Matthew Carr's Blog, page 54

Saint Tony Ascends to Heaven

It’s been a good year for that jetsetting businessman, philantrophist and peace envoy Tony Blair.  In September GQ Magazine voted him ‘philantrophist of the year.’   Now Save the Children have given him its ‘Global Legacy Award’ at a ‘gala dinner’ … Continue reading →

That Katie Hopkins thing that you do

I wasn’t going to write about Katie Hopkins, because I generally think that she is one of those people better off left ignored.  Nevertheless I just can’t help myself, because there are some individuals, who no matter how repellent and … Continue reading →

Leviathan

I’ve just seen Andrey Zvyagintsev’s extraordinary film Leviathan.  The movie got the best screenplay award at Cannes and has received ecstatic plaudits all round, and in my opinion it deserves them all.  It’s a bleak, troubling, and haunting piece of … Continue reading →

A Cautionary Tale

Bear with me readers on what is an unusual and longish post, because I really think that this is something that needs a public airing.  The tale begins on Thursday morning when I was sitting at my desk and received … Continue reading →

Europe’s New ‘Walls': from the Berlin Wall to Lampedusa

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, wrote the poet Robert Frost, and few walls have been more unloved historically than the Berlin Wall.   The 25th anniversary of its fall on Sunday provided an opportunity for nostalgic reflection on … Continue reading →

The Strange Cult of Russell Brand Part II

I shouldn’t have been entirely surprised that my recent thoughts on the Russell Brand phenomenon have attracted far more comments on this site and on Facebook than my posts usually get – it’s in the nature of the Brand phenomenon … Continue reading →

The Strange Cult of Russell Brand

This won’t make me popular, but I’m tired of hearing about Russell Brand.  It has now become impossible to go on Facebook without coming across a post hailing his latest pronouncements or interviews.   These postings are almost always celebratory, … Continue reading →

Adam Hochschild’s War Resisters

Last night I was lucky enough to catch a talk in Derby from Adam Hochschild based on his book  To End All Wars: How the First World War Divided Britain.   Hochschild once declared his interest in ‘ writing about times … Continue reading →

Lord Green of Migration Watch

Yesterday’s announcement of a peerage for Sir Andrew Green, chairman of MigrationWatch.Uk is another testament to the antiquated patronage system through which the British political class rewards those who have been useful to it, but the fact that Green has … Continue reading →

The Sorrows of Mexico

There aren’t many countries where bodies are discovered in a mass grave believed to be the known victims of a known massacre,  only for it to turn out that the bodies were actually the unknown victims of an unknown massacre, … Continue reading →