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."
Recently by Simon Carr
The Sketch: There's one thing we can teach the French: 'results-based' rhetoric
Friday, 21 May 2010
There is no word for "grandeur" in English. That's what we're up against over here. They have Versailles, we have Buckingham Palace. They have the Louvre, we have the National Gallery. They have the Elysée Palace, we have Downing Street. They have Christine Lagarde, we have (to cheat a bit) Vince Cable.
Order! Order! Commons gets a fresh dose of Bercow
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
The Sketch: There they all were, a Chamber full of the latest Commons – among their number 232 new ones.
Simon Carr: Cameron's coalition virtues may keep him in touch with a wider world
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
The Sketch: His delivery has become gentler. He softens words on his way through them
Simon Carr: Mr Speaker... author of a great Jekyll and Hyde psychodrama
Monday, 17 May 2010
Sketch: Bercow is a mash-up of 1950s housemaster, music hall Master of Ceremonies, and TV game show host
The Sketch: How about a Liberal Speaker? Isn't it their turn after 80-odd years?
Friday, 14 May 2010
In the here-and-there of the corridors, plazas and back passages of Westminster a drama is starting to throb. There's going to be excitement immediately Parliament resumes. It's the election of the Speaker. Or as many have assumed, the re-election of the Speaker.
The Sketch: Same suits, hair, wives and ties. What could possibly go wrong?
Thursday, 13 May 2010
The Camilition? Does that work? The Clegmeron – with a silent G – do we like the ancient tribal quality of that? Or does grown-up politics not need silly names? It's like a new world. Or maybe the arrangement won't last long enough to justify naming it. Nick Clegg said with fate-tempting emphasis: "This is a government that. Will. Last."
The Sketch: Then came Cameron. And the amateurs had won after all
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
"It is a new evening, is it not?" To paraphrase Tony Blair. Last night, after Gordon Brown's resignation, we saw David Cameron driving to the Palace straight into a meteorological metaphor. After a long, patchy afternoon and a dull evening, the sun suddenly came out in that way it can, and flooded the scene from behind. A rainbow appeared.
Simon Carr: Stuck in the middle of a frenzied vacuum
Monday, 10 May 2010
Sketch: News just in. Nick Clegg has left his house. He is wearing a tie
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Columnist Comments
• Andrew Grice: Labour's voting system puts Ed in pole position
Forget the bookies' odds, which make David Miliband the favourite.
• Howard Jacobson: Some human rights are plain wrong
The culture of the inviolability of the individual has found a congenial resting place in our schools.
• Christina Patterson: We're more stressed than ever
Nearly a fifth of all workers have called in sick because of workplace stress.
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1 Robert Fisk: Tea with Bin Laden...and other stories
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9 IoS letters special: Asbestos (29 November 2009)
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