Economic woes? Blame Evan

Politicians won’t take the blame for the current economic difficulties, so well done to Evan Davis for accepting full responsibility. The BBC economics editor turned Today presenter admits that practitioners of his dismal science have failed us.

“We ought to have been in the business of saying that the current situation was unsustainable and various scenarios could play out badly,” he tells the Economic and Social Research Council magazine. There’s more. “The question we have to ask ourselves is did we do enough to warn people that there could be a bumpy patch?” he asks. “I think the answer is that we did try, but we didn’t try hard enough. In particular, we failed to tell people that when times turn bad, lots of things can get bad simultaneously.”

Enough of the mea culpa. Can’t Davis tell us how to get out of this mess? No, he only asks the questions on Today.

The Conservatives have yet to win over the drum’n’bass massive. In a summit with New Statesman , the top artiste Goldie says: “If David Cameron puts his hand out to youth, he’s going to get it bitten off. Guaranteed. I think he’s bullshitting.” Cameron says that he will meet Goldie at any pirate DJ station of his choice and argue it out. OK, maybe not.

Former colleagues of Baroness Thatcher are keen to learn who will play them in a BBC Two drama about her final days in office. Charles Powell, her foreign affairs adviser, cannot complain: the sleek James Fox takes his role. John Sessions is the ultimately lethal Geoffrey Howe. Lindsay Duncan is the Iron Lady “on the brink of ruin”.

This waxwork model of Amy Winehouse (pictured above), ordered by her record company, doesn’t take hard drugs or stumble around Camden at 3am screaming that she wants “her Blake”. Her parents welcomed the 6ft likeness (3in beehive to 5in heels), which comes complete with winged ankh and horseshoe tattoos, at its grand Madame Tussauds unveiling. “That’s exactly how she looked at the Brits . . . It’s brilliant,” beamed her dad Mitch.

Roman reigns again this summer

The Face: Hadrian

“The life, the love, the legacy” thunders the publicity heralding Hadrian’s inclusion in the ranks of the museum A-listers such as Monet and Picasso who guarantee blockbusters.

More than 12,000 advance tickets have been sold for the exhibition Hadrian: Empire and Conflict, which opens today at the British Museum, the nation’s most popular cultural attraction. Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, headed the guest list at a celebrity launch party.

The reign of Hadrian, the nephew of the emperor Trajan, ended in AD138 but his superstar potential is only now being fully realised. After lionising Alexander the Great, Hollywood has discovered the great wall-builder. John Boorman is about to begin filming Memoirs of Hadrian with Antonio Banderas in the lead role and Charlie Hunnam as Antinous, his lover who drowned mysteriously in the Nile.

Two million viewers watched Dan Snow’s BBC film, which lingered over the bitter refusal of Hadrian’s wife Sabina to bear him children.

Hadrian was a ruthless emperor who massacred 600,000 Jews, yet loved architecture. The plot has enough twists to keep the crowds queueing.

Postscript

— Emily Maitlis takes a break from Newsnight to reflect on two great female cultural icons for Radio Times. “Barbie’s legs take up half her body. She never opens her legs when she sits down - a mechanism in her hip ensures they stay chastely together in front of her. Madonna, as far as I’m aware, doesn’t have that mechanism." The Barbie v Madonna debate is played out in full on Radio 4 this Saturday.

— Kaiser Chiefs’ offer to play in a rural Cornish pub was politely declined. “It would cause too much inconvenience to the guests and it was getting late,” said a barmaid at the White Hart.

— “I hear I’m a living legend, which is something I am grateful for,” was Ozzy Osbourne’s response to receiving Classic Rock magazine’s highest accolade.

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