Category Archives: Op-eds

Here’s a few stories that have grabbed my eye from today’s press. What do you think and what stories have interested you? Let us know in the comments.

First  of all, we’re just 48 hours away from the US Midterms, a set of elections in which the Republicans are expected to do well. In reality, it’s a set of elections a bit like the Euros were for us, that are not the Democrats’ strongest sets, even on a good day. The Observer follows Obama for 24 hours on the campaign trail and majors on his weaknesses. There’s an argument he’s done pretty well given the wrecking mischief-making of the Republicans during his entire term. There is evidence of the Obama we know:

Yet hints of the old Obama remain. During his gubernatorial rally in Maine, Mike Michaud – a former mill-worker who would become America’s first openly gay elected governor, if successful on Tuesday – the president’s speechwriters drift toward the catchphrases of his own election campaign: hope, change, progress.

“Hope is a better choice,” Obama tells the audience. “Hope is what gives those soldiers in world war two the courage to storm a beach. Hope is what allows young people to march on behalf of women’s rights, and workers’ rights, and civil rights, and voting rights, and gay rights, and immigration rights.”

Here’s my pick of today’s Sunday papers. Please add your favourite stories in the comments.

First up, an article in the Independent reports criticism of Nick Clegg’s failure to put a woman in the Cabinet from Alice Thomas (citing her article on here) and from Presidential candidate Daisy Cooper.

Hannah Summers reports in the Sunday Times (£) on the casting for a new drama about the formation of the Coalition. Doctor Who and Sherlock writer Mark Gatiss, who also plays the shadowy Mycoft Holmes in the latter, has been cast as Peter Mandelson. Writer James Graham is interviewed

The pivotal part of the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg has gone to Bertie Carvel, who won an Olivier award in 2012 for his performance as Miss Trunchbull in Matilda the Musical.

“It’s the texting, the calls, the clandestine meetings between the three leaders, but primarily it focuses on Clegg,” Graham said of the drama.

“He went from being this harmless outsider and figure of fun to facing this incredible rollercoaster and essentially becoming a kingmaker . . . Nobody had experience of building a coalition. They were bluffing their way through, which brings an endearing, farcical feel to it.”