Richard Littlejohn

Thursday

Richard Littlejohn

Sex, lies and tax returns

From our UK edition

Call this a scandal? A few years ago, it wouldn’t have made the cut. If any reporter had taken the David Cameron tax ‘scoop’ into the now-defunct News of the World, he would have been laughed out of the building. ‘OK, just run it by me again. The Prime Minister’s dad was a stockbroker, right? Daddy Cameron operated this fund in Panama, or somewhere, and Dave had a few shares in it. Then before Dave became Prime Minister, he sold the shares and made a profit of 19 grand, after paying full capital gains tax in Britain. Where’s the story?’ ‘But boss…’ ‘Don’t you “But boss” me. I’m trying to sell newspapers here.

Saturday

Richard Littlejohn

The Boss without The Big Man

From our UK edition

The main event in the E Street nation this month was not so much the release of the new Bruce Springsteen album as the litmus test live concert at Harlem’s legendary Apollo Theatre last Friday. How would The Boss cope without The Big Man, saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who died last year after suffering a stroke? Springsteen maintained that Clemons was irreplaceable. He’d been a fixture for four decades, a towering presence on stage and an integral component of the E Street sound. Two summers ago, I bumped into Clarence at a marina on Singer Island, Florida. As you do. Even though he was still frail following back surgery, he was an imposing figure, built like an NFL running back and with an aura the size of a solar system.

Saturday

Richard Littlejohn

Obama vs the lightweights

From our UK edition

This President should be beatable. But the real Republican contender won’t get in the ring for another five years Florida By rights, Barack Obama should be on the ropes. After what he himself described as a ‘shellacking’ in the midterm elections, he was given a mandatory count and still managed to stay on his feet. That ‘hopey-changey thing’ hasn’t worked out as advertised. America’s debt mountain is of Himalayan proportions. Last weekend, Washington was on the brink of a government shutdown as Obama’s government and Congress traded punches over budget cuts. Half the country hates Obama’s nationalised healthcare plan with a medieval vengeance. It gets worse. His promise to shut Club Gitmo has been shelved indefinitely.

Saturday

Richard Littlejohn

Diary – 18 February 2006

From our UK edition

The film-maker Michael Cockerell has a priceless ability to persuade politicians to make fools of themselves. His chosen technique is flattery. Cockerell manages to convince them that his gentle fly-on-the-wall documentaries will reveal the human being behind the public image. Once voters see politicians up close and personal, selflessly burning the midnight oil in the national interest, their natural cynicism will melt like a Mivvi in a Miami heatwave. Cockerell’s latest offering, shown on BBC2 last weekend, centred on Britain’s shambolic six-month presidency of the European Union and the horse-trading over Turkey’s application to join the club.

Saturday

Richard Littlejohn

How greed and hubris led to Blunkett’s downfall

From our UK edition

At least this time we were spared the self-pitying squealing about only doing what he had for the ‘little lad’. But even though David Blunkett walked the plank he still refuses to accept that he’s done anything wrong. Maybe the Viagra has gone to his head. It was obvious as early as Tuesday morning that he couldn’t survive. In the end, Tony Blair sacked him for a second time, just as he had been forced to jettison twice-disgraced Peter Mandelson. Blunkett had become an embarrassment, so he had to go. All the usual New Labour guff about this being just an unfortunate lapse in judgment, time to move on, draw a line, blah blah, wouldn’t wash.

Saturday

Richard Littlejohn

Nothing less than victory

From our UK edition

‘It’s the Sun wot won it,’ crowed Kelvin MacKenzie with characteristic chutzpah on the front page of Britain’s best-selling newspaper after Neil Kinnock had crashed to defeat in the 1992 general election. As the nation went to the polls, the Currant Bun featured the Welsh Windbag’s head inside a 40-watt bulb, under the headline, ‘If Kinnock wins, will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights.’ When the Tories were returned to office, Kelvin was quick to claim the credit. Well, up to a point, Lord Wapping. The Sun has a voice, but it doesn’t have a vote. In truth, it was the Sun’s readers wot won it, just as they had in every other election in modern times.