Simon Carr
The Independent's parliamentary sketch writer and columnist since 2000, Simon Carr was described by Tony Blair as "the most vicious sketch writer working in Britain today". "Poison," said Charles Clarke.
In the 1980s he helped launch The Independent, and was a speech writer for the prime minister of New Zealand from 1992 to 1994. His working principle is "Indignation keeps us young."
The Sketch: When goodbye seems to be the longest word
What a long goodbye it is. There are six months to go but the committee has started its farewells. They've had over a decade together and now they await the deluge. Some will be standing down, others put down. Some will be promoted, others discarded. Meanwhile, we are entering the pre-election period of nothing happening.
Recently by Simon Carr
The Sketch: The joys of financial ignorance
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
These billions and those trillions, who's keeping track any more? How? Does the money matter, now that we're printing it? If overspending got us into this mess, how does overspending get us out? Who knows? Most of us are so ignorant we don't know that we don't know.
Simon Carr: Johnson sparkles as Brown crumbles
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
Sketch: The Prime Minister marches forward like one of those hostile statues in a Tomb Raider film
The Sketch: All he wanted was proper advice...
Friday, 30 October 2009
In Parliamentary terms Tony McNulty is an overweight bully with the mentality of a thug. Yes, yes, it takes one to know one.
The Sketch: Twenty-two wrongs don't make a right
Thursday, 29 October 2009
I've been counting how many times the Prime Minister is right and the Tories are wrong. That is, how many times he says so. That is, how many times he actually uses the very words.
The Sketch: It's a climate of confusion, for sure
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Things are so complicated it's a wonder anyone knows what's going on. But then, no one does. No one can. There's too much to know. Not that Lord Turner of Ecchinswell put it like that. He's climate change. It's his job to project omniscience in the face of the unknowable.
Simon Carr: Nothing is as it seems in the elliptical world of immigration
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Home Office questions. It must be said that Alan Johnson doesn't look as hopeless as he keeps saying he is. "Vote for me! I haven't got the desire, the talent, the confidence for the job!" Maybe it's a more cunning plan than we think.
Simon Carr: The State doesn't own our children. Yet
Monday, 26 October 2009
Our institutions came to exist in a state of dynamic tension
The Sketch: A racially inclusive constitution is the BNP's Clause 4 moment
Thursday, 22 October 2009
A torpor has settled on Parliament. A siesta. What a long goodbye it is. They’re leaving early and arriving late and very often not turning up at all.
Columnist Comments
• Howard Jacobson: Call it snobbery if you like
The rush to rescue Jordan's false breasts from Amis's teeth is more than gallantry
• Christina Patterson: Negative thinking for a better world
The man who started the Iraq war chose a rug to reflect his 'optimism'
• Andrew Grice: Cameron's great expectations
Tory leader said he would not let matters rest if Lisbon Treaty became law
Most popular in Opinion
Read
1 Robert Fisk's World: The German Lawrence of Arabia had much to live up to – and failed
3 Robert Salaam: One man’s actions will affect loyal US Muslims
4 Andrew Grice: Cameron is raising great expectations that may lead to a very bleak House
5 Robert Fisk: America is performing its familiar role of propping up a dictator
6 Christina Patterson: Why negative thinking makes the world better
7 Ian Birrell: Mind your language: words can cause terrible damage
8 Mary Wakefield: Sex education classes are the last thing young children need
Emailed
1 John Walsh: 'Fleetwood Mac survived 42 years of madness, sex, drugs, failure and success'
2 Robert Fisk's World: The German Lawrence of Arabia had much to live up to – and failed
3 John Hutton MP: No we shouldn't pull out... the strategy is absolutely the right one
4 Adam Roberts: The peaceful revolution of 1989
5 Leading article: A deal on climate change must not be postponed
6 Johann Hari: The harsh truth about Tory policies
7 Mary Wakefield: Sex education classes are the last thing young children need
8 Robert Salaam: One man’s actions will affect loyal US Muslims
9 Christina Patterson: Why negative thinking makes the world better
10 Robert Fisk: America is performing its familiar role of propping up a dictator
Commented
1Schoolboy confronts Griffin at memorial
2Robert Salaam: One man?s actions will affect loyal US Muslims
3Officer 'shouted Allahu Akbar' before gun rampage
4Ian Birrell: Mind your language: words can cause terrible damage
5Brown: We must not walk away from Afghanistan
6Brown tells Karzai to sort out corruption or else...
7Inside the mind of the army killer
8Q. When is a joke not a joke? A. When it's offence
9Kelly reforms are 'merely assumptions' and may be rejected
10Thompson 'talked out of support for Polanski' by 19-year-old student



