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| Don’t shoot the messenger,
Jane |
FORMER Camden Council leader and clearly a regular reader of
this great organ, Jane Roberts, a psychiatrist by profession, and
known for her command of platform politics, appeared to lose her
composure at a meeting on Monday on the questionable future of Kentish
Town baths.
First, she put certain critics among the audience in their place
as simply being Lib Dem sympathisers or members of the Socialist
Workers Party.
Enough said there, she clearly implied.
Then she turned her wrath on the New Journal.
Glaring at my colleague, busy taking notes, Dame Jane blamed the
New Journal for inaccuracies and for stirring up a campaign against
the Town Hall by suggesting the baths were to be closed down.
But when my colleague approached her after the meeting she…er….couldn’t
give any specific examples of inaccurate reporting.
Pressed, however, she blamed the paper for “misleading”
headlines. Dear, dear me, you could simply say Roberts was engaging
in a bit of political wriggle by trying to shoot the messenger.
Or you could say Roberts had one eye on the coming local elections
next May as much as on the controversy over the baths.
I knew him before he was famous
JEFFREY Archer’s characteristically shameless efforts to
get himself re-admitted to the Tory Party found few sympathisers
this week.
But the disgraced peer still has some loyal friends in high places.
Baron Leon Brittan (pictured), a former home secretary under Margaret
Thatcher, was quick to point out that he had “never been particularly
close” to Archer on Monday when he chatted over drinks with
Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti before a public debate at the
Everyman Cinema in Hampstead.
But he added: “We have stayed in touch and are still friends.”
He revealed their friendship began when Archer’s critically
unacclaimed career as an author had yet to begin.
Baron Brittan, a QC, said: “He called me up after he had written
Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less and told me they wouldn’t
publish it unless it had been properly checked for libel because
there were thought to be a number of real-life politicians who bore
a close resemblance to some of the characters.
“He said he didn’t have the money and asked if I would
read it for him.
“It sat on my desk for quite a while and he called me up and
kept asking...in the end I read it and was impressed.
“Well it wasn’t Shakespeare or anything like that, but
it was a good thriller – and he went on to do quite well.”
Nicholas follows the money onto the stage
THE billionaire finance house Bloombergs have a corporate soft
spot for the theatre judging by the help they’re giving the
little courageous Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn High Road.
Apart from sponsoring the new black season at the Trike, they paying
for a rewarding evening for more than 100 school children who will
be able to see the current production of Walk Hard-Talk Loud (See
theatre page in The Review), enjoy a supper at the theatre after
the show and then mingle with the cast – and all for £1.50!
If readers know any school children who’d like to enjoy the
big evening on December 13, ring the theatre on O207 372 6611. The
man who has made the Trike one of the most talked about theatres
in London, Nicholas Kent (pictured), told me about his latest link
up with Bloombergs at the opening night of Walk Hard-Talk Loud on
Monday which he has directed.
The play was written by a talented black writer Abram Hill who was
given a chance in late 30s by Orson Welles and John Houseman who
were running a successful theatre on Broadway at the time paid for
by the Roosevelt administration.
Abram Hill’s play Walk Hard-Talk Loud ran for a few months
on Broadway in 1944 – and that would have been the end of it,
if Nicholas Kent hadn’t bought a book of old plays in New York
ten years ago.
Looking for a new production for his theatre, Kent picked up the
book at his home a year ago by chance – and that’s how
Abram Hill’s play was revived in Kilburn High Road more than
40 years later. And at the first night on Monday I spotted another
theatre aficionado Lord Hollick, the man who sold the Daily Express
to porn publisher Richard Desmond, and actor James Fox whose daughter
Kate snaps up a small part in the play.
Er.. Scott’s no hobgoblin...
Scott Maslen as Santa with Ellie and Harry Johnson both aged
4 |
A FOOLISH consistency is the hobgoblin of tiny minds, according
to the great American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson.
And doubtless Scott Maslen, who plays Phil Hunter in The Bill and
deputised for Santa Claus at the St Paul’s School Christmas
Fair in Primrose Hill on Saturday, would agree.
Speaking to me amid the bric-a-brac, mince pies and mulled wine
at the highly-rated primary, Maslen, who lives near the school,
told me: “I’m a working class boy from Woolwich, I could’ve
sent my kid to a private school but its important for kids to be
in a mixed environment with all walks of life.
“These are issues we need to talk about. We must make schools
integrated, schools should open up and be equal.
“Although I might send my kid to private when he’s older
but at this stage he should mix with everyone.”
“If they could come up with an alternative to private schools
then maybe they should think about it, the have and have nots should
not be so separated, they should think about integration.”
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Attitudes mature to English wine
WHEN Hugh Johnson published the first edition of his book Wine in
1966, there were three commercial vineyards in England.
FULL STORY
This Heath price hike is
just not cricket
THIS summer’s Ashes success didn’t just help us armchair types
suss out our full toss from our wrist spin.
FULL STORY
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