Journalism
The Beeb Needs its Mavericks
The BBC’s fear of outsiders drives away talent and makes its news programmes timid and forgettable
High Five
Against all the odds Standpoint has survived and flourished. This month, thanks to our readers, writers and supporters, we celebrate our fifth birthday
Still Not Equal
‘A friend asked her editor for a pay rise. Surely, he replied, her husband was earning enough to support them both’
Freedom of the Press Now Concerns Us All
The censorious among us can seize on vast amounts of online evidence and use it to ruin the lives of citizens at random
Truths Stranger Than Fiction
Lionel Shriver’s new novel brilliantly describes the problems of on-the-spot reportage, a journalistic difficulty negotiated deftly in two recent books about The Troubles
St Gilbert of Fleet Street
Book Review: The Wit and Wisdom of G. K. Chesterton selected by Bevis Hillier
How Free Is Free?
The Guardian has revealed the true cost of the allegedly advertiser-subsidised local propaganda sheets which flop through the letterbox along with endless flyers for pizzas and takeaway meals.
You Won’t Read All About It
Britain’s arcane and illogical libel laws, litigious oligarchs and oil sheikhs have made it almost impossible to report the truth
Stryker MacGuire
Stryker MacGuire is a name that sounds like a comic book Marine. He’s a UK based US journalist. Mr MacGuire modestly claims that although he did not coin the term ‘Cool Britannia’, he identified the charming ambience associated with it, such as Tracey Emin’s soiled sheets or gormless pop stars traipsing through Tony and Cherie’s low grade Camelot.
Now MacGuire has seen the light – or perhaps dark – and tells Newsweek to ‘Forget the Great in Britain’. Its the usual Reyjavik on Thames line, with a few tacked on ruminations about our foreign policy. The gist of his piece originally appeared in the Observer in March before the G20 summit, but never mind that diversion.
Majority rule; minority rights
It is folly to treat UK race relations as totally divorced from the rest of human experience. We need to look at the larger global picture
American revolutions: Rewriting the language of the unheard
‘Dissenting viewpoints — for example, the belief that America is not an intrinsically racist country—are shunned as further proof of racist pathologies’
The favourites
From Piers Gaveston onwards, controversial courtiers have a long history in British politics.How unusual is Dominic Cummings?