Tag: Mud

Retired people could watch it, though that’s just a guess; I’m definitely not inferring from the distinctive vintage to the comments on social media (“Will someone tell that annoying woman to stop biting her nails?”). It seemed to exist in the fine tradition of daytime news coverage, there to satisfy the Gods of Public Information that the discussion format was being observed. Arguably, office-hours audiences for day-time TV will always be pretty small, and so it should be. It is not the job of a public service broadcaster to make sure everyone is watching telly all the time, or at least I don’t think that’s what Reith had in mind. Presenter Andrew Neil was plainly on the right; his defenders would claim he was equally hard on Labour and Conservative politicians alike, but as enjoyable as this often was to watch, as a definition of neutrality it is a little lame. Fellow presenter Jo Coburn had a more sober style and was a deft interviewer (both will continue to present the show’s replacement, Politics Live). The show never deviated, so far as I could see, from its core precept: anything Labour said that sounded remotely appealing was a leftwing pipe dream, while the Conservatives were natural arbiters of affordability. A death penalty referendum could really divide Britain Frances Crook runs the Howard League for Penal Reform; she is a magnificent campaigner, bringing a lot of old-fashioned notions such as decency to the debate on prisons, fighting for things you couldn’t quite believe anyone would have to fight for. Javid has, apparently unilaterally, rowed back on a core British principle: we do not allow transfer or extradition of any prisoner to any country where they might face death at the hands of the state. I can just picture the referendum: there is no compromise between death penalty and no death penalty.

The man nominated as Italy’s prime minister may be respected in the legal and academic realms but he is far-removed from the complex, messy world of Italian politics - something that is of mounting concern to his parents. “He is already very important in his career, but look what happens when you get into politics: they throw mud.” There was a lot of mud thrown this week when Giuseppe Conte, 53, emerged as the surprise pick to lead a coalition of Luigi Di Maio’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and the far-right League, headed up by Matteo Salvini. The lawyer and professor at the University of Florence was accused of embellishing his university studies on his CV, while reports emerged that he had supported Stamina, a discredited stem cell therapy invented by the disgraced former professor Davide Vannoni. Italy's president invites populist coalition to form government Read more Beppe Grillo, the comedian who founded M5S, slammed the claims as “malicious gossip”. “He’s much loved by his students,” Giunti told the Guardian. Childhood friend Antonio Placentino told local reporters that he “studied hard at school and was very reserved”. Conte graduated from Rome’s Sapienza University in 1988 and now lives in the capital, where he runs a law firm. He is an expert in arbitration, particularly in the areas of civil and commercial law. Between 2012 and 2015 he served on the board of the Italian Space Agency. Conte came into contact with M5S in 2013, the year the party entered parliament for the first time, when he was asked to become a member of its council for administrative law.