en-uk Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:37:29 GMT Copyright 2007 Times Newspapers Ltd. custserv@timesonline.co.uk http://www.timesonline.co.uk Sun, 22 Nov 2009 04:34:57 GMT Newspapers 144 21 http://www.timesonline.co.uk http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,116979,00.gif Libby Purves Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT 2009-11-15T07:47:47Z Other people’s expenses claims have become a source of endless enlightenment and amusement, with a bit of genuine outrage and plenty of enjoyable faux horror. Libby Purves Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT 2009-11-16T11:58:50Z We are lucky just now in having a Chief Rabbi who is always worth listening to, whether in philosophical and social analysis or jokes. But in his Theos lecture last week, the thing that stuck with me came up casually in the question session at the end. It was about Islam in modern society. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks observed that the advantage of being Jewish is that for 2,600 years you have learnt to “sing in a minor key”, in societies you did not dominate. Christianity, he said, is learning this as its numbers decline, but Islam is new to the experience. Libby Purves Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:01:00 GMT 2009-11-09T12:04:08Z Prince Edward was right. Tactless, imprudent and media-blind, but basically right. This may be a genetic trait from his Dad; and if it is true that Gordon Brown is currently struggling to find a new spin-doctor, one must anxiously urge him to strike the Earl of Wessex off his wish-list. The royal foot is no stranger to its owner’s mouth. Libby Purves Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:01:00 GMT 2009-11-02T01:07:49Z It feels absurdly awkward to defend the BBC in print. Absurd, because the BBC does many good things; awkward, because I have worked for it over 37 years and still do part-time. To avoid accusations of smarming, normally I either stay quiet, or sorrowfully point out Auntie’s failings — top-heavy overpaid management, obsession with “platforms” over content, timidity over telling pampered “talent” where it gets off. Whenever I do this, I see spasms of anguish on the noble brow of my controller, and feel his pain. The last time I was kind to the management in print was in 2005 over Jerry Springer — the Opera.