Issues Follow Follow

I'M MAKING a documentary at the moment to be shown on 22 September and it's producing some extraordinary information. We found some very revealing archive footage of Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and others in the Bush gang. In early 2001, visiting Cairo, Colin Powell said, "Saddam Hussein has not developed any capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project even conventional power against his neighbours. "So in effect our policies have strengthened the security of the region." Condoleezza Rice said something very similar at the time.

EVERY CANDIDATE in California's dark recall election comedy should be obliged to answer the question, "Whither Duroville?" Duroville is the California visitors never see and that pundits ignore when they debate the future of the world's sixth largest economy.

THE FEROCITY of the attacks on the BBC was underscored last Saturday when Radio 4's flagship news programme, Today, handed its weekly essay slot to Charles Moore, editor of the Daily Telegraph. You had to suspend disbelief as Moore told his listeners the BBC was left of centre, anti big business and-wait for it-passionately opposed to the war in Iraq.

I USED to teach 10 and 11 year olds who were reluctant to leave their computers and read books. To encourage them, I started writing stories about children like them and read them chapters in class. I wanted to give them something they could identify with and they loved it. Harry Potter is written to an old-fashioned formula, like Billy Bunter and the Just William books. It's got the same old public schools and servants.