Life vs Art

Having included a reference to the Thick of It in my latest piece for the New Statesman, I find an article about In the Loop, Armando Iannucci's film about the Iraq deception, that refers to

further evidence published this month that the dodgy dossier was indeed sexed up.

Relating a recent encounter with Campbell, Iannucci says:

“I think he was confusing fact with fiction. And not for the first time.”

Campbell's guest editorship of the New Statesman has proved slightly less controversial than the dossier itself but has upset a few people. Sarah Brown's diary piece is beyond satire:

The Big Question when I returned from the US was: “What was Michelle Obama like?”

Answer: warm, friendly, smart, stylish and funny. I can’t wait for the British people to see her close up when she joins her husband on their visit to London for the G20 next month.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and her charming academic professor husband came to visit us on Friday, staying overnight for meetings on Saturday. We combined a relaxed evening with a lot of discussion about the international challenges – a demonstration, to my mind, of the courage many of the leaders are showing to take the necessary steps to rebuild our financial future.