Author Archives: Hamish Renton

Opinion: return to your trattoria and prepare for tagliatelle

By Hamish Renton | Sun 3rd October 2010 - 11:41 am

Well, it’s been quite a week. We know Clegg called Ed Miliband to congratulate him on his victory at the weekend. Quite right too. Ed then strolled around telling everyone how he and David Miliband were, to quote Mark Knopfler, “Brothers in arms”.

Ed then unveiled his road to Damascus moment – on civil liberties, Iraq, banks, AV and justice reform. Spot on, Ed. His keynote speech said cuts were bad in general, but some were needed. But not which ones.

Or when. He implied he now thought the Lib Dems not quite as bad as when he campaigned for …

Posted in News | Tagged david miliband and ed miliband | 13 Comments

Ghosts of Bilderberg past

By Hamish Renton | Sat 5th June 2010 - 7:10 pm

As the uber-secretive Bilderberg group meets in Spain this weekend, lets cast our mind back 33 years to when they met in the fading surroundings of Torquay’s Imperial Hotel and messrs Hattersley, Thatcher, Healey, Schmit etc met over cocktails to shoot the establishment breeze.

Then, in 1977 it felt like the “fag end” of a political era. Labservatives had been failing to get to grips with the country’s ills since the war. Strikes, three day weeks…we all know the script. The ill fated Lib-Lab pact had just been announced to an underwhelmed electorate, keeping Labour in power until collapsing in …