NEW STATESMAN Why no party can afford to be anti-nuclear The Liberal Democrats may have a key role to play in one of the most tightly fought elections in the UK and opinion polls are already pointing to a hung Parliament. And if that happens,be prepared for the lights going out in that hung Parliament,writes Mark Lynas. With the Liberal Democrats asking Gordon Brown to scrap plans to build more nuclear power plants,Lynas says its a mistake the Lib Dems do not need to make. I was puzzled to hear the Lib Dem energy spokesman.lamenting.the health effects of nuclear power as a reason for his opposition to it,even though no plausible scientific case can be made. Coal,on the other hand,kills thousands every year, Lynas writes. THE NEW YORKER Kitty Kelley takes on Oprah Winfrey Lauren Collinss review of Oprah,the biography of the chat show queen by Kitty Kelley,says the author who is famous for her biographies of Jackie Onassis,George Bush,Nancy Reagan and Frank Sinatra,may have found her match in Winfrey. As Winfrey denied Kelley access to her life,this unauthorised biography is one of those King Kong vs. Godzilla events in celebrity culture,but in this case the subject of the exposé has the advantage. However unsportingly,Oprah has locked up tight most of the people who get whatever it is about her that we dont. Kelleys pen is not dripping poison so much as slightly curdled milk. THE NEWS,PORTSMOUTH Pompey,the club like no other in the land Steve Wilson writes of how the long-suffering fans of English club Portsmouth finally had something to cheer about when their side knocked out in-form Tottenham Hotspurone of the current football seasons hi-fliers2-0 in the semi-final of the FA Cup. And the man who made that possible,Kevin-Prince Boateng,says he will never tire of watching replays of the penalty he scored to book Pompeys place in the FA Cup final. VANITY FAIR Zaire,the Leopards,and the World Cup In the summer of 1974,Zaires national soccer team,the Leopards,became the first team from sub-Saharan Africa to qualify for the World Cup,which that year was hosted by West Germany. The story of that outingin which the Leopards were outscored in their three games,14-0is the subject of the movie Between the Cup and the Election. The film,by Monique Mbeka Phoba and Guy Kabeya Muya,tracks down the surviving members of that team with the presidential election of 2006 as background. One former Leopard says they let Brazil score a third goal in Zaires final game because the Brazilians had requested it at halftime so they could advance to the next round. We got nothing for it, he says. We did it for pleasure.
