Okay, a bit off-message for The Sharpener, a public service interlude. Elmore Leonard, the Best Storyteller since St. Paul, will be interviewed by Simon Mayo on BBC Radio 5Live, just after 3 p.m. UK time today. Listen live on the web, or I’ll post the podcast link later. [here]
Not just a perfect antidote to my unhealthy James Ellroy obsession, Elmore also taught me to write. His ten rules transformed a semi-literate social scientist into the honed^* hack you’re reading now. Enjoy.

^* Please, no comments about my writing abilities in the comments box. My hand is hovering over Delete.

Bolivia: nationalisation isn’t what it seems
Or: tanks on the front lawn ain’t what they used to be

Defend America: Buy More Iranian Oil

In Defence of John Prescott – it’s better that he shafts his secretary than the country

Steve Bell: Labour and the Basra Deaths.

Well, hardly. Respect’s stunning success in Tower Hamlets has provoked borderline hysteria amongst some:

Once the sectarian identities multiculturalism inevitably promotes get hold, it doesn’t seem to matter how bad the politicians who exploit
them are, as Respect’s success in London’s East End shows…

Once again, we find a slice of the electorate in a poor part of Britain that is so lost in identity politics and victimhood that it will vote for those who stoke their rage, no matter how worthless they are.

You can almost smell the contempt, wafting over from the Betsey Trotwood.

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Here’s something a bit different for The Sharpener – a film club. There’ll be a secret handshake and everything.

I’m going to nominate a film and invite Sharpener readers to go and watch it. Next week I’ll write a short retrospective – a review with a few interesting facts (if I can find any) – and then throw the discussion open.

If the idea proves (even remotely) popular I’ll look to making it a regular feature and maybe other Sharpener contributors will offer to choose films and chair discussions as well.

Anyway, the first film I’d like to chew over is Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation. It’s a while since I’ve seen it so I’m keen to revisit it to see if the themes of surveillance and paranoia still resonate (it was made in 1974) in this age of encroaching authoritarianism, CCTV and impending ID cards.

Hope to see you next week. Have a few pints before you come so we can make it a proper film chat.

(I’d argue that The Conversation deserves a place on everybody’s DVD shelf. Amazon has got it for under a fiver and there’s a bunch of them going for quids on eBay.)

Update: Here’s a pleasing little synchronicity. For UK readers, The Conversation is being shown on BBC2 at 12.05am on Sunday night/Monday morning. Set the video.

In the 2005 general election, Tony Blair was elected to serve a full third term as Prime Minister. He has been given a clear mandate by the electorate and it is right and proper that he honour the commitment he made to them only last year.

So say Mr Blair’s supporters. Blair himself has again made this point today at his monthly press conference. Pedantically, it isn’t even slightly true, of course. In the United Kingdom, we don’t elect the executive; we elect MPs to the legislature. The party with the largest representation in parliament then supplies the executive according to their own rules. In the case of the Labour Party, the last leadership election was held twelve years ago. As an exercise in democracy, it’s hardly inspiring.
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FT.com: Mispell or Misspell? – the delights of the English language

John Beyer playing with himself on Wikipedia
Isn’t that terribly un-Christian?