very real danger of extremists and single issue pressure groups targeting these elections for their own ends.

Labour local government leaders including three directly elected mayors have echoed such concerns with Sir Jeremy Beecham, leader of the Local Government Association’s Labour group, warning that

the competing mandate of directly elected police boards would devalue the legitimate role of local councils and warned it could open the door to ‘populist or extremist candidates’.

Absolutely right. This is a seriously bad idea. The independence of the police is crucial to maintaining Britain’s dispassionate tradition of law and order. The fact that that independence has been catastrophically eroded through control by central government does not mean that the remedy is to replace such control]]> 2008-07-18T17:14:04+01:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/843431/americas-chamberlain.thtml  

The exchange of a Lebanese terrorist who killed four Israelis for the remains of the two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hezbollah two years ago is a moral and strategic blunder by Israel. The terrorist, Samir Kuntar, was serving four life sentences for outrages including the vicious kiling of an Israeli family in the coastal town of Nahariya in 1979. He shot Danny Haran in the back in front of his four year-old daughter Einat; then he drowned him; then he bludgeoned Einat to death with his rifle butt and stamped on her skull. Her two year-old sister Yael was accidentally suffocated by her mother who was hiding from the attack with her and tried to stop her from crying.

In exchange for releasing this man to a hero’s welcome in Lebanon, along with four other captured terrorists and the bodies of a hundred others, Israel has been given the remains of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser -- the two soldiers whose kidnap, following hard upon a rocket barrage upon Northern Israel, sparked the 2006 Lebanon war. The deal has thus finally]]> 2008-07-17T02:11:49+01:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/836716/the-bbcs-contamination.thtml

A reader has sent me the following cri de coeur about the hallucinatory level of prejudice at the BBC:

It really is becoming quite a frightening topic. I never used to worry too much about it. As an example, Norman Tebbit had a go while Maggie was in government; but at the time, anyone with a sense of decency could understand and say ‘hang on, the government of the day was doing some very radical things and needed to be challenged’ - to be put on the spot if you like. When Norman had his moan, a balanced observer would be able to see why the Beeb ‘roughed him up’ and could reasonably think ‘he would say that, wouldn't he’.

These days I see a much more sinister agenda, a more subtle use of bias -- not just ear-bashing a right of centre politician with some tough questions, but even in the entertainment we are provided with.

There is a new drama series (pretty dire) called Bonekickers. The bad guys this week were posh-speaking Christian fundamentalists; other characters are an upper-class curmudgeon who makes remarks about women’s breasts (tsk tsk 

In a session devoted to the presidential race, two politicians were put up to represent the case respectively for the two sides: former Senator Rudy Boschwitz for McCain and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz for Obama. Boschwitz was underpowered, uninspired and inarticulate. Schultz]]> 2008-07-15T02:40:13+01:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/834376/levelling-the-workplace-to-the-ground.thtml
For a brief and hallucinatory instant, when I saw the beginning of this story in today’s Times:

The radical extension of maternity leave and parents’ rights is sabotaging women’s careers, according to the head of the new equalities watchdog. Nicola Brewer said that it was an inconvenient truth that giving women a year off work after the birth of each child - soon to be paid throughout - was making employers think twice before offering a job or promotion.

I thought sanity had broken out at last. The equalities commisariat actually seemed to be acknowledging the inconvenient truth that ruinous leave arrangements for women discouraged employers from hiring them. This is hardly news to anyone in the real world; of course employers won’t hire workers who claim equality but then demand terms which are radically unequal and prohibitively expensive or unworkable. But since when did the Equality and Human Rights Commission inhabit the real world?

Not yet, it seems. For a few paragraphs down it became clear that Ms Brewer’s remedy was to make it prohibitively expensive and unworkable to hire men as well:

Ms Brewer said

There are faint noises off from both presidential candidates. McCain says tougher sanctions are needed. Obama says more talking is needed. Every time he says this – not to mention the fact that if this man becomes US President American military power will almost certainly be neutralised – Iran draws greater strength. We’ve been talking to Iran and imposing sanctions on it for]]> 2008-07-10T21:59:56+01:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/826516/the-42days-debate.thtml To read today’s papers, you’d think that yesterday’s House of Lords debate on extending the time limit for detention before charge in terrorist cases from 28 to 42 days was a total and humiliating rout of the government’s position, with Security Minister Lord West’s lone frigate being blown out of the water by a fleet of destroyers led by the former head of MI5, Baroness Manningham-Buller, and with not even a rowing boat coming to his support. But Hansard records an altogether more complex argument, in which despite a blizzard of very serious but nevertheless largely tangential objections or assertions, Lord West’s main contention was never effectively challenged. This was the problem West outlined that 42 days was intended to address:

Two factors are relevant to the issue of pre-charge detention, and to my assessment that there will be exceptional cases where the police will require more than 28 days to frame charges. First, because of the severe consequences of a successful terrorist attack, the police often need to intervene much earlier in terrorist cases. They cannot afford—and I would not want them to—to wait until an attack has

Why has he not fallen victim to the ‘back-to-basics' trap? People say it’s because he has so successfully decontaminated the Tory brand. Because of his touchy-feely-greenery, the Tories can no longer credibly be painted as hatchet-faced bigots who would starve the feckless while kicking them into the gutter. Maybe so; but there are surely other explanations too.

‘Back-to-basics’ was a good idea hopelessly sold. Although it was originally supposed to be about education, as I recall, the Tories allowed it to be presented as ‘moralising’ about sexual behaviour. Given the serial sexual shenanigans of the then Tory administration along with its alleged animus against lone parents, the party set itself up for the media auto-da-fe which then ensued.

Cameron’s speech steered clear of]]> 2008-07-08T19:30:23+01:00 http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/822416/this-britain.thtml  

Toddlers who turn their noses up at spicy food from overseas could be branded racists by a Government-sponsored agency. The National Children's Bureau, which receives £12 million a year, mainly from Government funded organisations, has issued guidance to play leaders and nursery teachers advising them to be alert for racist incidents among youngsters in their care. This could include a child of as young as three who says ‘yuk’ in response to being served unfamiliar foreign food...Nurseries are encouraged to report as many incidents as possible to their local council.