Thank heavens for great British traditions, like proofreading
? From Andrew Motion to Jim Naughtie, literary lions have been moaning for years at book awards about declining standards of editing and proofreading as staff cuts hollow out the globalised publishing industry. Only last autumn Fourth Estate had to pulp 80,000 copies of the British edition of Freedom after the wrong version of Jonathan Franzen's novel was sent to the printer. So it was a relief to the trade that at this week's Costa awards, panel chairman Andrew Neil fearlessly focused on fashionable gender issues. Relief was short-lived. Copies of archeologist Francis Pryor's Birth of Modern Britain (Harper Press, �25) have just gone out for review with the spelling "Britian" on the dust jacket. Just remove it? Alas no, "Britian" is also on the cover.
? But Booker prize judges are making progress on other fronts. Novelist Susan Hill tweets that fellow judges "are being given Kindles so they won't have to post us tons of real books". Ah, real books. Dusty, heavy things with page numbers instead of handy percentage bars to show how much you've read. Who needs them?
? Alastair Campbell is not the only one enjoying the NoW phone-hacking discomfort of Scotland Yard capo John Yates. Given Yates's leave-no-stone-turned approach to evidence, some members of the Met police authority wondered yesterday if the Yard is too close to the Screws to have done a proper investigation. "I was being asked to act on rumour, innuendo and gossip," Yates harrumphed. Older readers will recall the suspicion that a Yates squad routinely leaked rumour, innuendo and gossip against Tony Blair during its doomed loans-for-honours probe. An earlier Yates team told Charlie Windsor that butler Paul Burrell nicked and wore his dead wife's stuff.
? Barack Obama's "Sputnik moment" speech to Congress may have won him applause from faint-hearts. But knuckle-dragging Georgia Republican Rep Paul Broun (no relation to Gordon) tweeted, "Mr President, you don't believe in the constitution. You believe in socialism", as he sat listening. Actually, it's worse than that. Smarter Republican pols like Rep Randy Neugebauer of Texas (who shouted "baby killer" during last year's healthcare debate) oppose early abolition of America's Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the state-sponsored entities that prop up the tottering US mortgage market. Fanny and Fred are far more socialist than European home-loan schemes.
? Vince Cable faced the Westminster hack pack yesterday for the first time since foolishly falling for a tabloid tottie sting. Undeterred, the old showman revealed that Princess Anne's wedding gifts (cries of "which wedding?") included a book called Sewers of Warsaw and, from a Mrs Valerie Rogers, a pair of novelty handcuffs. As for bankers, Cable admitted to "occasional dark thoughts" when he meets them. Oh, do tell Vince. "There are two dead bodies on a motorway, one cat and one banker. The cat is surrounded by skid marks."
? Preening hereditary pundit Giles Coren has joined the Jeremy Clarkson-led backlash in defence of Sky Sport's martyred masculinist, Andy Gray. Not because he says such things himself ("I am a gentleman") but because women comics (not nice Miranda Hart obviously) get away with it. Such as, Giles? "What's the way to a man's heart?" "Straight through the chest with a kitchen knife." Or "What do you call the useless flap of skin attached to a penis?" "A man!" Ho, ho and Pinot Grigios all round. Fair point, but why is Giles, of all people, being sensitive? Because, as a lad, he was shy. "Yet girls were trying to do it with me all the time. I used to run, literally run, from their bedrooms." It must be tough being so gorgeous, but is this the same Gentleman Giles who once described a woman colleague as "a sour old bag of cunt cheese"? It is, it is.
? Posh grocer Lord David Sainsbury, who gave millions to parties, tells standards watchdogs that political donations should be capped at �1,000 max because 80% of people (average income circa �26k) could afford that much. Earth to David: No.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jan/28/michael-white-diary-proofreading
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