'The Golden Globes were bizarre and messy'

The 2024 Golden Globes Were a Near-Total Disaster

Richard Lawson in Vanity Fair

This year's Golden Globes ceremony "felt particularly desperate", says Richard Lawson in Vanity Fair. Host Jo Koy opened with "a horrid, sophomoric mishmash of lazy jokes" that "suggested a disaster in the making". There were "bizarre" segments and a "messy, irregular program" that "undermined the grandeur these things are supposed to evoke". The ceremony "used to be a flawed jewel" of awards season; last night's show was "a near-total disaster".  

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Will Ed Davey have to quit over the Post Office scandal?

Steerpike in The Spectator

Ed Davey "is notable for his frequent calls for public figures to resign after their failings in office", says Steerpike in The Spectator. Now the Liberal Democrats' leader, who was postal affairs minister from 2010-12, is "accused of 'fobbing off' those affected" by the Post Office scandal. He has previously called for "every Conservative MP who cares about integrity to decency" to resign; "perhaps it's time for Davey to show some himself and quit…"  

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Spain Is Doing Something Brave

Omar G. Encarnación in The New York Times 

Spain's new amnesty law, which provides a "blanket pardon" for many who were "caught up" in the illegal Catalan independence referendum in 2017, is a "bold – even a brave – attempt to put an end to the Catalan crisis", says Omar G. Encarnación in The New York Times. It "stands in striking contrast" to the opposition parties' "playbook for defeating separatism in Catalonia", and "offers a better remedy for democratic coexistence in Spain". 

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No wonder Britain isn't having more babies

Sebastian Payne in The Times 

"Woeful policymaking means the state is artificially stifling families," writes Sebastian Payne, director of centre-right think tank Onward, in The Times. "The problems mount from the off, starting with money worries before a child is even conceived." Many of the country's "challenges" will "worsen if our birthrate is left to wither". We need a "new deal for parents"; the UK "will be thankful in decades to come for some bold steps now".   

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