Terence Blacker
The journalist and critic Terence Blacker writes a twice-weekly topical column. He is the author of four novels and his children’s books have been published in 18 languages. Blacker’s most recent book was the highly praised biography You Cannot Live as I Have Lived and Not End Up Like This: The Thoroughly Disgraceful Life and Times of Willie Donaldson.
Terence Blacker: The greasy gravy train of lobbyism
There is a long list of government spinners in the private sector
Recently by Terence Blacker
Terence Blacker: The Army has lost the moral high ground
Friday, 28 November 2008
Those looking for a snapshot of modern army life, which is rather more accurate than the gung-ho recruiting ads on TV, might usefully consider the misadventures of Lance-Bombardier Kerry Fletcher of the 40th Regiment, Royal Artillery. The first woman to ride with the King's Troop, Fletcher made no secret of the fact that she was a lesbian. A staff sergeant called Ian Brown sent her some randy texts offering to "convert her", telling her that she needed a real man and proposing a threesome with another female officer.
Terence Blacker: Only one person is writing this – me
Tuesday, 25 November 2008
The creation of a story is not a team event. The author is in charge
Terence Blacker: We are the real savages of the show
Friday, 21 November 2008
The celebrities-in-a-wood show is back on TV. A Page Three girl has eaten a kangaroo's testicle and was worried, rather touchingly, that she might become pregnant. The show is a sort of annual ritual which follows a predictable routine – the pretty one in the "jungle" strips down to a bikini, the mad one gets madder, the presenters giggle on the sidelines, and so on. Outside, familiar controversies are revisited, too.
Terence Blacker: Demonised - and sentimentalised
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
Our attitudes to children are dangerously confused
Terence Blacker: It's enough to make me cry... in private
Friday, 14 November 2008
The great blubbing debate has just moved to a new, decisive phase, with those of us who hold that crying in public is almost always a form of showing off in danger of being swept away on a tide of tears.
Terence Blacker: Dame Joan has a battle on her hands
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
A British Obama might be unthinkable. But so is a British McCain
Terence Blacker: Golf madness is killing the countryside
Friday, 7 November 2008
These are hard times for the old-fashioned, money-making operations that were all the rage until a few months ago. It is now a time of doubt and questions for investors. Is the business plan sound? What effect will it have on the local environment? Does it have an unacceptably large carbon footprint? Will it face opposition from planners and councils?
Terence Blacker: We're living in the Great Age of Panic
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
It is as if we need to be afraid of one thing or another in order to feel alive
Terence Blacker: Driven to despair as I wander in the seventh circle of call-centre hell
Friday, 31 October 2008
They are usually polite. They introduce themselves by their first names, and address you by yours. They assure you at every opportunity that they are there to help you. Then they take you into a nightmare world where all normal standards of behaviour are reversed and nothing is quite what it seems.
Terence Blacker: When did bullying become acceptable?
Tuesday, 28 October 2008
It is a rather bewildering contradiction of our increasingly peculiar society that, while cruelty in everyday life is the subject of unprecedented disapproval, it is positively celebrated and encouraged in the world of entertainment.
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Columnist Comments
• Terence Blacker: The greasy gravy train of lobbyism
The idiocy and graft at work in the system barely merits a second glance.
• Dominic Lawson: When 'life' should mean life.
Sometimes the public feel the perpetrator should not be released.
• Steve Richards: Who is accountable for the police?
Why was Damian Green arrested with such spectacular insensitivity?
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1 James Purnell: New Labour is not dead and buried – it's in rude health
2 Steve Richards: Who is accountable for the police?
3 Dominic Lawson: When 'life' should mean life.
4 Terence Blacker: The greasy gravy train of lobbyism
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