The benefits to a young journalist of owning a Filofax

Not much to report about NC in the Standard, by the way, and I have mislaid my copy so I can't do extracts from it either. However, he was writing about the Saddam trial (and various other guff I can't remember) and had to execute a rather embarrassing volte-face. If you remember, during a recent Reach Out To The Left Week, Nick waxed lyrical on "Our Criminal Barristers, God Bless 'Em" and "No Matter How Bad The Crime, A Cornerstone Of A Decent Society Is A Fair Trial". This was a bit awkward to square with the need to write a column excoriating Geoffrey Robertson QC for asking that the Saddam trial be moved to the Hague. To be honest I probably agree with Nick that Saddam ought to be tried in an Iraqi court (although I do think it's a bit scandalous that the charges have been so carefully selected so as to ensure that nothing embarrassing to the US and UK comes up during cross-examination), but it was absolutely visible in the Standard column that he was wishing he hadn't gone in so aggressively on the barristers one.

A Filofax could have prevented this minor embarrassment; you can write down important coming dates in them. I suspect that Nick doesn't own one though because they have connotations of the Thatcher era.