Society

Wednesday

David Blackburn

Retreating from Kabul

Britain’s former envoy to Kabul, Sherard Cowper-Coles, has written an op-ed about NATO’s coming withdrawal from Afghanistan in this morning’s Times (£). The unspoken analysis is that: having failed to defeat the Taliban unconditionally in battle, it will be hard to secure peace and stability. Like Matt Cavanagh, who wrote an extensive report on the situation in Afghanistan for Coffee House last week, Cowper-Coles says that NATO is split between ‘shooters’, who perpetually ask for one more ‘big push’, and politicians, who are seeking negotiated settlement and military drawdown. Cowper-Coles gives a diplomatic angle, arguing that NATO must first prove it is serious about peace if the Taliban are to

Tuesday

David Blackburn

Attention shifts to Yemen

Since last week’s attack on Yemen’s President Saleh and his subsequent flight, Sana’a has been on the cusp of anarchy. Perhaps as many 400 people were killed in riots last week and the killing continues. Western diplomatic services fear for the safety of their citizens in Yemen. The MoD has been preparing contingencies. Forces and materiel deployed in the Libya are moving east. Two fleet auxiliary ships, equipped with helicopters and landing craft, and 80 Royal Marines have been stationed off the Yemeni coast. Should the 800 or so British nationals in Yemen need to be evacuated, the marines will secure a bridgehead. A further detachment, currently on exercises in

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Yes, There Is A War on Drugs

John Rentoul’s column in the Independent on Sunday this week was uncharacteristically unpersuasive. His text was Mencken’s aphorism that “There is always a well-known solution to every human problem – neat, plausible, and wrong” and Mr Rentoul suggested the Cardoso Commission’s report on drug legalisation is an example of this approach. Well, perhaps. But I think “neat, plausible, and wrong” actually better characterises the Drug Warriors mania for prohibition. To which one might add “ineffective” too. Most advocates* of decriminalisation or legalisation (as Rentoul says, two different approaches) concede that these alternatives will not eradicate all of the problems associated with drug use but argue instead that they will make

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

God forbid anyone would risk be labelled ‘right-wing’

Do we agree with the overseas development minister, Andrew Mitchell, that we should take as much pride in our massive overseas aid budget as we do in the Queen and the Armed Forces? Mitchell has announced that he intends to make Britain a “world superpower” of development money. I’m not sure quite what this means. I suppose he is suggesting that our largesse will be welcomed by the third world predatory elites who siphon off the donations, the deranged dictators, the warlords, and so on. And that perhaps they might feel kindly towards us as a consequence. Overseas aid has become one of those subjects where debate is pointless. It

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Who’s Afraid of Grayling Hall?

Or, as it is to be known, the New College of the Humanities? I must say that the prospect of a dozen or so celebrity dons attaching their names to a new private college in London has provoked rather more outrage than might be thought necessary. It is not, after all, as though it is going to be a major enterprise. On the contrary, most of its applicants seem likely to be from overseas or public-school types who fail to win places at Oxford or Cambridge. If that proves so then Grayling Hall will benefit students from less affluent backgrounds by freeing up places at top tier universities that might

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The need for a strong man to strong-arm the new counter-terror policy

If the counter-terrorism strategy the government is announcing today is to succeed, it will have to overcome bureaucratic opposition and institutional inertia. As Dean Godson writes in The Times today (£), senior civil servants in the Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism are highly reluctant to accept the government’s new, more muscular approach to this issue and will go back to the old, failed way of doing things if given the chance. If the Prime Minister’s writ is going to run across government on this issue, he is going to need someone working from the centre with Cameron’s explicit backing whose sole role is to supervise the implementation of the policy

Martin Bright

Tolerating a libel

It’s always unpleasant to be libelled and particularly nasty to be defamed by supporters of totalitarian Islam. Journalists really shouldn’t sue, but sometimes it can get very frustrating, especially when the libel is obviously malign and ill informed. Over the past couple of weeks I have been examining the close relationship between London Citizens, the “community organisers” so beloved of the political class and the Islamists of East London Mosque and Islamic Forum Europe. In week one, we looked at London Citizens’ Deputy Chair Junaid Ahmed, who is a supporter of Hamas. Then last week we examined the reaction of  Jewish leaders who have signed up to London Citizens. This

Daniel Korski

Preparing for a post-Gaddafi Libya

The Libya intervention has been in operation for a few months and the rebels have been making gains, most recently in Yafran. But progress remains slow and perhaps it is time to look again at how the lessons of Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan might have a bearing on Libya. The first lesson is simple: assume the worst. If you think that a regime will collapse quickly, plan for it to last a long time. If you expect a peaceful transition, plan for a violent one. And if you hope that unarmed monitors will be enough once hostilities are over, prepare for a well-armed peacekeeping force to be deployed. Optimistic predictions

Monday

David Blackburn

Cameron’s health worries

David Cameron has made the NHS his political mission. “I can do it (explain his priorities) in three letters: NHS,” he once said. It was a reassurance that the NHS was safe in his hands. His conviction doubled as a vital tactical stance to prove that the Tories were ‘nasty’ no more. So, the news that he is re-affirming his faith with an NHS pledge card is telling – a response to the fact that the public do not trust the Conservatives with the health service. It’s back to square one. According to Benedict Brogan, the pledges simply reiterate that the Tories can be trusted with the NHS. There is

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Counter-terrorism means stopping dealings with extremists

The coalition’s counter-terrorism strategy will be published tomorrow. This rather delayed review has been the subject of some semi-public wrangling, Cameron and Clegg have given speeches setting out very different visions for it. But one thing to remember is that the test of the review’s robustness isn’t just whether it stops government money going to extremists groups. It also has to lead to government, at all levels, stopping dealings with these groups, denying them the oxygen of recognition. Today’s Telegraph notes that 20 groups will lose their funding because the views they espouse are antithetical to British values. This is to be welcomed. But it won’t have much of an

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 6 June – 13 June

Welcome to the latest CoffeeHousers’ Wall. For those who haven’t come across the Wall before, it’s a post we put up each Monday, on which – providing your writing isn’t libellous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency – you’ll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no topic, so there’s no need to stay ‘on topic’ – which means you’ll be able to debate with each other more freely and extensively. There’s also no constraint on the length of what you write – so, in effect, you can become Coffee House bloggers. Anything’s fair game – from political stories in your local

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Osborne’s “flexibility” explained

So what does George Osborne mean by “flexibility“? Do we hear the quiet sound of a gear change, prior to a u-turn? No, I’m told, it’s Plan A all the way. And here are the details. The government’s five-year departmental budgets (the so-called DEL limits) are set in stone. They won’t change (in cash terms) until April 15, after which no figures have been set. If inflation continues to be high, then this will exacerbate the real effect of the cuts (Osborne has already seen trouble caused by with this as inflation has turned the tiny NHS budget increase into a tiny NHS budget decrease). The OBR reckons it may

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 6 June 2011

…here is a selection of posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. James Forsyth welcomes the government’s moves to stop the sexualisation of children, and thinks that Downing Street’s political operation is in danger of faltering. Peter Hoskin reacts to the foundation of the New College of Humanities, and laments the return of the signatories war. David Blackburn notes that Ed Balls is opening up a new front with the same old tricks, and sketches the debate over deploying attack helicopters in Libya. Daniel Korski reports on worrying developments on the Golan Heights. And Rod Liddle reckons that the C-word is no longer English’s most heinous.

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Helping the kids be all right

Tomorrow sees the publication of the report David Cameron commissioned on how to address the commercialisation and sexualisation of childhood. Thanks to a leak we already know most of what’s in the report. It proposes, among other things, that sexualized advertisement shouldn’t be displayed in places near where children go, that the watershed should be more strictly enforced, that lads mags shouldn’t be displayed at eye level and that it should be easier for parents to block access from home computers to certain internet sites. There’ll be those that dismiss these proposals as gimmicks or as too small to make a difference. But making the public square more family friendly

Peter Hoskin

The vanguard of the universities revolution?

One new institution does not a revolution make. But there’s still something a little revolutionary about the New College of the Humanities that is set to open, in London, in September 2012. Perhaps it’s the idea behind it: a private university that charges fees of £18,000 a year (with bursaries available to those who can’t afford that). Or perhaps it’s the names who are fronting it: AC Grayling, Richard Dawkins, Niall Ferguson, etc. They will, apparently, be conducting tutorials themselves. The public academics, it seems, are pitching their tents on the private sector. Mary Beard lists some reasons no to get too excited here. This is, she says, little more

Dj Wrongtom

Spotify Sunday: Some Pieces of a Man

Gil Scott-Heron was one of those rare artists who defies category; poet, novelist, jazz musician, criminal and revolutionary could describe various phases of his life and career. Having stepped into the spotlight in 1970 with his percussion-heavy debut LP Small Talk at 125th & Lenox, Gil toured, wrote, recorded and smoked his way through four decades in the business while rarely treating it like a business. At one point, he even wrote a poem as an apology for not showing up to a meeting with execs at TVT records. I’m sad to admit I was less surprised to hear of his demise than I was of his new album with

Saturday

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 4 June 2011

Your problems solved Q. I have met a man who, despite being 66, is very fanciable. He has been paying me some attention. The problem is that he spits while he is speaking. I think this is a new habit: his former wife and long-term girlfriend have high standards and would not have put up with it, but he has been single for a couple of years. I don’t want to nag him even before we have embarked on anything — but I would not want to embark on anything while being sprayed with spittle. — K.M., London WC1 A. Invite him to lunch with a small group, including another

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 4 June 2011

On the morning of the day that the Elect were scheduled to be whisked up into Heaven in what is known by Christians as the Rapture, I was standing outside a neighbour’s front door holding a piping hot baked potato in each hand. On the morning of the day that the Elect were scheduled to be whisked up into Heaven in what is known by Christians as the Rapture, I was standing outside a neighbour’s front door holding a piping hot baked potato in each hand. This neighbour is a tiny woman in her mid-nineties who ought to be in a nursing home, but she’s one of those intransigent souls

Taki

High life | 4 June 2011

Taki lives the High life New York Summertime and, as the song tells us, ‘the livin’ is easy’. The temperature is in the nineties, girls’ dresses are at their flimsiest, love is in the air, and sex is everywhere, so what else can one wish for? This is my last week in the Bagel, and as always I am reluctant to leave. I’ve trained diligently, played less hard than usual, read a lot and even managed to identify cedars, poplars, willows and cherry trees during my daily walks in the park. When it gets very hot, the city takes on a celluloid air, with old movies about the place playing

Toby Young Toby Young

Status Anxiety: Hay pariah

Toby Young suffers from Status Anxiety I’m writing this from the Hay Festival in Wales, which has become an annual pilgrimage for my family and me. The children can be parked in a masterclass on how to draw dragons while I slope off and listen to David Miliband being interviewed by Matthew d’Ancona. Not everyone’s idea of heaven, perhaps, but it beats taking them to the swings in Acton Park. The festival is being sponsored by the Telegraph this year — it used to be the Guardian — and I was hoping it would have a more conservative flavour. At the very least, a pavilion somewhere in the middle called