Society

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Big Society conundrum

The children’s minister Tim Loughton is in danger of having ‘gaffe-prone’ become his suffix. After rather putting his foot in it at conference by suggesting that the policy George Osborne had just announced on child benefit could be revisited, he has now suggested that not even ministers know what Cameron’s big idea, the ‘Big Society’ actually is. He told a dinner last night: “The trouble is that most people don’t know what the Big Society really means, least of all the unfortunate ministers who have to articulate it.” A friend of Loughton tells me that this was meant as a joke. But the problem is that it cuts far too

David Blackburn

Britain’s threadbare defence establishment

A mutiny is brewing. Several former admirals, led by Lord West, have written a seething letter to the Times (£), condemning the decision to decommission the Harrier and Ark Royal. Their argument is that the Harrier is versatile and cheap and that the Falklands are more vulnerable without it: ‘In respect of Afghanistan: Harrier could still use Kandahar runway if half of it were blocked by Taleban action; can use any make-shift landing site; has a response time of less than 10 minutes, as against 30; performs better in hot weather; requires fewer ground crew; and has better availability. Harrier can deliver close air support of ground forces anywhere from

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 10 November 2010

VERDICT: Earlier today, I wrote that the coalition “has few better defenders of its cause than Nick Clegg”. You wouldn’t have guessed it from this PMQs performance. Harman had him on the back foot over tuition fees from the off, and he struggled to give concise, clear answers in return. A pity, because Clegg is right when he says that the coalition has a better policy than Labour’s messy graduate tax – yet there was too much waffle, and too little directness, from him today. The deputy Prime Minister was better when he blazed with anger over Labour’s hypocrisy. But, on the whole, this was a bout to cheer the

Peter Hoskin

The coalition pins a number on its welfare reforms

The coalition has few better defenders of its cause than Nick Clegg. And if you need proof, then I’d point you in the direction of his article for the FT when the IFS first called the Budget “regressive”; his article on welfare reform for the Times in September; or his summertime speech on social mobility, which, along with his 2009 conference speech, is perhaps the defining statement of his politics. I mention all this now, because there’s another effective Clegg article in the papers this morning – again on welfare reform, and again dripping with punchy arguments in the coalition’s defence. Rather than buckle to the charges made by the

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

This Island Story

I half-agree with James’s (dangerously!) quasi-Whiggish view on the teaching of British history but would put it slightly differently: pupils in England should learn how Britain became a United Kingdom. (So should Scottish pupils. And Welsh ones too.) Simon Schama’s Guardian piece contains a good deal of sense but the most important passage, I think, certainly as regards the teaching of history is this: My own anecdotal evidence suggests that right across the secondary school system our children are being short-changed of the patrimony of their story, which is to say the lineaments of the whole story, for there can be no true history that refuses to span the arc,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What about Whig history?

Simon Schama, who is advising the government on drawing up a new history section of the national curriculum, has an essay in The Guardian today setting out why and what children should learn about our ‘island story’. Schama highlights Thomas Becket’s clash with Henry II, the Black Death and the Peasants’ Revolt, Charles the First’s execution, the establishment of the British Raj in India, the opium wars and the Irish question, as things that every school kid should be taught about. But at the risk of being too crudely Whiggish, the most important thing is surely that pupils learn how Britain became a democracy. It will help people understand the

Peter Hoskin

The new welfare consensus

The New Statesman’s George Eaton has already homed in on the key passage from James Purnell’s article in the Times (£) today, but it’s worth repeating here. According to the former welfare minister, he pitched something like Iain Duncan Smith’s Universal Credit to Gordon Brown, and the reception it received catalysed his departure from government: “Before I resigned from the Cabinet, I proposed a similar plan to Mr Brown. But he was scared that there would be losers, and his refusal to give me any answer made me think that there was no point in staying inside the Government to try to influence him.” This is of more than simple

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Bush: Damn Right, We Torture

And so here it is: the final confirmation of something we’ve long known – the Bush administration’s apparently enthusiastic embrace of torture. George W Bush’s memoir (£) is merely the final confirmation of this. No-one need trouble themselves pretending that the United States does not torture (at least some of) its prisoners. Nor is there any need to dance daintily around the question of what is and what is not torture. Not when the former President of the United States boasts about it.  Should Khalid Sheikh Mohammed be waterboarded? “Damn right” says President George W Bush. They knew they were torturing prisoners and they didn’t care. Indeed, that was the

Monday

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 8 November – 14 November

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

Peter Hoskin

Transparency is only half of the accountability story

And the word of the day is … accountability. Or at least it’s the guiding ideal behind these departmental business plans that the government is releasing. When David Cameron introduces them later he will call it a “new system of democratic accountability”. The idea is that, if we know what each department is tasked with achieving, we can praise them should they succeed – or attack them when they fail. Which is all very heartening. The Tories, in particular, came to power promising to lift the bonnet on the engine of Whitehall – and they are doing just that. But transparency is only one half of the accountability story. The

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Archbishop’s attack

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s intervention in the welfare debate isn’t going to change anyone views of the politics of the Church of England’s hierarchy. But what struck me was how even Archbishop is now using fair as shorthand for moral and right. IDS’ proposals do strike me as fair. They both offer long-term claimants a way to return to the routines and disciplines of a job while also creating an appropriate level of pressure to find work. One fascinating thing to watch is how often the Archbishop will speak out explicitly against government policies. Are we heading for a re-run of the 80s and all the controversies caused by Faith

Emily Books

BOOKS: Lady Chatterley’s Lover – 50 Years On

  This week sees Penguin publish a 50th anniversary edition of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Trussed up in striped orange livery, with a central image that’s a somewhat raunchy pun on the original, this classic is being re-released with new bonus material from Geoffrey Robertson QC and Steve Hare. The Lady Chatterley Trial is one of the most infamous trials in literary history and perhaps it is apt to mark its 50-year anniversary with a new edition of the novel, complete with added bumpf about the court case. When, in 1960, the Crown levelled the charge of obscenity against Penguin for wanting to publish an unedited version of Lady

Saturday

The Spectator

Letters | 6 November 2010

House style Sir: How quaint that Simon Jenkins writes ‘working class’ without irony (‘Who do you Trust?’, 30 October). He must be among the very last to do so. But then he is chairman of that stultified repository of selective memory, the National Trust. I wonder why he thinks ‘working class’ means stupid. Jenkins, of course, struggles under the terrible burden of always being right. But let’s see if a little astute correction might deflate the bubble of embracing self-love he so very complacently inhabits. Any event-organiser knows that free drinks (and possibly live sex plus public executions) will get the attendance numbers up. It’s easy. But there are higher

The Spectator

Barometer | 6 November 2010

Secret history John Sawers, head of MI6, defended the organisation by saying ‘secrecy is not a dirty word’. Secret history John Sawers, head of MI6, defended the organisation by saying ‘secrecy is not a dirty word’. Here are a few things which the organisation does not attempt to keep secret: — MI6 still does not officially exist. It was once known by that name but is now called the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in government circles. — There were once 17 ‘MIs’. The original MI6 dealt with legal and financial affairs. It spent much of the first world war housed in a single flat in Whitehall Court. — MI6 and

Dot Wordsworth

Mind your language | 6 November 2010

‘I can’t abide stigmata,’ said my husband, not through aversion to St Francis of Assisi, but by way of joining in this week’s craze, provoked by the BBC, of nominating a pet hatred among pronunciations. ‘I can’t abide stigmata,’ said my husband, not through aversion to St Francis of Assisi, but by way of joining in this week’s craze, provoked by the BBC, of nominating a pet hatred among pronunciations. My husband hates stigmata with the second syllable stressed, as in tomato. It’s STIGm’ta for him, just as stomata is STOm’ta and anathemata (like David Jones’s) is ana-THEE-mata. As for anathema maranatha, a phrase from the First Epistle to the

Peter Jones

Ancient and modern | 6 November 2010

Livy was recently invoked here to rally the top 15 per cent of earners to a bit of wholesome belt-tightening. Not that Livy had anything against the filthy rich. Far from it. But he did expect them to use their wealth wisely — no showing off, no power-grabbing — and if the state did interfere with it, he expected there to be an acceptable quid pro quo. According to tradition, Servius Tullius (the sixth king of Rome, 578–534 bc) divided the Roman people up into classes (same word as ours) by property. One of its purposes was to rank your ability to serve in the army. The top classis was the equestres, rich

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 6 November 2010

Home A bomb was found at East Midlands airport. Home A bomb was found at East Midlands airport. It was in a parcelled computer toner cartridge filled with pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), the high explosive found in the underpants of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on a flight to Detroit last Christmas day. A similar parcel was found in Dubai. Both parcels were sent from Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, and addressed to synagogues in Chicago, though British authorities said the bomb discovered in the East Midlands was intended to explode in the air. Both bombs had spent some time in the holds of passenger planes. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, said the bombs had been made by

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 6 November 2010

Quite possibly the government is right. Perhaps it is impossible to win a case against the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights that prisoners must be given the vote. Perhaps it was impossible last week to prevent an increase in the EU budget. Perhaps one can never get what one wants from the European institutions. But if so, isn’t it — I speak in the mild tone of one schooled not to ‘bang on about Europe’ — a bit of a problem? Television reports of the service of blessing for a tourist couple in the Maldives, which was actually, unknown to the couple, a stream of insults, deliberately

Melissa Kite

Real life | 6 November 2010

Two years ago I had a spiritual experience while being pummelled by an Indian guru called Dipu. I was staying at a spa hotel in Porto Cervo where they had invited one of the world’s leading Ayurvedic practitioners to set up shop as a guest therapist. Being spa-sceptic (I was with a boyfriend who was a devotee of pampering) and only wanting to lie by the pool and read, I dodged the hotel manager’s entreaties to try Dipu, until finally I got so sick of being told I was missing out that I agreed to give him a whirl. I entered the darkened treatment room wrapped in a bath robe

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 6 November 2010

We met outside Tate Modern. The location was convenient for us both and held shared fond memories of aimless Sunday afternoon strolls along the South Bank. She brought along her new baby, a happy, sociable little soul, and we sat under the west wall of the old power station for over an hour and had so much to say we kept interrupting each other. We were better friends, it seemed to me, thinking about it afterwards, than when we were ‘together’. We had no plans to go inside the Tate and look at the art. But the concrete ramp leading down to the Turbine Hall entrance was only ten yards