Matthew Norman

Press Awards Columnist of the Year 2008, the political commentator Matthew Norman also writes The Independent’s media diary.

Matthew Norman: From the US comes a nasty whiff

Sarah Palin has a serious, instinctive gift for connecting with the bemused and the credulous that it would be folly to underestimate

Recently by Matthew Norman

Matthew Norman: Ed Miliband is the only real man in Labour race

Wednesday, 1 September 2010

With the exception of Diane Abbott, whose parlaying of a minor TV career into D-list celebrity has been admirably opportunistic, this has been the Castrati Election

Matthew Norman: And who knows better about social mobility?

Monday, 16 August 2010

The Government's hiring of Alan Milburn as its "social mobility tsar" provides the most seismic event of its kind for a very long time ... possibly as long ago as the appointment of puritan �5m birthday-party man Philip Green as our anti-profligate spending tsar.

The zenith of celebrity culture

Thursday, 12 August 2010

Matthew Norman: Radio 4 could only summon the strength to lead with the trial once Naomi Campbell arrived.

Matthew Norman: Now, now, do try to keep it clean, Nadine

Monday, 9 August 2010

Troublesome as BP has found stopping that Gulf of Mexico gush, David Cameron may find it harder to staunch the flow from the honeyed mouth of Nadine Dorries. Among the more supple political thinkers of the age – you may recall her identifying the expenses revelations as a "McCarthyite witch-hunt" – the Tory member for Mid Bedfordshire is livid about her government's threat to the lifelong right to council houses like her childhood home in Liverpool.

Matthew Norman: Obama: an enigma instead of a leader

Wednesday, 4 August 2010

One minute the President is a cool, aloof sophisticate who refuses to affect the belief that ranting would stop the flow of oil. The next he strikes a tone of synthetic moral outrage

Matthew Norman: No wonder Nick's poll ratings are plummeting

Monday, 2 August 2010

With any potentially transformative national event, our guide is the Chinese communist who, asked about the impact the French Revolution almost two centuries later, said it was too soon to tell. So hats off to Nick Robinson, the BBC's very own Zhou Enlai, for patiently hanging on for almost three months to make his film Five Days That Changed Britain.

Matthew Norman: Nick needs another Dave

Wednesday, 28 July 2010

The studiedly centrist David Miliband makes a far more natural partner than his brother. With him as Labour leader, Mr Clegg would be a happy self-auctioneer

Matthew Norman: Quit the carping and give volunteering a go

Wednesday, 21 July 2010

Get Pickles cleaning bins, Fox delivering babies, May counselling prostitutes, and Osborne wallpapering care homes in Tatton. We know they're busy. That's the point

Matthew Norman: The least inspiring contest ever

Wednesday, 14 July 2010

You have to praise the lads, at this particular moment in the publishing cycle, for doing what they can to deflect accusations that the party is riven by babyish in-fighting

Matthew Norman: The ghouls, the narcissist and top jobs at CNN

Monday, 12 July 2010

With questions raised about the ghoulishness with which the media covered Raoul Moat's final days, a word of praise for two leaders of this frantic festival of broadcast Americana. Kay Burley, the Walter Cronkite du jour who so skillfully downplayed the horrors of 9/11 ("If you're just joining us, the entire eastern seaboard of the United States has been decimated ..."), added to her portfolio of triumphs on Sky News.

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