A Point of View

The thing with hoaxes is that they work – and that’s a good reason for not liking them, says Clive James. Although, he has himself performed his own convincing hoax in the past – as have writers Virginia Woolf and Evelyn Waugh – Clive says there is a streak of the self-congratulation in every hoaxer, which he finds hard to admire.

Clive James considers the problem of torture and whether television dramas, like the American series 24, encourages its use in the fight against terrorism.

Clive James considers the extra burden we are in danger of placing on the shoulders of outstandingly successful young, black Britons to be representatives for their race.

Clive James criticises the high spending planned for the London 2012 Olympics. It would be much better, he argues, to think in terms of television coverage and forget all the expensive new buildings.

Clive James takes a wry look at the world of the paparazzi after the publicity surrounding the wedding of the actress Elizabeth Hurley. Their antics may be justified when their quarry welcomes the attention but the hounding of others in the public eye is a different matter altogether.

As Helen Mirren carries off her Oscar for sounding like the Queen, Clive James comments on the way we speak English today. Regional accents on radio and television reflect and reinforce the breach of the class divide, but a new noisy voice is less easy on the ear.

From Bruce Lee to Jean-Claude Van Damme to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Clive James reflects on the martial arts movie, and says meaningless violence is still meaningless no matter how you dress it up.

Clive James rails against changes to the names of things we rely on - such as railways and the Royal Mail - as a type of costly and annoying ‘fidgeting’. He points to other disturbing developments in what he sees as a growing misuse of language.

Taking as his cue the reported growth in cosmetic surgery, Clive James applauds the work of surgeons who repair the ravages of disease or damage to faces from accidents, but he wonders what drives people who don’t obviously need to alter their appearance.

Clive James reflects on man-made climate change from the standpoint of a sceptic, discussing the power of language to sway opinions when, he says, we have neither the time nor the talent to weigh the evidence for ourselves.