Elbow

Ultimately hard to resist: Elbow reviewed

From our UK edition

Our relationships with bands are often very like our relationships with people. Some are pure and lasting love. Some start promisingly but spoil. Some are quick, thrilling flings, others a more meaningful yet distant connection. Elbow are the kind of band you enjoy having a pint with every few months. Not always the most exciting company, perhaps, but smart, convivial and good hearted. Thoughtful. Reliable. They might arrive – bang on time – for your latest rendezvous armed with a funny story about a beleaguered colleague, but they’re unlikely to announce they’re running off to Brazzaville with the intern. You know where you are with Elbow – in this instance, a shallow concrete amphitheatre in Glasgow’s leafy west end.

Nancy Pelosi lands a blow for childcare

Cockburn may indulge in more liquor than he should, but even he would never shove a child. So imagine how shocked he was to see Nancy Pelosi elbow aside a kid during a photo-op. Mayra Flores was recently elected to finish out a term in Texas’s 34th Congressional District, which has historically been a safely held Democratic constituency. Flores ran on a pro-life ticket and won the largely Hispanic district in South Texas. During her swearing in, Flores’s children stood next to Nancy Pelosi. At one point, Pelosi pushed Flores’s daughter with her elbow, which triggered a media outcry. Flores tweeted: “I am so proud of my strong, beautiful daughter for not allowing this to faze her. She continued to smile and pose for the picture like a Queen.