CoffeeHousers' Wall 31 August - 6 September

Pete-s

Although the Megrahi affair has had much space, virtually none has been done of 'what have the SNP to gain'. Or 'why did they do it'? I think a discussion on this subject would be very interesting, especially to see how history unfolds.

My guess is that it is all to do with the 'independence referendum', with the majority opposition opposed to the referendum. A risky ploy for the opposition would be to unite and force through a quick referendum while the SNP are in the pooh. That would take Salmond by surprise, however that is very unlikely to happen.

Elinor Pullen

Heard a rumor that there's a new editor at the Spectator and I must implore you to continue with Sarah Standing's brilliant column. For your American readers - natives and Brit expats alike - her world view is so refreshing. Ms. Standing's common sense combined with hilarious wit has covered a wide range of topics from annoying bicycle riders to one of the best articles I've read on swine flu. (I have a Masters of Public Health and I've emailed her article of a myriad of "experts" who could never have produced such a cogent article.) Finally the best thing about opening the Spectator on line is that I never have any idea what a new Standing column will bring. Original, unique perspective, and superb writing. The best the Spectator has to offer. I want more Sarah Standing in the future.

Jeremy

The following is the text which accompanies my portrait of Disraeli at the top of this thread:

THE ELDER STATESMAN

Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (1804-1881).

Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister of Great Britain.

It was whilst working on this picture that the following thought occurred to me: "The advantage of the aristocratic system is that it enables men of sensibility, culture, breeding and education to come to the forefront of human affairs; the disadvantage of the democratic and other political systems is that they actively prevent them from doing so."

Disraeli's greatest political and diplomatic triumph was undoubtedly the Congress of Berlin (1878). It was here that he secured significant and strategically important territorial gains for Britain, shored up the ailing Ottoman Empire and checked aggressive Russian designs in the Near East. In the process of achieving this, a general European war was avoided and the peace of Europe secured for a further thirty-six years. It was a personal and political triumph.

"Der alte Jude" (The old Jew) remarked Bismarck of Disraeli at the meeting, "das ist der Mann!" (that is the man!). The two of them got along famously.

Unbeknownst to his political opponents at home and his rivals abroad, Disraeli's health and stamina had already begun to fail by the time he attended the Congress of Berlin. Understanding this, I think, raises his achievements there to even greater heights.

He was also a great favourite of Queen Victoria's:

"When I left the dining room after sitting next to Mr Gladstone I thought he was the the cleverest man in England," the Queen later told her granddaughter, "but after sitting next to Mr Disraeli I thought I was the cleverest woman in England."

This is the second of two portraits.

With thanks to David Blackburn.

logdon

George Orwell, a man of both the left and the Enlightenment, both socialism and democracy, in 1944:

âœThe really frightening thing about totalitarianism is...that it attacks the concept of objective truthâ¦.There is some hopeâ¦that the liberal habit of mind, which thinks of truth as something outside yourself, something to be discovered, and not as something you can make up as you go along, will survive....A certain degree of truthfulness was possible so long as it was admitted that a fact may be true even if you don't like it."

Frank P

Elinor aka Sarah

Oh Dear!

Verity

Frank P - seconded!

Hilarious!

On another matter, anyone else noticed we have a new giant ego edging its way in?

johnny come lately

It is truly amazing what one can obtain from encyclopeadia!

I did not know that about
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (1804-1881) Dont you know!

Now who said education. education. education?

David Ossitt

Jeremy.

"Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (1804-1881)."

Please tell; what proportion (rough figures) of your post are your own and what are taken from elsewhere?

Yorkshireman

A feature on Peter Davies the Mayor of Doncaster and the counter revolution being launched.

Its going down a treat up here and people across the region and country are taking note. So forget the south for once a focus on the North.

The most "Conservative" politician in Britain

Nicholas

Jeremy. Better, but the subject matter is a little obsessive and the colour work is reminscent of the old hard edged and imprecise four-colour comic printing process - is that a deliberate affectation? A sort of derivative retro Photoshop meets Pop Art for the 21st Century?

Also, what are the two "smallpox" blemishes on the chin and left cheek meant to represent?

Perhaps this "painting" would have worked better with a more subtle rendering of the startling fuchsia hue which would have left the interesting character of the subject less overwhelmed?

The Angol in Warsaw

Congrats, Fraser Nelson, on your ascendency to the editor's chair. Now be like Boris and take some risks.

Charlotte Safavi

Love Sarah Standing's column. A treat for an ex-pat straddling the Atlantic. Please keep the stories coming.

Verity

That electric fuchsia was not only overwhelming, but so inept for a Victorian statesman. It absolutely ruined Disraeli's image for me.

Realist

Why, from Fraser Nelson downwards, are you maintaining the fiction, sorry, lie, sorry, Brownie, sorry, lie, that d'Ancona *wasn't* sacked? What's the point in the lie? At least Brown's are basically explicable?

David Ossitt

Realist

"lie, that d'Ancona *wasn't* sacked?"

Was he?

Proof anyone!

Brian

Just read Michael Yon's embed with British forces in Afganistan - A1 reporting. The MoD have now turfed him out, of course. http://www.michaelyon-online.com/precision-voting.htm

egh

Poor Mr. Disraeli, all dissected and set in fuschia! Can't even turn his wit to his own defence, let alone sue for copyright!

Moving on - Hysteria's Deep Purple repays contemplation! But does it signify Approaching Doom, or something more like Jimene?

Nil desperandum - dispatch our resident Ego Superba to the spot (if it's not there already) - that'll see it off!!

Hysteria

"The looming problem in Britain is caused by the scheduled closure by 2015 of nine oil and coal-fired power plants. They are the victim of an EU directive designed to cut pollution"

extract from the DT today

so here we have it - the living stnadards of our people sacrificed to the EU and the GW scam.

Vote for the UK Homeland First Party - (OK I made that last bit up)

Verity

Hysteria - what a fine shot! Doesn't look like Houston, though! Bay City? Clear Lake?

Barry

I'm with Elinore. If there is to be a a reshuffle, here how I think it should play out:

IN

Sarah Standing
Toby Young
Boris Johnson
Jeremy Clarke
Robin Oakley
James Delingpole
Marcus Berkmann
Lloyd Evans
Debra Ross

Out

Taki
Rod Liddle

Back
Perry
Ferdie
Paul Johnson maybe
John Casey
Doc Theo

cuffleyburgers

Well I think he should have been sacked - D'Ancona's articles were the worst written and most absurd of all here.

He may have been a very good editor, but he sucked up to Brown and Mandelson in a most disgusting way.

Fraser is unikely ever to be accused of that.

Austin Barry

Yorkshireman

I checked out Peter Davies. To borrow a phrase of our new poster from Planet Egomania, "das ist der Mann!"

Paul B

Hysteria, may I second Verities thoughts on your photo. I love thunder storms, natures awesome power.Its not easy to capture a lightening bolt, I know I have tried on many occasions? Was there a tornado behind the storm, they often go to together. Its one of my ambitions to travel to the States on a storm chasing holiday one to see a twister.

Anyway, thank you.

Andy Carpark

Re the succession, I should like to thank the moderators for publishing my civilly expressed concerns about MD'A's often lamentably poor contributions.

If similar complaints sometimes seemed thin on the ground, maybe this was becuase readers were so moved to apoplexy that they were censored out.

In any event, two and a half cheers for the decision; half a cheer withheld for taking so long about it. Onwards and upwards.

Derek

Disraeli, as a dandy and as someone who came to consciousness during the Regency, would scarcely be likely to be put out by the exotic colour of Jeremy's paintings. If he was a Victorian, he was a Young Victorian.

More important perhaps is that they might prompt us to look again at Disraeli's Vindication of the English Constitution as the Parliament of Epigones prepares to reassemble. I see Andrew Roberts quotes from it in an article on the current British political crisis published in the September issue of the American monthly magazine, Commentary.

Realist

Okay, here's a compromise: will Fraser Nelson drop the self-righteous gurning about 'Brownies' until such time that the paper admits the dull fact that d'Ancona was sacked? But again: why even bother with the pretence that he wasn't?

Tiberius

Hello again, Realist.

I have trawled the web looking for corroberation of your story, and found none. Even Devils Thingy could only come up with some personal insults on Matt. Guido posted that Matt choosing to move was rumoured as far back as June.

So the burden of proof is much more on you than Fraser, my friend. I am not saying your scoop is untrue, btw, but scraps of red meat won't satisfy us CHers, I'm afraid.

And, people, this criticism of Matt's writing - how's that then? Maybe some haven't felt the desolation of the New Labour years that deeply, but from 2 May 1997, I took up Lady Thatcher's challenge of "the fightback starts here" and have read very widely to discern when we could expect these charlatans finally to be toast. Matt consistently had the most salient arguments, holding maximum verisimilitude, not only on Labour, but also on why the Tories were so useless in the BC years.

But just to show that I'm not Matt's mom, I disagree with him on two issues: one, Blair did use 90 days as a political tactic to isolate the Tories on security and two, it is too late to re-introduce grammar schools. (And I don't like Blur!)

Frank P

Realist

Will you point me to the 'pretence that he wasn't'? I missed that. Having asked the question several times, in Fraser's post about his appointment, I found the silence deafening. I cannot justifiably demand an explanation as a punter, because I cancelled my subscription when he shit-canned Paul Johnson (constructive dismissal). But I think the current subscribers are entitled to a public explanation. Perhaps he suffered the same (constructive) fate (I hope)? If anyone has elucidated on this subject I would appreciate the link. I don't suppose we shall hear from W'Ancona and no doubt Fraser is far too discreet to expose his predecessor. Anyway, as Verity has already pointed out, these decisions may well be taken in the Channel Islands (after due consultation between the real power brokers of the world).

Frank P

This guy is new to me:

http://www.caglecartoons.com/column.asp?columnID=

A very readable piece entitled (on Front Page's version) "BO needs to work on his BS".

Funny and apposite. Moreover we seem to be giving Obama a rest on these Speccie blogs, just at a time when he is getting his ass ripped in the States. Hope Obamafatigue hasn't set in here?
The repercussions of his victory are still washing on to our shores, as are the remnants of recent hurricanes.

Dmitri the Impostor

What a joy to see Clive Davis back up and blogging after his well-earned summer break.

Whenever I want to sit and contemplate a photograph of mosquito-netting or read a chunk of a long-remaindered masterpiece by Heinrich Böll, I always know where to go. Of course, none of these gems needs any announcement, explanation or annotation. As twinkling lights in the stellar fabric of Clive's intellect, they speak for themselves. Let those who struggle to interpret their signficance drown in his churning wake!

For the mind of Clive Davis is like a sparkling cataract of insight, a golden parabolic streak, overarching Both Sides of the Atlantic.

"Confectioner comes under fire for "lurid" couplings on sweet wrappers. File next to sightings of Jeremy Clarkson's face on bruised bananas?"

You're not wrong, Clive! We stand astride the grave and a difficult birth. Very flat, Norfolk. Bernstein & Woodward? The unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable. My, how we laughed down at the Algonquin.

Anthony Omwukwe's come-back gig at the Brooklyn Cloaca Maxima? He's got it covered. Celebrity signing of 'The Age of Innocence' by Edith Sitwell? Our man was queueing up with the best of 'em. Nothing too effete, banal, pretentious or defiantly obscure that it won't find its rightful place in the front window.

Oh, yes. It's a laugh a minute. On Clive Davis's blog.

MikeF

On Sunday afternoon shortly after hearing of the death of Simon Dee I described him to someone much too young to remember his years of fame as "the Jonathan Ross of his day". Only later did I read Dee's obituary in The Daily Telegraph and realise how wrong I was.

For a start Dee - or Cyril Nicholas Henty-Dodd to give him his real name - actually served in the British Army and was wounded in the line of duty. I somehow can't image 'Wossy' in such a situation.

More pertinent, perhaps, is the ruthless way that the BBC management of the day got rid of Dee when he caused them some annoyance with a tantrum or two compared with the pusillanimous way the present lot dealt with Ross when he brought shame and opprobrium on the organisation as a whole. What a contrast:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/tv-radio-obituaries/6115121/Simon-Dee.html

Hysteria

Verity/Paul B - thanks for the comments. Actually Verity, it is Houston (well - Katy anyway).

Paul B - no twister in this one (they are pretty rare but not unheard of in this area) -

For lightning shots they used to say "f8 and be there" - night time shots are a LOT easier - I use ISO 100, and a 30 second exposure at f5.6, and a tripod. Noise Reduction turned OFF to miniise delays between shots. Success rate this evening was around 5% of photos taken!.

Derek

@ Frank P.

Was Paul Johnson dismissed? I haven't seen anything at all on his disappearance from the magazine. I thought he must be taking some leave to write a book or do some painting. Does anyone know the reason? It certainly can't have been for faults of style... Some people, myself for instance, would read him anywhere he published for his style alone. People can disagree with some of his views,and would have to be considered odd if they did not, but it is for the variety and strength of his opinions that he is admired and, dare I say, loved, and for the beauty of the English in which they are expressed.

Jeremy

Derek:

"Disraeli, as a dandy and as someone who came to consciousness during the Regency, would scarcely be likely to be put out by the exotic colour of Jeremy's paintings."

Thank you for your comment. That was interesting and illuminating. The colour and exoticism of the Regency dandy combined with the sobriey of the Victorian statesman would be as good a way as any of describing Disraeli, in brief.

Kevyn Bodman

I've been away and am not up to date withn the change of Editor.
But I am surprised that anyone woyuld want Rod Liddle out of the magazine.
He is humorous, often caustic, and always insightful. Usually right, too.
Keep him.
And give Verity or Rhoda a blog on these ages.

Frank P

A terrific heads up from Darleen Click today on Protein Wisdom:

http://proteinwisdom.com/?p=15265

Apparently The Obamessiah is addressing US school chldren in an address on September 8th.
Says Darleen:

"Yes, gradeschoolers are doing so well in publik skools that taking a significant amount of their day to listen to Obama and his teleprompter …

what was that? Nothing wrong with a few minutes with the President?

Oh… only a few minutes, yeah, right ...

President Obama’s Address to Students Across America September 8, 2009
PreK-6 Menu of Classroom Activities: President Obama’s Address to Students Across America Produced by Teaching Ambassador Fellows, U.S. Department of Education
Before the Speech:
• Teachers can build background knowledge about the President of the United States and his speech by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama and motivate students by asking the following questions: [...]

Go ahead, go read the page and a half of bullet point suggestions on how students can serve The One achieve their dreams.

Inculcating a cult of personality in a public school is definitely better than allowing a high achieving homeschooled ten-year old to continue in being a sincere godbotherer."

Read it all and make you sure you click on the 'dinging' creepiness meter.

Verity

Derek, didn't you notice that Frank P said "constructive dismissal"?

Hysteria - It looks more Clearwater or the Rice University area to me. Posh lightning.

morphybum

Bring back Mark Steyn and Ferdinand Mount. Keep on Rod Liddle and Alex James.

lady2007boomer

So, will the al-Megrahi debacle be enough to bring down the British government? As usual when a crisis is at hand, Brown has dived for cover - hoping to dodge the bullets, in Afghanistan of all places!
The machinations have also exposed the impotence of the Scottish government.
Are the public just going to permit the British government to stagger on until time constraints force a general election?
From Rule Britannia to Fool Britannia.

Derek

Verity. Ok, point taken; but then what was the employer's conduct which amounted to a a significant breach of the employment contract which entitled Mr. Johnson to deem himself constructively dismissed. Frank P must have some kind of information to support his robust contention that "he [sic]shit-canned Paul Johnson"; what is it?

Hysteria

@ Verity - "Hysteria - It looks more Clearwater or the Rice University area to me. Posh lightning."

Just to be clear - this is my photo, so I know exactly where it is - shot taken from my backyard in Katy !!!

Verity

lady2007boomer - "Are the public just going to permit the British government to stagger on until time constraints force a general election?"

It has escaped your attention that the British are passive? Without a leader, they are passive.

Morphybum - Are you so naive that you think the dismissal of Mark Steyn was an editorial decision? If so, why do you think an editor would choose to rope probably the most popular columnist in the Anglsophere to a huskey-drawn sled and "mush!" it to the N Pole?*

Could you let us have your thinking? Do you think you are especially gifted, unlike professional editors, with an ability to determine the 'pull' value of writers?

Could people like you stop writing in with a startled air of revelation, "bring back Mark Steyn"? Any chance at all?

*To the best of my knowledge and belief, these would not be the Swedish Huskies who posed on an ice floe with David Cameron in a parka. (David Cameron was the one in a parka.)

These would be different Huskies, but anyway, they don't exist because Mark Steyn was not exiled into the tundra by an editor.

Nicholas

lady2007boomer: "So, will the al-Megrahi debacle be enough to bring down the British government?"

Probably, but only when it decides to finally call an election.

This is the brass-necked government of no shame, the mother of all arrogance, the government of the twice resigned, thrice returned, the government of pretence and lies over substance, the government caught bang to rights but with its fingers jammed in its ears, eyes closed and singing "La la la!", the government with leftist protection squads who shout their propaganda the loudest until it drowns out the truth.

Was there ever a more evil, disgusting, repulsive, unwanted imposition on the British and yet a more firmly entrenched parasite?

Michael Booth

Am curious - why , when it suits, does the Home Secretary of the day 'reassure' the public that this or that monstrous criminal ( e.g. Myra Hindley, Ian Brady, Peter Sutcliffe and the Soham murderer Huntley) will spend the rest of their days behind bars, ie die in prison, and yet this government feel compassion for the Lockerbie bomber? OK Scots law allows for compassion, but it is increasingly clear that Brown & Co exerted pressure with an eye - one eye - on an oil deal. of course... in the land of the Blind, the one-eyed man is king. Or at least Prime Minister.

Steve.W

According to Judge Stobart

There would appear to be few sanctions for breaking data protection laws. Civil servants merrily hand out information yet are not prosecuted, unencrypted laptops and memory sticks are lost or mislaid. However, the person who revealed the names and addresses of 12,000 BNP members was fined just £200.

At a court hearing District Judge John Stobart made an interesting statement appearing to be giving tacit support to those who criminally intimidated some of the people on the list:

"..... there may be some members in this organisation who do not deserve to be protected by the law ......"

Mention of the BNP does seem to encourage irrational thought and behaviour, though even the most ardent critic could not, presumably, consider membership of the BNP worse than crimes such as: murder, violence, burglary, mugging, drug dealing........

Hence, the logical conclusion must be that Judge Stobart appears to think that we are not all equal before the law.

If so, is he a fit person to be dispensing justice?

Anne Wotana Kaye

Heard about the Libyan terrorist's family living in a good neighborhood in Britain whilst Daddy was in Gaol. Was their rent paid for by the Libyan government, or as usual by the poor British taxpayer? Concerning Abu Hamza al-Masri, the hook-hand 'charmer', has he REALLY be exported to the USA, or is he still hanging around here appealing his deportation? His family have been living here at the expense of the taxpayers for years, despite his sons being found guilty of various criminal activities. Saw his revolting wife, at the new Shopping Mall, Westfield, loaded down with shopping bags. Wonder what she wears under her dirty old burka? Any information on Abu Hamza would be appreciated.

MikeF

Re the BNP membership list court case, District Judge Stobart also said this:

"It also comes as no surprise to me that somebody to do with an organisation that prides itself on Britishness is in fact living off the British people on Job Seeker's Allowance."

Now that strikes me as an odd sort of thing for a supposedly impartial judge to say. He seems to be inverting the old cliche about immigrants being welfare 'scroungers' (and doubtless some are, while most others aren't) and instead attributing the same characteristic to anyone with loyalties to the concept of 'Britishness'. I wonder if he has been on any 'diversity training' courses.

Frank P

Obama and Soros

Payback time:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36166

No compunction - no shame.

Anne Wotana Kaye

Nicholas,8:26 am: I agree with your posting, and can only wonder at how long a seemingly apathetic public allows it to continue. The BBC, is now completely controlled by Big Brother (and Sister), and the NHS is a tool in the hands of Nu Labour grandees. Many are too afraid to openly complain about cruel and negligent treatment, lest they lose the little they are grudgingly doled out by Primary Health Care trusts and NICE. Social Workers out in the field are thin on the ground, and earn miserable salaries. Most are agency staff and many are not trained to the level of others in the so-called Developed World. Of course, at the top, the political appointees receive obscenely huge salaries, just check our what that woman Shoesmith was earning. No wonder she is fighting tooth and nail for compensation. It's a pity she didn't fight half so hard for the right of Baby Peter (Baby P) to have a life.

Nicholas

Steve W: "If so, is he a fit person to be dispensing justice?"

No. The biased idiot appears to have been making a political statement worthy of Nazi Germany's tainted kangaroo courts. Under New Labour there has been a creeping destruction of traditional British tenets of justice, aided and abetted by the hysterical media and the rise of the "victim" industry. Nowadays a presumption of guilt or "wrong-doing" (very broad parameters of what the latter means, including unsubstantiated and potentially malicious allegations) brings about the almost-acceptance that people accused of certain wrongs are not entitled to justice.

Just who decides when a person's behaviour, alleged or otherwise, means that they "do not deserve to be protected by the law"? And how far is that protection to be withdrawn? Do we abandon data protection but not murder say - or does it become lawful to murder a member of the BNP too? All that is predicated on the particularly nasty strain of New Labour leftist moral ideology which has permeated the public narrative about what is "right" and what is "wrong". The presumption of "wrong" often now precedes the testing of the accusation(s) in a court of law and colours even how the cases are reported by the media. Having grown up in the days when a man was "helping the police with their enquiries" I am shocked by some of the crass sub-judice statements of disclosure prejudicing those accused which are glibly made by the government, CPS and police - especially the police who are often guilty of the worst excesses. It is sometimes difficult to see a legitimate reason for it other than the cynical manipulation of the public perspective. I pity those who have been and still are the victims of these outrageous miscarriages of justice.

In New Labour's Britain Justice is not blindfolded and carries not a sword and scales but instead has open eyes wholly fixated on the tabloid in one hand whilst holding a great blunt instrument in the other. This blunt instrument is used to devastating effect not just on the innocent and guilty alike but on our legal tradition of innocent until proven guilty and all the other tenets of justice that have marked us from mean totalitarian regimes.

In the case of the BNP the government hesitate to make membership a crime (they would like to) but instead resort to their usual tactics of whipping up public hatred and hysteria to condemn without trial. In this their new "Justice" Department makes such a mockery of real justice by imposing political and popular sentiments on the judicial process - to the extent that for some offences a fair trial and true justice becomes an impossibility. The arrogance and extremism of the "Justice" Department gauleiter Straw has exacerbated this outrage.

Take none of this as any kind of support for the BNP. It would be too easy to undermine and discredit my position on those grounds - which is what this wretched, nasty government regularly does to stifle the debate.

David

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2009/09/levi-johnston.html

Ah, Sarah Palin, just a home spun family woman:
. Sarah doesn’t cook, Todd doesn’t cook—the kids would do it all themselves: cook, clean, do the laundry, and get ready for school. Most of the time Bristol would help her youngest sister with her homework, and I’d barbecue chicken or steak on the grill.

Sarah told me she had a great idea: we would keep it a secret—nobody would know that Bristol was pregnant. She told me that once Bristol had the baby she and Todd would adopt him

a week or two after she got back she started talking about how nice it would be to quit and write a book or do a show and make “triple the money.” It was, to her, “not as hard.” She would blatantly say, “I want to just take this money and quit being governor.

Go on - surprise me and make this the subject of an Americano post.

Realist

Right, given that Fraser Nelson obviously hasn't waddled in here to say, 'Nope, as indictaed elsewhere on the site - and in our press release - Matt was not sacked', and given that he hasn't told that fib for equally obvious reasons, we'll move on from the non-mystery. D'Ancona was sacked, and we all know that as much, though not quite as painfully, as he does. But the question then remains: why bother trying to cover this up? Who on earth cares, other than him, that d'Ancona was sacked? It doesn't spare his feelings one iota to engage in this pretence, it just makes the whole thing look faintly risible. And for those who are wondering, why I'm banging on about something that's as plain as the nose on your face, well, simple really: if Nelson & co are going to keep at the unctuous habit of denouncing 'lies', it's less than convincing to kick off your reign mired in one. So since d'Ancona was sacked, why did Fraser Nelson pretend otherwise? Why, indeed, he still, albeit only via silenece, still pretending thus?

Verity

Mike F - Clearly Common Purpose. The next Conservative government, which will be the next-government-but-one, needs to invest in a large scale, thorough investigation of this outfit, preferably with a view to prosecutions and imprisonment.

The above also applies to Nicholas's post above. The whole justice system - the justice system that provided a template for the billion or so people living in Commonwealth countries - has been gobbled up and the foul mess regurgitated as Common Purpose.

You wouldn't be able to knock me down with a feather if Dave weren't a member in good standing. (I don't know this as a fact; it's a suspicion, that's all). But all the signs are there. Perhaps it's a malentendu on my part. But the next Conservtive government must lance this foetid boil.

Verity

Realist - Why would Fraser Nelson "waddle in". He looks young and fit to me.

Why on earth do you care so much regarding the disposition of D'Ancona?

Editors get sacked, or moved, for all kinds of reasons. He may, for all you know, have been moved elsewhere in the organisation. He may be in charge of start-up of a new publication. He may - has this occurred to your febrile mind? - have resigned because he got another offer he liked more. He may have resigned to engage in a private project, like writing a book.

He may have been kept on as an editorial consultant.

Dear God! Why do you care? Just because you read the mag does not make management decisions/strategies your business.

Realist

I've said why 'I care', to the limited extent I do. Fraser Nelson has used the word 'lie', for instance, in just about every other post he's made here. If he wants to go on using that word he's so fond of, starting off his editorship with one just gives his critics an open goal. As his critics are on the whole, on the left, I'm not sure what the gain is in self-handicapping thus. But I'm touched all the same, both by Verity's solicitude for the sanctity of Press Holding Group's internal processes, and, her regard for Fraser's walk, be it waddling, strutting, slouching or pimp-rolling.

Verity

Realist, or, in your case, Surrealist - Doubtless the Barclay brothers will continue to run their enterprise as they see fit, without feeling compelled to keep you informed.

Good grief, man!

Realist

The Barclay brothers have already informed us how they run this corner of their enterprise - them, Aidan, Brillo. And Brillo sacked Matt. If you want to continue to pretend that there's nothing weird in Nelson having initially connived in the fib that d'Ancona *wasn't* sacked, go right ahead. I think that d'Ancona's sacking is a Good Thing, but that's entirely by the by. So I just repeat the boring point I've made throughout: Fraser likes calling people liars, so it's merely prudence that shouldn't lie so very obviously himself.

Tiberius

Realist: carry on like this and Brown will be offering you a job in his not so rapid rebuttal unit.

Realist

Yes, that's right, of course it all makes sense now. I *must* be a Brownite smear merchant. Everything I've said, or rather the one, boringly consistent thing I've said leads inexorably to that conclusion. Inescapably also to the conclusion that Britain's supplies of tinfoil hats are running low, but that's a national crisis for another day.

Yet I'm dull enough to bother droning this one more time: the next time Brown lies, and Nelson calls him on it, the actual Labour flacks are going to have at least one easy, ad hom. retort.

Nicholas

Realist, read "The Spike" by Peter Forster (1969) and stop trying to compare Fraser's discretion about what happens in the privacy of the Spectator's editorial offices with Brown's very public and very bare faced lying. They are chalk and cheese.

Personally I'm hoping that whatever happened (and I don't care - it's none of my business) a new era can begin where the Spectator returns to a more powerful and unashamed narrative from the right of centre. Goodness knows we need it in this socialist and apathy blighted country.

mac

" . . . the actual Labour flacks are going to have at least one easy, ad hom. retort."

And you'll be first off the mark, presumably?

Tiberius

Don't overreact, Realist. It's just a bit of fun.

What you have said is not dull -just unsubstantiated.

etruscan62

I hope Fraser Nelson gets rid of the appalling Rod Liddle, a man who seems to have stubbed one too many cigarettes out in his own soul.

Jeremy

etruscan62:

"Rod Liddle, a man who seems to have stubbed one too many cigarettes out in his own soul."

Were I Rod - or indeed the Editor - I would regard that as a recommendation rather than a condemnation.

One might just as well have written off Jeffrey Bernard as a man who had one too many drinks on his conscience.

My own hopes for The Spectator are that it becomes less corporate, more individual, more energetic and more idiosyncratic as, indeed, it used to be...

Jeremy

The last great editor of The Spectator was Boris Johnson - but he left to go into politics and was sadly never heard of again.

Since then the magazine (with the possible exception of Michael Heath and the cartoons) has grown progressively more corporate and less characterful; the result being that I have largely stopped buying it, except for special occasions which often turn out not to be so "special" after all.

My own view is that Fraser is too conventional a character to edit the magazine back into the position - the important position - that it formerly held in our culture.

Verity

Can I commend Daniel Hannan's incisive piece today (yesterday, your time) ... not just for what he writes, but for the quality of the comments: http://tinyurl.com/nwo6x6

This is outstanding.

Realist

One might almost suppose, pace Jez up there, that saying things to reprehensible dictatorships - Libya, for example - is a rather more pertinent example where your Bigs Boys Rules are needed. That lying in pursuit of the national interest is a sensible and grown up thing. Whereas needlessly lying about something the dogs in the street - and certainly those at canary Wharf! - know to be untrue is just, well, silly. And especially so for someone who's made it a hallmark of his to denounce lying liars with near Calvinistic intensity.

Paul B

Breaking news at time of writing-no link.Nigel Farage, the leader of UKIP to stand in the next GE in John Bercows constituency, against the tradition of the Speaker being unopposed. If I were living there, he would get my vote.

Clever move by Farage imo, guaranteeing him lots of media attention and therefore by extension, UKIP. This should cause concern to the Conservatives

The Bellman

@Realist: Are you the soon-to-be- (if-not-already-) ex-Mrs d'Ancona, by any chance? It would explain your monomania.

As Nicholas says, there is a substantial difference between conduct in a public office and running a private company. Maintaining silence about confidential management decisions is not only entirely sensible, but I would guess a legal requirement, and certainly the professional course.

I admire your single-minded determination to fabricate a hypocritical deception of the British people, even if it only so that you may yourself expose it; but most of us can see it's utter bosh, as well as tiresome.

David Ossitt

Realist.

Please drop it; it is getting a tad boring.

Unless that is; you are as The Bellman suspects the soon-to-be (if-not-already-) ex-Mrs d'Ancona.

If you are indeed her; then fire away, if not please stop it.

etruscan62

Jeremy, I stand by my comment about Liddle and am appalled you make the comparison with the great Jeffrey Bernard. Jeff never displayed (well, not in his writing) the shallw malice of the rent a quote controversialist. Liddle is all spleen, all bile and nothing else; a man every bit as grubby as Russell Brand ot Jonathan Ross.

Verity

Etruscan62 - Well said!

I am baffled that anyone would mention Rod Liddle in the same breath as that great original, witty and eccentric thinker Jeffrey Barnard. (For one thing, Liddle alway seems to be i>. Legends are not made thusly.) Barnard was one of a kind.

Someone above mentioned that Boris Johnson, who is a pedestrian writer, had been a "great editor" of The Speccie. In fact, he was a dire editor. He displayed no editorial talent whatsoever. I quit taking The Speccie during his turn. The last magnificently talented editor of The Speccie was the late Frank Johnson, who was inspired. I never subscribed because I loved going to the newstand to look at the cover and buy it on Thursdays. Having it plop through the letterbox wouldn't have been the same as picking it off the shelf and taking it home to read. I never read it on the train. I always waited until I was home with a drink in my hand to open it.

I think circulation has never been as high as it was under Frank Johnson.

Derek

@ Verity Thanks for the referral to Daniel Hannan's piece, which I had missed and by extension to the really interesting succession of comments by readers which follow it.

One reflection which the blog prompted was that if we are going to withdraw from the EU, we should not at the same time be burning our boats which link us to the United States, as this government and the ant-American forces in the country are doing... But perhaps that is all part of the plan to wreck our nation.

David Ossitt

etruscan62

"a man every bit as grubby as Russell Brand ot Jonathan Ross"

Nobody is as grubby as Brand and Ross.

"Liddle is all spleen, all bile and nothing else"

Silly 62 Liddle has humour and that will excuse any of his vices.

The Bellman

Spectator reminiscences #94:

@Verity: I agree with the appraisal of B Johnson's editorship. I thought the lurch to trashy, media-centric and lightweight drivel and celebrity obsession - currently embodied in Alex James and Sarah Standing - gathered pace on his watch. Frank Johnson was good, but I think Dominic Lawson was the last great.

I still hanker for the days when circulation was about 94 but 'everyone' read it. The cover cartoons were contained elegantly in a box, and the main articles were described in a serif script beneath the cartoon, rather than the current practice of smothering the front page with messy daubings partially obscured by text.

I also agree it is a pleasanter, if more expensive, experience to buy from the news-stand than to receive through the letter-box.

Tiberius

Boris Johnson is a pedestrian writer, eh Verity?

That ranks with your best.

Verity

It was Boris Johnson who brought the egregious Ron Liddle on board. So no surprises there, then. He also published a deeply illiterate, directionless, idiotic article by Ron Liddle's then-girlfriend. Obviously as a favour to Liddle. How it must have read before the grammar was semi-fixed up and some of the clumsier locutions edited defies the imagination.

Boris Johnson's a lightweight. He plans on being the next Tory Leader. We need to get right away from that group.

Tiberius

If we may reprise our earlier discussion, Verity, Boris may indeed be the next leader of the Party, especially in the scenario we discussed where Cameron does not make a second term because of the economic pain Brown is bequeathing.

But he is no more a lightweight than he is a pedestrian writer except perhaps in comparison to the millstones you seem to prefer as future Tory leaders.

MikeF

Given that this column is now veering towards a discussion of journalistic standards can I point out a story that is currently running on The Daily Telegraph website. It is about a teenage girl in Australia who decided she wanted to lose her virginity in a hurry because she feared the switch-on of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Switzerland would bring about the end of the world. It is in the Science News section.

How appropriate that should appear on the day that a truly great journalist - Keith Waterhouse - has passed from this life. I suspect he would have laughed as much as I did.

Verity

Speaking of the ubiquitous Boris, I see that he has now recommended that British people fast for one day in order "to understand Muslims".
http://tinyurl.com/ktqlrw

Can I, at the same time, recommend that Muslims go down the pub and have a couple of whiskies or beers in the evening in order to understand the host country that they are lucky enough to be living in?

Could I also suggest that Muslim girls go out without wearing a cumbersome political statement, but a mini skirt and tank top, to help them "understand the British", who own the country they happen to find themselves in?

Boris Johnson is too ghastly.

Malfleur

There is such a spate of blogs from the professional Spectator team, some overlapping by topic,that it is hard to keep up and some blogs, which may be more important than others, fall back into a purgatory of semi-archival quality. Thus,James Forsyth opened the question of Iran again on 1st September with the question whether Iran would close the Strait of Hormuz following a strike against its nuclear capabilities. The last comment by a CHer was 3rd September and the blog has fallen back to page 3.

Meanwhile, the question has become much more urgent, some would say.

There are stories in the press that two weeks after the US State Department published its assessment that Iran won't have the wherewithal to develop a nuclear bomb until 2013, the International Atomic Energy Agency published a report on 28 August claiming that Iran could in fact have two atomic bombs by February next year.

The Iranian regime will have the capacity to throw those bombs up to 3,600 miles - take out a map and a pair of compasses - and already also has the rocketry to permit it the luxurious option of attacking an enemy country from the sea with an electromagnetic pulse. CHers will already have studied the effects of such an attack.

Of course, it's all a very long way off and nothing to do with us really, is it? And anyway, "it's all about oil" and we don't have a problem with supplies of that, do we? - so that's all right then.

"Hurry up please, it's time."

egh

Boris Johnson is a much better writer than you are, Verity. He's also witty.

Anne Wotan Kaye

As a keen follower of the literary scene, I am heartily sick of seeing Sebastian Faulks being promoted wherever I go. Frankly, I do not like his writing, but that is purely a personal choice. What annoys me, however, is the way this icon of NIMBYism has become the darling of a 'liberal' establishment. This man is angry that buses now run past his house, on the way to the shopping mall Westfield. He calls this a 'brash' shopping area and states he lives in a conservationist part of London which is being destroyed. Doesn't this NIMBY realise that the so-called gentrification of Notting Hill has displaced the residents who for years made up the varied, colourful and vibrant citizens of this part of town? The so-called 'brash' shopping area brings pleasure to many low-income families, who use its facilities to stroll around under cover in the most inclement weather. The vegetables stalls of Portobello Road market hardly consider upmarket Waitrose as stealing their regular customers. No. Faulks is a true 'liberal' snob, who resents those who rely on public transport, and do not patronise the expensive little private shops which sell overpriced rubbish. Faulks is a spiteful man, and vents his bile of the critic Taylor, who in the past critised his literary work. Thank goodness, I am not working as a literary critic, lest he turns his acid-dipped pen on me. I hope he wont read this, and follow in the path of Lord Sugar, and threaten to sue me (as Liddell) has been, for taking his name in vain. No doubt we will soon see Faulks' name up in metaphorical lights as he wins prizes for his latest book, shoving aside true talent. Truly, it ain't what yer do, but who yer know!

Anne Wotana Kaye

I made a Liddelll mistake - should have been Letts.

Verity

egh - Besides Ron Liddle's girlfriend, Boris Johnson also had his sister writing a regular column for The Speccie. She brought nothing to the table.

Johnson (Boris, that is) turned this fine, historical weekly magazine into a personal fiefdom, busying himself with a four-year affair with Deputy Editor Petronella Wyatt while his publisher, whose name I've forgotten, was busy having an affair with David Blunket - which gives you an indication of the level of taste and dedication on Queen Street at the time.

Anyway, I stopped buying The Speccie and, like many others, never went back.

Tiberius

Kimberly Quinn, Verity.

etruscan62

I subscribe to the Spectator and still find worthwhile articles in it, though these tend mostly to be in the Arts and Books sections nowadays. The political and social coverage has become pretty feeble. Rod Liddle is vile, Alex James cannot write for toffee - though doubtless he will soon be making toffee as a sideline on his toy farm - and Deborah Ross' breathless prose syle is an overlong joke much in need of a punchline. I should like to read more about Tory policy plans and some more discursive itsms about real life problems - unemployment, the persecution of small business - rather than yet more mediacentric ramblings about Westminster bubble gossip. If I were editor, I would want to secure some good writing pretty sharpish - get Jonathan Meades, Barry Humphreys, Richard Ingrams etc.

Verity

Tiberius, what a good memory! Yes, Kimberly Quin! I seem to remember she claimed it was her husband's and tests proved her right.

etruscan62 - Paul O'Grady's a sharp writer. Daniel Hannan would be a great addition. His writing is concise and elegant. Janet Daley's good and thinks in the right direction.

I, too get bored with the Westminster cocoon and click on Next.

Nicholas

Apropos nothing in particular, but even if I did swallow this climate change crap (which I don't) I would still find the fascism of its adherents repulsive and un-British.

Why not incentive, persuasion and encouragement instead of all the draconian, finger-wagging, menopausal nonsense? Why not appeal to peoples better natures instead of assuming their worst and treating them like children? Although not, actually, in this brave new Britain of gloomy gauleiters where children are put on pedestals and it is like naughty adults that we are all treated instead.

Anne Wotana Kaye

Nicholas. what a spoil-sport you are! If they had nobody to bully. what would their raison d'entre be?
Goodnight and sleep well.

Frank P

Breaking News

Van Jones is history! He's been Becked to death.

Jeremy

etruscan62:

"Jeremy, I stand by my comment about Liddle and am appalled you make the comparison with the great Jeffrey Bernard. Jeff never displayed (well, not in his writing) the shallw malice of the rent a quote controversialist. Liddle is all spleen, all bile and nothing else; a man every bit as grubby as Russell Brand ot Jonathan Ross."

You are, perhaps, too easily "appalled".

Is Rod a "controversialist"? In part, yes, I think that he is. Does he aim to provoke? As a writer, yes, I think that he does - but that is not of necessity and by definition "a bad thing".

I won't pretend that I read everything that Rod writes, because I don't. But the other week I did happen to catch that piece he wrote for The Spectator about the cat and the snake in the back garden, and I thought it was funny, vivid, colourful and - in places - almost as good as one of Kipling's animal stories from "The Jungle Books".

Now, you can't get higher praise than that, can you?

Nicholas

I concur with Jeremy about Liddle. My thoughts exactly.

Herbert Thornton

Curious - the supposedly dead CoffeeHousers' Wall still lingers on even though the date is now Sunday 12 February 2012......