. Gary Lineker is a national treasure and sports presenter. While he is on telly, he talks about football. If he talked about politics, I doubt he'd have the following among football fans that he has. I never watch him because I am not a football fan. However, I have a very positive opinion of him from Twitter, where he has, for ...
Two op-eds in the Sunday Telegraph in recent weeks have hailed Ron de Santis, Governor of Florida and strongest alternative Republican candidate for the US Presidency in 2024 to Donald Trump, as showing the way forward for British Conservatives: to fight the culture war as vigorously as possible. It looks as if the Conservatives are already doing so. The whole point of culture wars is to distract the attention of voters from economic difficulties and concerns about inequality by attacking 'the liberal establishment' which - it is claimed - is betraying the instincts and traditions of ordinary people. Migration, friendliness ...
European thermometers dropped this week. But generally speaking it has been a relatively mild winter and temperatures are starting to rise. This is good news for Ukraine. Good news for Europe. Bad news for Russia and great news for America. Twelve months ago the Western Alliance was seriously worried that Europe's reliance on Russian gas and oil would render it powerless to stand up to Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine. The outlook is now considerably brighter. Cash-strapped consumers turned down thermostats. Russian gas supplies have been cut by two-thirds. Nordstream pipelines have shut down (thank you saboteurs whomever you ...
If there is such a thing as a meltdown in broadcasting then the BBC has achieved the nirvana. Their failure to stand up to political pressure from Tory MPs and Ministers, and in doing so compromise their own political impartiality, has effectively left them with the only option of airing a zombie-version of Match of the Day tonight. The Guardian reports that Match of the Day will be broadcast without presenters, pundits or its usual commentators this weekend, after the main host, Gary Lineker, was suspended from the BBC for allegedly breaching impartiality guidelines after criticising the government's asylum policies. ...
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