Hermione Eyre

Hermione Eyre: Vandalism leaves a bitter aftertaste

Was that a smirk in the newscaster's voice as he announced that Fred Goodwin's home had been vandalised? A "he-had-it-coming" curl of the lip? Perhaps not (headline readers are admirably po-faced) but certainly, the public response to the news that Sir Fred's windows had been smashed had an unmistakable undercurrent of jubilance. Which gives me the shivers.

Recently by Hermione Eyre

Hermione Eyre: You think you want power? You may be mistaken

Saturday, 28 February 2009

Public achievement comes at a price. Why stick your head above the parapet

Hermione Eyre: Thought for the day: get us thinking, BBC

Wednesday, 14 January 2009

How much longer can "Thought for the Day" continue on Radio 4's Today programme? That little slot of sanctimony before the 8am news bulletin – only two minutes and 45 second in duration but always seeming so very much longer – is again being targeted by secularists, who politely suggest it should either widen its remit to include non-religious contributors, or shut up shop altogether.

Hermione Eyre: Oh, for a bit of tinsel on the stage

Friday, 12 December 2008

We seem unable to find a modern idiom for onstage enchantment

Hermione Eyre: In vain pursuit of punctuality

Thursday, 13 November 2008

Obama was early, Sarkozy late. It takes grace to be bang on time

Hermione Eyre: From behind Obama, I could see a girl moved to tears ...

Tuesday, 4 November 2008

A Limey busybody, I joined the ranks of campaign volunteers

Hermione Eyre: If you don't think philosophy can make you happy, you haven't read Seneca

Wednesday, 3 September 2008

How do you fit everything in? There's so much out there. Every day the paper recommends another film you mustn't miss, a book you have to read. Every article leads to a link to another; every TV programme ends with a trailer. Missing a programme isn't an excuse any more. You can catch everything again online. Every day ends too soon; isn't life desperately short for living?

Hermione Eyre: Nonsense? At least the Tories are thinking

Thursday, 14 August 2008

Let's be clear: the Policy Exchange's suggestion that certain northern cities are not worth regenerating is pure, steaming nonsense. Government funding should be used to correct the gravitational pull of money and commerce to the south, not to reinforce it. But however ill-judged that particular report may be, and however much bad publicity it has caused for David Cameron (closely allied with the Policy Exchange, he was a guest speaker there in July) it is a sign of something good: the Tories are thinking.

Hermione Eyre: Uncaring, unethical – and a risk to us all

Monday, 4 August 2008

Compelling as it is to discuss David Miliband's little finger (isn't the way he waves his hands about just so Blair?), there are other issues that the party political personality contest should not completely obscure. Yesterday we learnt what Alan Johnson would rather we didn't know: that government policy on healthcare access for failed asylum-seekers is worryingly out of step with medical opinion. The more you look at the scheme, the more you think it is out of step with common sense as well.

Hermione Eyre: Cool title, but what does it mean?

Friday, 16 May 2008

The Government has pledged to build three million extra homes by 2020, but how can this be done without concreting over the countryside? This question has been worrying me, as it must worry anyone who likes grass, and thinks some of it should still be visible in the South-east. So I went along to a lecture on this topic at the Royal Geographical Society this week, where the message was sent out loud and clear: Worry not. We can do it.

Hermione Eyre: How did exploiting teenage girls become acceptable?

Thursday, 24 April 2008

A giant pole was raised outside Parliament on Tuesday. Sadly, it wasn't a maypole. It was a pole of the type that women gyrate around, semi-clothed, for money, and it was an angry stunt by women's campaign group Object ("challenging Sex Object Culture") to raise awareness of the fact that we now have twice as many of these poles in this country as we did three years ago. Yes, lap-dancing clubs have doubled since the Licensing Law 2003 came into effect in 2005, and Britain is a grubbier and less safe place for it. Meanwhile the BBC isn't helping stem the filth, either.

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