World

Alex Massie

Vladimir Putin’s Eulalie Moment

You can be dictator of All the Russias or you can be the kind of fellow who sings Blueberry Hill. In public. But not both. That’s the theory anyway. It’s hard to believe this is real but, yes, it is. Which reminds me: Wodehouse is immensely popular in Russia. I’d have thought the old boy well-nigh on untranslatable but perhaps life in Russia runs to grimness so completely that novels offering music come as a welcome relief given the native scribes’ fondness for delving deep into the mire without so much as even a cursory damn. Even Vladimir Brussilov admitted that Wodehouse, like Tolstoy, was “not bad”. And he would

James Forsyth

Controlling the message

Shane Warne’s statement on his separation from his wife, which makes no mention of his alleged affair with Liz Hurley, is a classic example of how difficult it is for celebrities—or politicians—to both engage online and control a message. The first comment from a Greg Quinn says, ‘thanks shane for sticking it up the poms’. One imagines this was not the tone that Warne was planning to strike. The second is from someone calling himself Denis Angeleri and is a full-on assault on Warne’s character which includes the allegation that Warne pursued this man’s wife. Angeleri writes, ‘It is sad that all the comments are a bi product of people

Laughing Mohammad Larijani, the Comical Ali of Iran

In the week when the Iranian regime forced Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani to goulishly re-enact the murder of her husband on TV, it is worth reading Newsweek’s interview with Mohammad Javad Larijani, a regime insider. His answers call to mind Comical Ali, whose delusional denials of the US advance in Iraq made everyone realise how detached from reality Saddam Hussein’s regime really was. First on the matter of torture, routinely said by the UN, former prisoners and defectors to be used by Iranian officials: “Torture is forbidden by the Constitution. Any law officer who tortures civilians will meet a very harsh punishment.” Of course, he admits, the Iranian system could “need

Time for jaw-jaw

Today I joined number of leading Afghan experts, from Ahmed Rashid to Gilles Dorronsoro, in calling on President Obama to change the American strategy in Afghanistan. Based on our work in and on Afghanistan, we wanted to make a number of points just as the White House begins reviewing its strategy: First, that the cost of the war is now over $120 billion per year for the United States alone. This is unsustainable in the long run. Second, despite these huge costs, the situation on the ground is much worse than a year ago because the Taliban insurgency has made progress across the country. The military campaign is suppressing, locally and temporarily, the symptoms of the

Hugo Rifkind

Next year, I’m almost certain, is going to be one for firm convictions

Whenever I do pundit telly, which isn’t very often, I always want to answer every question by saying, ‘How the hell should I know?’ Only once, though, have I done so. Whenever I do pundit telly, which isn’t very often, I always want to answer every question by saying, ‘How the hell should I know?’ Only once, though, have I done so. That was on Question Time Extra, about three years ago, which may have been my first ever live TV outing. From the start, it didn’t go well. I didn’t inadvertently call a Cabinet minister ‘Mr Shitsinabox’ or anything, like the real pros have started doing (who can wait,

From the archives: The student protests of ’68

No, not Paris, but the University of Essex – where, in early to mid-1968, students rallied angrily against Vietnam and all that. The situation was aggravated when three students – including David Triesman, later Lord Triesman – were summarily suspended from their studies, and The Spectator duly dispatched a correspondent to investigate. The resultant article came in the issue dated 24 May 1968; a few pages on from an editorial headlined “How to deal with the student problem”, and alongside coverage of events in France. Here it is: The truth about Essex, Ian MacGregor, The Spectator, 24 May 1968 The first thing that strikes you about Essex university is the

China’s new BFF: Serbia

China is doing what it can do to scupper the forthcoming Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo. Their Foreign Ministry has now said that countries who decided to attend event would be showing disrespect to China: “We hope those countries that have received the invitation can tell right from wrong,” the ministry’s spokeswoman told journalists. Many of the world’s human-rights abusers have been only too happy to oblige, including Pakistan, Iran and so on. They want to keep friendly with China and share Beijing’s anti-democratic agenda. But, oddly enough, Serbia, a would-be EU member, is said to have chosen to boycott the Norwegian event. Keen to get Chinese financial assistance

Live-blogging the protests

1540: Heading back to Spectator HQ but it’s blocked off. They appear to be kettles in parliament square. The horses appear to be keeping the crowd back. Fence is being thrown around again. 1530: Milbank is full of police vans, they have to put them somewhere. Police are turning away people from Parliament Square. Police are using riot-proof cameras for evidence. 1455: The Met are shouting and trying to get everyone back on the planned route, but the crowd are beyond caring. A bystander pointed out Parliament Square is being used (more likely destroyed) for the first time in months. 1445: A view from a parliamentary researcher: “Life goes on

The mundanity of espionage

And the most curious political story of the day has to be the one about Mike Hancock’s 25-year-old parliamentary researcher, Katia Zatuliveter. If you haven’t seen it already, she is facing allegations of spying for the Russians – and looks set to be deported as a result. It’s the first time that a Commons employee has been arrested on charges of spying since the Cold War thawed out twenty years ago. There’s some lively colour in this tale, but the full picture is, as yet, shaded from view. For his part – as per the video above – Hancock has denied that Zatuilivter is a spy. But the only Cabinet

Fraser Nelson

China’s spy network

We are at war online – and we are losing Almost exactly two years ago, an American army officer found a memory stick in a car park in the Middle East and, out of curiosity, inserted it into his military laptop. It seemed to be empty, but there are a million ways of disguising a Trojan computer virus. Instantly, a malicious software code uploaded onto the US Central Command military computer network and embedded itself in the system. And there it lay undetected for weeks, able to send back all manner of classified information. In the words of the deputy US defence secretary, William J. Lynn III, it was ‘poised

Alex Massie

The Madness of the World Cup

Well, in as much as it matters who hosts the World Cup, I’d like to see England have it in 2018. It’s their turn and they’d do a very good job. But it doesn’t much matter who hosts the tournament (though one could argue that awarding Qatar the 2022 tournament would be the best possible argument for lettting Iran build a nuclear bomb). But, blimey, the tournament does some strange things to some people. Witness Iain Dale: What a pity it is that the BBC should have disgraced our bid with that Panorama programme on Monday. I see. There was me thinking that exposing corruption and all the rest of

Pakistan’s double game comes under the spotlight once again

The leak that keeps on leaking has one or two embarrassing titbits about our domestic policymakers this morning. Yet far more noteworthy are the documents on Pakistan. While they don’t tell us too much that is surprising – being mostly about the duplicitous game that country is playing with the West – they do highlight some potentially worrying trends. Chief among them is the growing influence of General Ashfaq Pervez Kiyani, the head of Pakistan’s army. His name is littered generously throughout the US briefings, and it is often connected with dangerous conspiracy and double-dealing. One document, for instance, suggests that Kiyani was prepared to overthrow the Pakistani President, Asif

Alex Massie

Breaking: American Diplomats Know How To Read Newspapers

One thing the Wikileaks cables reveal, frankly, is the banality of much diplomacy. People tend to think of diplomats as sophisticated insiders privy to secrets and super-attuned to nuance and intrigue. They are the brightest and best and all the rest of it. Doubtless there are some stations and some levels at which this is the case (it’s worth remembering that none of these cables are “Top Secret”). Much of the reporting, however, doesn’t rise much above the level of reading the daily newspapers. So George Osborne was considered “lightweight and inexperienced”. Who knew? Mervyn King thought Osborne and David Cameron were too interested in politics and insufficiently prepared for

What were the CPS and the courts thinking? 

A mother jailed for retracting allegations of rape by her husband, (allegations she now says were truthful) has been freed. A few days ago, appeal judges overturned the eight-month sentence of which she had served seventeen days, ordering her immediate release.  A triumph for common sense and compassion, but why was she jailed in the first place? Yes, the CPS thought she’d lied under oath and invented a rape claim – and that’s serious – but, as it turns out, her husband intimidated her into retracting the claim. In any event, an eight-month sentence is excessive. It is precisely the sort of sentence that the government should be reviewing in

Chinese burns

The latest cache of Wikileaks has done America no end of good. The Saudis urged the US to bomb Iran – a sign that the Arab world can make common cause with the States and Israel. It has also emerged that North Korea has sold the Iranians long range rockets – Moscow, Berlin and Istanbul are all within the Ayatollah’s range. But the most important revelation is that China has tired of North Korea’s lunatic machinations, recognising that the rogue state is an impediment to global and regional security. China is also convinced that the country will not survive Kim Jung-il’s death and favours a union of the two Koreas,

The truth about Wikileaks

Isn’t he a character that Julian Assange? With his shades, white hair and globe-trotting antics, the founder of Wikileaks is the perfect 21st century villain or hero depending on which side of the embassy cables debate you find yourself.  I have met Julian a few times and worked with him on stories concerning the Iraqi billionaire Nadhmi Auchi. I can say no more than that because of the writs that fly from Mr Auchi’s lawyers, Carter-Ruck, when any journalist who tries to write about him. But I can say that I always found Julian professional and honest in all my dealings with him. But he is a freedom of information

Alex Massie

The Power of Partisanship

From Ross Douthat’s latest column: In 2006, Gallup asked the public whether the government posed an “immediate threat” to Americans. Only 21 percent of Republicans agreed, versus 57 percent of Democrats. In 2010, they asked again. This time, 21 percent of Democrats said yes, compared with 66 percent of Republicans. In other words, millions of liberals can live with indefinite detention for accused terrorists and intimate body scans for everyone else, so long as a Democrat is overseeing them. And millions of conservatives find wartime security measures vastly more frightening when they’re pushed by Janet “Big Sis” Napolitano (as the Drudge Report calls her) rather than a Republican like Tom

Alex Massie

The Return of Peter King Watch

If you thought the Wikileaks brouhaha would bring Peter King crawling out of the woodwork then award yourself a prize. America’s worst Congressman appeared on MSNBC this morning and called for Wikileaks to be classified a terrorist organisation: “The benefit of that is, we would be able to seize their assets and we would be able to stop anyone from helping them in any way,” “Either we’re serious about this or we’re not. I know people may think this is a bit of a stretch, but I analogize it as the RICO statute, where they had a pretty narrow definition of criminal enterprise in the beginning, but now that’s been

Alex Massie

The Wikileaks Cables

So, the latest Wikileaks docu-dump is out. Full details here. Among the highlights from the initial reports: Bargaining to empty the Guantánamo Bay prison: When American diplomats pressed other countries to resettle detainees, they became reluctant players in a State Department version of “Let’s Make a Deal.” Slovenia was told to take a prisoner if it wanted to meet with President Obama, while the island nation of Kiribati was offered incentives worth millions of dollars to take in Chinese Muslim detainees, cables from diplomats recounted. The Americans, meanwhile, suggested that accepting more prisoners would be “a low-cost way for Belgium to attain prominence in Europe.” And: Clashes with Europe over