Quality | 2009.03.15
Hugh Muir's diary
Thousands of pennies for your thoughts, Mr Mullin. And we had better like them
Because even lengthy news-paper serialisations can only ever give a flavour of the book itself, here\'s an excerpt from Chris Mullin\'s diaries, A View From the Foothills; material missing from the extensive, expensive (think £20,000) treatment the Mail on Sunday gave it last weekend. "Polly Toynbee has a brilliant piece about the tabloids and asylum in today\'s Guardian in which I am quoted and described as a \'good and humane\' man," writes Mullin. "I hope she\'s right. The phone rings. It is Simon Walters of the Mail on Sunday. His editor has seen the piece in the Guardian and wants to know if I would write a piece for his loathsome rag about asylum seekers in Sunderland. He must be joking." Still, editing\'s a terrible thing. Something had to give.
Excitement approaching 1 April, and the birth of the Care Quality Commission (CQC). We\'re heading for a brave new world. But not everybody is happy. Dame Denise Platt, chair of the outgoing Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI), was distinctly peeved when Baroness Young, who will chair the new body, said in a Guardian interview that the CSCI\'s approach had been like "running the finger around the toilet bowl". Still, Dame Denise doesn\'t bear a grudge. At her farewell bash, she told guests she will not join folk who call the CQC "secrecy", or those who liken the new body\'s logo to a lavatory. In fact, no cheap shots at all.
A word to the colossus that is Unilever. Some people you can cross. John Humphrys is not one of them. The presenter chaired a debate, sponsored by Unilever, about issues surrounding saturated fats and obesity. His fee, outsized perhaps, went to charity. So he\'s none too pleased about footage of the debate on a website supporting ads for Unilever products such as Flora margarine. "I haven\'t given permission for my image to be used to promote Flora," he tells Marketing magazine. "God forbid! I can\'t stand margarine. I\'m a butter man, as you would expect from an ex-dairy farmer." Unilever insists there is no endorsement and, for now, the footage is staying. Will they say the same to him? Fat chance.
"Labour \'double standards\' as smoking ban is lifted for G20 world leaders," thundered yesterday\'s Daily Mail. Cue outrage. Not unexpected. Oh, and not true. The smoke trails show there was an item in the Sun suggesting smoking rooms at the summit venue, which was picked up and enhanced by the pressure group Freedom2Choose and fed, with all its flaws, to the Mail. "Just because it doesn\'t make any sense doesn\'t mean the government won\'t do it," Freedom2Choose told us, on being asked for substantiation. Behold, a house on sand.
Many have asked us to reprint the photo of two Labour peers pictured at the House of Lords with bikini-clad circus artists, but we will not, because some chose to misinterpret the item. It was about lobbying; nothing more. Instead, we turn to Europe and MEP Roger Helmer, who has enlisted the "shirtless" voter for a campaign on the issue of EU spending. "The EU. It\'ll have the shirt off your back" is the text. There will be other contributions, but all have their own take on politics. This is his.
And finally, the former president came, he saw - but, as my colleague Dave Hill later disclosed - Mikhail Gorbachev\'s visit to the Evening Standard yesterday ("Gorbachev\'s Message to President Obama", "Gorbachev calls for world unity on Standard visit") was marred by receipt of a parking ticket. That\'s the thing about power. Once gone, it\'s gone.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/13/hugh-muir-diary
