Two feet in the grave

Another politician bites the dust. This time it's Michael Foot, former leader of the Labour party.

There's an argument to be made for Mr Foot being the missing link between the long-gone soapbox era of policy exposition and the current obsession with personality and celebrity.

Mr Foot's adherence to socialist policies, genuinely felt, lead to the 1983 Labour manifesto, dubbed the longer suicide note in British political history. His other claim to lasting media fame was the 'donkey jacket' he wore to the Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday.

And yet he fulsome tributes given today go beyond the usual clichéd platitudes. The politics of Michael Foot's youth was a very different country.

Last bastion of amateur rugby?

Time was that tales of gargantuan drunkenness among international rugby union players were the stuff of awe and legend. Witness prop Colin Smart's encounter with a bottle of aftershave after a rare England win in Paris.

These days such escapades are looked on as schoolboy errors. Welsh No. 8 Andy Powell was rewarded for his buggy trip on the M4 with a 15-month driving ban, a £1000 fine, court costs and -- most pertinently -- by being dropped by Wales like a hot potato.

There's no room in modern sport for 'characters'. Discuss.

RIP Winston Churchill

The famous statesman died in 1965, of course. This Winston was the elder one's grandson.

Winston the younger was a war reporter and Conservative politician, like his grandad, but without hitting the same heights of success.

The family tradition alternates male children with the forenames Winston and Randolph: the most recent late Winston did the family business proud. His has a son called Randolph.

The SaccharineDolls, anyone?

What's in a name when it comes to a pop group? Quite a lot, if you agree with founder member of the Sugababes, Keisha Buchanan.

Miss Buchanan is suing the current line-up on the grounds that none of the existing singers were part of the Sugababes at the start of the group's career. It is therefore misleading, she suggests, to claim the existing band have had any of the of the earlier hits.

She has a point. Imagine the public's reaction to the following:

• The Beatles, with a line-up of Jim, Phil, Geoff and Dingo;
• The Rolling Stones, with Rick Astley as lead singer;
• Led Zeppelin, fronted by Noddy Holder;
• Beyoncé Knowles and The Supremes;
• Take That, comprising Gerry, Mike, Harry, Julian with satellite member Billy Roberts;
• The Spice Girls, made up of Hairy, Whinger, Lazy, Naughty and Dosh
• Madonna, featuring Duffy.

I think not, somehow.

This may be the end of the band name as franchise.

Earthquake fatigue

Chile has just experienced one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history: 8.8. on the Richter scale. But it will soon fall off the news agenda.

Why? Because Chile planned for the natural disaster in advance. Buildings didn't collapse as they were constructed to be flexible, so the human loss of life -- though tragic -- was not biblical in scale. Lessons were learned from a similar disaster in 1960: and earthquakes seem to be a regular feature of life in Chile.

And the Chile event was the second international earthquake within a month, so the disaster didn't even have the merit of novelty. Unlike Haiti.

The international response? Call us if you need to, but you seem to be doing fine on your own.

Even the tsunamis passed around the Pacific Ocean without much of a murmur.

And the news footage often came with inappropriate, juxtaposed channel advertising. The world has already moved on.

Auntie bites the bullet

What tactics do can corporations use when cornered by prospective asset-strippers? The BBC has gone for leaking pre-emptive strikes regarding self-imposed cuts on its radio, television and web output.

Strategically, this is clever. It creates an atmosphere where unions and audiences will be in rebellion, PR for the services that due for abolition will be generated and a prospective incoming Conservative government will come off looking like the bad guys.

No one can argue that the BBC needs pruning, but 6 Music, the Asian Network, foreign programming and sports all have vociferous supporters. And the corporation provides for a multitude of niches rather than raw, commercial monoculture.

The BBC may be calling the bluff of the politicians and corporate media owners as the alternatives to public-service broadcasting become clearer.

And the proposed cuts are not yet even official.

Alice in Disneyland

A business wrangle had threatened to derail the box-office success of Tim Burton's new 3D take on Alice in Wonderland.

Disney, the studio behind the movie, was insisting that the film goes to DVD after 13 weeks, not the usual 17 weeks. This riled Odeon, who were refusing to show the film in its cinemas. Until a compromise was reached.

I'm unsure whether the row was good publicity to promote Alice, or whether earlier DVD sales would have made more money for Disney. Or both.

It all seemed an arcane argument that threatened to deny audiences from getting the benefit of Mr Burton's vision in 3D.

But Disney quietly dropped their demand and, lo and behold, Alice's column inches (and web virals) grew and Grew and GREW ...

Search Amazon.com for alice in wonderland

All-woman shortlists?

Cameron's cuties have a long way to go to match Berlusconi's beauties.

Silvio is up to his old tricks, giving his dental nurse a chance to win a seat at the next Italian general election. It helps, of course, that Nicole Minetti is a former exotic dancer.

Whatever the merits of the likes of Joanne Cash (and her recent local difficulty), no one is suggesting Conservative women candidates have to enjoy pole-dancing on their CVs.

To infinity and beyond ... or least across the river

There are limits to human mastery of nature, even for self-confident company directors.

Witness one episode enacted the other day by Anne Kennedy in her Vauxhall Astra, who forgot her car wasn't a canoe when trying to ford the river Loddon in Charvil, Berkshire.

Did she question her own judgement, perhaps? Or own up to impatience tinged with arrogance? No, she blamed her sat-nav: the ultimate get-out clause for poor driving.

High-flying people tend not to allow the possibility that there may make stupid mistakes. Presumably blaming the technology won't wash if she has to make a contribution to the cost of her own rescue.

Kill Willy?

Newsflash to SeaWorld: orcas are wild animals, so are not 100 per cent predictable.

The death of Dawn Brancheau in Orlando, Florida has put killer whale shows on hold. SeaWorld immediate response? To transfer Tilikum, the offending animal, to another theme park.

How about retiring performing animals unless their living conditions are re-assessed? Animals are not really placed on earth simply to entertain humans.