Columnists

Editor-At-Large: Brilliant teachers to the rescue as Gove betrays our schools

It might look as if Michael Gove is in hot water after being criticised by a High Court Judge for the manner in which he cancelled the £55bn Building Schools for the Future scheme, but the Secretary of State for Education has a far more serious problem on his hands. After Friday's court ruling, no doubt the six councils who took him to court will make their case all over again and this time he will have to consider it properly, but there's every possibility he will reach exactly the same decision.

Inside Columnists

Dom Joly: In Hollywood, I blend in by shivering

Sunday, 13 February 2011

It's very difficult to know what to wear in Los Angeles. Every day you wake up and look out of the window and the sky is a piercing blue and the sun is gently fondling your eyelids. To a Brit, this means but one thing – shorts and flip-flops. So you wander out into west Hollywood, trying your best to look as if you belong... but everyone seems to be wearing coats, some are even wearing gloves. This, you see, is the Californian winter, when temperatures can drop to an arctic 15C. Everywhere you look, people sit under outdoor heaters, bashing away at scripts while grumbling about how "goddamn cold" it is. Again, being British, you tend to laugh and tell anyone who'll listen that, compared with where you live, this is positively tropical. Hardly anyone does bother to listen, however, the general view being that you must be clinically insane to consider living anywhere colder than this. They've got a point – however bad a day you've had in LA, at least it's sunny.

Brian Viner: Think of a number – and double it to be a winner in football's bizarre shirt lottery

Saturday, 12 February 2011

The Last Word

Natalie Haynes: If you're going to impose your ethical choices, go the whole hog

Saturday, 12 February 2011

What do you think of when you see terraces of football fans, going wild as their team scores a goal? Whether you love or loathe the beautiful game, I'm guessing you have never thought, "I wonder if they'd like a nice vegan snack at half time".

David Lister: Make up alone won't turn Meryl into Margaret

Saturday, 12 February 2011

The Week in Arts

Richard Ingrams: We call them news stories – others call them 'the product'

Saturday, 12 February 2011

Notebook

Dylan Jones: 'The best meal you’ll eat this week will be in a museum'

Saturday, 12 February 2011

The best meal you'll eat this week won't be in a bistro, a brasserie or a grill room, it will be in a museum. The Restaurant at the Royal Academy finally opened last month, and it's a hit. It was opened by Oliver Peyton, who also looks after the restaurants in the National Gallery, the Wallace Collection and Kew Gardens, as well as running Inn the Park (in St James's Park) and the Peyton and Byrne bakery.

Cooper Brown: Protection

Friday, 11 February 2011

Things have not got better since A-Listgate. Victoria will not speak to me. She claims that if I had not driven A-Lister from our house then she would be a shoo-in to join the Gwyneth yoga class.

Tom Sutcliffe: When it's hard to escape from reality

Friday, 11 February 2011

The week in culture

Brian Viner: Why is film awash with honours?

Friday, 11 February 2011

Sir Christopher Lee, 88 years old and still 6ft 5ins in his slippers, is to be presented on Sunday with a Bafta Fellowship, the greatest honour the British film industry can bestow. This is splendid news, an overdue accolade for a man who, it is generally accepted, has appeared in more films than anyone alive, and rarely gets the recognition he deserves for being king of the franchises, the only common denominator between the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Star Wars films, the Bond movies and of course the Hammer horrors.