Society

Monday

David Blackburn

Salmond rules out move for Megrahi

Alex Salmond has just been on Sky News and he ruled out extraditing the Lockerbie bomber. He said that the Scottish government has no intention of asking for al-Megrahi to be extradited and the Libyan National Transitional Council appears to have no intention of granting extradition. He also added that there was no scope for further interviews with al-Megrahi, such was the prisoner’s condition. Although he reiterated that the Lockerbie case would be re-opened should further evidence emerge. He also defended the Scottish government’s decision to transfer al-Megrahi to Libya, saying that the original medical judgement of three months life expectancy was never definitive and therefore it had been impossible

David Blackburn

More questions for UKBA

The Home Office and the UK Border Agency (UKBA) completed the review into the asylum seekers legacy backlog ahead of schedule at the end of last month. 450,000 case files have now been closed and the government is as pleased as punch. Earlier in the summer, Damian Green heralded the achievement as one of “three fundamental changes to the asylum system.” Not everyone shares his enthusiasm and serious concerns about UKBA remain. First, the review is incomplete. An as yet unidentified number of cases have been granted ‘temporary leave to remain’ for up to 3 years, which merely defers the decision to grant asylum or deport. The Home Office concedes

Sunday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

British jobs for whom? | 28 August 2011

“More than 400,000 people have been out of work for more than two years, according to analysis of the latest Government data by think tank IPPR.” So runs its press release today, trailed in the Sunday press and the wires. I hope the IPPR didn’t spend too much of their donors’ money on this research, as the figure is updated quarterly and freely available from the DWP website (click here). Add up only three categories: lone parents, jobseekers allowance and incapacity benefit the figure stands at 2.4 million, certainly “more than 400,000”. Worse, at the peak of the boom (Feb07), this figure was even higher at 2.5 million. And yes, it’s

David Blackburn

Osborne’s crusade

‘Tax evasion is morally repugnant. It’s stealing from law-abiding people who face higher taxes to make good the lost revenue. Those who evade taxes, like benefit cheats, are leeches on society. And my message to those who try to hide their incomes from the Revenue in offshore bank accounts and false declarations is simple: we will find you and your money.’ That was written by George Osborne in today’s Observer. He promises that the deal with Switzerland is “just the start” of his campaign to close tax havens. The rest of the article then relates the coalition’s achievements at reducing tax avoidance by increasing charges on capital gains and non-domiciled

Saturday

The Spectator

Letters | 27 August 2011

Family problems Sir: One can’t help but admire Iain Duncan Smith’s determination to rethink conventional ideas on social policy (‘Gang War’, 20 August). However, it’s not clear what action he has in store for the ‘120,000 families who cause the greatest problems’. The Family Intervention Project that he inherited from New Labour is, if the Department for Education website is to be believed, still in place — despite rather meagre evidence for its efficacy. Originally it was touted as a measure to move problem families into secure housing where their behaviour could be closely monitored. Yet when we examined this programme last year, we found that nearly all the scheme’s

Dot Wordsworth

Like

I don’t think I pick up tricks of speech from Veronica, but I noticed last week Madonna, who is 53 going on 23, echoing her daughter Lourdes, aged 14. Lourdes was complaining of her mother’s dress sense, as daughters do: ‘Every day, I’ll be like, “Mom, you can’t wear that”.’ Her mother spoke in the same interview (in the Mirror, as it happens) about how busy she was: ‘Every other day, it’s like, “What am I doing? This is insane.” ’ I find this habit annoying, but it can hardly be called ungrammatical. The grammar is clear if of recent origin. The little Thespian interlude of direct speech is introduced by

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 27 August 2011

Q. I was interested to see Charles Moore’s italicisation of the word ‘patio’ in the issue of 30 July. We have a paved area in our garden at home, but my wife and I are unsure of what it should be called. What would you suggest? —S.B., Somerset A. Charles Moore was writing about the Alhambra, where the courtyards are called patios, but the truth is that outside of such venerable buildings and Latin countries there is no acceptable expression for the type of paved area you mention. So unless it could be classed as a terrace, you only have the option of pronouncing patio in a silly voice, which

Toby Young Toby Young

Status Anxiety | 27 August 2011

Don’t be fooled – you’d get into Oxford Rachel Johnson calls to tell me she’s doing a piece for the Financial Times saying she wouldn’t have got into Oxford if she’d been applying this year. She’s quite wrong, of course. A myth has grown up among my generation of Oxford graduates that it’s harder for their children to get in than it was for them, when in fact the opposite is true. There are two reasons why they think this. First, they mistakenly believe that getting two As and an A* in their A-levels — the standard Oxford offer today — is beyond them. This ignores the rampant grade inflation

Alan Judd

Motoring:  Feel-good factor

 Feel-good factor The sloping rear roof-line, especially in white, prompted comparisons with a squashed fag packet. It’s a profile that’s supposed to appeal to younger owners. When I first saw it, lowered from the heavens by a crane during a preview party at the Orangery in Kensington Gardens, I wasn’t convinced. But I’ve a poor record at predicting future taste — I thought the Mercedes 190/C Class would never catch on, that the Jaguar S-Type would — and early indications are that I’ve got it wrong again. The car has garnered more than 20,000 advance orders and when Autocar did a photo shoot in New York a passer-by crossed the

Melissa Kite

Real life | 27 August 2011

What an aptly named place Hook junction is. My mind wandered for only a few seconds but that was enough to land me in peril. I was driving down the A3 and as the road narrowed from three lanes to two I failed to slow quickly enough. At the precise moment the road goes from a 70 to a 50 there is a camera and I had only slowed to 61 as I passed it. Captain Hook was not actually on the bridge above the speed camera yelling ‘ahaaaa, me hearties!’ in anticipation of his booty but he might as well have been. I have been driving on this road

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 27 August 2011

In summer the cottage next door is let out to visitors. Each week there’s someone new. I see them coming and going and sometimes circumstances dictate that I get to meet them. Last week a man staying in the cottage came to the door to ask about the television signal in the village. It wasn’t very good, was it? This visitor spoke with a Welsh accent and limped. Reception does vary a bit according to the weather, I said, but our signal seemed fairly strong at the moment. Theirs was fine at the beginning of the week, he said, but now the picture was breaking up on all freeview channels.

Taki

High life | 27 August 2011

Gstaad Forget about Libya, and don’t even think about Syria, the mother of all battles is about to take place right here, in bucolic Gstaad, a place of terminal political incorrectness — until recently, that is. But before I begin, the Beguine is far more likely to see Saif Gaddafi than this glitzy Mecca of the nouveaux riches, the Beguine being a religious order in the Netherlands, where The Hague Criminal Court is situated. Personally, I’d rather see Libyan justice meted out, and pronto. Like hanging a jockstrap out to dry, if you get my drift. The Gaddafi I’d most like to see acting as a jockstrap is Hannibal, the

Peter Jones

Ancient and modern | 27 August 2011

There has been considerable comment on the severity of the punishments handed out to the looters in the recent riots. In Aristotle’s Problems, most of which, admittedly, is not by the great man, a stern justification is mounted. The problem is posed as follows: ‘Why is it that, if someone steals from a public bath or gymnasium or market-place or anywhere like that, the penalty is death, but if from a private dwelling, it is twice the value of what was stolen?’ In the case of the private house, Aristotle offers three arguments: first, it has walls and locks, and it is possible to set a guard; second, it rests with the

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 27 August 2011

HOME David Cameron, the Prime Minister, stood outside 10 Downing Street and commented on events in Libya. ‘This has not been our revolution,’ he said, ‘but we can be proud that we have played our part.’ He had broken off his holiday in Cornwall for a meeting of the National Security Council. He had only just resumed his holiday after having previously flown home from Tuscany for the riots in England. Of the 1,400 people to have appeared in court in connection with the riots, 157 were convicted, 327 bailed and almost 800 remanded in custody. Birmingham police released footage of some of the 11 shots fired at them during

Alexander Chancellor

Diary – Alexander Chancellor

What is the opposite of a riot? It must be the serenity of the Isle of Bute. This island, close to Glasgow in the firth of Clyde, is not merely riot-free, it is almost spookily calm. When I visited it last week for the first time, I heard vague talk of a drug problem in Rothesay, its principal town, but that was the only hint of possible criminality. If all of Scotland were like Bute, Alex Salmond would have been justified in stating that Scotland had ‘a different society’ to that of England, one in which riots did not occur. So little seems to occur on Bute that the local

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 27 August 2011

Ever since the Franco/British-led intervention against Gaddafi in March, the Guardian and the Daily Mail — whose foreign policy in all matters relating to the Muslim world is oddly similar — have been droning on about the Libyan ‘quagmire’. Ever since the Franco/British-led intervention against Gaddafi in March, the Guardian and the Daily Mail — whose foreign policy in all matters relating to the Muslim world is oddly similar — have been droning on about the Libyan ‘quagmire’. Nor would you ever have known from the BBC, until last weekend, that the rebels had a chance. In the Guardian, my friend Simon Jenkins, clever and original though he is, has

David Blackburn

An unfolding tragedy in America

Hurricane Irene hit the North Carolinian coast earlier this morning. Tragically, it has already caused injuries and claimed one fatality. The pictures on news channels are terrifying; few things are more horrendous and awesome than nature. America has battened down the hatches and many international flights to the States have been cancelled. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been a constant presence as this storm has neared, and Barack Obama has returned to Washington to weather the storm. A cynic might slam the President’s decision as a hollow gesture. But, after Bush’s mauling post-Katrina, even the weather is political these days.

David Blackburn

Willetts’ musings

Coffee House has already touched on David Willetts’ interview with the Times (£), highlighting his view that the 50p tax rate is important to prove that “we’re all in this together”. Willetts does not limit his words to the top rate of tax. In addition to his universities brief, he discusses equal pay issues, social reform and the recent riots. Willetts confesses to being a “muser”, never happier than when applying his renowned brain to the broad sweep of government policy. “I wouldn’t be able to function properly as a politician unless I was able to range across some of these wider issues. It just wouldn’t be worth it,” he says.

Martin Bright

May blanket ban a bizarre overreaction

Just as it looked as if Theresa May was about to do the right thing over the EDL march on Tower Hamlets, the Home Secretary decided to issue a blanket ban on all marches across five London boroughs for 30 days. The whole point for those of us advocating a ban in the EDL was that there was a specific threat of violence associated with this extremist view. This new draconian measure suggests the police and government are suspicious of all protest. At what point do these boroughs become “march-safe” again? While I accept that these are particularly difficult times for the Met in the aftermath of the riots, I

Christopher Meyer

Show us the money

In 2002, a few months before the invasion of Iraq, I was invited to speak at the James Baker III Institute for Public Policy in Houston, Texas. I had a meeting with Baker, one of America’s best post-1945 secretaries of state, who served under his friend George H.W. Bush. Together, they drove Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait in 1991. Jim Baker is an unsentimental politician from the realist school of American foreign policy. Like most of Bush Snr’s entourage, he clearly had doubts about invading Iraq. He recalled Douglas Hurd, then foreign secretary, complaining after the liberation of Kuwait that Britain was not getting a fair share of the reconstruction