American magazine stands of the '20s and '30s must have been a riot of wit, vulgarity, elegance, taste, energy and colour

Monday muppets, monsters and marvels - transgenderism, paedophilia, Hoillywood sex dungeons and, er...Brexit

Damn! Yet another of life's little pleasures I'm going to have to forsake:

I suppose that's NFH - i.e. Normal for Hollywood. Here's how they tested helmets back in 1912:

These are the jokes, folks!

Now, this is what I call customer service!:

Modern politics is like The Archers - you take a break from it, only to discover that nothing has changed

I'm hoping someone turns this parody cover into an actual book in time for next Christmas - what a brilliant stocking-filler!

After a three-day hiatus...

RIP New Musical Express (print edition) - and how it got me my first job in TV News

50 years ago, Thursday evenings were the most exciting time of the week for me. That was when my father would return from work (Air Attaché at the Norwegian Embassy in Belgrave Square) clutching the latest, hot-off-the-press issues of three weekly music papers - New Musical Express, Record Mirror and Disc, which were available a day earlier in Central London than in Wimbledon. All three would have been read from cover to cover by the time I switched the light out that night, and I'd already be looking forward to next Thursday's batch. I may have been struggling with Latin and Maths at school (and would continue to do so) but when it came to pop music, I was pretty damn near omniscient. I was reminded of those halcyon days last week while reading Shake It Up Baby!: Notes From A Pop Music Reporter 1961-1972, the entertaining memoirs of the music journalist, Norman Jopling. He worked for Record Mirror, which was probably my favourite music paper (my least favourite was...

Corbyn's response to a request to pick his favourite Matt cartoon tells us everything we need to know about today's Labour Party

The country's funniest cartoonist, Matt Pritchett, joined the Daily Telegraph 30 years ago this week. As part of its celebrations, the Telegraph asked political leaders from the past 30 years to choose their favourite Matt cartoon (some had already bought the original drawing of a particular favourite when it was first published). Here was Jeremy Corbyn's response to the request:

What a boring, joyless, petty, mean-spirited bunch of odious little wankers. Here are a few suggestions for Corbyn and his "team":

The Today Programme has lost 300,000 listeners - a mix of Brexit, John Humphrys, and its editor, I reckon

It was recently announced that the BBC Radio 4 flagship current affairs programme, Today, had shed 300,000 listeners over the past year. Not a disaster, as it still boasts an average audience of 7.15m - but embarrassing, given that Chris Evans's Radio 2 morning show added 200,000 listeners during the same period.  Before I expatiate on the possible reasons for Today's appeal becoming more "selective", I should admit that I haven't listened to it for several years. I'm rarely up early enough these days, I loathed it back when I was routinely conscious at that time of the day, and John Humphrys's personality brings me out in hives.  Having admitted all that, I'd be very surprised if the following three factors weren't playing a major role in driving listeners away:

The Grønmark Blog 2017 Politics Awards: Part Two

The Most Deranged Newspaper Headline of the Year Award:

The Most Morally Insane Attempt by a Left-Winger to Justify Mass Murder:

Quentin Letts's New World Order from the latest edition of The Spectator is very funny...

Continued...

Years from now, they'll be asking: "Where were you when ex-Labour minister Alan Milburn quit the social mobility board?"

Alan Milburn - a hugely significant figure

And here's the thing - you'll remember Milburn's resignation instantly, as if you were back there, re-experiencing that momentous event which had the whole of the British nation crowded around their TV sets and mobile phones and iPads and (Get on with it! ed)...Well, anyway, whether you were making a cup of tea when BBC Radio News cut into Farming Today, or were slouched in front of the TV set watching some Mancunian nonentity tellings wildly amusing anecdotes about their "Nan" on Breakfast TV, or popping round to the corner shop for a pint of milk when a distraught stranger ran up to you with tears in their eyes and sobbed "Oh my God! Have you heard? Alan Milburn has resigned from the social mobility board because of the government's lack of commitment to social justice! What's to become of us? Yes, I know he had served his time and was due to be replaced anyway - but, still, it's a terrible shock. How am I going to break the news to my kids? That's Christmas ruined!"

Okay, you might think that four members of the Great and the Good flouncing out of some...

Ho! Ho! Ho! - The Guardian's annual war on Christmas has begun!

I'd much prefer to read an article with the headline...

Twit of the Year contest - I'm betting on a win for Alastair Campbell

I'd add "Conservative" MP Nicky Morgan to the list. In fact, it seems a shame...

Gay lions, the wisdom of four-year olds, poppies, and cuddly Marxists...

Hard not to agree with the little twerp for once - even though this is pretty much exactly what he was saying about the Labour Party this time last year.  It's also hard to disagree with any of the following tweets: 

Cartoons and t'ing - from Blower on Catalonia to Matt on Hugh Hefner...

There have been several good political cartoons in the Telegraph recently, including this one by Bob:

Snapshots from our mad, mad, mad, mad world this weekend...

Bit of Background: Jess Phillips is the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley. Nadeem Ahmed is a Momentum Corbynite. First came this:

Which was followed two days later by this:

Sunday's Comic Cuts... aka "We really are going to Hell in a Handcart"

Feeling safer already...

It's too hot to think, let alone write anything, so here's the result of another lazy trawl...

A brilliant leader from The Sun - and BBC News's new strong, silent approach

Pity the Conservative Party chose not to...

"Off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush." Special sleazy "Confidential" blog issue!

Film fans will recognise the marketing slogan in the headline of this post as belonging to Sid Hudgens, the publisher of the salacious scandal rag Hush Hush,...

The reason why I don't read the Guardian, encapsulated in one headline

In case you're wondering who this race-obsessed fool is, Steven W. Thrasher...

In case you only get your news from the BBC, here are the names of the 29 people charged yesterday with historic sex offences in Huddersfield

I missed this story yesterday, what with the blanket coverage of the murderous terrorist attack in Westminster on Wednesday (or "dangerous and violent incidents" as Jeremy Corbyn prefers to call them). I only became aware of it thanks to a link to a Daily Mail item in a tweet this morning. The story was headlined:

Twenty seven men are charged with dozens of historic sex offences including rape and trafficking against 18 women aged as young as 11 in Huddersfield

The charges include rape, sexual activity with a child, child neglect and child abduction. I read the names of those charged with a dispiriting sense of déjà vu. Some sixth sense prompted me to check the BBC website to see how they'd covered the story: not a name in sight...