Spectator Live

Scorching the earth

David Blackburn — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:45:59 GMT

Tim Montgomerie is right; Peter Oborne is at his best in the Mail today – a mix of relevant history and sharp analysis of current affairs. Like Callaghan and Major before him, Gordon Brown faces electoral defeat. Brown’s predicament is deep – consistently loathed by the electorate and the target of unhatched coups and constant intrigue. How does a prime minister defend a hopeless position? Does he govern in the best interests of the country, his party, or himself? Oborne remarks about the magnanimity of Callaghan and Major and notes that Brown has]]>

G20: the way ahead ignores unresolved issues

David Blackburn — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 11:46:44 GMT

Home of golf and full of five star hotels, St. Andrews is a lovely spot for a weekend shindig, so it’s no surprise that the G20 have convened there for their latest navel-gaze.

This meeting was supposed to be the preserve of finance ministers, but you can’t keep a statesman down. Gordon Brown delivered an impromptu lecture on 'the way ahead' to ministers who have, by some fluke obviously, stewarded a return to growth in their respective countries. Brown is adamant that curbing stimulus packages and inaugurating exit strategies be]]>

Obama's three Afghan mistakes

James Forsyth — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:45:04 GMT

The Obama administration did not inherit a good situation in Afghanistan. But decisions it has taken have made the situation there worse. First, during the transition it flirted with the idea of withdrawing US support from Hamid Karzai but did not follow through. The result of this was that Karzai—worried about losing American support—came to rely ever more heavily on the support of the worst elements in his circle making him an even worse partner than before.

Second it downplayed the importance of democracy promotion. Some might claim that this was sensible pragmatism. But]]>

Charles Krauthammer's Crazy, Lazy Complacency

Alex Massie — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:10:39 GMT

Charles Krauthammer isn't as reliably and consistently wrong as Bill Kristol, but he's also determined to see the sun shining for Republicans. Thus:

The Obama coattails of 2008 are gone. The expansion of the electorate, the excitement of the young, came in uniquely propitious Democratic circumstances and amid unparalleled enthusiasm for electing the first African-American president.

November '08 was one-shot, one-time, never to be replicated. Nor was November '09 a realignment. It was a return to the norm -- and definitive confirmation that 2008 was one of the great flukes in American political history.

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Big Brother in Big Sky country

Alex Massie — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:05:49 GMT

Not welcome in Montana. For shame.

A sad story of our times: residents of Belgrade, Montana petitioned the town council for permission to keep chickens in their yards. No-one objected to this. Except, of course, the councillors. Why? Because they could. Apparently the chickens might escape and that could be a problem for the police. Meanwhile, one ghastly councillor suggested there just wasn't enough room on a 10,000 square foot plot for half a dozen hens.

The usual bullying, domineering nonsense from jumped-up little gauleiters of the sort who infest local]]>

Hain’s hollow rhetoric

David Blackburn — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:03:59 GMT

This week’s interviewee on the BBC’s Straight Talk with Andrew Neil is Peter Hain. One of the topics for discussion is Labour’s disengagement with its core vote and the rise of the BNP. Hain admits that this can be ascribed to Labour’s failings and Westminster’s disengagement with voters.

Certainly, Labour’s failure on housing and migration has been a major factor in Griffin’s rise. But there is nothing to suggest that Labour has the political strength to re-engage. Even after the recent furore, there have been no new initiatives on housing or migration, just pitiful]]>

In Afghanistan, more of the same won’t do

Daniel Korski — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:54:24 GMT

Gordon Brown says Britain must not walk away from NATO’s Afghan mission. Yet 73 percent of Britons told YouGov that they want British troops withdrawn. Even more probably think they will fail even if they are allowed to stay on.

Yet what to do if you believe, like I do, that the allies cannot simply withdraw without creating a catalytic effect on worldwide Islamist extremism and a regional vortex of violence, which will end in sectarian strife, refugee flows, President Karzai’s toppling, Pakistan’s further destabilisation and irreparable damage to NATO?

One last heave, won’t]]>

The week that was

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:24:04 GMT

Here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the past week.

Fraser Nelson knows that Brussels fears only one thing.

James Forsyth says that Cameron hasn’t broken a pledge on Europe, and expects the return of the Tory Euro-wars if Cameron cannot deliver his European reforms.

David Blackburn argues that public contempt for political elites extends beyond the expenses scandal, and ponders the lessons of the Nutt affair.

Lloyd Evans asks how much longer must we wait.

Martin Bright hears a cheer go up in the Foreign Office.

Susan Hill]]>

The Euro-sceptics will bide their time before devouring another Tory leader? Great!

Alex Massie — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:52:04 GMT

Yesterday I suggested that Europe may well end up destroying David Cameron's ministry and that, consequently, some of this week's maneouvering has been designed to delay that until a putative second term. So, it's interesting to see James reporting that:

The Euro-sceptics are quietly confident. The overwhelming mood among those I have spoken to is that Cameron either has to get the powers back he said he would and show that his measure to prevent any further transfers of sovereignty are effective or there will have to be at some point after 2014 an in or out

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Motives for murder

David Blackburn — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:42:10 GMT

Now that the facts are becoming clearer, it seems that Major Nidal Malik Hasan’s horrific act was religiously motivated. His apparent screams of ‘Allahu Akbar’ confirm that. In addition, it has emerged that Hasan was investigated for apparently equating suicide bombers with soldiers. Allegedly, he wrote:

‘There was a grenade thrown amongs a group of American soldiers. One of the soldiers, feeling that it was to late for everyone to flee jumped on the grave with the intention of saving his comrades. Indeed he saved them. He inentionally took his life

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Friday Afternoon Country: Lyle Lovett

Alex Massie — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:06:54 GMT

Because, frankly, from Afghanistan to Texas to the corridors of Whitehall and the Bank of England, it's been a pretty bleak week it's appropriate to bring Saturday Morning Country forward by a few hours. This Lyle Lovett song - If I Had a Boat - always cheers me up.

Added bonus: with its dreams of boats and ponies and ifs and ans and all the rest of it you may also read it as an arch critique of the promises politicians feel compelled to make and that we, because we want to believe, choose to take at more than face]]>

Why the Euro-sceptics are quietly confident

James Forsyth — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:36:33 GMT

On Wednesday afternoon few of us would have thought that the row over the Tories’ Europe policy would appear to have died down by Friday afternoon. There have been a couple of resignations from the Tory front bench in the European Parliament, a few MPs have mouthed off and a French foreign minister has launched a spectacular—and stupidly phrased attack on it. But it is all quiet out there now.

The main reason for this is that the Euro-sceptics are quietly confident. The overwhelming mood among those I have spoken to]]>

Poetry please

Olivia Cole — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:14:14 GMT

As readers of this blog know, poetry’s something of an obsession, so you can imagine my excitement about the Spectator’s second poetry reading on 25 November. The evening is going to feature some of the most exciting voices in contemporary poetry.

Frieda Hughes has extraordinary literary genes, but also an astonishing voice of her own. In 2007, her fourth collection of poetry, Forty-Five, addressed for the first time her life as the daughter of two of our best-loved poets: Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath. A painter as well as a poet, her]]>

A careful believer

Theo Hobson — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:45:47 GMT

Is David Cameron religious? In the course of his interview with the Evening Standard he provides a clear glimpse of his attitude to religion. He sees it as something that should be advocated with the utmost care, if votes are not to be squandered.

He is asked if faith in God is important to him. "If you are asking, do I drop to my knees and pray for guidance, no. But do I have faith and is it important, yes. My own faith is there, it's not always the rock that perhaps]]>

Quantatitive Easing is an affront to democracy

David Blackburn — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:09:09 GMT

Readers of the Spectator will know George Trefgarne’s work, and today he delivered an important report on the dangers of Quantitative Easing. I urge Coffee Housers to read the speech. It provides an interesting and relevant insight into historical precedents for the policy and how to manage it, and gives a balanced analysis of the current policy’s pros and cons.

Trefgarne concurs with Mark Bathgate’s critique. There is little evidence that QE has stimulated money supply, as banks are using the cash to re-balance their lop-sided books. QE is funding the government’s]]>

Positive polls for Cameron’s European policy

David Blackburn — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:06:39 GMT

So, has he got away with it? The press reaction to the Tories’ new European policy has been generally positive, or at least understanding that Cameron did the best he could in impossible circumstances. Only the Daily Mail and Melanie Phillips voiced ideological objections. More importantly, Messrs Davis, Redwood, Cash et al have not broken ranks – this reflects the policy’s essential euroscpeticism as much as it does party discipline.

Most important of all, the above Politics Home poll suggests that the public back the long-term policy, adapted to new circumstances, and do]]>

Sex, rights and duties

David Blackburn — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:10:17 GMT

The news that Ed Balls will force 15 year olds to have at least one year of mandatory sex education in schools has re-opened that old debate – who should provide children’s sex education? Personally, I doubt whether teachers or parents are better suited to the task, as both use either clinical candour, which children find hilarious, or a stream of inscrutable euphemisms. The wider debate reflects the fact that some teachers and parents advise effectively and others do not because it is invariably couched in terms of rights.

Under]]>

Sod the Public: We Need Representatives, Not Delegates

Alex Massie — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:36:03 GMT

I don't mean to pick on David Kerr, the SNP's candidate in the Glasgow North-East by-election, because, frankly, every single one of the candidates would say something like this:

"My commitment to the people of Glasgow North East is that I will always put them first. My priorities are their priorities."

Really? Personally, I'd prefer it if an MP (or even a prospective MP) put his or her judgement first. I want MPs who will "stand up" (and vote) for what they think right, not merely follow the party line or pander to the presumed self-interest of]]>

A just cause

Rod Liddle — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:33:34 GMT

We are apparently incapable of fighting a war, these days, unless a quick and bloodless victory is pre-ordained. Labour (and especially John Reid) deserves some criticism for having pretended, initially, that Afghanistan would be so. But the fact that it has not been so is not the government’s fault, nor the fault of the troops, nor for that matter the fault of the US. Nor does it mean that the war was not worth fighting in the first place: it was, clearly it was, and there were few arguments to the contrary at the]]>

The fierce urgency of education reform

James Forsyth — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:39:46 GMT

Michael Gove is giving a speech tonight reaffirming the Tory plans for radical education reform. In it Gove deploys a battery of statistics to show just how comprehensively the current system has failed. The one that stood out most dramatically to me was this one:

“Out of 75,000 children eligible for free school meals only 5,000 were even entered for A level. Of that 189, only 75 were boys. Yet in the same year Eton had 175 boys who got 3As at A level. One school with almost two and a half

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Printing money is not the solution

Mark Bathgate — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:44:21 GMT

With another £40bn disappearing down the black hole known as the British Banking sector, the financial cost of the economic and banking collapse is now only rivaled by the two World Wars in it’s cost to the UK taxpayer. Rather than going to support credit to business or households, the further £25bn of “newly printed money” announced today is likely to go to help prop up the Government debt mountain.

The above chart shows how the Bank of England has been using quantative easing since March. 98.8 per cent has been used]]>

‘Hath not a Jew eyes… ?’

Susan Hill — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:07:08 GMT

It is usually, and understandably, left to Melanie Phillips to write about anti-Semitism but she needs moral support on this subject, and besides, her viewpoint is often a wider political one, involving the whole Arab-Israeli question. That hideously complex issue is not one I feel informed enough to discuss. But the less specific question of anti-Semitism, particularly in this country now, is of concern and interest to everyone and I feel qualified to write about it. Why ? Because I am a Christian.

Over the last few years, working for an MA in Theology]]>

Drug War Economics

Alex Massie — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:31:30 GMT

It seems that Mexican drug cartels, vexed by inceased security at the American border, are sensibly moving production to be closer to their clients. Consequently, they're growing marijuana on Indian Reservations inside the United States. As the Wall Street Journal reports:

The math is tempting. Start-up expense for about dozen plots, with 10,000 plants each, is well under $500,000, U.S. officials estimate, including the cost of hiring 100 workers to plant marijuana and then several "tenders" to water them for three to four months until harvest. Incidental costs might include generators, PVC pipe and food supplies for the growers.

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Leaked minutes reveal a party short on ideas and low on confidence

David Blackburn — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:19:02 GMT

It’s worth flagging up the minutes of a regional Labour Party meeting, dated 2 November, that have been leaked to Iain Dale. The first stand out passage shows the Labour Party’s reliance on Barack Obama as a source of inspiration:

‘Claude[Moraes MEP] has been to Washington DC where Obama administration key players made it clear they don’t want to have to deal with a Eurosceptic Tory Government here as they want to be able to deal with the EU as a whole.’

Iain argues that the claim has no]]>

A bit of French stock in play

David Blackburn — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:12:07 GMT

Describing foreign dignitaries as ‘castrated’ and ‘autistic’ is terribly Gallic. As a rule, British politicians tend not to invoke ‘sensitive conditions’ to aid their critiques and the force of their rhetoric. I can’t imagine Chris Bryant, for instance, describing David Cameron’s euroscepticism as ‘autistic’ – he’d probably even baulk at describing it as ‘political halitosis’, preferring wink-wink, nudge-nudge gags about “cast-iron guarantees”. It is because this expansive sensationalism is so alien to our political culture that Pierre Lellouche’s comments sound so provocative and make Mr Cameron’s ambitions look unrealisable, with Europe seemingly united]]>

Europe: A British Victory?

Alex Massie — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:25:11 GMT

Timothy Garton Ash's piece recalling his adventures in central and eastern europe for this magazine is just as enjoyable as you would expect. Which is to say that it's very enjoyable. But, mischievously, he ends with a provocative question:

Now, 20 years on, the enlargement of the European Union to include most of the post-communist democracies of central and Eastern Europe, a logical (though not inevitable) conclusion of revolutions that were conducted under the motto of ‘the return to Europe’, has made the dreaded federal superstate of Eurosceptic nightmare a sheer impossibility. It is simply not going to happen,

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Order is Restored

Alex Massie — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:09:52 GMT

The peerless Mariano Rivera. Photo: Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images.

After eight long, gruelling years the Curse of Bush is finally lifted and the universe is once more on an even keel: the New York Yankees are World Series champions again. For the 27th* time. Hurrah!

Fans of other teams may bridle at the notion that nine years without a championship constitutes a famine. But life in Yankee-land is different. In Yankee-years nine titleless years equals half a century of failure by other, lesser, teams.

More than any other American pastime, baseball is unipolar.]]>

An English opera subtitled in...English

Henrietta Bredin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:02:24 GMT

A very tightly wound Turn of the Screw indeed at English National Opera last night, brilliantly performed and spine-chillingly played under the leadership of conductor Charles Mackerras. But I emerged feeling apoplectic with rage because the opera, composed by Benjamin Britten to an English libretto by Myfanwy Piper which is so consummately well written and constructed that it should serve as a model to all would-be libretto writers, sung with perfect articulation so that every single word could be heard, was given nonetheless with an idiot board of surtitles running across the top of]]>

Staging hell

Theo Hobson — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:39:59 GMT

I’ve just seen this fascinating Times article on a reinvention of the medieval morality play by American evangelicals.

In the run-up to Halloween, some churches put on ‘hell house’ plays for teenagers, acted by slightly older teenagers. They are not scary fun, but dramatic sermons about the consequences of sinful lifestyles, intended to terrify.

I have mixed feelings about this. I object to the moralism of the message, and to the attempt to scare kids into piety, but I like the medium. It is nice to know that theatre retains its superior power]]>

This week's Spectator

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:29:30 GMT

The latest issue of the Spectator is released today. If you are a subscriber you can view it here. If you have not subscribed, but would like to view this week’s content, you can subscribe online now.

Five articles from the latest issue are available for free online to all website users:

Walking the corridors of Westminster at the moment is like gate crashing a wake, except for one reason.
James Forsyth reveals that the expenses scandal has delighted the Tories – it has kept Gordon Brown in power.

The Soviets and the]]>