Category Archives: Politics

Mr Lincoln’s Wild Ride

Posted on February 11, 2013 by samiraahmed

I spent a night in the pub playing skittles recently with The Lawmen of Bristol for a radio documentary. They are Wild West enthusiasts, who transport around their home-made saloon town and re-enact historical gunfights for charity. Each has a … Continue reading →

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How The Middle East Became Another Planet

Posted on December 17, 2012 by samiraahmed

From Flash Gordon’s Ming the Merciless with his harem and his war rocket Ajax, to Frank Herbert’s prophecy-obsessed desert tribes in Dune battling over a valuable resource, the Middle East has always been another planet to western science fiction creators. … Continue reading →

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That Was Then, This Is Now – Satire from JFK to Savile

Posted on November 28, 2012 by samiraahmed

Last night I went to the British Film Institute’s celebration of 50 years of the breakthrough TV satire programme, That Was The Week That Was. (TW3). It featured many of the original cast, writers and modern satirists, and clips including … Continue reading →

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Brunel, Bristol and re-forging history

Posted on November 18, 2012 by samiraahmed

Confession. I have this big crush on Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Or rather, on Kenneth Branagh as IKB, with those sideburns and a stovepipe hat, quoting  Shakespeare at the Olympic opening ceremony; an engineering Renaissance man. Perhaps it played a subconscious … Continue reading →

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Hacks on Film: Essential viewing and reading

Posted on October 3, 2012 by samiraahmed

This is an updated version of an article I first wrote for The Spectator blog, that formed the basis of a lecture to journalism students at Kingston University in October. It has links to scripts, films and articles about all … Continue reading →

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The Politics of Spin: Beware the bland bomb

Posted on September 23, 2012 by samiraahmed

Image copyright & courtesy of www.barrydbulsara.com “I’m not sure it says government is crap,” said Armando Iannucci recently, of his political satire The Thick of It. “I think it says the people in government are crap.” Nowadays politicians and their … Continue reading →

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In Hulme: a stately Hippodrome decree’d

Posted on July 1, 2012 by samiraahmed

There is a grand Victorian theatre house where Laurel and Hardy once performed, Nina Simone sang and the Beatles made their first radio recording. If it were in Stratford-Upon-Avon or central London, the rich paintwork and red plush seats and … Continue reading →

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Aliens, abortion and baby machines: HG Wells & John Wyndham

Posted on June 7, 2012 by samiraahmed

Woman’s Hour ran a fascinating interview today with novelist Kishwar Desai, about India’s burgeoning  surrogate baby industry. Her exploration of this massive business (an estimated 20,000 babies produced  each year) seems to differ from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale only … Continue reading →

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Mea culpa: But only after making the money

Posted on May 9, 2012 by samiraahmed

Sir Mervyn King’s recent admisson that he should have been “shouting from the rooftops” about the dangers of the banking system before the 2008 crash seems to add to my theory, written for The Big Issue about the number of … Continue reading →

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The Missing Angle on the Arab Spring: The Soviet Era dissident’s tale

Posted on March 20, 2012 by samiraahmed

I met renowned Polish Jewish journalist, Konstanty Gebert, from Gazeta Wyborcza at an EU conference for Arab journalists last year. His family had mostly died in the Warsaw Ghetto, his mother survived to take up arms with the Communists and … Continue reading →

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