“... Pakistan is preparing for elections in May and June, and an all-party caretaker government will soon take over to supervise the process. Meanwhile, things continue as eventfully as usual. There has been yet another clash between the Supreme Court and the Zardari government; a previously obscure Muslim cleric returned from Canada to lead what he hoped would be a ‘million-strong’ anti-corruption march to Islamabad; and two factories in Lahore and Karachi have burned to a cinder with the workers still inside ...”

“... The hasbara aspect of the Gaza operation was put in train several months before the invasion. In May 2008 four French-speaking Israelis were selected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in conjunction with the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organisation, to visit Switzerland, France and Belgium, where, as the Jewish Agency spokesperson put it, they were ...”

“... as much subject matter as territory: the murder of the mathematician Hypatia (‘Bishop Cyril, may you be tormented for ever’); Harwood’s father as a young officer in 1940, ‘having to shoot one of his own men,/his stomach ripped open beyond saving,/begging to be put out of his agony’; a Polish table set for guests with ‘fresh baked ...”

“... total number of votes lost in 2012 because of long waits range from 500,000 to 700,000 – but it may have been many more than that. A study from Ohio State University, using data collected by the Orlando Sentinel, found that 200,000 registered voters in Florida alone might not have cast ballots because they thought it would take too long – to say nothing ...”

“... detaining them in immigration removal centres are providing various ‘services’ in Iraq. They may, to take one example, land at an airport managed by Serco. Sodexho, Kalyx’s parent company, has gone into catering, but it’s not likely that repatriated Iraqi refugees will be eating the meals they prepare: the company’s eight-year, $881 million ...”

“... the Tories, its membership amounts to 0.06 per cent of the electorate. The amateur Ukip enthusiast may have meant only that he hoped we were among the 2.7 million people who voted for the party (6.2 per cent of the electorate) – a hundred times more probable, but still pretty unlikely. Wishful thinking is a hallmark of Ukip, and they’re self-importantly ...”

“... winner of the Whitbread Book Awards, which take place later this month. The reception and dinner may still be held at the Brewery in Chiswell Street, the site Samuel Whitbread opened in 1750, but Whitbread plc has changed: the chairman’s annual report puffs the fact that ‘the last year has seen a transformation.’ The ‘UK’s leading leisure ...”

“... Premiership. The waves of cash that have rolled into the game since the deal with Sky in 1991 may not have fundamentally altered the character of the sport – a quarter of a century ago, Tom Stoppard was making a character in his play Professional Foul complain about the ‘yob ethics’ of the game – but they have made it worse. The players are ...”

“... response. There seems to be less porn, or as wags dub it ‘pr0n’, than there once was – which may reflect the fact that there is now so much free pr0n on the internet that fewer mugs will pay for it.) Gates’s prediction was not just wrong, it is steadily getting wronger, as rates of spam have gone up sharply in the last few months. If you have the ...”

“... he writes about) is presumably not unconnected to an anxiety that typewriting is a bit girly: I may be sitting at a typewriter, but that doesn’t make me a typist; oho, no – I’m a writer. It’s just possible that a similar anxiety informed my own disquiet at the babysitter’s co-opting of the typewriter in my bedroom. Did she perhaps imagine that it ...”

“... Haw first set up camp there in June 2001 in protest against economic sanctions imposed on Iraq. In May 2006 the police removed the lot: banners, slogans, posters, cards, photographs of deformed babies, cartoons of Blair, Brown and Bush, the parliamentary voting records of MPs, grubby teddy bears and toys (as well as the plastic sheets and cans that constituted ...”

“... same year, was ‘that faithful old pick-me-up for sick socialists: indignation’. Indignation may be the thing he enjoyed most – in the short term (eloquently) and over the long haul (diligently). In the LRB as in Private Eye, he wrote about corporate fraud, lies and general skulduggery (about BCCI, about Consolidated Goldfields, about the case of ...”

“... that fill the 12 rooms of Rodchenko & Popova: Defining Constructivism (at Tate Modern until 17 May). The material is lively, inventive and memorable, poignant even, because you know that early Russian modernism didn’t die a natural death but was cut down within a decade or so of its germination. Popova’s pleasure reflects the constructivist belief that ...”

“... and again inevitably, we have the famous plate from Corinth showing two lovers in a garden. It may be hard to ring the changes, but that’s no reason not to ...”

“... that gave us the phrase ‘bluestocking’ or ‘stuck-up cunt’. The Daily Mail sneered that she may have known who Thersites was, but she didn’t have a clue who won the most recent series of Celebrity Big Brother or know the name of the new manager of Chelsea FC. I really do not want to feel negative about anyone the Daily Mail criticises, nor in the ...”