Charles Bicht (middle) of Vero Beach, Florida, is congratulated by previous winners of the annual “Papa” Hemingway Look-Alike Contest at Sloppy Joe’s Bar in Key West, Florida, which runs this year between 21st-24th July. Ernest Hemingway lived in Key West in the 1930s
Eurosceptic upset
David Cameron and William Hague have made some powerful enemies on their backbenches. Their flagship European Union bill, designed to protect Britain’s sovereignty, was supposed to appease the Tory eurosceptic right, led by MPs Bill Cash, John Redwood and others. But on 15th June it suffered four defeats in the Lords, when Labour peers led by a delighted Roger Liddle, Tony Blair’s former EU adviser, came together with Tory rebels including Geoffrey Howe, Leon Brittan and—unusually—Michael Heseltine.
As a result, the “sovereignty clause,” giving parliament more say on EU bills, was watered down. Peers also voted to cut the number of issues requiring a referendum from 56 to three. Cash is furious. He tells Prospect he is referring it to the European Scrutiny Committee, which he chairs. “It is a disaster waiting to happen,” he says. “This is a severe reversal by Hague and Cameron. I was very unhappy with the bill and now the Lords have driven a coach and horses through it.” John Redwood, meanwhile, predicts a battle between the two chambers. “Those of us in the elected House will, I trust, reverse what the Lords have done.”
Obama’s British promise
Barack Obama spent 40 minutes with Ed Miliband when they met at Buckingham Palace in May. He showed more interest than British voters in Miliband’s theme of “the British promise,” and also chatted over Miliband’s once-ridiculed notion of the “squeezed middle.” Of more practical help was Obama’s early steer that he was not about to endorse publicly George Osborne’s deficit reduction plan. That wrongfooted some Tories, who’d claimed the opposite, and Timothy Geithner, US treasury secretary, who’d said just weeks before that he was “very impressed” with the chancellor.
Canterbury tales
No surprise that No 10 was angry when Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said the coalition did not have a mandate for its cuts. But David Cameron has sensibly declined to attack Dr Williams in public. However, parents at St Mary Abbots primary school in Kensington were surprised to hear the prime minister express his views openly when picking up his daughter (with a security guard). “I’m having trouble with that Archbishop of yours!” Cameron told the school’s vicar.
A truly alternative festival
‘Tis the season for festivals, and no one need be left out. This year “Invocation,” for young Roman Catholics thinking of going into the church, took place from 17th-19th June at St Mary’s College, Oscott. Billed as “more glamorous than Glastonbury and even more unique than Bestival and the Isle of Wight Festival,” the festival’s headline acts included Bernard Longley, the Archbishop of Birmingham, and featured workshops such as: “Why be a priest? Am I the right fit? I’m not ready to be collared for the challenge of a lifetime!” and “When others are not so happy about my calling.”
Tanked up
Policy wonks will be excited by the latest addition to the think tank world, with the launch, on 20th June, of the politically-independent Centre for London. The Centre, which will work towards “a radically fairer, more prosperous and sustainable London,” will be directed by the think-tank veteran Ben Rogers (chair of Prospect’s think tank of the year awards last year) and chaired by Liz Meek, a former civil servant. It’s surprising that the Centre, which describes itself as “incubated” by Demos, is London’s first think tank. No doubt in time it will bid for Prospect’s coveted think tank prize. This year the awards ceremony is on 11th October.
Pale, stale and male
In June, the treasury appointed its first chief scientific adviser, James Richardson. The welcome move was thanks partly to campaigning by CaSE: the Campaign for Science and Engineering in the UK, run by Imran Khan who has long argued for more science in public policy. Yet Imperial College, one of Britain’s few dedicated science universities, has dropped its small financial contribution to CaSE. Some noted that this followed Khan’s piece for Imperial’s student newspaper criticising the lack of diversity among the university’s staff, under the headline “Pale, stale and male.” There is no connection, according to a spokesman, who told Prospect that, while Imperial continued to support Case’s “aims and objectives,” it had decided the funds could be better directed to support its own “core activities.”
Miliband: never say never
Responding to reports of tensions between the Miliband brothers in a new book co-authored by Prospect’s James Macintyre, David Miliband dismissed the “soap opera” and effectively ruled out challenging his brother for the Labour leadership. But a few weeks earlier in Hay-on-Wye, David had declared: “I rule out ruling anything out.” Indeed, the former foreign secretary is a something of a serial refuser-to-rule-things-out. There are around 127,000 Google entries for “David Miliband refuses to rule out...” ranging from troop increases in Afghanistan, military intervention in Iran, challenging Gordon Brown for the leadership, and “a future leadership bid” in 2009, 2010 and, now, in 2011. There’s such a thing as being too careful, a reflex he’ll have to shed if he wants to re-enter the fray.
Top parliamentary put-downs
As parliament rises for the summer, Prospect presents its awards for the top put-downs of the last Commons session. In third place: “I guess it was the right type of snow for a skiing holiday, just the wrong type of snow for our economy.”(Ed Miliband on George Osborne’s trip, after the chancellor blamed poor economic growth on snowfall, 23rd March.) In second spot: “There’s only one person here guilty of knifing a foreign secretary and I’m looking at him.” (Cameron to Ed Miliband after questions over William Hague’s future on 9th March).
But the top gong goes to John Bercow, speaker of the House, for this admonishment of Tory MP Tim Loughton on 4th May: “The minister for children is under no obligation to behave like a child. It is not required.”
One to watch
Salford-born Cambridge graduate Josie Rourke, 35, takes up her role as the next artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse from January, writes Louis Wise.
Running the Donmar (taking over from Michael Grandage) is both a demanding and high-profile challenge. If the Warehouse attracts headlines for its glitzy casts and glamorous transfers, it also has worthy offshoots such as Donmar Trafalgar, showcasing new directors. All this Rourke must keep going, and build on too. But she still has work to finish at the Bush Theatre, where she has been artistic director for five years.
Rourke’s tenure at the Bush culminates with the move of the tiny Shepherds Bush venue to the old library on Uxbridge Road; only a few metres away, but a leap in terms of space and ambition. Another notable achievement has been the creation of the website Bushgreen.org, a home for new writing, which has already welcomed some 5,000 members, and confirms the theatre’s reputation for fostering new talent.
Rourke’s work is also on currently on display at Wyndhams Theatre, where she has directed David Tennant and Catherine Tate in their well-received Much Ado About Nothing. Along with Thea Sharrock, Marianne Elliott, and the Gate Theatre’s outgoing directors Natalie Abrahami and Carrie Cracknell, Rourke is part of a new generation of female directors set to dominate the British stage in the years to come.
Eurosceptic upset
David Cameron and William Hague have made some powerful enemies on their backbenches. Their flagship European Union bill, designed to protect Britain’s sovereignty, was supposed to appease the Tory eurosceptic right, led by MPs Bill Cash, John Redwood and others. But on 15th June it suffered four defeats in the Lords, when Labour peers led by a delighted Roger Liddle, Tony Blair’s former EU adviser, came together with Tory rebels including Geoffrey Howe, Leon Brittan and—unusually—Michael Heseltine.
As a result, the “sovereignty clause,” giving parliament more say on EU bills, was watered down. Peers also voted to cut the number of issues requiring a referendum from 56 to three. Cash is furious. He tells Prospect he is referring it to the European Scrutiny Committee, which he chairs. “It is a disaster waiting to happen,” he says. “This is a severe reversal by Hague and Cameron. I was very unhappy with the bill and now the Lords have driven a coach and horses through it.” John Redwood, meanwhile, predicts a battle between the two chambers. “Those of us in the elected House will, I trust, reverse what the Lords have done.”
Obama’s British promise
Barack Obama spent 40 minutes with Ed Miliband when they met at Buckingham Palace in May. He showed more interest than British voters in Miliband’s theme of “the British promise,” and also chatted over Miliband’s once-ridiculed notion of the “squeezed middle.” Of more practical help was Obama’s early steer that he was not about to endorse publicly George Osborne’s deficit reduction plan. That wrongfooted some Tories, who’d claimed the opposite, and Timothy Geithner, US treasury secretary, who’d said just weeks before that he was “very impressed” with the chancellor.
Canterbury tales
No surprise that No 10 was angry when Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said the coalition did not have a mandate for its cuts. But David Cameron has sensibly declined to attack Dr Williams in public. However, parents at St Mary Abbots primary school in Kensington were surprised to hear the prime minister express his views openly when picking up his daughter (with a security guard). “I’m having trouble with that Archbishop of yours!” Cameron told the school’s vicar.
A truly alternative festival
‘Tis the season for festivals, and no one need be left out. This year “Invocation,” for young Roman Catholics thinking of going into the church, took place from 17th-19th June at St Mary’s College, Oscott. Billed as “more glamorous than Glastonbury and even more unique than Bestival and the Isle of Wight Festival,” the festival’s headline acts included Bernard Longley, the Archbishop of Birmingham, and featured workshops such as: “Why be a priest? Am I the right fit? I’m not ready to be collared for the challenge of a lifetime!” and “When others are not so happy about my calling.”
Tanked up
Policy wonks will be excited by the latest addition to the think tank world, with the launch, on 20th June, of the politically-independent Centre for London. The Centre, which will work towards “a radically fairer, more prosperous and sustainable London,” will be directed by the think-tank veteran Ben Rogers (chair of Prospect’s think tank of the year awards last year) and chaired by Liz Meek, a former civil servant. It’s surprising that the Centre, which describes itself as “incubated” by Demos, is London’s first think tank. No doubt in time it will bid for Prospect’s coveted think tank prize. This year the awards ceremony is on 11th October.
Pale, stale and male
In June, the treasury appointed its first chief scientific adviser, James Richardson. The welcome move was thanks partly to campaigning by CaSE: the Campaign for Science and Engineering in the UK, run by Imran Khan who has long argued for more science in public policy. Yet Imperial College, one of Britain’s few dedicated science universities, has dropped its small financial contribution to CaSE. Some noted that this followed Khan’s piece for Imperial’s student newspaper criticising the lack of diversity among the university’s staff, under the headline “Pale, stale and male.” There is no connection, according to a spokesman, who told Prospect that, while Imperial continued to support Case’s “aims and objectives,” it had decided the funds could be better directed to support its own “core activities.”
Miliband: never say never
Responding to reports of tensions between the Miliband brothers in a new book co-authored by Prospect’s James Macintyre, David Miliband dismissed the “soap opera” and effectively ruled out challenging his brother for the Labour leadership. But a few weeks earlier in Hay-on-Wye, David had declared: “I rule out ruling anything out.” Indeed, the former foreign secretary is a something of a serial refuser-to-rule-things-out. There are around 127,000 Google entries for “David Miliband refuses to rule out...” ranging from troop increases in Afghanistan, military intervention in Iran, challenging Gordon Brown for the leadership, and “a future leadership bid” in 2009, 2010 and, now, in 2011. There’s such a thing as being too careful, a reflex he’ll have to shed if he wants to re-enter the fray.
Top parliamentary put-downs
As parliament rises for the summer, Prospect presents its awards for the top put-downs of the last Commons session. In third place: “I guess it was the right type of snow for a skiing holiday, just the wrong type of snow for our economy.”(Ed Miliband on George Osborne’s trip, after the chancellor blamed poor economic growth on snowfall, 23rd March.) In second spot: “There’s only one person here guilty of knifing a foreign secretary and I’m looking at him.” (Cameron to Ed Miliband after questions over William Hague’s future on 9th March).
But the top gong goes to John Bercow, speaker of the House, for this admonishment of Tory MP Tim Loughton on 4th May: “The minister for children is under no obligation to behave like a child. It is not required.”
One to watch
Salford-born Cambridge graduate Josie Rourke, 35, takes up her role as the next artistic director of the Donmar Warehouse from January, writes Louis Wise.
Running the Donmar (taking over from Michael Grandage) is both a demanding and high-profile challenge. If the Warehouse attracts headlines for its glitzy casts and glamorous transfers, it also has worthy offshoots such as Donmar Trafalgar, showcasing new directors. All this Rourke must keep going, and build on too. But she still has work to finish at the Bush Theatre, where she has been artistic director for five years.
Rourke’s tenure at the Bush culminates with the move of the tiny Shepherds Bush venue to the old library on Uxbridge Road; only a few metres away, but a leap in terms of space and ambition. Another notable achievement has been the creation of the website Bushgreen.org, a home for new writing, which has already welcomed some 5,000 members, and confirms the theatre’s reputation for fostering new talent.
Rourke’s work is also on currently on display at Wyndhams Theatre, where she has directed David Tennant and Catherine Tate in their well-received Much Ado About Nothing. Along with Thea Sharrock, Marianne Elliott, and the Gate Theatre’s outgoing directors Natalie Abrahami and Carrie Cracknell, Rourke is part of a new generation of female directors set to dominate the British stage in the years to come.
