BEHIND THE SCENES FOR OSCAR HIT’S LEGAL FIXER February 7, 2012 PAUL RENNEY, a lawyer at Keystone Law, almost collected the Bafta for The King’s Speech – except the film’s producers were faster out of their seats than he was. Renney, as the hit’s legal adviser, was a stand-in at the event for screenwriter David Seidler, who was “annoyed” at not being flown over from the [...]
TRAVEL NOTES November 27, 2011 Australia to set up marine park bigger than Germany Australia has agreed to set up the world’s biggest marine park to protect vast areas of the Coral Sea off the country’s northeast coast and the site of fierce naval battles during World War Two. The park will cover almost 1m square km – an area [...]
Rise in child support shelved November 29, 2011 THE COALITION has scrapped a planned above-inflation rise in child tax credits which had been unveiled by George Osborne only last year. The chancellor said he would not go ahead with the plan to raise the child element of the child tax credit by £110 above the rate of inflation in 2012-13, saving nearly £1bn. He [...]
Trust in the Tinkerer of the Exchequer November 29, 2011 IT WAS a motley crew of beneficiaries the Tinkerer of the Exchequer ushered into the first class cabins of HMS Treasury yesterday. Satellites, waste facilities, broadband networks, supercomputers, world-bleating (beating?) animal health labs, the Kettering Bypass, small shops, the A453 link… “They’re all going to be improved!” the Tinkerer brayed, as he furiously rearranged the [...]
SNOW POLO AND PIGLET RACING FOR SUPER-RICH January 24, 2012 THERE’S MORE than one top-level summit for bankers in Switzerland this week. At the ski resort of Klosters, The Capitalist hears several members of the business elite have been taxing their champagne-addled brains by betting on racing piglets. At least they would have done if fog hadn’t scuppered the trotters’ Derby. Instead, guests at the [...]
Meryl Streep shines in this flawed biopic January 5, 2012 FILM THE IRON LADY Cert: 12A *** One of the defining figures of our generation; a woman who reached the top despite the best efforts of the patriarchy; a divisive personality who demands the grudging respect of her detractors. Meryl Streep could teach us all a thing or two. And in The Iron Lady – [...]
Easy, tiger January 29, 2012 IN the chilly darkness, I climb into the passenger seat of the open-top Tata 4×4, with binoculars, camera, hot-water bottle and blanket, for the dawn game drive. The birds are fully awake as the dry teak forest of Pench National Park emerges in the soft amber-pink light. We hear the single, punctuated note of a [...]
Mission: Partially Successful December 22, 2011 Film MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 4 Cert: 12A *** By Steve Dinneen International espionage isn’t a glamorous business. It largely consists of grubby encounters between council members expatriating mundane information about the state of local transport systems. The arrest in New York last year of Russian spy Anna Chapman – who went on to pose for Maxim [...]
Mission: Partially Successful December 22, 2011 Film MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 4 Cert: 12A *** By Steve Dinneen International espionage isn’t a glamorous business. It largely consists of grubby encounters between council members expatriating mundane information about the state of local transport systems. The arrest in New York last year of Russian spy Anna Chapman – who went on to pose for Maxim [...]
Carve yourself a very merry Xmas December 21, 2011 IN the Lord Byron room of Brown’s Hotel on Albemarle Street, a slow-grown just-roasted chicken rests on a bespoke stand and our mission is to carve it – properly. Mark Hix, ex-chef-director of Caprice Holdings, is hosting a masterclass to revive “the lost art of carving”, and he is teaching over a long roast lunch [...]