Smallweed is an alter ego of Guardian writer David McKie. Among subjects covered are the euphony of branch line railway station names, and the illustrious career of the Marquis de Vauvenargues
The Liberal Democrats' election miracle worker, Lord Razzall, I read this week, wants the party leader, Charles Kennedy, to adopt a new image. He needs, the sage says, to look prime ministerial.
Smallweed: Intriguing that the latest group to crawl out of the wreckage of the Tory party waving what it fondly supposes is a blueprint for electoral victory should call itself the Cornerstone group.
Smallweed: The Conservatives have been yakketing on throughout this election campaign about the stealth taxes Labour might introduce if re-elected, yet they've somehow contrived to miss the most obvious of them all.
Smallweed: Reports from Liverpool that the local authority plans to prohibit smoking in local theatres, even by actors, have been greeted with high enthusiasm by councils across the land.
Thumbing through a traveller's guide from the 1860s, I came across a glowing account of Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, not the least of its lauded attributes being a philosophical equipment room.
Suggestions that the United Kingdom Independence party might split into two factions - those who adore Kilroy-Silk and those who can't stand him - misread the nature of political parties.
Smallweed: Plato: an apology. In this column a few weeks ago, it was suggested that the eminent philosopher Plato would not qualify for an all-time Great Greeks football XI because all the best Greek footballers had names ending in S and Plato did not.
Smallweed: The past week in Bournemouth was prettily punctuated by frenetic attempts to demonstrate that those who now lead the Conservative party are human beings, just like the rest of us.
Smallweed: Asked on the BBC if he still hoped to see Kenneth Bigley released, a former FBI hostage negotiator declared that when he was doing the job he "never turned off the emotional porchlight".
The most astonishing twist in that captivating soap opera, The Conservative Party in Crisis, is the revelation that some of Michael Howard's loyal comrades are pinning their hopes on Sir Malcolm Rifkind to replace the party leader.
It was widely reported on Monday that Michael Howard has offered voters a stark choice: a bigger state and higher taxes with Labour or lower taxes and greater freedom from government meddling under him.
The imminent expansion of the European Union to a membership of 25 countries is deeply alarming for those of us who like to be able, if asked, to reel off the names of all of them.
2003 took in not only the 100th anniversary of the birth of George Orwell, but also the largely unnoticed centenary of the death of a writer Orwell hugely admired.