An afterlife for Democratiya?

Newly added to the blogroll: 'Arguing the world', a new blog from the folks at Dissent, with some help from writers from the disbanded Democratiya. Looks like it might go some way to assuaging the grief of those of us who bemoaned the absorption of the latter into the former. I know unity is strength, and so forth, but Democratiya was the best thing to happen in British political journalism for ages, and being part of a US magazine, however noteworthy, is not the same as having a distinctively British progressive anti-totalitarian voice.

There are good things on the new blog already from familiar names such as Alan Johnson and Martin Bright. Good, but tantalisingly brief. Perhaps they're intended as tasty morsels to tempt our palates and more substantial pieces will appear in time. I hope so, otherwise I shall continue to miss my regular fix of Democratiya.

Keith Waterhouse, R.I.P.

The death of Keith Waterhouse has just been announced.

Despite his later self-reinvention as a florid-faced Daily Mail columnist of the 'We're all going to hell in a handcart' variety, he'll be best remembered for his earlier work, especially the screenplay for Whistle Down The Wind in which Alan Bates plays an escaped murderer hiding in a barn, mistaken for Christ by some local children (best line: 'He's not Jesus, he's just a feller!'), and of course for the immortal Billy Liar.

Confession time: I played the title role in a best-forgotten amateur production in Manchester in the early Eighties. I think the reason I got the part was that the only other person in the cast of the right age was an ex-public schoolboy whose attempt at a Yorkshire accent was even more execrable than mine. Tom Courtenay and Julie Christie did a rather better job: