The Irish Times (Free subscription) | yesterday
FORMER TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern last night denied storming out of former British foreign secretary Robin Cook's office in 1997 upon seeing a picture of Oliver Cromwell in the room.
donpaskini (Free subscription) | 10/02/2008
Newer Labour lists his Labour heroes and asks me to do the same. His five are Robin Cook, Nye Bevan, Barbara Castle, Neil Kinnock and Tony Benn. He's missing Clement Attlee from that list, but apart from that there isn't much to disagree with. So instead, here are three forgotten 'nearly heroes' of the Labour Party. All three gave decades of service to making Britain a kinder, more decent and socially...
The Independent (Free subscription) | 09/28/2008
For more than 70 years it has been the cradle of socialist writing, nurturing some of the Left's most brilliant thinkers. Aneurin Bevan and Michael Foot were founder members, George Orwell was once literary editor, and ministers ranging from Robin Cook to Jack Straw have been contributors. But the future of Tribune magazine is hanging in the balance following an emergency meeting in which the perilous...
TigerHawk (Free subscription) | 09/23/2008
It has become virtually an article of faith on the left and the transnational professional class that the invasion of Iraq was the "greatest foreign policy blunder" in American history. See, e.g., Jimmy Carter, Ramzy Baroud, Teddy Kennedy, Robin Cook, George Galloway, Harry Reid, and Jim Leach (it pains me to include him, he being the only politician for whom I've actually knocked on doors). And
Not a sheep (Free subscription) | 09/21/2008
Amazingly David Miliband is proving to be a more inept Foreign Secretary than even the dire Robin Cook and the out of her depth Margaret Beckett. The latest rumour concerns David Miliband laughing during a Sky News interview when he gets the number of dead in the latest Islamic terrorism atrocity wrong. It is claimed that the pertinent piece of video has disappeared... I suggest keeping an eye on Guido...
Labourhome (Free subscription) | 09/20/2008
It is the four letter word, that still haunts us. I didn't agree with any of the main arguments of the anti-war left, but took the line of John Denham and Robin Cook to oppose the war on the grounds that America was being reckless, because of its unilateralism. I take a middle ground between the pro-war left, and the anti-war left. I find Nick Cohen's assertion that it was the liberal-left who have...
PM (Free subscription) | 09/16/2008
Ann Leslie has a new book out - serialised in the Daily Mail. This passage struck me: "When it came to dealings with men, one of my more memorable encounters occurred when I was invited to appear on the BBC's Any Questions? programme in Scotland. My fellow guests included Robin Cook and the Tory MP and Solicitor General for Scotland, Nicholas Fairbairn.... The latter was a Thatcher favourite because...
SJCPL Blog (Free subscription) | 09/11/2008
Here are some new books on CD we just received at SJCPL’s Sights & Sounds . Come check out something to listen to today. Foreign Body by Robin Cook Where Memories Lie by Deborah Crombie The Bible Salesman by Clyde Edgerton Undead and Unworthy by MaryJanice Davidson Somewhere in Heaven by Christopher Andersen [...]
Most Sincerely Folks (Free subscription) | 08/18/2008
Paying a courtesy call on the British foreign secretary Robin Cook in 1997, the Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern noticed a painting of Oliver Cromwell in the room. He instantly walked out and refused to return until the portrait of “that murdering bastard” had been removed. Amusing antics from the man whose 2007 election campaign used [...]
Shiraz Socialist (Free subscription) | 08/17/2008
Whose imperialism is worse? By seeing a narrative of western imperialism in the Caucasus, Seumas Milne tramples on the principle of democratic self-determination All comments (189) “Funny kind of independence; funny kind of anti-imperialism.” Guardian columnist, former advisor to Robin Cook and (in general) supporter of Seamas Milne, David Clark, writes… Anyone familiar with my writings over the last...
The Economist (Free subscription) | 08/14/2008
Why put up with expensive, run-of-the-mill health care at home when you can be treated just as well abroad? ROBIN COOK knows how to spot the latest scare in medicine. Mr Cook, a Harvard-trained doctor, is author of over a dozen medical thrillers, including "Coma" and "Outbreak", which have anticipated pandemics, anthrax attacks and the black market in organs. "Foreign Body", published this month,...
The Virtual Stoa (Free subscription) | 08/06/2008
Robin Cook, contributor to The Red Paper on Scotland, Labour MP and Foreign Secretary, born 28 February 1946, died 6 August 2005.
New York Post (Free subscription) | 08/03/2008
Columbia University graduate, doctor and aquanaut (seriously), Robin Cook thought he understood the thriller business pretty well. "But the popularity of James Patterson threw that out the window," he says. "I've never seen such big type in such...
Silicon Alley Insider (Free subscription) | 07/28/2008
Michael Eisner's "Foreign Body," the much-hyped Web series that supposed to promote an upcoming Robin Cook novel, doesn't look like it's going to do the book much good. The 40 episodes aired (streamed') so far have generated just 1 million views -- less than this clip of a 3G iPhone in a blender . "Quite frankly, it's been a challenge," Vuguru creative director Steve Cohen told MediaWeek . The series,...
Vital Signs Blog (Free subscription) | 07/15/2008
If you're a reader of Dr. Robin Cook's suspense novels, you'll know what manipulative, underhanded (and certainly lucrative) villains can be made out of the pharmaceutical companies. Well, it may be that Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa found time to read one or two of those thrillers. At any rate, something has made him wonder if the big drug boys that made such realistic bad guys in Cook's fiction...
