Tag Archives: letter from america

If Alistair Cooke reported the Obamacare standoff: “A real shutdown… not really!”

By Andy Boddington | Fri 4th October 2013 - 9:15 am

Alistair CookeThere are voices from history that cannot be forgotten. Among them is that of Alistair Cooke, a Brit who understood America like no other.

There are times when I really miss Alistair. He had a unique ability to explain to us the seemingly bizarre and sometimes incomprehensible machinations of American politics and government.

Of course, he spoke of much more than politics in his Letter from America broadcasts. His tale of Gershwin and Russian immigration still gives me goose bumps. His lament on the closure of Woolworths captured the aspirations of a generation. He even managed to make golf sound entertaining, even vaguely important.

Continue reading »
Posted in News and Op-eds | Also tagged | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

A personal guide to the 13 most essential political podcasts

By Stephen Tall | Mon 10th June 2013 - 8:45 am

podcastsCommuting is a major part of my daily life, so I find podcasts are an essential way to make use of time I’d otherwise spend staring vacantly out the window or idly refreshing and re-refreshing Twitter. Here, in order of where they appear in my iTunes directory, are the podcasts I listen to most frequently…

The Economist’s podcasts – a good mix of audio recordings of selected articles from the print edition together with brief discussions involving the Economist’s expert correspondents. Slightly irritatingly the sound can vary between recordings, so you …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and | 8 Comments
Advert



Recent Comments

  • Tristan Ward
    This is a fine speech, marching toward the sound of gunfire. The reference to the Commonwealth is good too. Poor old Charles though - the bait to get Trum...
  • Simon R
    For once I actually agree with Steve, to the extent that coming up with a plan to fix the problem would be a lot more constructive than simply complaining about...
  • Jenny Barnes
    It's not just physical beds and hospital infrastructure. There's not any more staff. So the only solution is to do less of something. Most NHS treatments are c...
  • Katharine Pindar
    A splendidly vigorous and broad-ranging speech from Ed which we hope will be well reported. It is to be hoped also that Federal Policy Committee will be bringin...
  • Mohammed Amin
    In his Financial Times Politics newsletter this morning, based on the advance copy of Ed’s speech, Stephen Bush was very complimentary about Ed’s strategic ...