Alastair's Blog

One of the complaints often heard about politicians is that they don’t really say what they think. Yet there is also a rush to condemn when MPs do say what they think, unless it fits the current conventional wisdom. So anyone suggesting the riots present anything other than a law and order issue, and that [...]

The next couple of days will dictate whether a crisis becomes a disaster, or another crisis managed to a relatively successful conclusion. Any crisis requires strong clear leadership, and when it is a crisis on this scale, with people fearing the loss of control of the streets, that has to come from the Prime Minister. [...]

Nick Clegg is right to say the violence in London has been unacceptable, and the thieving opportunistic, and the senior police officer put up to do interviews in the absence of a Commissioner right to say the rooters and looters do not represent their communities. But both are wrong if they see this purely as [...]

There used to be a silly season. However it looks like global economic woes will ensure this year’s silly season has a rather more serious backdrop than usual, what with front pages around the world showing traders looking like they’ve just been told a loved one has died. David Cameron and George Osborne are having [...]

I had really wanted to see the ‘My Resignation’ documentary on BBC4 last night. It is an interesting theme and the people making it seemed a cut above your average instant docmaker. Having interviewed me on a rainy day like today, they were also polite enough to tell me when the programme was on. But [...]

After yesterday’s guest blog on happiness, today I turn to the subject of madness, more specifically my own. I was approached a few months ago and asked to write a poem for a book being prepared by Bovington Middle School in Dorset, to raise money both for the school’s English deparment and for Help for [...]

A couple of weeks ago, I gave a Lecture on Happiness at Birmingham University. Today I give the blog over to KIRSTY MACK, the university’s head of stakeholder relations, so that she can ruminate on the theme, and also ask for your ideas on who might be a suitable (female) speaker on this theme next [...]

I get a fair few requests on here, via email, twitter and Facebook, for signed copies of my books. As some of you know, I always try to sort things out for people, but I think it is time I had a proper system for this. So step forward a very nice man called Colin [...]

Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell today replied to my complaint of a week ago about the allegations made by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons that I falsified government documents. I am very grateful to him for the reply, and to the Prime Minister for the explanation offered; that this was ‘political knockabout [...]

My £7000 potential outlay led eventually to a couple of tickets for the table tennis early rounds and two sessions of athletic heats. Not exactly what I hoped for, and not nearly as good as the amazing (sponsors’) tickets I had for Athens, when my son and I saw Kelly Holmes win her second Gold, [...]