Hilary Mantel For his 1959 life of the present queen’s grandmother, biographer James Pope-Hennessy compiled indiscreet and sharp-eyed interview notes, now edited by Hugo Vickers into The Quest for Queen Mary (Zuleika): very funny and astute, it provides a loathly feast for royal-watchers. Death and Nightingales by Eugene McCabe (Vintage), published in 1992 and now reissued, is set in rural Ireland in the 1880s: poetic and compelling, with a heart-stopping plot twist, it seems to me a perfect novel. Jonathan Sacks One of the most bracing reads of 2018 was Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt’s The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (Allen Lane). Confronting the ever-growing constraints on free speech in universities, the authors show how a generation of students is being encouraged to develop mindsets that will do them psychological as well as intellectual harm. Brilliantly written, forcefully argued and … [Read more...] about ConsumerBusinessSpotlightConsumerBusinessSpotlightConsumerBusinessSpotlightConsumerBusinessSpotlightConsumerBusinessSpotlightThe best books of 2018
Help wanted newspaper ad template
Transcript: Paschal Donohoe’s Budget 2019 speech in full, section by section
INTRODUCTION A Cheann Comhairle, Today I present my second Budget to this house and to the Irish people as the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform. A decade on from the financial and economic crisis that wrought havoc with the lives and aspirations of so many of our citizens, I can report that our economy is again growing strongly and sustainably. A record number of people have jobs and many of our citizens who left in the wake of the economic crisis are returning home. Our public finances are balanced. The policies pursued by this Government and its predecessor facilitated this. This has enabled us to invest record levels of funding into our key public services, including health and education. The shared progress we have made is real. However, the risks and challenges that we now face are equally real. We are working hard to deliver sufficient housing to provide secure and affordable homes for all our people. Brexit, the outcome of which is still unclear, edges … [Read more...] about Transcript: Paschal Donohoe’s Budget 2019 speech in full, section by section
Labour and reselection: the panic last time
This is an excerpt from Hilary Wainwright’s book Labour: A Tale of Two Parties, first published 1987. At the time, mandatory reselection had been won as a democratic demand in the Labour Party (it was later scrapped again as the foundations of Blairism were laid). Hilary picks up the story in 1975 – the first ‘deselection’, which sparked a media storm that set the template still in use today. On July 23, 1975, a majority of the 48 delegates to the General Management Committee of the Newham North East Constituency Labour Party voted, in strict accordance with the party’s rule book and under the watchful eye of the party’s regional organiser, that their MP, Cabinet Minister Reg Prentice, be ‘requested to retire at the next election’. All hell broke loose. The day before, the majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party had sent a letter to the constituency accusing the Newham party of betraying ‘the principles of tolerance and free … [Read more...] about Labour and reselection: the panic last time
POLITICO Brussels Playbook, presented by Google: Summit to talk about — Yes He Kern — Vestager’s sour grapes?
Press play to listen to this article By FLORIAN EDERwith ZOYA SHEFTALOVICH PRESENTED BY GOOGLE Send tips here | Tweet @florianeder | Listen to today’s Playbook and view in your browser GOOD MORNING. Still not convinced that Jean-Claude Juncker’s soybean pact with Donald Trump was the real deal? Well, you don’t need to be, as long as Trump is. Today, the European Commission is expected to release the latest figures on imports of American soybeans. In short: Trade has never before been this great; numbers have never been this yuge. The figures, obtained by Playbook, show that in the 12 weeks from July, EU imports from the U.S. are up by 133 percent compared to last year, and the U.S. share of the EU’s total imports of soybeans is now at 52 percent, compared to 25 percent during the same period last year. This puts the States ahead of Brazil, Canada, Paraguay and Uruguay. **A message from Google: The Digital News Innovation … [Read more...] about POLITICO Brussels Playbook, presented by Google: Summit to talk about — Yes He Kern — Vestager’s sour grapes?