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For the record: 05/10/2009

'You will be regarded as a bunch of chumps. We will not lose sleep over this' – Peter Mandelson tells News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks he is not worried by The Sun pledging its allegiance to the Tories

Compiled,Ian Burrell
Monday 05 October 2009 00:00 BST
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Football on the Net

Saturday's World Cup game between England and Ukraine will make history by being screened online rather than on linear television. A new era to mark the excitement around Fabio Capello's transformation of the Three Lions.

So I'm not sure about the special guest hired for today's launch party by Kentaro, the agency which bought the rights from the Ukraine FA. Yes, they've given the gig to that old rake Sven-Goran Eriksson, the ghost of World Cups past.

No bleeding heart

Evan Davis might not be quite the liberal voice of the Today programme that some have him down for, judging by a piece in the new Esquire magazine. During a post-show debrief, Davis attacks a Today piece on estate agent racism as "a bit bleeding heart". He tells his colleagues: "If you're a landlord you don't want to have a gang of foreign male labourers in your house. It's not racism and it's completely different to a sign saying 'No blacks'."

Wireless to cashless

The music festival currently known as Wireless could be set for a radical rebrand, pending discussions between the event's owners, Live Nation, and last year's sponsors, Barclaycard. There is a plan to turn the event, which is staged in London's Hyde Park and this year starred Kanye West and Basement Jaxx, into a new kind of fest, where you load up credit on your wristband or a plastic entrance ticket and pay for your beer without having to queue at the ATM. So for the new name, how about Cashless?

Cleaning up C4

As Endemol UK chairman Peter Bazalgette gave Channel 4 Big Brother, the show which sustained the broadcaster financially for a decade. Now they've killed it off and he's demanding that another Channel 4 reality staple How Clean Is Your House? should also go in the waste bin. The show is looking "distinctly threadbare", he tells Prospect magazine. "A patronisingly punning voiceover and cod dialogue added up to a show that's a little past its sell-by date and a touch mouldy." Best to beware women bearing rubber gloves, Baz.

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