Paul Seaman's online review

Unlike the BNP, self-respecting political parties don’t hold their Emergency General Meetings in East London’s notorious Elm Park pub. I know. It is where I roughhoused, before I made a bid for respectability and left. My memories of the place are bitter-sweet. More »

Contrary to popular crisis management mythology, most dramas and disasters aren’t really crises at all. Chin up: things aren’t often really all that bad. More »

Out tomorrow, a film that’ll mean a lot to me, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, a biopic of my hero from Upminister, Ian Dury. I’m not sure I’ll be able to watch it without crying. More »

The British National Party (BNP) is thrashing the mainstream parties – but only online. This says as much about the internet as it does about politics, and I don’t think the mainstream should overdo its response. More »

Today’s Jade Goody story in the Sun is very touching. The PR trade needs to get over its aversion to Max Clifford and his brilliant manipulation of a story at once luminiously modern and as old as time. He’s on the side of the angels. More »

Here’s an example of the risk of fast-news. This morning the BBC reported an alleged racist attack by three skinheads at a Zurich railway station on a pregnant Brazilian woman that caused her to miscarry twins in the station’s toilets. By the afternoon, important bits of the story collapsed.  More »

I watched the England game last night at the local Stammtisch. Every time Germany touched the ball the Swiss drinkers booed. They banged the table in delight when West Ham’s Pat Upson scored. They were sure the Swiss referee would favour us. (Why was that good?, I remembered to ask myself.) They said it was just like in 1966 when West Ham and a Swiss referee humbled Germany at Wembley. It was England’s glory last night in Berlin. They loved it. So last night on Zurich’s Gold Coast I toasted England’s revival under Italian leadership – with my Swiss neighbours. More »