Society

Friday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Lawson: I would not have U-turned

I’m presenting Radio Four’s Week in Westminster tomorrow at 11am and discuss George Osborne’s U-turn with former chancellors Alistair Darling and Nigel Lawson (the latter pictured above when editor of The Spectator). I put to them that it is unwise for a chancellor to perform a U-turn because it undermines his credibility – a very precious commodity in such turbulent times. Darling said that the great risk is that Osborne doesn’t look like he’s in control. Lawson replied:   ‘That is my concern; that it might be thought that the main thrust of policy is no longer secure. And once the financial markets – let alone anyone else – think

Steerpike Steerpike

Now you can own a piece of phone-hacking history

Forget the hacks and starlets, the politicians and media moguls, the defining image of the Leveson Inquiry will always be phone-hacking lawyer Mark Lewis’ terrible orange overcoat. The Zara number got inquiry wags and watchers talking and now I hear the coat is about to take a starring role of its very own. Lewis, who suffers from MS, tells me that he will be auctioning the coat for a charity associated with the disease. Form an orderly queue.

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Is it time to let Scotland go?

Lloyd Evans rounds up the highlights of this week’s Spectator debate on the future of the union. The motion was ‘It’s time to let Scotland go’. Margo Macdonald, MSP, opened on a friendly note and declared that she had no plans to fall out with anyone. She wants to preserve Scotland’s ‘social union’ with England. But her country can no longer ‘shackle itself to the shell of a declining empire’. Nor should Scotland send ‘broad-kilted laddies’ to fight wars in foreign lands, ‘using armoured vehicles that are more dangerous to our servicemen than to the enemy.’ England, she claimed, uses Scotland to maintain its ‘magic seat’ on the Security Council.

Richard Marsh

The PFI bailout machine has run out of juice

Although it is nearly 20 years ago, I can still recall being lobbied by the representatives of a private consortium who had nascent plans to redevelop a hospital in south London using the then fabulous new idea we called the private finance initiative.  Before you jump to too many delirious conclusions, the meeting took place in my office, not in an expensive restaurant, and it was the only one I ever had with the group. I may have splashed out on a plate of civil service issue custard creams. At the time I was the special adviser to the then Secretary of State for Health, Virginia Bottomley, and the main

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Beckham’s Olympic mission ends in omission

I’ve always rather taken the George Best line on David Beckham’s footballing abilities:  ‘He cannot kick with his left foot, he cannot head a ball, he cannot tackle and he doesn’t score many goals. Apart from that he’s all right.’ But you have to say nonetheless – Beckham’s a thoroughly likeable and decent bloke and I wish, after all the work he’s put in, he’d been awarded a place in the British Olympic © football team. The England coach Stuart Pearce seems to be under the profoundly mistaken illusion that anyone in the country gives a monkey’s about our Olympic football team. We’ve had enough of the hubris of football,

Thursday

Sebastian Payne

The View from 22 – rage against the machine

Has the world become one huge ball of anger? As a follow-up to his book A Bee in the Mouth, Pete Wood examines how ostentatious rage — once the preserve of Americans — is now spreading to Europe and taking over the world in this week’s cover feature. In our latest View from 22 podcast, Freddy Gray and Fraser Nelson discuss this growing anger, much of it resonating from technology: ‘If you look at internet commenters or trolls, you can see the natural human default position when in front of technology is to be as angry as possible. But only if you are anonymous, the internet has given the cloak

Steerpike Steerpike

A smoke to liberty

On the eve of the smoking ban five years ago, hundreds of liberty lovers came together to rebel and enjoy one last night of freedom. A reunion was held on the eve of the anniversary this week of the ban by smokers lobby group Forest. In the Scottish jazz heaven of Boisdale Canary Wharf, the biggest table thumping cheer of the night came from a reference to ‘David Cameron’s neo-facist nanny state.’ But this was far from a right wing knees up. While the claret and Chivas Regal kept the crowd lubricated, all strands of political thought came together with righty James Delingpole and lefty Claire Fox treating the crowds

Wednesday

Sebastian Payne

Working together is crucial to beat cyber threats

A speech earlier this week by unmasked-spy Jonathan Evans has put the threat of cybercrime back into the national consciousness. The MI5 director general spoke at Mansion House earlier in the week to warn of ‘real damage’ caused online — highlighting one London business which suffered a £800 million loss following an attack. He stressed the need to introduce snooping powers: ‘It would be extraordinary and self-defeating if terrorists and criminals were able to adopt new technologies in order to facilitate their activities while the law enforcement and security agencies were not permitted to keep pace with those same technological changes,’ he said. In tomorrow’s magazine, we have a special

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Fun is not everything in sport

In tonight’s Evening Standard (guest edited by Tony Blair), Tim Henman says that if we want British tennis stars in the future, we need to make the sport more fun. ‘I’ve got three girls and anything they have fun with, they’re going to want to do again. But if something bores them, they’ll say ‘no dad, we’ll give it a miss. … If you want to get the best athletes playing, if you want to produce top class players, you’ve got to engage at young age. ‘This facility in Islington [Islington Tennis Centre] is perfect. It’s at the heart of a local community where kids can come in and experience

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Something of which to be proud

Past experience demonstrates that Rangers supporters won’t find anything funny about this: As I say, Rangers fans are immune, even at this late stage, to even gallows’ humour. Everyone else? Well, not so much. After all: If this – and sending Rangers into the stygian depths of Scottish football – constitutes success in the corporate restructuring world one scarcely dares contemplate the horrors of failure. [Thanks to JPT]

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Davey takes aim at the winter fuel payment

On Monday, David Cameron reiterated his opposition to scrapping the winter fuel payment as a universal benefit. During his speech on welfare, the Prime Minister said: ‘There is also a debate about some of the extra benefits that pensioners can receive – and whether they should be means-tested. On this I want to be very clear: two years ago I made a promise to the elderly of this country and I am keeping it.’ Even though means-testing winter fuel payments might be off the table, I understand that work is still going on within Whitehall to alter the benefit. This time it’s not in the Work and Pensions department, which

David Blackburn

Of technocrats and democrats

A former European leader was a guest at a private dinner in London recently. It was a polite and reverential occasion, but conversation grew lighter as Sauternes gave way to port. What, he was asked, is the most effective form of government? Easy, he replied, look at Europe: technocrats know best and they can ignore short-sighted voters. A battle between technocracy and democracy has broken out in Europe, as democratic Germany and technocratic Italy disagree over the next step in the euro-crisis. Last week’s G20 summit promised progress; Germany agreed to use EU bailout funds to reduce Spanish and Italian borrowing costs. It was hoped that this might inaugerate the

Tuesday

Jonathan Jones

Osborne’s double dose

As Isabel reported earlier, today’s public finance statistics contained a double dose of bad news for George Osborne. Not only did borrowing in May come in higher than expected at £17.9 billion — £2.7 billion higher than May last year — but the borrowing figures for the last two years were revised up as well. Before today, we thought the government had borrowed £136.8 billion in 2010/11 and £124.4 billion in 2011/12. Today, we learn it was in fact £140.6 billion and £127.6 billion respectively. That means we borrowed £3.2 billion more than we thought last year, and £11.6 billion more than the £116 billion Osborne told us we would

Oliver Lewis

Rhee’s calls for reform

The Spectator’s Schools Revolution conference has just ended with an interesting, and ominous Question and Answer with the former Chancellor of Washington DC’s schools, Michelle Rhee.  Rhee is an enemy of teaching unions, even those over here (as you can see in the video above). As Chancellor, Rhee threw out the old system of rewarding teachers based on their seniority — as far as she was concerned they should be based on their quality. When she first became chancellor in 2007, 92 per cent of students in Washington DC were failing to meet their expected grade, yet 98 per cent of teachers were told they were doing an excellent job. Rhee announced that she was going to grade teachers based

Matthew Oakley

A long way to go on welfare

Yesterday’s welfare speech from the Prime Minister confirmed that there is still a long way to go in reforming the benefits system. Universal Credit and the Work programme will start the process, but will not be enough to tackle the extent of worklessness and benefit dependency that we have seen develop in the UK over the last 50 years. It was encouraging, though, to hear the Prime Minister acknowledge the need to modernise the welfare system further.  In part, this is a numbers game. As the Chancellor and Steve Hilton have both recently made clear, future Spending Reviews are going to have to take more money out of welfare. Based

David Blackburn

Fuel for a duel

Dear commuter, how’s your journey panning out after you were woken by the sound of Ed Balls politicking about fuel duty? The shadow chancellor was a ubiquitous presence on the airwaves earlier (to say nothing of the tabloid press), laying out his opposition to the planned 3.02p fuel duty rise. He was on fine form, playing the caring shadow chancellor with the ease that Andrea Pirlo takes penalties. The rise would be, he said, ‘a real own goal’. Families are struggling. We’re in a recession. The price of oil has fallen by 20 per cent since Christmas but that has not been passed on to the consumer at the pumps.

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Greece’s troubles deepen

The Greek coalition was already a pretty shaky affair but the resignation of the finance minister before he’s even taken office weakens it even further. Vassilis Rapanos, who was the Chairman of the National Bank of Greece, has been in hospital and his resignation does appear to be health related. But given that the two left-wing junior coalition partners are refusing to allow their MPs to join the new Cabinet, his inability to take up his post is a severe blow to the government. Another threat to the government’s survival is that the Germans, whose public and private positions have been surprisingly aligned throughout this crisis, are making clear that

James Conway

Broken down fiat

All currency is faith. When the noble barman at the local pours a pint in exchange for your £5 note, he does so in the faith that the little blue note can be exchanged in turn for other goods and services. This is the basis of a ‘fiat’ currency system where the item exchanged has no intrinsic value, but is a pledge of what everyone trusts it is worth. If, however, people begin to lose faith in the thread of trust which links notes to value, the existence of that particular currency becomes troubled. The value of the currency system is called into question, its notes become worthless and eventually,

David Blackburn

Return of the nasty party?

David Cameron is at his best when circumstances force him to be bold, or so the thinking goes. With his government floundering and the wounded media baying for blood, the prime minister has counter-attacked with radical welfare reform plans. Yesterday heard rumours of reduced rent subsidies for the under-25s. Today comes news of proposed cuts to jobless families’ benefits: specifically, the withdrawal of dole payments after 2 years, lowering the housing benefit cap, and stopping income support and additional child benefit if a couple have more than three children. Those with a sense of irony will recall the outrage over Lord Flight’s view that the welfare system encourages the very

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

England did not deserve to win

If England had won that penalty shoot out against Italy it would have been a travesty. The press has been very kind to the national team this morning, partly because — as we kept being told — ‘expectations were low’ and partly because everyone still likes (with some justification) Roy Hodgson. But from the middle of the first half onwards, England performed as poorly as I have ever seen them, and it wasn’t simply down to the might of the opposition. Indeed, the Italian defence is ponderous and porous, as we shall see when they play a team which dares, from time to time, to attack. England’s problems were partly