Training | 2008.11.25
Hugh Muir's diary
In these times of regional pride, are the English entitled to be as proud of their culture as any other group? Certainly. Would anyone object to a charity set up to do just that? Probably not. But, for all sorts of reasons, these things can be misinterpreted, and so it seems important to have clarity. Take, for instance, the Macclesfield-based outfit called the Steadfast Trust, which is registered with the Charities Commission, the better to address "concerns of those in the English community". It has a very swish website and clearly sets great store by outreach work, and it was as part of such that an email was sent to one Ian Campbell, offering regular updates on what the charity is up to and asking for a handout. All fine and dandy, until one realises that Ian Campbell was the name and email address created by Guardian senior reporter Ian Cobain during his undercover investigation last year into the far right British National party. This Ian Campbell does not exist, and the email address is one that was only ever supplied to the BNP. So how, prior to last week\'s leak of BNP records, did the trust get the details? Alas, the charity does not know, but there is no link to the BNP or any party, it says. Appearances can be deceptive.
• Never nice to kick a man when his face is crawling with insects, but we see proof that Robert Kilroy-Silk has spent too much time away from politics. Who is the chancellor of the exchequer, he was asked, during I\'m A Celebrity this weekend. "Alistair Diamond," he said.
• But then what is the future for those who thrive in the parallel world that is reality television? Is it the obscurity of lesser-known cable channels? Or the VIP lounge at Chinawhite, in the company of the wags? In the case of Carole Vincent, who appeared on Big Brother last year, it is Southwark crown court, where she faces trial for allegedly stealing a police baton during an anti-war demonstration in Trafalgar Square six months ago. Not the platform she would have wanted, perhaps. But a public stage, nonetheless. One can\'t say how things will turn out - prosecutors will prosecute, defenders will defend - but what we know is that thousands will be spent on a three-day trial in February to establish whether the peace campaigner picked up a fallen police baton - now recovered - and passed it to someone else. On this basis, Regina v Vincent promises to be a thriller.
• We don\'t do God, said Alastair Campbell, and in his case, that turned out to be so. But now that he has a novel to sell in Manchester and given the absence of space in the local Waterstone\'s, we note that he is planning to promote his masterwork this evening at St Ann\'s Church, in the city centre. We don\'t do Campbell would seem a reasonable line for God to take in the circumstances, but that has never been His way. And not even God fancies a row with Alastair.
• Feisty talk at the National Union of Students Black Students\' Campaign conference at the TUC this weekend, where delegates were still smarting over the respective fates of the two regional NUS leaders who disgraced themselves earlier this year. One, who appeared to equate minorities on campus with gun and drug crime, has been sacked from his post. But another, who held a "Bring Back Slavery" placard, has survived. Activists say they will battle on. But they will be fighting on several fronts, for there is also trouble over plans that might exclude minority representatives from a new, all-powerful NUS committee. They\'ll read a few books during lulls in the fighting. Such is the way of things.
• Finally, we consider this a record. It could also be a further sign of global warming. Geoff Hoon\'s Christmas card arrived at Westminster on November 19 this year. Pretty, certainly; premature, probably. But there is method in the madness, because the cards support a deserving charity, and they depict a very old Labour kind of steam train, chugging along, making progress. "Scotsman in winter sunshine", the caption says. They are saying the same at No 10.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/25/hugh-muir-diary
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