WhatisNews?

Fat British kids should walk to school

Monday September 6th and British kids return to school. Which means... the roads are jam-packed with overweight lumps being chauffeur-driven to school in Mummy's Volvo. The last six weeks have been bliss on the roads. Now it's back to normal, with thousands of dull parents who should know better ferrying their offspring to and from the classroom. Why don't these kids WALK? What's so hard about walking? When I was a kid I walked four miles every day to and from school. If these kids don't live within walking distance, why don't they catch a bus?

Fat Kids

I want one of these...

Apple have launched their new G5 iMac...

I'm back!

More soon...

Fox song

Am working on a programme about James Fox, who is the British entry for this year's Eurovision Song Contest. Last year Britain got nul point after Jemini sang out of tune during the finals (not normally a problem) so there's a lot to live up to. Sadly I won't be one of the team heading out to Istanbul with James. I shall be sat at home in front of a steaming laptop.

James Fox

War President

Blogger Joe Wezorek has created an amazing image of Bush, using the faces of hundreds of US soldiers killed in Iraq. You can view "War President" on a larger scale on Joe's blog American Leftist.

War President

Big Ron goes

Farewell, Big Ron. The football pundit's racist comments the other night have put an end (for a while at least) to Atkinson's "trenchant analysis" of the game. No regrets from whatisnews. Atkinson was born in Liverpool, but always seemed to be a Manchester United fan at heart (not surprising perhaps, bearing in mind he managed them - but unforgivable, nonetheless.) I grew up in a house where hatred of the jewellery-loving, plasticine-faced Atkinson was always palpable and I'll be happy to see him relieved of his duties.

It does beg the question of what, exactly, makes somebody a racist. Ron's comments (I'd blush to repeat them here) are not exactly post-modern or ironic. There's no wit there. Yet everybody who knows him says he's definitely not a racist. It's hard to square the circle. Two things leap out, though: first it's not the first time, apparently. And secondly, the argument that Ron can't be a racist because he was one of the first managers to employ black players is bogus. He employed those players because he judged they were good players. It was a calculated, professional decision made by a hugely ambitious manager. It doesn't render him incapable of being, on some other level, a racist.

Vanunu out

Mordechai Vanunu has been released from jail, 18 months after he was abducted by Mossad in Rome. Vanunu blew the whistle on Israel's "secret" nuclear weapons facility at Dimona. Most people with an interest in the Middle East already suspected Israel had the bomb, (or rather 100 - 200 bombs) but given there had been no public debate or sanction for the country's nuclear weapons programme, his disclosures weren't very welcome. Hence the kidnapping and 18 months in jail.

No doubt Israel's defenders will point out that had Vanunu been a citizen of an Arab regime with nuclear weapons, he wouldn't now be alive and celebrating his freedom. This misses the point a bit. None of the Arab regimes have nuclear weapons. Israel is the only country in the Middle East with weapons of mass destruction (in case you're still looking, Mr Bush). They're illegal and - even now, 18 years on - they're still technically a secret.

So it's impossible to view Vanunu as a straightforward traitor. He acted out of conscience. His capture and subsequent imprisonment was, at the very least, legally suspect. His treatment (lengthy periods of solitary confinement in a cell with bright lights permanently switched on) was, as he described it today "cruel and barbaric" (not to say maliciously punitive).

The Israel he encounters now is very different to the one he left behind in 1986. Then, it might have been possible to make an argument for it being a "shining light" in the Middle East: the only democracy in the region. Not now. And what happened to him is a large part of the reason why.

One final thought. I hope Vanunu is getting a few quid from Mr Murdoch. Had he been protected more efficiently by the Sunday Times (to whom he was telling his story at the time of his capture) none of this might have happened. They owe him.

Vanunu's message to reporters in 1986, revealing how he'd been captured.

Blair Grayson

Morrissey's on the cover of this week's NME and his interview is the usual value for money stuff. Best line has to be Mozza's observation that Tony Blair is starting to resemble Larry Grayson - the camp "popular entertainer" from 70s and 80s TV...

Larry Grayson

Tony Blair

Big If

I know I've moaned on about this before, but why are American novels so much more interesting and well written than British ones? Maybe it's because American writers aren't afraid to tackle big subjects, without losing sight of the minutiae of life. Think Updike, Roth, Franzen, Foster Wallace. Who have we got to compare? Amis once, perhaps. But Yellow Dog was pants.

Now Mark Costello needs to be added to the US list of big-hitters. The secret world of Presidential bodyguards, online gaming, insurance, conspiracy theories and invitation-only lingerie boutiques are just some of the subjects thrown into the air in Big If, Costello's second novel.

Watch the hands...

It's intelligent, beautifully written, laugh-out loud funny and genuinely gripping. You'll never look at the dudes who stare at people's hands in the same way again.

Back again

Back again after an Easter weekend listening to gunfire on the mean streets of my hometown and peering through my Mother's net curtains to make sure the car wasn't getting broken into...

Interesting article re. the Wales Millennium Centre in the Sunday Times.

Also interesting to read the comments on the post I wrote about the WMC. Think it's time I popped down there with a digital camera...