1) The Queen
If you haven’t been struck with Queen (the woman, not the band) mania this weekend, then I really don’t know what you’ve been doing with yourself! From pull out guides to this weekend’s Jubilee celebrations, to Kerry Katona on a Jubilee special of Come Dine With Me (because, of all the people who could appear, Kerry is a natural choice), it has been inescapable. Brian Hoey, author of Her Majesty and Not In Front of the Corgis, has been at the forefront of the analysis. Over at the Daily Mail he has the lowdown on everything from what the Queen carries in her handbag to why you will never see her sneezing in public...
2) Kerri Sackville on why three is the magic number
A great article from Kerri Sackville, author of When My Husband Does The Dishes (He usually wants sex!) and The Little Book of Anxiety, in Sunday Times’ Style magazine this weekend. As part of a discussion on why some men are happy to stop at two children, Kerri discussed why having three children is challenging but, ultimately, bliss.
3) Muckraker reviewed
Another great review of W. Sydney Robinson’s Muckraker: The Scandalous Life and Times of W. T. Stead, Britain’s First Investigative Journalist, this time from Bel Mooney over at the Daily Mail. She said: ‘At a time when the Leveson Inquiry provides many shocks, this timely, well-written biography of the brilliant, flawed Victorian journalist - who made up quotes and twisted the truth in order to right wrongs - vividly demonstrates that breaking rules can lead to fame but also to downfall’.
4) James Delingpole on energy policy
Over at his Telegraph blog, James Delingpole, author of Watermelons: How Environmentalists Are Killing the Planet, Destroying the Economy and Stealing Your Children’s Future, addresses Britain’s energy policy, in his typical, provocative style. ‘Are we really going to allow our economic recovery to be jeopardised by a tiny handful of rent-seeking corporatists, green ideologues and lame-brained, out-of-touch, know-nothing politicians who saw Josh Fox's Gasland propaganda movie once and found the flaming tap scene really scary? Apparently we are. We're toast’.
5) The greater game
Espionage has been all over the news recently, and it seems that William Beaver’s focus on Victorian intelligence, which he addresses in Under Every Leaf: How Britain Played The Greater Game From Afghanistan to Africa, has been mirrored elsewhere. Tonight, over at BBC Two, Rory Stewart, addresses how control of Afghanistan was seen by Britain as key to the security of India.
6) The special loophole in hell for war lawyers
Interesting article from David Swanson, author of War Is A Lie, on what he sees to be the selectiveness of the American government in enforcing the law. ‘It is becoming standard practice for our government to enforce laws selectively or not at all, to openly defy laws, to enact laws in violation of the higher law called the Constitution or in violation of the treaties which that Constitution defines as the Supreme Law of the Land’.