He's still in full possession of most faculties and able to stand a surprisingly long time in the course of duties undertaken for the firm at Buck House and do so without need of a pee.He's never been one of my favourites, and when Private Eye nicknamed him, inaccurately as it happens,
marc by marc jacobs tote, "Phil the Greek" some years ago, I adopted the joke with enthusiasm. But catching glimpses of Phil on TV or in print in recent weeks (what with the wedding,
kate spade outlet online, the Obamas' visit and the birthday boy himself, he's been hard to avoid) I've weakened.I'm not the only one, either. A hard-hearted young friend who stumbled on Fiona Bruce's BBC1 interview – it's here – was just about to change channels when he decided the duke was being quite interesting.
Its astonishing success as a movie – it scooped the so-called "Big Five" at the Oscars (best picture, best actor, best actress, best director and best adapted screenplay) – perhaps overshadows the source material for many people. But with 11m worldwide sales since publication and a clutch of awards for both horror and crime writing in its year of publication (the Bram Stoker, World Fantasy and Anthony awards) the importance of the book's impact cannot be overestimated.Even Random House, publishing a 25th-anniversary reprint of the book, under the Arrow imprint, is spearheading its publicity with: "Seen the film? Now read the book that launched a legend."Harris's book already has enough cultural cachet not to be overshadowed by the (admittedly fine) movie adaptation.
45am: Nick Clegg is not holding a press conference or making a Commons statement to mark the publication of the Lords reform bill. But he is giving TV interviews. This is what he told BBC News this morning.There's a very simple principle at stake that I think most people would agree with, which is that people who make the laws of the land should be elected by people who have to obey the laws of the land. It's as simple as that. I think we should just now get on with it. I hope people won't tie themselves up in knots in Westminster. It's something the country expects us to do. We should now do it. Photograph: Johnny Green/PA 9.50am: Sir George Young (pictured), the leader of the Commons, has just given an interview to BBC News about the Lords reform bill.
"I did try to see if I could leave for the train later or whatever. It was never possible. I was never booked in," he told Humphrys.Humphrys said he was standing by Today's version of events, adding: "We spoke to you – we took copious notes, as is our practice – we don't want to make a big deal of it." He said it would puzzle listeners that the pair were spending air time on this and sounded eager to move on.Will the Today programme then release these "copious notes" and settle the matter? A BBC spokesman said: "We won't be releasing the notes, but clearly given the interview was cancelled earlier on in the week. We're pleased that Mr Shapps came on this morning."Politics Live: Ed Miliband's speech on the economy – Thursday 17 November 20118.
Dorrell suggested that the CQC should not be taking orders from the health secretary.I think we need to be clear whether the priorities of the regulator are genuinely determined independently by the CQC itself, or whether the priorities are determined by the secretary of state. Is it independent or is it not? I would argue it's very strongly in the public interest, as well actually as it being in the secretary of state's interest for it to be clearly established that the CQC is an independent regulator.I've taken the quotes from PoliticsHome. If there are any further developments, I'll be following them today.Otherwise, it is quiet, as you would expect on the day before the Easter holiday starts.
Before he left, he said he would veto a deal if it were not in Britain's interests. I reported it in my afternoon summary, but it seemed like standard pre-summit rhetoric and I left the office expecting the summit to produce a conventional European council fudge. But, of course,
www.cnnhkids.com, it didn't and three days later Westminster is still trying to absorb a decision with profound implications for 1) Britain's relationship with the EU and 2) the future of the coalition.I'll be largely focusing on this all day. Cameron is making a statement in the Commons at 3.30pm. Prime ministers always make Commons statements after EU summits and normally they're tedious. But this will be a major parliamentary event because we'll hear from dozens of MPs and, by the time it's over, we should get a better sense of quite how much damage Cameron's veto has done to his coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
Chat Sentinela
