Society
Friday
From the archives: the marriage of Charles and Diana
It is just under thirty years since Prince William’s parents, Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana, were themselves married in St Paul’s Cathedral. Below are two Spectator articles relating to that wedding. The first is the Spectator editorial from the time, the second an essay by Auberon Waugh on the lessons to be drawn from the occasion. Now that Kate Middleton has become Princess Catherine, you may also want to click here for an article entitled “What Kate should know,” by Diana’s former private secretary, Patrick Jephson, for The Spectator in 1996. Anyway, back to 1981… The symbol of unity, The Spectator, 1 August 1981 The marriage of the
The Royal Wedding: across the web
Here is a selection of articles on the Royal Wedding from around the web. For those, like me, who wouldn’t know an Empire Line if it slapped them in the face, Vogue’s fashion live blog has all the details and photographs of what broadcasters have called a “festival of British fashion.” Sam Cam was wearing a dress from Burberry, Princess Beatrice was bedecked in Vivienne Westwood and, the main event, Kate Middleton’s dress was made by Sarah Burton of Alexander McQueen. The Telegraph’s outgoing Fashion Editor, Hillary Alexander has more details here. It’s been quite a sales demonstration for Britain’s leading designers. Export led recovery here we come! As Vanity
The vows
Downing Street celebrates the Royal Wedding
Forgive the hazy quality, but here’s a photograph of the gathering street party outside No.10:
From the archives: the Queen’s wedding
Perhaps it’s the pageantry of the occasion, but it does feel like one of those days for looking back as well as forward. In which case, we’ll have a double dose of Royal Wedding-related archive posts today, of which this is the first. And what a doozy it is, too: The Spectator’s editorial on the wedding of the Queen to Prince Philip in 1947. So many of its observations and exultations might equally apply today. “The spirit of egalitarianism is in the air,” it notes, “To that even royalty may have in some degree to adapt itself.” The adaptation, you feel, is still being written by those gathered in Westminster
Thursday
Another cause for celebration
The British like nothing more than the idea that the world is obsessed with our Royal wedding. It is not entirely a delusion: Americans and Europeans, especially in the media, do seem quite captivated by William and Kate. It is what 24-hour news people call a ‘global talking point’. In reality, though, most foreigners couldn’t care less about the big day tomorrow. Some of them have their own things to celebrate. The Poles, for instance, are getting very excited about the beatification of John Paul II this weekend. On Sunday, in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI will elevate Karol Wojtyla, the most famous Pole ever to have lived, to the altars
Al-Qaeda Meets John Landis
According to the US military, sporting a Casio F-91W wristwatch* is a telling sign that you may be up to no good. Indeed, you may well be a member of al-Qaeda or one of its affiliates. Other things that raise suspicions: satellite phones, bundles of cash, military transceivers and, um, “secret notes”. Naturally, this recalls one of the great moments in cinematic history: Now they know we’re on to this trick, of course, al-Qaeda will need to find a new supplier. *Surely a word that no longer requires the “wrist” bit? [Thanks to MH]
The government has a problem with lawyers
The government’s strained relationship with the Civil Service is a recurring story at the moment. Much of the disquiet seems to be the normal tit for tat exchanges immortalised in Yes Minister. In the main, ministers and their advisors express high regard for their officials. But there are some resilient bones of contention between the government and its lawyers. Again, this is not unusual. When Gordon Brown was Chancellor, parliamentary counsel were exasperated by his inability to take decisions. Brown’s budgetary machinations were finalised in a predictably mad rush, which incensed those who had to amend the bill hours before it was put to parliament. However, the growing volume of
Economists vs Politicians
Tyler Cowen has a fairly downbeat assessment of the UK economy’s likely future performance (manufacturing base eroded, tourism not enough, too dependent on finance etc) but he makes a pair of characteristically good points about trimming public spending: 1. The case for the cuts is not that they will spur growth, but rather forestall a future disaster. That’s hard to test. A second part of the case is that not many political windows for the cuts will be available; that’s hard to test too. On that basis, it’s fine to call the case for the cuts underestablished, but that’s distinct from claiming that poor gdp performance shows the cuts to
The Royal Wedding by numbers
I know, I know, it’s deeply unromantic to anticipate tomorrow’s Royal Wedding through the prism of opinion polling. But as no one ever said that a political blog has to be romantic — and as there are some quite noteworthy findings among all the data — we thought we’d put together a quick round-up for CoffeeHousers. So here goes: 1) The guest list. There has, I’m sure you’ve noticed, been quite some hubbub over the fact the Gordon Brown and Tony Blair haven’t been invited to the wedding — especially in view of the Syrian ambassador’s invitation, since withdrawn. But some new polling from YouGov — highlighted by PoliticsHome —
Time to take the Church more seriously
It is one of the most important religion stories for a decade or so. The Church of England seems to have changed its mind on church schools. A few days ago, the Bishop of Oxford, the Right Reverend John Pritchard, who is also chairman of the Church’s board of education, said he wanted just 10 percent of places reserved for church attenders. It’s a total turn-around. For a decade the Church has bullishly defended the system, and dismissed dissenters as traitors to the cause. What happened? The C of E has realized that the popularity of its schools is bad for its image. How can this be? The popularity of
Righting the wrong of sickness benefits
He may no longer be an MP, but the spirit of James Purnell lingers on. It was, after all, the former Work and Pensions Secretary who introduced the Employment Support Allowance as a replacement for Incapacity Benefit in 2008, with the idea of encouraging people – the right people – away from sickness benefits and into the labour market. And now we have one of the strongest indications yet of just how that process is working. According to figures released by the DWP today, 887,300 of the 1,175,700 claimants who applied for ESA between October 2008 and August 2010 failed to qualify for any assistance – with 458,500 of them
Wednesday
Petraeus to CIA; Panetta to the Pentagon
Robert Gates, the US Secretary of Defense, is stepping down and will be replaced, it is reported today, by Leon Panetta. Panetta, currently head of the CIA will in turn be succeeded by General David Petraeus. Gates of course is an ex-CIA guy himself but these latest appointments make it clearer than ever that CIA is all but an adjunct to DoD. That may not be a bad thing (and most of the intelligence budget is already spent by DoD anyway) but it does make one wonder about CIA’s future. Politically speaking, both men will be easily confirmed and that’s no small consideration for the administration but it also suggests,
What the GDP figures mean politically
The coalition can breathe a little easier today. The economy returned to growth in the first quarter of this year, avoiding a double-dip recession. It expanded by 0.5 percent which is in the middle of City economists’ forecasts but below the OBR’s prediction of 0.8 percent. Recoveries are generally choppy and particularly so when coming out of a debt-induced recession. Labour, though, will see these numbers as a further chance to claim that cuts have sucked the confidence out of the economy and that Britain is just bumping along the bottom. This, obviously, isn’t the whole picture. The deficit reduction plan has, crucially, kept the cost of borrowing low and
Economy grows by 0.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2011
So, we’re not back in recession, and growth of 0.5 per cent in the first quarter of this year is in line with what many forecasters were predicting, but… It is hardly indomitable stuff. As Duncan Weldon explained in a useful post yesterday – in which he rightly picked me up on a loosely worded post of my own (since, cheekily, edited) – 0.5 per cent merely compensates for the shrinkage experienced thanks to the snow last year. Across the last two quarters, economic growth has effectively plateaued. It’s as we were, Q3 2010. The politics of the situation is fissile, even if we are stuck in the murky area
The Wedding Dog That Barked
That, Watson, was the remarkable thing about the Royal Wedding: the dog barked and still no-one heard it. You can scarcely open a paper this week without encountering yet another thumbsucker on the future of the monarchy. Most of these, such as this New York Times effort from John Burns, suggest the old ship needs urgent repairs. Frequently this will be accompanied by yet another piece complaining that the press is devoting far too much attention to the whole anachronistic palaver. Someone, somewhere will complain this week that they’ve yet to meet anyone at all interested in Prince William’s marriage. This will echo Pauline Kael’s complaint that she’d never encountered
Tuesday
Obama’s Love of Cake
Ryan Lizza’s New Yorker article on the development of Barack Obama’s approach to foreign policy is, as always, full of interestig stuff even if, perhaps unavoidably, I suspect it depends a little too heavily upon the Slaughter-Power approach. Nevertheless, Ryan gets to the heart of Obama’s presidency – or at least the style of it – here: Obama’s instinct was to try to have it both ways. He wanted to position the United States on the side of the protesters: it’s always a good idea, politically, to support brave young men and women risking their lives for freedom, especially when their opponent is an eighty-two-year-old dictator with Swiss bank accounts.
Why Gitmo ought to be closed
It is hard to feel anything but nauseous when reading the Guardian’s continuing special report on Guantanamo Bay, which started yesterday. The paper has released hundreds of classified files which were obtained last year by Wikileaks, including detainee assessments prepared between 2002 and 2009 to summarise what the government knew about each detainee — and they do not paint a pretty picture. Some detainees are clearly guilty as sin. But others seem to have been caught in the crosshairs of conflict. One example seems to be Abdul Badr Mannan, who was arrested in Pakistan and turned over to US forces in the belief that he was affiliated with al-Qaeda. According