Politics

Do you remember Shari Lewis? I try and avoid describing women in sexualized terms, however sometimes it suits, as she was an astoundingly beautiful ventriloquist on American television when I was a child thus becoming my first and fondest celebrity crush. She had several puppets, however the best known was a little sheep named Lamb Chop. (As I think of it now, that's really a rather ominous name, like calling a chicken KFC.) Lewis recorded several albums of children's songs...

Murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich has been confirmed as being a Wikileaks source by Seymour Hersh in a leaked telephone call. The journalist, who has high level FBI sources, discussed what he knows about the murder in the call and revealed some interesting details about what is in the FBI report following the cyber unit investigation. Seth Rich was an American employee for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) who was fatally shot in the Bloomingdale neighbourhood of Washington. His murder has...

Donald Trump dubbed New Hampshire a "drug-infested den", boasted about his election victory and urged his Mexican counterpart to remain quiet about a border wall in a telephone call which has been leaked by the Washington Post. The transcript provides a rare glimpse into the private conversations of a new US President testing his negotiating powers on foreign counterparts, with the phone call taking place just seven days after Trump entered office. More than 30 references to "the wall" are made in the...

So the latest since our last check-in is that the President has been having imaginary conversations with the head of the Boy Scouts of America and the President of Mexico. These were either bald-faced lies (most likely), possible signs of creeping dementia (not unlikely), or one of those flashbacks we were all promised when we were ingesting recreational chemicals back in our tossed salad days (pleasant to consider). Oh yes, and Trump has also been quoted as telling his wealthy...

It's a thin and shaky cable that stretches between bemused interest and hysteric obsession and sometimes you just stand there in the middle, wondering which way to walk. Casual glances at a news subject's headlines with only an occasional long read is in the long run probably safer for mental health, and a damn sight better in terms of work productivity, yet it never seems to satisfy. You feel a permanent – perhaps not a hunger exactly – but a...

Six in ten Brexit voters believe significant damage to the British economy is a price worth paying for leaving the European Union. New research has unearthed extremist beliefs among Leavers, with many so committed to their beliefs that they believe significant harm befalling the UK economy, or even losing their jobs, would be a price worth paying in order to get their way on Brexit. The economic impact of the UK's vote to leave has been ever-present since the referendum, with the latest economic...

When Hunter S. Thompson was writing the article series for Rolling Stone that became the book Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, for my money still the best book ever written on US politics, he combined factual reporting, interviews and out-and-out hallucinatory fantasies to give both the facts and atmosphere of the events that led to both the re-election and resignation of Richard Nixon. Hunter has been dead now for twelve years, having blown his brains out in...

Mental health jobs will only scratch the surface of the problem, according to union GMB. The Conservatives today announced that 21,000 new jobs in mental health will be created in the NHS. But continued staff shortages, overstretched and stressed out workers and overcrowded hospitals will undoubtedly see people die unnecessarily, the union believes. The Government claims it will recruit enough nurses, therapists and consultants to treat an extra one million patients by 2020-21. Even though the NHS has lost 5,161 specialist...

Donald Trump has landed himself in hot water once again after announcing that transgender people will not be allowed to serve in the US military. The President cited analysis carried out last year that care for transgender people in the military would add $8.4 million to the total medical costs of all active duty service member. He said the US military "cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs" of transgender service members, even though it's about 0.0014 percent of...