Simpson wrong

The world's greatest living foreign correspondent John Simpson, sustained last year by a BBC salary of £190k, is presumably using 'leave' as World Affairs Editor to go on a theatre tour of the UK. 

"The Leaders and Lunatics Tour" features John, just turned 80, on stage in Salford, London, Bristol, Shrewsbury, and Truro. Tickets, starting £35, are selling well.  

John has recently admitted being wrong on Russia in a Guardian review of Anne Applebaum's book, Autocracy, Inc. ]

"I remember disagreeing with her genteelly at editorial meetings in the early 1990s, when she was writing about the danger that Russia’s post-communist implosion would one day present for the west, after Boris Yeltsin left office. She talked even then about the need for Nato to build up its defences against the time when Russia would be resurgent; while I, having spent so much time in the economic devastation of Moscow and St Petersburg, thought the best way for the west to protect itself was by being far more generous and welcoming towards Russia. Events have shown which of us was right, and it wasn’t me."