The Spectator.co.uk Melanie Phillips Blog

My blog's new home

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:42:20 +0100

This is my last blog-post for the Spectator. I have decided to expand and develop my own website over the coming months, and so if you would like to continue to read my blog you can find it at melaniephillips.com.

Public regulation and private squalor

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 19:22:41 +0100

Amidst widespread horror at the revelations by BBC TV Panorama of shocking systematic abuse at residential home for people with learning disabilities, the Prime Minister’s office has asked for an account of what various official agencies knew about the place. Squarely in the frame is the care homes regulator the Care Quality Commission, which clearly has many questions to answer. The Guardian reports:

The CQC, which failed to follow up tip-offs from a whistleblower who then contacted Panorama, has admitted its mistakes were ‘unforgivable’.

Putting aside the permanent moral stain on British society caused by its neglect and worse of elderly or handicapped people (far more effort is put into Bowdlerising the language than caring for those considered to be not fully functioning members of the human race), the question is whether regulators in general do what they are expected to do – defend and raise standards in the public services and hold backsliders to account.

One thinks of schools whose standards are abysmal by any normal criteria, but which are said to be satisfactory or better by Ofsted; one thinks of the Financial Services Authority which

The floating theatre of the jihad (part two)

Tue, 31 May 2011 22:53:54 +0100

Two things are due to happen in Gaza in June.

The first is that a second shopping mall is due to open. According to Khaled abu Toameh, this will house a huge supermarket, clothes and gift shops, a large restaurant, a modern coffee shop, a cinema and entertainment sites for children. This complements the first mall that opened last year, as well as the gourmet restaurants that are already turning Gaza into a magnet for the discerning Arab foodie.

The second thing that is planned to happen is the arrival of another huge flotilla carrying ‘humanitarian supplies’ to relieve the, er, starvation and destitution in Gaza. Last time, the ‘humanitarian’ medical supplies on board the flotilla were revealed to be well past their use-by date. This time round, maybe the organisers want instead to establish a rival shopping experience – bringing in on their boats products under the 'TerrorTrade' designer label, perhaps, or 'Jihadi Chic'? -- to compete with the two mega-malls.

Absurd? Of course. But the point of this exercise is not to relieve want. It is merely to stage a propaganda

Cameron drinks the Kool-Aid

Mon, 30 May 2011 22:51:54 +0100

The Times (£) says that David Cameron’s decision to step down from being a patron of the Jewish National Fund shows the British government is becoming cool on Israel.

You don’t say. Any cooler and it would be frostbite territory.

Precisely why Britain’s Conservative-led government has drunk so deeply of the anti-Israel Kool-Aid isn’t clear. Sucking up to Obama? Muslim demographics in the UK? Part of Cameron’s hopey-changey-lefty-loopy repositioning of the Tory Party? Yet another bone tossed to the blood-libelling knitted organic vegan victimologists, aka his LibDem coalition partners?

Whatever. Who cares. The unpalatable fact is that Britain has now reverted well and truly to type in professing with hand on heart an unbreakable bond of brotherhood with Israel while cutting it off at the knees, sliding a stiletto between its shoulder blades and bashing its head in.

The JNF thing (despite Downing Street's unconvincing claim that Cameron has stepped down from a number of charities through lack of time) is the latest act of aggression against Israel by HMG, and is particularly offensive. For the JNF is identified closely with the foundational Zionist dream of making the desert

Even Obama's ineptitude cannot mask his profound hostility

Fri, 27 May 2011 17:02:38 +0100

In a particularly authoritative analysis, Charles Krauthammer identifies the extent of the threat posed by Obama to Israel’s interests in his ‘1967 lines’ speech and subsequent remarks:

Note how Obama has undermined Israel’s negotiating position. He is demanding that Israel go into peace talks having already forfeited its claim to the territory won in the ’67 war — its only bargaining chip. Remember: That ’67 line runs right through Jerusalem. Thus the starting point of negotiations would be that the Western Wall and even Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter are Palestinian — alien territory for which Israel must now bargain.
The very idea that Judaism’s holiest shrine is alien or that Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter is rightfully or historically or demographically Arab is an absurdity. And the idea that, in order to retain them, Israel has to give up parts of itself is a travesty.

Meanwhile, the equally authoritative Khaled Abu Toameh reports:

The Palestinians are furious with U.S. President Barack Obama. Abbas, for his part, has rejected Obama's opposition to his plan to ask the U.N. to recognize a Palestinian state in September, and says that he

A joyous production

Thu, 26 May 2011 22:32:20 +0100

On Tuesday evening, I went to the first night of Richard Bean’s new play at London’s National Theatre, One Man, Two Guvnors. It fully deserves the rave reviews it has received (see here, here and here): it is pure joy. Based on Carlo Goldoni’s Commedia dell'Arte farce The Servant of Two Masters, it is a glorious fusion of physical slapstick, verbal wit and magnificent performances -- and brilliant direction by Nicholas Hytner.

I have written about Richard Bean before. He is that rarest of rare creatures, a fully paid-up member of the artistic world who (maybe because of his previous life as an occupational psychologist) is a courageous independent thinker. It was he who, having been attacked by the usual lobotomised pc crowd over his multicultural play England People Very Nice, then chose to take on the received wisdom on man-made global warming in The Heretic.

In all these plays, Bean shows a sharp satiric wit and a merciless eye for the pretentious absurdities of human behaviour. But they are also, in the breadth of their often bawdy canvas, all deeply affectionate, profound, life-enhancing snapshots of Britain,

Feeding the media Middle East dragon

Thu, 26 May 2011 21:56:58 +0100

The brazenness of the lie just makes you gasp.

Obama’s attempted ambush of Israel over the ‘1967 lines’ has been boomeranging in all kinds of ways, including in Israel itself. Netanyahu’s magisterial and strategically shrewd resistance has resulted in Netyanyahu’s ratings back home going though the roof. Ha’aretz has reported that, according to an an opinion poll:

47 percent of the Israeli public believes the U.S. trip was a success, while only 10 percent viewed it as a failure... While in a Haaretz poll five weeks ago Netanyahu seemed to be in hot water with the public, with 38 percent expressing satisfaction with his performance and 53 percent disappointed with it, in yesterday's poll the results were essentially reversed: 51 percent were satisfied, while 36 percent were not.

Now look at what Ethan Bronner wrote in the New York Times:

Israelis See Netanyahu Trip as Diplomatic Failure
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel returned from Washington on Wednesday to a nearly unanimous assessment among Israelis that despite his forceful defense of Israel’s

The liberal inquisition

Thu, 26 May 2011 00:20:37 +0100

The profound illiberalism of the British so-called liberal has been on egregious display over the past day. The British government has a new advisory panel on sexual health, replacing its old Independent Advisory Group on the issue. It has appointed to this body the anti-abortion campaigning group Life, which favours an abstinence-based approach to sex education.

Cue foaming hysteria. According to reports in the Guardian, it is an outrage that Life should have been appointed to such a body. People who are against abortion and believe in an abstinence approach to sex education by definition can apparently have no voice at all in public debate on this subject. That is after all an axiomatic fact, and it is therefore apparently utterly incomprehensible that Life has been invited on. The Guardian reports:

Yvette Cooper, shadow home secretary and shadow minister for women and equalities, said on Wednesday: ‘Many women will be alarmed to hear that an organisation that campaigns against abortion in all circumstances is now advising the government. Abortion is legal in this country but the appointment of this group raises

Creeping competencies, or incompetent creeps?

Tue, 24 May 2011 17:53:38 +0100

Apparently the British government is shocked – shocked! – that the European Union’s foreign service is attempting to usurp the role and authority of British diplomats.

Fancy!

The Times (£) reports that Foreign Secretary William Hague has ordered British ambassadors around the world to fight off what he believes are attempts by the EU foreign service to usurp their positions:

David Lidington, the Europe Minister, made no secret of Mr Hague’s suspicion of the ambitions of Lady Ashton’s External Action Service (EAS) in a briefing in Brussels yesterday.
‘We see some evidence of EU delegations in particular parts of the world where they try to push for an enhanced leadership role,’ Mr Lidington said. ‘William has sent out instructions to all our posts around the world to be vigilant about any risk of competence creep. It is things like an EU delegation assuming and asserting that it has the right to speak on behalf of member states.
‘There is a pressure from some parts of the EU machine to push competence and we are very keen to make sure it is pushed back and clear lines are drawn.’

'We are all Terroristinians now'

Mon, 23 May 2011 17:24:47 +0100

The splendid Daniel Greenfield, aka Sultan Knish, has penned a savage satire, ‘Three cheers for Terroristine’, on the madness through which we are living:

Why do we need Terroristine? Peace. There can be no peace without a terrorist state. Not a chance of it. The only way we'll ever have peace is to give the terrorists a country of their own. A country dedicated to terrorism. Only then will the Terroristinians finally give up on all the killing, and dedicate themselves to medical research, quantum physics and the arts. It hasn't happened yet to. But it's bound to.
... We know the Terroristinians want their own state. Every time they walk out of negotiations or end them with a round of terrorist attacks, it shows their deep and abiding passion for a state. They want it so badly they aren't willing to make a single concession for it. So committed are they to Terroristine. And who can blame them?
... No more excuses. The world demands Terroristine. Middle East peace demands Terroristine. How much longer can Israel expect to draw out negotiations with weak justifications about terrorism. We