Society

Tuesday

Douglas Murray

Channel 4 cancels Tom Holland’s history of Islam, but the extremists will not win

In what may prove to be the most depressingly predictable story of the year, we learn that Channel 4 has chosen to cancel a screening of Tom Holland’s programme ‘Islam: the untold story‘ tomorrow night  because of threats to the author and presenter. If there is a reason why so many stories and facts to do with Islam remain ‘untold’ it is simply because of this. None of the people who threatened Tom Holland even have to mean it — the threat is enough to ensure that Channel 4 don’t go ahead. I don’t blame them, and have seen this happen too many times, in too many different countries, to be

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Lad Done Well: Andy Murray Comes of Age – Spectator Blogs

And then there were four. If Andy Murray’s accomplishments still make him the least of the great quartet ruling tennis in this golden age that’s about as useful a comment as remarking that Roberto Duran was outshone by Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler and Tommy Hearns. It may be true but it doesn’t matter very much. There have been other great eras in tennis – Borg, McEnroe and Connors for one – but there’s never been a quartet quite like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and, yes, Andy Murray. Consider this: eight men shared the ten Grand Slam tournaments preceding Roger Federer’s first Grand Slam victory (Wimbledon 2003). The

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

No re-mark of GCSE English

Any hope that Labour might hold that the latest revelations about Ofqual might prompt a re-mark of the GCSE English papers is almost certain to be disappointed. Even though Welsh exam papers are being re-graded, I understand that the same is not going to happen in England. A source close to education secretary Michael Gove says: ‘A small number getting lucky in January isn’t a reason to give everyone else an inflated mark now. GCSE exams and marking systems are discredited. We said this years ago and the education establishment complained. We got rid of modularisation, introduced by Labour, and said we need to replace a broken system – and

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Briefing: Universal Credit

MPs are due to debate the government’s plans for universal credit in the House of Commons this afternoon. The Opposition Day motion questions whether ministers have ‘failed to properly account for numerous basic details of how the scheme will work’, and calls for them to address ‘deep flaws’ in the project. So where is the project at the moment, and what are those deep problems? The background Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith unveiled the universal credit at the Conservative party conference in 2010. It was based on the work that his think tank, the Centre for Social Justice had carried out when Duncan Smith was in opposition, and

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Independent Scotland: socialist paradise or neo-liberal nirvana? – Spectator Blogs

Well, probably neither actually. But there’s every reason to suppose that just as some Unionists are fooling themselves when they discount the possibility of dear old Scotia thriving as an independent entity so some backers of independence may be deluding themselves if they think independence is a one-way ticket to a socialist paradise. That’s the premise of this week’s Think Scotland column, written in the aftermath of Jim McColl’s decision to be out for independence. McColl, Heid Neep at Clyde Blowers and reckoned worth a billion pounds or so, is Alex Salmond’s latest boardroom success. Admittedly McColl’s support is less than whole-hearted. It’s predicated upon Unionist reluctance to move much beyond

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ofqual pressured exam board on English GCSE

If any members of the education select committee were wondering if they would have enough questions for their witnesses today, last night’s scoop from the Times Educational Supplement might give them a few pointers. Leaked letters seen by the newspaper show exams regulator Ofqual pressured the Edexcel exam board to raise the grade boundaries on its English GCSE just two weeks before the summer results were published. A letter from Ofqual’s director of standards Dennis Opposs to Edexcel on 7 August 2012 says: ‘This may require you to move grade boundary marks further than might normally be required.’ Though Edexcel disagreed, saying its proposed grades were ‘fair’, Opposs pushed the

Monday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Mars’s hypocrisy

Here’s an idea for a series which could run and run: hypocritical corporate toss. The chocolate and pet food manufacturer Mars has demanded that a chippy in Stonehaven must put up a disclaimer in its shop advising that Mars does not approve of the restaurant’s delicacy, deep fried Mars bars. If I were the owner of the chip shop I would tell them to get stuffed, but this little bit of bullying and sanctimony is not the point of my story. It was the statement from some horrible corporate arse in Mars, justifying the demand. Deep fried Mars bars ‘goes against our company’s policy of encouraging healthy lifestyles.’ Fabulous. They

Steerpike Steerpike

Andrew Marr’s Mystery Lady

One can wait for years for a good Sunday TV presenter scandal to break, and then two come along at once. Sky’s married Sunday morning host Dermot Murnaghan was caught by the People canoodling in Hyde Park with a make up artist half his age, while the BBC’s Andrew Marr was busted by the Mirror appearing to kiss a mystery woman outside a Fitzrovia watering hole. Excruciatingly featured in the papers they both had to review yesterday morning, Marr was seen leaving his marital home in Richmond with a suitcase. However, the inquisitor insists he was heading for a trip to America rather than being booted out by his wife Guardian

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Michael Fallon takes on health and safety

The government is keeping up its new, frantic pace on the economy today by announcing that it wants to scrap half of all existing red tape and that the overwhelming majority of businesses will now be exempt from health and safety inspections. At the moment, health and safety officials classify businesses as high risk or low risk. Under the reforms being announced by Fallon, no business that is low risk (and a vast proportion fall into this latter category) will be subject to pro-active inspection. They will only be inspected if there is an incident, a track record of poor health and safety or a complaint. This is a sensible

Saturday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Justine Greening may be tighter on international aid

Sending an ex-accountant to run the International Development department was always a bit of a risk, given that its remit – to spend as much as it can – inverts most notions of cost control. Today, the Daily Mail quotes friends of Justine Greening saying that she’ll be taking a long, hard look at just why we send a billion quid in aid to India when it can afford its own space programme, nuclear programme and overseas aid budget. She wants to do more with less, we’re told, just like her colleagues across Cabinet. And this will just be the start. If Greening applies dispassionate logical analysis to DfID she

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Anna Soubry’s NHS clean-up operation

Anna Soubry has given a wonderfully colourful interview to The Times today about her new job as Health Minister. The Conservative MP jumps through the usual hoops of having to talk about how she loves wearing high heels but doesn’t enjoy baking cupcakes, but she also makes a number of striking comments about health policy. The most-widely-picked-up have been her comments on euthanasia. She told the newspaper: ‘The rules that we have about who we don’t prosecute allow things to happen but there’s a good argument that we should be a bit more honest about it.’ Norman Lamb appeared on Sky News this morning to say he also felt there

Friday

Shiraz Maher

The latest attempt at British justice for Babar Ahmad will probably fail

Just when it seemed like Babar Ahmad had exhausted all his options to avoid extradition to the United States on terrorism charges, a new twist has emerged. Yesterday, a wealthy tycoon from Newcastle, Karl Watkin, said he would bring a private prosecution against Ahmad. In theory, anyone can bring a private prosecution if they can demonstrate it is in public interest to do so. Individuals bringing such actions act in cases where they believe the Crown Prosecution Service has failed in its duty to initiate criminal proceedings. Ahmad has been held in custody since August 2004 after the United States requested his extradition on terrorism charges relating to a website

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ex-health minister attacks health policy

Sometimes, when a minister is sacked, he or she goes to ground for a little while, licking their wounds and avoiding journalists keen for a comforting chat about their new backbench life. Not so Paul Burstow, who can barely have cleared his desk in the Health Department before launching an attack in the Evening Standard on that same department’s policy. Burstow has embarrassed colleagues by spending the past year campaigning against the closure of the accident and emergency and maternity units at St Helier Hospital in his constituency while working as a health minister. He tells the newspaper today that the plans are ‘dangerous’ and fundamentally flawed. Burstow adds that

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Govt to support Barwell’s mental health bill

‘This isn’t staged, I promise,’ Gavin Barwell joked as an MP bounded up to our table in the Portcullis House atrium to demand why the Croydon Central MP hadn’t been given a job in the reshuffle. Had he turned something down, his colleague asked, throwing his hands up in the air in despair. Rather like Robert Halfon, though, it’s not a bad thing Barwell remains on the backbenches as at least his campaigning zeal is undented by the appearance of red boxes on his desk. Instead, the Tory MP’s desk has a private members’ bill sitting on it which has its second reading next Friday. It’s the Mental Health (Discrimination)

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Barack Obama’s speech: same old, same old.

Given that Barack Obama is in a fair bit of trouble, you’d think he’d have given a better speech to last night’s Democratic National Convention. Instead, he just trotted out his greatest hits. “Forward, not back,” etc. Like Mitt Romney last week, he gave a workmanlike speech and like Romney was outshone by his wife. He didn’t mention Obamacare, which is odd given that this is the signature achievement of his presidency. In fact, he hardly mentioned any achievements. He avoided the concrete and focused on the abstract which, if you’re an Obama believer, would delight you. If you’re an Obama sceptic, this would confirm why you’re unsure about him.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Barack Obama Plays it Safe – Spectator Blogs

I’ll have a fuller, more considered take on Barack Obama’s convention speech in tomorrow’s Scotsman but my initial impression was that this is not one of those Obama speeches people will remember. Doubtless it will be included in some edition of his selected speeches but that will be because of the occasion at which is was delivered, not because it was a magnificent example of his oratorical prowess. Perhaps the President is a victim of his own success. Expectations for an Obama speech are higher than for other politicians. Nevertheless, when one thinks of all the talking in Charlotte this week you can make a decent case that Obama was

Thursday

The Spectator

All change | 6 September 2012

All government reshuffles tend to be presented as Greek tragedies; the coverage focuses on the demeanour of sacked and promoted ministers who troop to No. 10. But this week’s reshuffle will come to be remembered less for the personnel changes, and more for the defeat of various bad ideas which characterised David Cameron’s early years as Conservative party leader. The Prime Minister’s original remodelling of the Conservative image was built around environmentalism: his was going to be the ‘greenest government ever’. In taking a sleigh ride in Svalbard he staged one of the most expensive (and, ironically, energy-consuming) political photo shoots in history. He ruled out new runways in the

Taki

High Life | 6 September 2012

Forty years or so ago, two Greek ship owners and the most famous diva of her time squared off in the British High Court over a financial dispute. Panaghis (I think) Vergottis, a gentleman and philanthropist, had sued Aristotle Socrates Onassis and Maria Callas over the ownership of a tanker, bought for la Callas by the two best friends, as they once were. Vergottis had, I suspect, fallen in love with the fiery coloratura, and once Onassis had dropped her for la Kennedy, tried to move in, unsuccessfully. Then who owned how much of a ship came up, and ended up in the High Court. The headlines back then were

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 6 September 2012

My car is at the garage so often for repairs, the mechanics invite me to their Christmas parties. This year I was also invited to the World Speedway Championship, which they go to every year. I’ve never been to speedway before, I protested, but that didn’t matter, they said. It was easy to follow and in any case the speedway was really just an excuse for a massive booze-up in Cardiff. Everything was booked, they said: hotel, trains, speedway tickets. All I had to do, they said, was get my arse to the station for 8.15 a.m. on Friday with beer for the journey. There were 16 of us going,

Melissa Kite

Real life | 6 September 2012

‘So, you’re a supporter of Julian Assange, then?’ said my friend the radio presenter as we were live on air. Oh, dear. This was going nowhere good. It was far too early in the morning for me to get myself into an un-PC fix. My friend the radio presenter has me on his breakfast show every now and again to review the papers and have a light-hearted chinwag about current affairs. Why, oh why, did we have to discuss the Assange thing? ‘Ehem, ha ha, I think supporter is a bit of a strong term. I wouldn’t say supporter, so much as…er, um…Look, all I said was he might not