independent.co.uk —
He may be known as the "cycling Mayor" but Boris Johnson has caused outrage by accusing two-thirds of the cyclists killed and seriously injured in London of causing the crashes by breaking the laws of the road.
blogs.independent.co.uk —
At the weekend we splashed on how 26 per cent of Tory voters would seriously consider voting for UKIP, after 10 per cent have already made the switch. I went back to ComRes to find out where the other parties vote has gone.
independent.co.uk —
From the testimony of News Corp's top lobbyist to the Leveson Inquiry yesterday it is clearer than ever that Jeremy Hunt cannot defend his position in the Government. And the whiff of impropriety attached to his supposedly impartial review of the Murdochs' bid for BSkyB is drifting closer to the Prime Minister by the day.
independent.co.uk —
Having just moved to north London, I was perturbed to be woken on Tuesday morning by a whirring sound in the distance. When I glanced at the Telegraph's front page later that day - which revealed that multi-millionaire Tory donor Adrian Beecroft had accused Vince Cable of being a socialist - I realised it must have been Karl Marx spinning violently in his Highgate Cemetery grave.
independent.co.uk —
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was forced to temper his enthusiasm for Eurobonds during a visit to Germany today after being firmly warned off the subject in person by Chancellor Angela Merkel, the bonds' most outspoken opponent.
blogs.independent.co.uk —
A new occasional series. 1. Buskers who interrupt their music to say "Thank you". 2. Notices on children's clothes that say "Keep Away from
live.independent.co.uk —
High Court hearings continue in the Leveson Inquiry today with evidence from Frederic Michel, former News Corporation head of public affairs in Europe, and Adam Smith, the former special adviser to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt.
independent.co.uk —
There was a time during his circus days when Adrian Evans was more than happy to test the boundaries of health and safety with a couple of chainsaws or a motorcycle wall of death. He needs to be a little more cautious now the Queen has been entrusted into his care.
independent.co.uk —
But these are not intimate portraits of the Queen going about her daily life. They are the latest in a series of royal spoofs by the artist Alison Jackson. Jackson presents imagined glimpses of the private goings on in the lives of her famous subjects.
independent.co.uk —
After nearly six hours of talks held during an informal dinner, leaders said they were committed to Greece remaining in the eurozone, but it had to stick to its side of the bargain too, a commitment that will mean a heavy cost for Greeks.
independent.co.uk —
The winner will be contacted by personal message through whichever social networking site they used to comment. Terms and conditions apply. Competition closes on 24 May. The winner will be announced in Saturday's paper, 26 May. One entry per person. Our favourite answer will win a bottle of wine.
blogs.independent.co.uk —
Michael Gove gave a "masterclass" in ministerial interviews, according to my excellent if unexpected colleague Steve Richards, on BBC Radio 4 World At One today. In particular, he dealt with the currently fashionable enthusiasm for a return to a grammar school system with remarkable tact and skill.
blogs.independent.co.uk —
Ed Balls, in an interview with Matthew d'Ancona for GQ, has finally replied to the suggestion by Tony Blair in his memoir A Journey that the Shadow Chancellor does not "get" aspiration: I had a couple of conversations with Tony Blair where he would say he was worried that [a measure] would hit people with middle incomes and I would say: 'What do you think middle incomes are?'
independent.co.uk —
The villagers of Angolo were gathered around the crater, mournfully staring at the bomb when we arrived. For over a month, the Russian-made cluster bomb has sat in the centre of this quiet farming village in Sudan's restive Nuba Mountains, its clutch of unexploded submunitions spilling from its belly into the red African soil.
independent.co.uk —
A much-hyped listing swiftly followed by the share price plummeting - sound familiar? As the fall-out from the Facebook IPO continues to rumble on, today marks the one-year anniversary of another debut that has not exactly lived up to expectations. After a massive float worth £37bn, official trading of shares in Glencore International began exactly 12 months ago.
independent.co.uk —
Since the party's drubbing in the local elections earlier this month, Tory MPs having been pressing ministers to allow a return to a system of selective education in England as part of a distinctive Conservative policy agenda.
independent.co.uk —
Unlike most of its rivals and fellow travellers across the British press, this column feels no shame whatsoever in plugging the work of charities that need all the help they can get - including those with which your humble correspondent is tangentially associated.
independent.co.uk —
Mr Michel said he believed some of the "feedback" he was given by special adviser Adam Smith had been "discussed" with his boss Mr Hunt, the Culture Secretary. The comments came as Mr Michel gave evidence to the Leveson inquiry over News Corp's attempt to acquire the whole of BSkyB.
blogs.independent.co.uk —
I am baffled again as to what the Prime Minister's position on the euro actually is. He said several times, in answer to questions on his statement on the G8 in the Commons this afternoon, that the euro needs political union in order to work, which is why he was always against Britain's adopting it.
blogs.independent.co.uk —
A new occasional series. 1. Buskers who interrupt their music to say "Thank you". 2. Notices on children's clothes that say "Keep Away from
independent.co.uk —
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Bonita Norris's ascent of Mount Everest on Monday was not that she survived the deadly risks of extreme altitude and crippling cold, nor that, at the age of 22, she had become the youngest British woman to reach the roof of the world, but that, 18 months ago, the media-studies graduate had scaled nothing higher than the stairs at her Berkshire home.
independent.co.uk —
Unlike most of its rivals and fellow travellers across the British press, this column feels no shame whatsoever in plugging the work of charities that need all the help they can get - including those with which your humble correspondent is tangentially associated.
independent.co.uk —
"Many people tell me I look like my father," said Monika in Hitler's Children, "but I'm not Amon... I have nothing in common with him either." Well, nothing but a big chunk of DNA, without which, one assumes, Monika would have found Schindler's List a far less troubling experience than she did.
independent.co.uk —
Andy Garner, of the BAA, told the Transport Select Committee that the campaign to recruit 1,000 volunteers for the Olympics has been so successful that the airport will continue to deploy unpaid staff at peak times such as Christmas, Easter and the school summer holidays.
independent.co.uk —
This Sunday, exasperated farmers and citizens will travel to a field near Harpenden to uproot a crop of genetically modified wheat. They have been denounced in purple prose by pro-GM commentators, as science haters, "Nazi book burners" and vandals.
independent.co.uk —
Fernando Torres was assured yesterday that he has won his battle to be Chelsea's lead striker next season when the club's chief executive said that - despite Torres' post-Champions League final outburst about his recent unhappiness - the £50m man would be at the centre of the Chelsea team.
independent.co.uk —
Eric Schmidt, the current executive chairman of the Silicon Valley internet giant, said technology had the potential to be a "great leveller" which would empower the poor like never before. But he added that dictatorial regimes were increasingly looking to control who has access to the web by "filtering information they fear or prohibit."
blogs.independent.co.uk —
While some will hold the sex workers should be respected in their resistance to the upheaval, it is the argument surrounding the legalisation of prostitution that should come to the forefront of discussion with regards to the safety of sex workers.
independent.co.uk —
Even so, bizarre news that Stone once suggested curing her eight-year-old son's smelly feet by having Botox injections administered is fuelling widespread concern about personal judgement of the veteran actress, and the wellbeing of her collection of adopted children.
independent.co.uk —
The policy menu for last night's meal in Brussels was enough to turn the stomachs of most hardline German politicians and officials. Eurobonds, stimulus loans, an easing of spending cuts for the weakest: they are all liable to give monetary and fiscal hawks of Europe's pillar economy serious indigestion.
independent.co.uk —
What is going wrong for the Prime Minister, David Cameron? His personal standing with the electorate has fallen precipitously, according to opinion polls. I found a small clue to what may be doing the damage in one of the pictures of world leaders attending a summit meeting at Camp David outside Washington last weekend.
independent.co.uk —
Noon has passed, so check the date!Weighed down by debt, and reeling from the latest downgrading of their country's credit status, Portugal's finance ministry has secured the co-operation of football's highest-paid player in an audacious bid to draw the nation back from the brink of economic collapse.
independent.co.uk —
Writing on his Twitter page, Mr Morgan said: "Right - that's the last time I'm inviting Jeremy Paxman to lunch. Ungrateful little wretch." The Leveson Inquiry had earlier today heard that Daily Mirror former editor Mr Morgan once told Jeremy Paxman how to access voicemail messages.
independent.co.uk —
America may once have been the Land of Opportunity, but thanks to its rising levels of inequality - not to mention the nightmarish visa restrictions - our political class now has another destination in mind. "If you want the American Dream," Ed Miliband says, "go to Finland."
blogs.independent.co.uk —
I am baffled again as to what the Prime Minister's position on the euro actually is. He said several times, in answer to questions on his statement on the G8 in the Commons this afternoon, that the euro needs political union in order to work, which is why he was always against Britain's adopting it.
independent.co.uk —
Today the kites were keeping strange company. Gary Connery, 42, a veteran film stuntman, became the first man to leap out of a helicopter and land safely back on earth, without using a parachute.
independent.co.uk —
To the utter indifference of social nuisances UK-wide, Theresa May has announced changes to Britain's antisocial behaviour policies. Out with the Asbo, in with the Crimbo, the criminal behaviour order. Five individual complaints and you're offski. It's a chirpier, more festive sounding instrument of control.
independent.co.uk —
Two private investigators - who both previously served with the force - are also being held after raids at the London offices of Risc Management Ltd, it is understood. The 45-year-old detective constable is being questioned on suspicion of providing information about Nigerian fraudster James Ibori in return for cash.
independent.co.uk —
Authorities arrested three men in Turkey's southern Hatay province - one Syrian intelligence operative and two Turkish citizens - after the attempted attack last week and charged them with spying for Syria. Turkey is hosting officers from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) - a loose collection of armed rebels factions - as the Syrian regime continues its 15-month crackdown on dissent.
independent.co.uk —
Royal aides were told that the £60m worth of energy-saving grants were aimed at families on low incomes and if the money was given to Buckingham Palace instead of housing associations or hospitals it could lead to "adverse publicity" for the Queen and the Government.
independent.co.uk —
Rigid plans for the economy are rarely formed and are never adhered to. Even in the best of times Chancellors seek to appear unyielding in their attachment to a plan, but it is the appearance that matters. In reality they cannot be as unswerving as they seem because they are never fully in control of events.
blogs.independent.co.uk —
David Cameron is an instinctive politician. He didn't mean to call Ed Balls a "muttering idiot" at Prime Minister's Questions - David Wooding reports that he said to George Osborne immediately, "I can't help it", and Norman Lamont, his former boss, told BBC Radio 4 World At One: "He can be quite volatile.
independent.co.uk —
Brian Moore, Director-General of the UK Border Force since March, has been called to appear before the Home Affairs Select Committee tomorrow. Last week the committee was told that queues for passport control at Heathrow, the busiest airport in Europe, were sometimes so long that they could not be measured.
independent.co.uk —
Was this the moment Mitt Romney lost the election? At a campaign stop, he was assailed by workers from an office supplies manufacturer owned by Bain Capital, the private equity group where he made his $250m fortune.
independent.co.uk —
With only a few weeks to go, we're at the point where it's almost illegal to not be excited about the Olympics. By the middle of June, local councils will order us all to meet in our local park at 6.30 each morning and say communally, "Oooh, it's only a month to the opening ceremony", and recite the competitors in the first heat of the 200m backstroke.
independent.co.uk —
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire, Luhrmann's take on F Scott Fitzgerald's seminal 1925 novel looks like a big budget affair, with lavish costumes and set design. Opening with glamorous visuals of New York's 1920s party scene, the trailer is soundtracked by Kanye West and Jay Z's song 'No Church in the Wild'.
independent.co.uk —
She was the plucky young woman who, in splendid defiance of one of the world's most repressive societies, steered a car through the streets of the city of Khobar, railing as she went against the misogyny of laws that make it illegal for women in Saudi Arabia to drive.
independent.co.uk —
In a rare interview, one of the education standards watchdog's most senior inspectors has given The Independent an insight into the nature of his work, which under the regime of new head Sir Michael Wilshaw is about to become a whole lot tougher for schools.
independent.co.uk —
For the increasing number of people who have been accusing the Germans of smugness and complacency over the eurozone crisis, the Champions League final defeat of Bayern Munich by the Russian protectorate known as Chelsea FC will have provided a certain amount of ... well, the only word is Schadenfreude.
independent.co.uk —
There has been no shortage of takeover chatter around Hammerson lately. The possibility of the developer - whose portfolio includes the Brent Cross and Bullring shopping centres in north London and Birmingham - being snapped up has caused much excitement, and the bid spotlight was switched back on yesterday.
independent.co.uk —
Was this the moment Mitt Romney lost the election? At a campaign stop, he was assailed by workers from an office supplies manufacturer owned by Bain Capital, the private equity group where he made his $250m fortune.
independent.co.uk —
Cardinal Giovanni Batista Re, who heads the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, told reporters that although the girl fell pregnant after apparently being abused by her stepfather, her twins had, "the right to live, and could not be eliminated".
blogs.independent.co.uk —
Last summer I travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to help establish the first free legal advice centre in Kinshasa. I arrived with grand aspirations and bags of enthusiasm. But it was short lived.
independent.co.uk —
The Foreign Office has been ordered to release parts of the note detailing the conversation on 12 March 2003, a week before the invasion of Iraq began.
independent.co.uk —
The publisher of Detective Comics, the iconic title which for 60 years has revolved around the recently-deceased Wayne, revealed this week that future editions of the comic book will star his long-standing female counterpart, whose real name is Kathy Kane.
independent.co.uk —
Robin Gibb was the Bee Gee with the falsetto voice who, together with two of his brothers, provided the soundtrack to some of the most joyous moments of the youth of my generation. So it was sad to hear of his death.
blogs.independent.co.uk —
The madness: it is still distorting reality, only the fever has abated somewhat and so it rumbles barely audibly like a malfunctioning subwoofer. Blair rage. I never really got to the bottom of the psychological trauma, and much of it has now been redirected towards other targets: the "extreme right-wing policies" of the Coalition Government; the disillusion with Barack Obama; the evils of capitalism and Rupert Murdoch.
independent.co.uk —
While working for the News of the World in 2009 Mazher Mahmood, a reporter known as the "Fake Sheikh" for his undercover stings, and news editor James Mellor agreed that Tom Watson be tailed for days in the mistaken belief he was having an affair with a female politician.
independent.co.uk —
The huge - but slowly shrinking - inland lake south-east of Los Angeles faces the closure of its official recreation area, where generations of visitors have been able to camp, fish, picnic and relax on beaches, as part of budget-cutting measures due to take effect at the start of July.
independent.co.uk —
Cardinal Giovanni Batista Re, who heads the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, told reporters that although the girl fell pregnant after apparently being abused by her stepfather, her twins had, "the right to live, and could not be eliminated".
independent.co.uk —
This transition will be recognised by all but one of the national press companies today as their trade organisation, the Newspaper Marketing Agency (NMA), changes its title to Newsworks. The bold repositioning is an attempt to remind the public (and particularly the advertising industry) that the national press provides news on a variety of platforms and not just in print.
independent.co.uk —
How to remember Joe Strummer? It's a question being asked around the world, as the 10th anniversary of the singer's untimely death approaches. To his legion of devoted fans, the leader of the Clash was a rebel genius - the John Lennon of his generation, according to his front-page obituary in The Independent.
blogs.independent.co.uk —
An American called Laura writes to say nice things about my Banned List book, and encloses a cutting from The Wall Street Journal: "Boehner drew a line in the sand over the debt ceiling." Delightful. Meanwhile, there are more things that I have to ban. "No sex, please, we're British".
blogs.independent.co.uk —
More work for the Rebuttal Service. My colleagues in the LBLM&C (London-based liberal media and culturati) will be excited in tomorrow's newspapers about Sir John Chilcot's exchange of correspondence with Sir Gus O'Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary (below), which the Iraq Inquiry published today.
blogs.independent.co.uk —
Who'd be a newspaper editor in the age of Twitter eh? In the good old pre-digital era negative feedback on the morning splash would - if you've really upset people - start to filter in around lunchtime.
independent.co.uk —
A couple of years ago, I arranged to meet a friend at Vauxhall Tube station. I was there a few minutes early. In the ticket hall, there was a pleasant and familiar sound. Surprisingly, London Underground seemed to have decided to play Beethoven's Seventh Symphony over the tannoys.
independent.co.uk —
There followed a graphic detailing "sky-high" charges - sky-high, geddit? - such as online bag check-ins, airport bag check-ins and credit card fees. "It will please boss Michael O'Leary and shareholders," the article gushed, "but the passengers who are forced to pay higher ticket prices on top of the airline's infamous swathe of extra charges will be less thrilled."
independent.co.uk —
Under the new plan, which aims to stop repeat victims suffering unnoticed by giving individuals and communities the power to make police take action, forces will be required to investigate any single incident reported by at least five people, or any three complaints made by the same person.
blogs.independent.co.uk —
A big and gratifying response to my Banned List top 100, of clichés, jargon and verbiage. Hundreds of pedants (it's a compliment) have nominated bugbears (see previous post) in the comments on the Independent article, the blog, by Twitter (#bannedlist) and email. I literally cannot believe that I missed some of these first time round.
independent.co.uk —
I always fancied being a hermit. There was a tradition in the 18th century to pay hermits to live on your grounds and entertain the guests; I would have liked that. I live alone in an old house in the Scottish wilderness, near Aberdeen.
independent.co.uk —
Avere il braccino: it is the Italian phrase that Roberto Mancini started using in interviews and press conferences around the turn of the year and it means, literally "the arm grows short". Or, in other words, it is the failure to seize the moment.
independent.co.uk —
From: Mazher MahmoodTo: James MellorCC: Ian EdmondsonTime: 10.05am, 26 September 2009 Tom Watson MP who is a close lackey of Gordon Brown (ex-whip, anti-Blair etc) is shagging a [redacted]. The pair are already in Brighton for the conference and he has been creeping into her hotel. [redacted].
independent.co.uk —
On 8 December at 10.42am local time, a sleek white rocket with the word "SpaceX" emblazoned on its side blasted off from a US Air Force base in Florida with a payload of French cheese, circled the Earth twice and splashed back into the Pacific Ocean three hours later.
independent.co.uk —
Humans are terrible at naming things. For the few we get right (eg Twix) there are millions of examples of failure (eg Hemel Hempstead, Nissan Qashqai, Jermajesty Jackson). I'm no branding expert, but if well-resourced multinational companies are giving products names such as LE26C350D1WXXU, what chance do we stand of naming things properly?
independent.co.uk —
The crisis at JP Morgan escalated yesterday as it emerged its trading losses in London could rise to as much as $7bn (£4.5bn) and the US bank cancelled a share buyback. Fears were growing that the losses could spiral from an initial $2bn, which was declared on 10 May, as JP Morgan struggles to unwind the massive bets made by the so-called "London Whale" trader Bruno Iksil.