The Tories and Lord Ashcroft – stupidity rather than wrongdoing?

Peter Hoskin

So the Lord Ashcroft story is back on the airwaves, courtesy of a document leaked to the BBC. That document shows William Hague was "satisfied" with the discussions about Ashcroft's undertakings in 2000 – so the Tories wheeled the shadow foreign secretary onto the Today programme to explain himself to Evan Davis. Three things struck me.

‘I want to stand for parliament’

A diet of unrelenting mush

Critical lesson

�I�ve done them all � mobiles, blogs, Twitter � but I find you can�t beat good old talking about yourself in a really loud voice.�

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It’s turning into an extremely good week for Osborne

David Blackburn

The gods are smiling on George Osborne. On Monday, he wrote an excellent article in the FT, explaining why he opposed the government’s fiscal plans and giving a brief

The genius of Val Lewton

Peter Hoskin

So let's all return to Shutter Island. Or, rather, to one of the inspirations behind Martin Scorsese's latest film, whom I briefly mentioned in a post on Monday

He gets it

Sobering and important cri de coeur in the Scottish Review by Lord Robertson, the former NATO Secretary-General, from a lecture he delivered to the Atlantic Council in

Becoming a Victorian

Dan Jones

Winston Churchill was a racist. He said things like ‘I hate people with slit eyes and pig-tails. I don’t like the look of them or the smell of them’. In

A diet of unrelenting mush

Ben West

We may have been languishing for months in the worst recession for decades, but theatre appears to be booming. West End theatres enjoyed a record £500 million in ticket sales

Rudolf for Dinner

Nicola Daley

Reindeer is a staple food for the Samí, the indigenous people of Lapland. The meat tastes deliciously, distinctively

It’s time we bank customers started talking to each other in the queue

Matthew Parris

I’ve been interested in informal banking ever since, frustrated in a long Lloyds bank queue in the West End, I persuaded some American tourists queuing with me to exchange their