A penniless asylum seeker in London was vilified across two pages of the Daily Mail last week. Nothing new there then, says Francis Wheen.... apart from the fact that this one has been dead for nearly 150 years!

Nick Hornby interviews The Boss. I must admit I was one of those who thought Springsteen had passed his sell by date... until we went to see him with the East Street Band at Old Trafford last year. It was an absolute stormer, the genuine dogs, and at the end of the show the audience were as exhausted and drained as Brooooce himself.