David Waywell

Tuesday

David Waywell

Is our foreign policy being dreamt up by the James Bond screenwriters?

From our UK edition

If there's one thing that the James Bond films has taught us it is that the Chinese are not our enemies. We should perhaps remember this as President Xi Jinping polishes his heels on our red carpets this week. Our enemies are cold war Russians, jewel-encrusted North Koreans, ex-Nazi rocket scientists, fat Europeans obsessed with gold, and, of course, bald Polish-Greek crime lords called Ernst with a love of bob sleighs and white cats. The imminent release of the twenty fourth Bond film is a handy reminder that if we're looking for threats, we should really look closer to home.

Thursday

David Waywell

Why I won’t be celebrating Have I Got News For You’s 25th anniversary

From our UK edition

America, we're told, has been enjoying a golden age of news satire. This is largely attributed to Jon Stewart and The Daily Show, less largely to the show that followed it on Comedy Central, The Colbert Report, hosted by Stephen Colbert. The two shows developed a unique rivalry: Colbert the showman to Stewart's slightly more dour news anchor. It was a rare pairing in which two shows worked as a double act. Often the jokes of one show continued into the next, the hosts appearing in each other's studio on a regular basis. They worked beautifully together. Yet beyond Comedy Central, American satire had already been doing well. For decades, Bill Maher has been hosting shows that have been harder, meaner, and often funnier than his mainstream rivals.

Tuesday

David Waywell

Charity now begins at your second home

From our UK edition

Mitres off to the Archbishop of Canterbury for inviting 'a family or two' of refugees into his home. Well, not specifically into his home but into a four-bedroom cottage that sits in the grounds of Lambeth Palace. Opening up your second home to refugees is becoming quite fashionable among people who have more houses than they have hats or, indeed, mitres. Bob Geldof has offered refugees use of his Kent home as well as his London flat. The Pope has instructed that Vatican lodgings should be made available to a few families. This refugee crisis is proving easier to solve than we first thought. By my quick calculation, that's possibly up to 10 families already fixed up. Just another two hundred thousand to go.

Friday

David Waywell

Does Elton John genuinely believe he can change Putin’s attitude to gays?

From our UK edition

I've never been an Elton John fan. Never owned an album. Never added one of his tunes to my playlist of favourite tracks. Never really understood the appeal of pith helmets, spectacles, coat tails, and twitchy eyebrows. Yet it's because I'm immune to his charm that it would be easy for me to mock Elton for falling for the scam arranged by two pranksters who convinced him that he was speaking with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. It would be easy but it would also be unfair because what happened to Elton wasn't a prank. A prank contains some clue that gives the victim a chance to escape the net. There should always be the moment when you cry 'how could they not see through that?