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The Feral Beast: Cameron proves his Blair genes

Sunday 08 November 2009 01:00 GMT
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Proof that Cameron is the heir to Blair. When Tony Blair held press conferences he would almost always ignore Mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens, who would keep his hand up throughout, just to make the point he was being ignored. Now Dave has adopted the strategy too, ignoring Hitchens's raised hand during the announcement of his new EU policy on Tuesday. "Peter was in the front row, and kept his hand up for a good 15 minutes," whispers my mole, "Dave saw him and even smiled in acknowledgement, but didn't let him ask a question."

Spec-less Marr goes large ...

Andrew Marr landed in a pickle last week when he pitched up to present Start the Week without his reading glasses. The Radio 4 show is broadcast live on Monday mornings, and there was no time to send a minion home to fetch them. But in the BBC spirit of Challenge Anneka, producers simply reprinted his script in an extra large typeface, and, with some squinting, Marr muddled through. At least it was radio, not TV.

... but isn't blind to taunts

Marr didn't need his glasses to see the mud being flung by Charles Moore in The Telegraph. Moore trashed Marr's BBC series The Making of Modern Britain, calling it patronising, complacent, irritating and lacking in imagination, prompting Marr to write a vigorous defence the next day. But Moore is not convinced. "It seemed a bit jumpy," he tells me, "I didn't think he really answered my points. I've had a huge response to this, much more than most of my columns. It's not a left-right point so much as a point about what history is. Marking everyone out of 10 is not a historical approach." Over to you Andy.

'Mail' recruits a constellation

Can a paper have too many showbiz editors? Apparently not at the Mail, where Sara Nathan has joined from The Sun as showbiz editor, raising questions over the future of the incumbent, Richard Simpson. But I'm told there is no suggestion of a tussle, since Simpson doubles as a pap, and is now out snapping while Nathan oversees the desk. Meanwhile, Ben Todd has also joined the desk, having left his post as editor of Zoo – what is politely known as a sideways career shift.

Tweet lure is too strong for Fry

News that Stephen Fry was giving up Twitter was, of course, too good to be true, but that didn't stop it making the front of The Sunday Times. Naturally, he was back to his usual tweeting output the next day. To confirm his commitment to Twitter, Fry will address the 140 Character Conference in London on 17 November. Speeches are to be only 10 to 20 minutes apiece – surely a challenge to the attention span of the average twitterer.

Guardian waits for axe to fall

Guardian and Observer staffers will be told on Wednesday of cuts aimed at reducing losses of £100,000 per day. Early signs are that arts and books, never the best advertising-pullers, will be targeted and that The Obs will end up slimmer.

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