Politics

Martin Bell

Seeking truth and an end to sleaze

14 Aug 2008

Eleven years after New Labour’s landslide victory, Martin Bell has been considering Tony Blair’s legacy. More specifically, the white suit-wearing BBC war correspondent turned independent MP, and now UNICEF ambassador, wants to work out where it all…

Picture this - World Press Photo

Festival of Politics

22 Jul 2008

From soldiers to skiers, featuring death and dresses, the World Press Photo exhibition captures life at its extremes. David Pollock views the cream of this year’s selection and discusses life through a lens.

The Body Politic - The British Ambassador’s Belly Dancer

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

22 Jul 2008

A story of prostitution, oppression and torture might not sound like fun, but throw in a bit of belly dancing and you have a Fringe hit. Steve Cramer talks to Craig Murray, formerly our man in Uzbekistan, about baring souls on stage.

Peter Oborne

22 Jul 2008

Is the strife in Iraq a conflict that can ever end? At the start of 2006, Peter Oborne was unequivocal. ‘The invasion of Iraq is the greatest foreign policy disaster since Munich,’ he said at the start of his damning Dispatches documentary Iraq: the…

Big Tent Festival 2008

17 Jul 2008

While the pretend hippies drive their SUVs to Glastonbury and this year’s T in the Park fades into lager-sodden memory, all yer actual planet-savers are off to Falkland Palace. The Big Tent Festival, which grew out of a response to the 2005 G8 summit…

Fears eased over Festival performer visa crisis

8 May 2008

Fears that thousands of performers at the Edinburgh Festival would be prevented from entering the UK due to new immigration legislation have been eased with the introduction of a new type of visa. The Home Office has announced that visiting…

Hard-Fi for Scotland's Rock Against Racism

13 Feb 2008

The first name for 2008's Rock Against Racism has been announced with Staines dole rock types Hard-Fi being confirmed for a gig at Edinburgh's Liquid Room, Monday 25 February. The indie rockers, behind the massive hits 'Hard to Beat and 'Living for…

Cherie Blair signs £1m autobiography deal

20 Sep 2007

Cherie Blair is expected to lift the lid on her time in Downing Street, after signing an autobiography deal worth £1million. The wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who had a famously tempestuous relationship with her husband’s successor Gordon…

Fatboy

David Laing

23 Aug 2007

With our current culture of consumerism and our seemingly endless desire to rid the planet of its natural resources, there is unlikely to be a more fitting or biting satire at this year’s Fringe than John Clancy’s Fatboy. An updated version of Alfred…

Get Your War On

23 Aug 2007

“I’m not very analytical. You know I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about why I do things”, honest words from President Bush, as he spells out his failings to the electorate and yet they still voted him in for a second term. Join the Rude…

John Pilger

23 Aug 2007

In this day and age, journalist is a job title which is afforded a disdain from the general public on a par with estate agent, parking attendant and serial killer. Trust is a commodity that is lacking when it comes to relations between newspaper people…

The Man Across the Way

23 Aug 2007

Police are being given more money to conduct surveillance on suspected terrorists and the public are being asked to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity. It is understandable in the context of the war on terror but you have to wonder…

Billy Brag

16 Aug 2007

Billy Bragg was described by The Times as ‘a national treasure’. That particular phrase would surely bring a wry smile to his face, not least because the topic currently vexing the lifelong political campaigner and singer-songwriter is the fundamental…

Andrew Marr

16 Aug 2007

Andrew Marr has always used his vast intellect with such wit and verve that he has always come across as a political pundit real people could enjoy. It’s hard to imagine David Frost interviewing Gordon Brown on a Sunday morning, as Marr did last month…

Jihad: The Musical

16 Aug 2007

The magic of the musical genre is that you can get away with so much. If you can’t say it, sing it. This show is a perfect example. Catchy songs like ‘The Jihad Jive’ whisk us through Sayed’s story. In it we follow a young naïve Afghan flower seller who…

Matthew Collin

16 Aug 2007

At the turn of the 21st century, uprisings against undemocratic governments in Serbia, Georgia and Ukraine benefited from a prominent youth resistance, with groups using humour and satire to undermine the authorities. ‘After Otpor in Serbia, similar…

Nick Cohen

Observing hatred in all its forms

9 Aug 2007

Nick Cohen is a rare beast. A pro-invasion of Iraq commentator with impeccable left-wing credentials, he was moved to write What’s Left? How Liberals Lost Their Way by a perception that liberals were forming an unholy alliance with fascism in failing to…

Will Hutton

9 Aug 2007

It’s not many people that can make dense economic theory and political machinations accessible to the casual reader, but Will Hutton is one such man. Formerly the editor-in-chief of the Observer and What the Papers Say political journalist of the year…

Charles Kennedy

Festival of Politics

19 Jul 2007

Festival of Politics The knowledge Hounded by the press and bullied by his own party, it’s no surprise to discover that Charles Kennedy is enjoying his political sabbatical. Ruth Hedges catches up with him and finds a man at ease with the world again

Kate Adie

19 Jul 2007

Kate Adie talks to Allan Radcliffe about her career in the frontline of news journalism and her refusal to let sentiment undermine the pursuit of facts

Rebecca Drysdale

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

Edinburgh Festival Fringe Bits & pieces An award-winning show with nudity, lesbianism and racial politics sounds like pretty standard Fringe fare these days. But Brian Donaldson reckons Rebecca Drysdale has quite a few cheeky tricks up her sleeve

Tommy Sheridan

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

19 Jul 2007

Edinburgh Festival Fringe Boxing clever Solidarity leader Tommy Sheridan is full of fighting spirit as he prepares to enter the Fringe fray, finds Mark Fisher

World Press Photo exhibition

Festival of Politics

19 Jul 2007

Festival of Politics Life through a lense Ruth Hedges introduces this year’s World Press Photo exhibition, which runs throughout August at the Scottish Parliament and powerfully documents people and places from across the globe

Asylum Monologues

18 Jun 2007

REHEARSED READING Did you know that fish and chips were first introduced into the UK by Jewish immigrants in the 19th century? Or that the UK receives less than 0.5% of the world’s refugee population? Probably not, thinks Christine Bacon…

Detainee A

18 Jun 2007

POLITICAL DRAMA Cora Bissett has, for over a decade, been one of Scotland’s most respected performers, but when it was announced that she was directing a show, Amada, at the Arches, there might have been a slight twinge of fear among her many…

Cyprus

22 May 2007

Political thriller When Cyprus writer Peter Arnott’s taut, politically charged three-hander debuted at Mull Theatre in 2005, it was set on the day of the London bombings. ‘At the time, the bombings were the newest instalment of this continuing, sad…

What I Heard About Iraq

8 May 2007

VERBATIM THEATRE On a brilliant and sunny July morning last year, I sat opposite Eliot Weinberger in a downtown café in Manhattan. A small, balding man, perhaps in his mid 50s, he spoke in that New York accent that reminds the outsider irresistibly…

Comics - Calvario Hills

7 May 2007

CRIME/POLITICS

Bad Men

Clive Stafford Smith

23 Apr 2007

POLITICAL ESSAY Clive Stafford Smith has been privy to some horrible maltreatments of human beings down the years. As a Cornishman with dual UK/US citizenship, he is seen as a saviour to the many Death Row prisoners he has tried to rescue from lethal…

Avenge But One of My Two Eyes - DVD review

Avenge But One of My Two Eyes

29 Jan 2007

DOCUMENTARY Avi Mograbi’s tough-minded documentary on the horrors of today’s Israeli-Palestine conflict looks at events not from the point of view of Palestinian fanaticism and Israeli brutality, but chiefly from the long established fanaticism…

Stop the War Scotland

Glasgow University, Sat 10 Feb

29 Jan 2007

CONFERENCE Rival MPs, senior citizens, human rights activists, students, artists, prisoners, religious leaders, journalists, aid workers, members of the Armed Forces and ordinary single mothers from Glasgow. The Stop the War Coalition has forged…

Unconquered, The

Betts on two horses

29 Jan 2007

Steve Cramer Tell me a little about the origins of The Unconquered. The central character’s a girl, I understand, who is brutalised for standing up to reactionary forces?

US Vs John Lennon, The - David Leaf profile

Profile

22 Nov 2006

Name David Leaf Born New Rochelle, New York Background Leaf began his career as a New York City based news and sports reporter, but moved to Los Angeles where he became an Emmy award-winning writer-producer-director of music culture shows for…

Tom Fool

Marcuse their words

13 Nov 2006

The idea that a compelling night of theatre can come from Herbert Marcuse’s ideas about the way in which capitalism impinges upon, and ultimately destroys the organic self, replacing it with an emotionally, socially and sexually dysfunctional reified…

Mark Kurlansky

Fight snub

11 Nov 2006

It’s the afternoon of the US midterm elections with writer and journalist Mark Kurlansky having already performed his democratic duty. As the repercussions have shown, the Republican defeat was seen as a massive vote of no-confidence in the…

Armando Ianucci

26 Jul 2006

A is for Armando Has Armando Iannucci actually been involved in every single great comedy moment on British television in the past 15 years? Rodger Evans chases down the improbable truth about A is for Armistice and Ah-ha! Memories of the…

George Alagiah

25 Jul 2006

It's oft been grumbled that today's television newsreaders lack the gravitas of their predecessors. With the unstoppable rise of the internet and the general dumbing down of broadcasting, the newscaster no longer presents the image of stern but…

Michelle Mone

25 Jul 2006

As part of the Politics festival, politicians will pitch their visions for the Scottish economy to three Scottish millionaire entrepreneurs, including the inventor of the Ultimo bra, Michelle Mone. David Pollock tells the uplifting story of Mone's…