World

Thursday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Government publishes motion on attacking Isis

Today’s Cabinet meeting agreed the following motion on attacking Isis in Iraq. Note the stipulation that attacks on Isis in Syria be subject to a separate vote in the House of Commons Here is the motion in full: That this House: Condemns the barbaric acts of ISIL against the peoples of Iraq including the Sunni, Shia, Kurds, Christians and Yazidi and the humanitarian crisis this is causing; Recognizes the clear threat ISIL pose to the territorial integrity of Iraq and the request from the Government of Iraq for military support from the international community and the specific request to the UK Government for such support; Further recognizes the threat ISIL

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

If we won’t talk to John Cantlie’s captors, then why not have Qataris to do it for us?

It is a horrible thing to say, but I suspect that sooner or later we will begin to get irritated by the John Cantlie Show. Mr Cantlie is the British photojournalist who is being held captive somewhere in Syria by the maniacal and barbarous Islamic State. He has delivered two video lectures of a geopolitical nature, and we should assume that he delivers them under not only duress, but out of a very terrible fear too. However, he is fluent and very calm, insisting that the views he espouses are entirely his own. These amount to a castigation of the UK and the USA for refusing to do some sort

Mary Wakefield Mary Wakefield

Is forgiveness a weapon in the war on terror?

Could you ever torture someone? Could you, under different circumstances, in a different world (I hope) than the one which led you to this Spectator, be as brutal as the fighters of the Islamic State? Your answer, I reckon, is most likely to be no. Most people these days talk of IS jihadis as if they’re unnaturally evil, an aberration — and you can see why. If the IS are uniquely bad, it means we don’t have to re-evaluate the species, and to boot, it gives us licence to stamp them out. It is tempting to think of them as an anomaly, but on this point I’m with Toby Young,

Wednesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Paxo to Channel 4

Poor Jon Snow. The veteran presenter has some serious competition from the latest BBC defection to Channel 4; it’s the big one. After months of speculation about his future, and a dire sojourn into stand up comedy, Jeremy Paxman has joined the channel to front their general election coverage, but there is a full ego damage limitation operation underway: ‘A source at the channel insisted broadcaster Jon Snow would remain the “main man” in terms of its overall news coverage, after fronting Channel 4 news for years.’ Mr S does wonder just who that source may have been. Anyway, we at The Spectator are big fans of Jon Snow –

Saturday

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Does Pope Francis believe in the Rapture?

Yesterday Pope Francis preached one of the most extraordinary sermons ever delivered by a pope, one that demonstrates the laziness of those commentators who think he is a typical Latin American liberal. It put centre stage a teaching of the Church that I’ve never heard discussed in a Catholic homily: the physical resurrection of all saved Christians at the Apocalypse. The Pope told the early-morning congregation in his hostel that Catholics are afraid to contemplate the doctrine – of overwhelming importance to the early Christians – that their bodies (however physically destroyed on earth) will rise from the dead: This is the future that awaits us and this is the fact that brings us

Thursday

Peter Jones

What Romans would have made of Obama’s Syria strategy

President Obama was assailed for saying that the USA had no strategy on combating Isis. Vegetius (late 4th century AD), the author of the only surviving Roman treatise on military science, would have approved, since ‘no plans are better than those you carry out without the enemy’s knowledge in advance’. Indeed, he went so far as to argue that the reason why the Minotaur was depicted on legions’ standards was because ‘he was hidden away in the innermost and most secret labyrinth’. As it is, Obama has now revealed his strategy, which is to train up and equip local armies to do the job for him. Vegetius would not have approved

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Fear and loathing in the Vatican

Here is a picture of Cardinal Raymond Burke, whose grand title of Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura is matched only by the magnificence of his ecclesiastical dress. He is famous for his willingness to don the cappa magna, the astonishingly long silk cloak often worn by bishops before the Second Vatican Council but now confined to traditionalist ceremonies. The mere sight of this garment is like a scarlet rag to Catholic liberals, and they especially resent it being worn by Burke, who is (a) very conservative in matters of faith and morals and (b) the most powerful American cardinal in the Vatican. It’s is true that, judging by those photographs of him looking as

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

The John Cantlie video shows Islamic State have taken a leaf out of Vice’s book

Islamic State (IS) have just released a new video that features the journalist John Cantlie. Until now, his whereabouts in Syria were unknown, but it now looks as if he has been captured by IS. This time, the video takes a different format. There is (thankfully) no beheading, but it’s sinister in different ways. Cantlie, believed to be 43, says he will broadcast a series of videos that will reveal the ‘manipulated truths’ employed by the Western media.  The video is entitled ‘Lend me your ears’. In it, Cantlie says:  ‘Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking: “He’s only doing this because he’s a prisoner, he’s got a gun at

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Final polls put No ahead

The last YouGov poll of the campaign, which has a far larger than usual sample size, has No ahead 52-48. The last phone poll of the campaign, a Survation effort, has No up 53-47. So, the No campaign is ahead by a clear but small margin. [datawrapper chart=”http://static.spectator.co.uk/3gFhn/index.html”] The Sun’s political editor Tom Newton Dunn reports that YouGov finds that men in Scotland favour independence 54 to 46 but women back the Union 57 to 43. Its numbers show that only 4 per cent of voters remain undecided. Interestingly, those from the rest of the UK who have moved to Scotland—those living the Union—are voting No by a 72 to 28 landslide.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Salmond’s biggest myth

When I asked one leading SNP figure right at the start of this process how they would try and win this referendum, he told me that by the end of the campaign you’d barely be able to tell the difference between, what he called, independence-lite and devo max. This is why Salmond has put such emphasis on keeping the Queen as head of state, still using the pound and the idea that there won’t be any borders controls or customs posts.   Now, with the exception of the Queen remaining head of state these are distinctly dubious propositions. Scotland might choose to use the pound but, given that there isn’t

Steerpike Steerpike

Muphry’s Law in action

‘Ineptocracy: Noun – A government characterised by incompetent leaders.’ A gloriously incompetent attack on incompetence, and the greatest example of Muphry’s Law that Mr S has seen in a long time. The old adage is that if you write anything criticising someone else’s writing, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written. On this occasion, Mr S thinks, we can extend that to questions of competence. Do we think the veteran leader of the Labour firebrands perhaps meant ‘passport‘?

Tuesday

Tim Turkington

The parallels between Alex Salmond and Vladimir Putin

Alex Salmond was criticised in the spring for endorsing certain admirable qualities in Vladimir Putin. Salmond told GQ magazine that Mr. Putin had ‘restored a substantial part of Russian pride and that must be a good thing.’ He was quick afterwards to lament that Russia’s record on human rights needed improvement and to express solidarity with Ukraine, but as time goes on the parallels between Salmond and Putin seem to go deeper. Both bank on presiding over economies that are currently cash-rich from oil and gas – resources whose future may be shaky in the long term. And they both argue that Western military action in Syria or Iraq is wrong without

Monday

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: A review of the war

From The Spectator, 19 September 1914: ON September 5th we wrote: “We and the French have got the wolf by one ear and the Russians have got him by the other, and though he may use his teeth with terrible effect, if we have the hardihood and patience to hold on we shall finish him in the end. And we shall have the hardihood and the patience.” It was perhaps premature to write that a fortnight ago, but at the present moment it represents the situation pretty accurately. During the past week the wolf has been struggling specially hard to drag his head out of French and British jaws, but

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why bias and bullying matters to both sides in the independence debate

Why, in the final few days of campaigning, are both sides in the Scottish independence referendum becoming obsessed with bullying and media bias? Shouldn’t they use their valuable airtime making the case for the Union, or for independence, or rebutting claims by the other side about the NHS? Today Alistair Darling said that ‘Scotland will not be bullied’, while Alistair Carmichael alleged that the pushing and jostling was directed at ‘No’ campaigners rather than ‘Yes, saying: ‘If there is bullying here – and clearly there is – and now quite a serious atmosphere where people who are supporting a ‘no’ vote don’t feel comfortable in saying so publicly…’ Alex Salmond

Sunday

Molly Guinness

Hostage taking has paid in the past — but it has won Isis nothing

The three recent beheadings by the so-called Islamic State have been peculiarly, barbarically pointless. IS was asking western governments to leave them be to wreak havoc across the Middle East; it was an unrealistic demand. But rather than toning down their behaviour to a level perhaps tolerable, they simply executed their hostages. By murdering two American journalists and a British aid worker IS have demonstrated to the world that they don’t mind killing people, in case anyone hadn’t noticed, but they haven’t won any PR points, let alone any concessions. In 1995, Robin Harris pointed out that, whatever we might like to believe, hostage taking pays. Western liberalism is the creed

Douglas Murray

Isis are setting our news agenda. We need to stop playing their game

Isis are playing a game with this country and America. We need to take a view about what our response to that game should be. The ‘game’ is the gradual drip-drip of beheading videos. Obviously the images are intended to spread terror and maximise the dissemination and impact of the terrorist movement’s beliefs, demands and aims. The releases are highly personalised in every way. By drawing out these atrocities and each time announcing the next victim, they force the Western media into anticipating the story and seeing it through. By helping to share the identity and qualities of each forthcoming victim, the media help to ensure that their names are known worldwide in the days before their

Paul Wood

The foreign hostage market is worth millions to Islamic State

The horrific situation in Syria and Iraq means both aid workers and reporters are urgently needed, but as the awful murder of British hostage, David Haines shows, it’s now virtually untenable for any foreigner to try to help. As Paul Wood wrote after the murder of Steven Sotloff, hostage taking has become a $100 million business for the so-called IS:  At Jim’s Foley’s memorial gathering, a correspondent for one of the big American TV networks remarked that none of this should stop us going into Syria. It is a noble idea, but increasingly hard to act on. In July, we went to do a day’s filming in the rebel-held town

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: A word to America

From The Spectator, 12 September 1914: WE desire to address a word to the American people, a word which must be spoken, though we are fully aware that it will be liable to misunderstanding and misconstruction, and is certain to be distorted by those whose business it is to exercise pressure upon American opinion in the German interest. First, in order that we may as far as possible minimize such misrepresentation, let us say quite clearly what we do not ask the American people to do. We do not ask them to come to our assistance, either directly or indirectly. The notion of trying to involve them in our wars

Friday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A new poll shows the Scots referendum is going right to the wire

ICM’s poll has ‘no’ ahead, but only just– it’s 51-49. The ICM poll is a telephone one so both phone and internet polls are now showing ‘no’ narrowly ahead but the race too close to call. Adding to the unpredictably of the contest is that ICM found that 17 per cent of voters remain undecided – ‘no’ is on 42 per cent when they are included. Also no one is quite sure of what effect the far higher turnout (87 per cent of respondents said they are absolutely certain to vote) will have. [datawrapper chart=”http://static.spectator.co.uk/SxP3I/index.html”] Being up here in Edinburgh you can’t help but notice how engaged people are with this referendum. There are far more posters

Thursday

The Spectator

From the archives | 11 September 2014

‘An apology’, from The Spectator, 12 September 1914: We are informed that a story told in a letter from a correspondent signing herself ‘A Country District Visitor’, and published on August 22nd, 1914, has had an injurious effect upon Mr C.H. Schuhmacher, Chemist, of Heswall, Cheshire. In contradiction of the statements quoted in that letter, we are now informed that Mr Schuhmacher is a natural-born British subject of English parentage on his mother’s side, and that his only son, Mr Cyril Schuhmacher, is serving this country with the Liverpool Scottish. We deeply regret that anything published in our columns should have given pain to the gentleman in question or done him