Alastair's Blog

During a week in the Scottish Highlands it has rained for a good part of every day. Yet I would not hesitate for a moment to recommend this part of the world for any holiday, at any time of the year, even when the midges are biting. I’ve got the bike with me, and have [...]

Just arrived in the very wild and wet Scottish Highlands, to be told by all and sundry that ‘this is nothing’ compared with the wetness and wildness of a couple of weeks ago. It is however beautiful as ever. Meanwhile, in an act that even I consider to be a tad close to heathen-ness, I [...]

That the idea of a State funeral for Margaret Thatcher is even on the agenda says something for the extent to which the Right wing in Britain still sings the best tunes the loudest across our politics and media. And yes, I am aware that Gordon Brown expressed his support for the notion – I [...]

I know times are hard for a lot of people, and Christmas makes them harder than ever on the financial front, so I hope you don’t mind me using this pre-Christmas blog to ask regular visitors to chip in for a good cause – no, not (this time) Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, or any of [...]

Nobody can accuse David Cameron of idleness. Fresh from telling the whole of Europe how to do its job, now he turns his attention to God. And in between times he has been sorting out the High Street with Mary Portas, sending in troubleshooters to sort out troubled families, not to mention having an ‘amazing [...]

Perhaps you needed to be there. But based on the clips I saw on the news, I cannot quite see why the broadcasters seemed to decide  as one that Ed Miliband had a disastrous PMQs yesterday. The papers do not seem to share the view that this was a seismic event. On one bulletin, I [...]

So Nick Clegg didn’t show up in the Commons today, because he didn’t want to be a distraction. A distraction from what? A distraction from the fact that he is the most pro-European leader in UK political history, now propping up the most anti-European government. A distraction from David Cameron’s latest effort to present his [...]

I don’t know which papers Lord Leveson reads, but assuming he flicks through them all as he presides over his inquiry into the press, he will be getting a very good example of the fusion of news and comment right now. There are pro Europe papers and there are rather more, and louder, anti Europe [...]

With thanks to my favourite Elvis impersonator, Mark Wright aka@kingswimg72, I bring you his excellent tweet in response to mine asking the question ‘how many of our most important decisions do we make at 4am?’ ’4am is time partners get drunk, argue and break up. The following morning they have to break it to the [...]

Another day, another summit, another round of ups and downs, then stand by for another set of bold declarations that Europe’s leaders have found the solutions to the current crisis … again. With every step of crisis management that doesn’t quite work, they take another reputational hit. How refreshing it would be if, instead of [...]