Monthly Archive: February 2009

Road to redemption

I was delighted to see that George Radwanski, the privacy commissioner whose expense accounts became public, was cleared of all charges. Every man should have his day in court and Radwanski certainly had his after six years of being a pariah. In fact, Radwanski has been on the outs with society all the time I’ve known him, which is thirty-five years. When I was press secretary to Robert Stanfield in the 1970s, Radwanski was one of two journalists in the 150-member Parliamentary Press Gallery who stood apart and held independent views. The other was Bill Johnson, who as a bilingual...

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Enough to make your toes curl

We’re hoping to return to Florence for a holiday in April. If we do, first stop will be my favourite piece of art in all of Italy, Donatell’s David in the Bargello. To my mind, this beautiful piece of work from the fifteenth century, the first free-standing statue created since Roman times, is far superior to Michelangelo’s more famous David. The latter is certainly bigger, a towering sixteen feet compared with Donatello’s five-foot version. As a result, Donatello’s work is more human in scope. You can go nose-to-nose with it, something impossible to do with Michelangelo’s overpowering marble. Moreover, I...

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