When we embarked on modernising the Royal Shakespeare Company last year, there were clearly going to be rough seas ahead. Like many areas of British public life, reform of great cultural institutions is difficult But change isn’t just necessary in the arts, it’s crucial. It’s the ‘institution’ bit that’s the problem.But let me take [...]

A few days later the Nevada Athletic Commission refused to give Tyson a licence and the fight was off.Over the weekend Lewis’s New York lawyer, Judd Burstein, was in London going over the contract with Lewis’s de facto manager, Adrian Ogun. At the same time Tyson’s representatives were agreeing their end of the deal [...]

In Britain, traditionally, money transactions have been considered vulgar. Privileges have instead been based on class and relationship But even this is dying out now. The good side of consumerism is the demand that everything be known, every party donation and every entrance criterion Transparency Fairness. That’s what we want.Nevertheless, the Reverend Platt would [...]

Lazio have yet to pay United in full for Stam and have been trying to offload him.He would be expensive in terms of his fee – around £10m – but that has not deterred Keegan or City and the player’s wages are unlikely to be a stumbling block either.Meanwhile, Manchester United say that Ronny [...]

Paris in the springtime lived up to Cole Porter’s promise yesterday as Scotland arrived in weather that would represent high summer in Paisley or Peterhead. But a North Atlantic outpost in the autumn was clearly on Berti Vogts’ mind when he arranged for Barry Ferguson to join his squad, even though the Rangers midfielder [...]

The most memorable thing about actresses such as Winona Rider, Sigourney Weaver and Gwyneth Paltrow was not the films they were in, but their first names. And now a girl called Halle! Brilliant! Not since there was an Orchestra of the same name in Manchester has anything or anyone been called Halle! The sheer [...]