With all due respect to the excellent investigative journalism that exposed the large-scale data harvesting by Cambridge Analytica – it will not bring down Facebook. Commentators were quick to point to share price volatility and hashtag protests as indicators of doom. The social network has indeed been slow to ventilate the stench surrounding its relationship to […]
When Margaret Thatcher launched a task force to retake the Falklands from Argentine forces, her message was simple: she was defending the rights of the islanders to self-determination. In 1982, after years of domestic inertia, economic stagnation and government infighting, the British public endorsed this decisive act- and it won her a landslide reelection a […]
It shouldn’t surprise us that brands have attempted to make money from outrage. The opposite of virtue is not Vice. It’s the Daily Mail. This week, Centre Parcs announced that it would be joining an increasing number of brands – Lego, Paperchase, the Southbank Centre – who have chosen to stop advertising in the newspaper. […]
Are they, aren’t they? Will they, won¹t they separate? Forget the TV soaps. This week has been all about the Cheryl and Liam. Earlier in the week the Sun¹s showbiz guru Dan Wootton broke the story that the showbiz couple were about to split. According to his scoop, the dynamic duo were struggling to keep […]
Even in his lifetime the work of John Williams Waterhouse rarely made much of a stir in the art world. He is often classed as a pre-Raphaelite although he was painting his scenes of Arthurian chic long after the brotherhood were fashionable. Nobody would have noticed the sudden removal from display of his work Hylas […]
Pinned under the duvet; smothered with decongestant, comforted by the warm embrace of Night Nurse; I’ve suffered a rather tedious week. Although I’ve been struck down by a particularly nasty, industrial strength man flu virus, I’ve had sometime, to catch up on a couple of interesting talking points. Firstly the Ad Contrarium is an important […]
The Presidents Club ball narrative, fittingly, is still high on the news agenda. Hourly, we hear many correctly de-cry the event as appalling, shameful, disgusting and deplorable. Great Ormond Street Hospital, which received £530,000 from the Presidents Club between 2009 and 2016, said it will return the donations. The “most read” story in The Financial […]
You might have missed the kerfuffle recently between the highly respected theatre critic, Lyn Gardner and Cirque Du Soleil. There was much debate about the Circus taking steps to stop the critic reviewing their new production. Evidently Ms Gardner found out she was uninvited from a press night. She had been approved to review the […]
Speed kills. This week the velocity of the news agenda has been shaped by various narratives driven by the telegraph wire of Twitter. From Logan Paul to Toby Young, the week’s anguish proves that it’s a deafening noise that drowns out something more profound and enlightened, ideas and insight. Each incident provoked angst, each instance […]
1. Real News will strike back in 2018 and is already doing so. The New York Times, The Economist and Wall Street Journal are all now making real money digitally and print circulations remain significant. The same goes for titles ranging from the i to Private Eye and a resurgent, Jeff-Bezos-owned Washington Post. The Times […]