Yes, this is the cock. Big and blue and…birdy.

Fun on today’s Front Row debate which stole the familiar Start The Week 9 am Monday morning slot (it is repeated later today), from the studio theatre at Hull Truck. It was a debate about state funding for the arts.  Things hotted up however, when the free market economist Philip Booth, who perhaps should get out a bit more, took exception to arts journalist Ekow Eshun talking about “the big blue cock” on Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth. Read More…

My beloved Nike shoes. Always run in these, although not exactly the SAME ones. New pair every year. That’s it. No music. No gadgets, although I did add a Garmin this year.

So, thinking about my running year. It usually (but not always) culminates in a marathon. This year I want to do the inaugural Hull Marathon – which goes from the centre of town, out East, back West, to the Humber Bridge and back with a circuit around the legendary KC Stadium, ending beside the William Wilberforce Monument. That’s on September 13. So my training needs to kick off properly in April/May. With a couple of half marathons as a preparation  Read More…

Robert Peston has a new hair style. And the viewing public doesn’t like it. The BBC’s respected Economics Editor, whom I hold in a certain regard since he always seems to explain difficult concepts in a highly understandable way, has given up his former Oliver Cromwell coiffure in favour of something altogether more long, flowing and, well, floppily romantic. The Roundhead has become a rather groovy Cavalier, and yet for some strange reason the Peston inbox is groaning with the weight of abuse. One person has even accused him of stealing Hugh Grant’s look, which, inter alia, is hilarious given the disgust with which Grant views all journalists these days.

Me interviewing Boris about hairstyles…maybe!

This could be me interviewing Boris about Robert Peston’s hair. As a matter of fact, it’s not, but it could be. Peston has broken out, become a persona in his own right. Read More…

Lucien at his most charming

The CEO of Barclays, Anthony Jenkins, says our kids aren’t adequately prepared for adult life. He has said that many of our young people spend so much time in front of a screen they have forgotten how to shake hands or look people in the eye. And such things matter. Social confidence, he pointed out, is crucial in the international race for jobs. He says he learned how to engage with people, when working in a corner shop on Saturdays as a schoolboy. Well, how many children have Saturday jobs these days? Very few. Equally, children whose Saturdays are taken up by helicopter parents ferrying them to this class or that training squad (yep, that’s me), also have precious few moments of ordinary, social interaction with adults.

Social confidence is one thing in which Americans are world beaters. Commander in Chief for handshaking charm is Read More…

Tis the season for amateurish pranks on stage. And lo, yesterday I and several other innocents were gathered together at Kings Place concert hall in North London to massacre, sorry, perform, a collection of short pieces by Tchaikovsky. Before a paying audience. Read More…