Overrated
Carol Ann Duffy
The Poet Laureate’s verses aren’t bad, but have more in common with tabloid headlines than the works of her great predecessors
Arnold Schwarzenegger
The ‘Governator’ was elected to knock heads together. Unlike a previous actor-governor, Ronald Reagan, however, he will leave California bankrupt
David Miliband
The British Foreign Secretary has failed to take on Iran’s mullahs
Mary-Kay Wilmers
The editor-proprietor of the London Review of Books is clear about her prejudices. Not so clear is why the Arts Council should fund her magazine
Al Gore
The former US Vice-President is becoming increasingly hysterical about climate change
Richard Goldstone
The South African judge’s Gaza report is just another example of his intensely political attitude to the law
Phillip Blond
The inventor of Red Toryism — said to have the ear of David Cameron — is totally confused about the welfare state and the markets
Henry Louis Gates
The achievements of an academic in the eye of a very public storm are questionable
Ken Loach
The grand old man of hard-Left cinema is treated as a national treasure. But his bigoted propaganda is stuck in the 1960s
Oliver James
The author of Affluenza and the darling of the TV psychiatrist’s couch is underchallenged
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal