Society

Wednesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Ireland’s Tipping Point

  Was it Warren Buffett who said investors should be wary of any company that decides it needs to spend huge amounts of cash on swish new corporate headquarters? If it wasn’t the Sage of Omaha then it was someone like him arguing that this is often a warning sign of a company behaving recklessly and with little regard to its shareholders’ interests. (Hello RBS!) Anyway, I thought of that when I saw, again, this sign at County Galway Cricket Club. Though there is record of cricket being played in Galway as far back as the 1830s (the original garrison game!) the present club dates from the 1970s. Recently they

Peter Hoskin

Bring on the debate about social housing

David Cameron did say that his proposal to end council houses for life would trigger “quite a big argument” – and that is exactly what he has got today. The Lib Dems’ Simon Hughes has offered the most vociferous dissent so far, stressing that this “in no way represent the policy of the coalition and certainly do not represent the policy of the Liberal Democrats.” And, to be fair, he has a point: the idea had not gone through coalition channels before Cameron mooted it yesterday, and neither was it contained in the Tory manifesto – so there still needs to be a lot of conversation and consideration before anything

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Deepwater Horizon Latest: Perhaps Tony Hayward was Right?

A remarkable headline in the New York Times today: Oil in Gulf Poses Only Slight Risk, New U.S. Report Says, The government is expected to announce on Wednesday that three-quarters of the oil rom the Deepwater Horizon leak has already evaporated, dispersed, been captured or otherwise eliminated — and that much of the rest is so diluted that it does not seem to pose much additional risk of harm. A government report finds that about 26 percent of the oil released from BP’s runaway well is still in the water or onshore in a form that could, in principle, cause new problems. But most is light sheen at the ocean

Tuesday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

An advert that deserves only our hatred

The manufacturer of slow, naff, French cars, Renault, has infuriated residents of a village in Lancashire by comparing it unfavourably with a village in France, in an advertising campaign which it thinks will win over British customers. People in the lovely Ribble Valley village of Gisburn were appalled to see their home mocked in comparison to the mincing polo-shirted deck-shoed town of Menton, which lies on the fabled and greatly overrated Côte d’Azur. Menton was once part of Italy, and also the Genoese empire, and also Vichy France. In other words it has capitulated more times even than Marshall Petain. I suspect four OAPS from Gisburn could probably annexe Menton

Gabriel Milland

The cuts start to bite

It must have been the toughest press release that anyone in the Central Office of Infomation has ever had to draft. A freeze on new campaigns and the abandonment of any regarded as “non-essential” mean staff numbers will drop by 40 percent – a loss of 287 jobs. Compulsory redundancies loom. The same press notice also revealed that the COI’s advertising spend was down by a 52% last month compared to June last year. We are not talking about small sums here. Last year’s COI marketing  spend of an eye-watering £531 million – half of it going on advertising – was about 20 percent more than the next biggest spender,

Monday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

There is no Cabinet rift on benefit reform

Here’s me about to go on holiday, and the welfare wars seem to be opening up. Neil O’Brien has a piece on it over at the Telegraph website. And Hopi Sen, one of the better leftie bloggers, has written a response to my post yesterday. Partly, he wants to stir: it’s not so much that the Treasury want to block IDS’s reforms, he says, but rather that they are following Osborne’s orders to reduce the deficit. And so it’s one part of the government at war with another. By contrast, the Whitehall wars I outlined are hangovers from the Brown days, where the Treasury set policy for all other departments

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 2 August – 8 August

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

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 2 August 2010

…here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: Fraser Nelson urges David Cameron to take this chance to end the giant evil of welfare dependency. Peter Hoskin says that the coalition’s challenge will be implementing its reforms, and outlines the growing Lib Dem conundrum. Susan Hill recounts her experience of knocking down a cyclist. Rod Liddle skewers some more hypocrisy from John Prescott. Melanie Phillips highlights as case of no-win journalism. And the Spectator Arts Blog asks, Sherlock Who?

Sunday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

More hypocrisy from Prescott

Swathed in ermine, carried into the Chilcott Inquiry on a giant litter borne aloft by naked research assistants, and chewing a Lion Bar, Lord Prescott told the world he’d always been a bit, uh, nervous about the invasion of Iraq. Nice of you to share that with us now, John, many thanks. And also the fact that you were “surprised” at how “insubstantial” some of the reports on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction really were. That would have been nice to know at the time, too. The insinuation is that he was against the war but stood by his leader out of loyalty. I’m sure the Iraqis and the dead

Peter Hoskin

Getting credit flowing will be one of the coalition’s toughest challenges

In interview with the Sunday Telegraph today, George Osborne stresses that the banks have got to start lending again – and he’s right to do so. The easy availability of cheap credit may have done much to get us into this mess, but now we face a converse problem. As a recent Bank of England report shows, net lending from the banks to businesses remains negative – or, in other words, more is being paid back than given out – and the situation is getting worse. With small and medium businesses so reliant on credit to get themselves off the ground, this doesn’t augur well for a powerful recovery. But

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Cameron must take this chance to end the giant evil of welfare dependency

There’s been plenty political drama in these past few weeks, but the most crucial agenda – and by some margin – is Iain Duncan Smith’s proposed overhaul of welfare. It doesn’t deserve to be categorised as just another political tussle. As I say in the News of the World today, it is easily the most important issue in Britain, and it is overlooked because of an affliction which most of our political class suffers: that of moral long-sightedness. No one wears wristbands for the British poor, Prime Ministers pledge to “eradicate illiteracy” in Africa yet are strangely indifferent to the illiteracy on our own doorstep. The plight and lives of

Saturday

Melissa Kite

Nothing’s easy

What I want to know is — what’s easy about it? EasyJet, I mean. I’ve just used it to go to the south of France and I’m struggling to accept that ‘easy’ best describes it. I haven’t been on a budget airline for a while but I well remember the era of package trips when going on holiday meant queuing for hours to check on to some battered old charter plane called SunTours or GoldenFly, so I’m not a total novice when it comes to no-frills flying. It’s just that for years now I’ve been enjoying this golden age of cheap air travel which means you can usually get a

Jeremy Clarke

Instant dislike

When the cabin crew capo spoke on the public address system, she expected nothing less than our undivided attention. We had to suspend our conversations ‘right now’ or ‘right at this moment’. Her accent, I think, was Sydney suburbs. But this one passenger had the sheer gall to continue reading his Daily Mail right through the safety demonstration. Well, she wasn’t having that. She abruptly suspended the demonstration at the oxygen mask stage until the offending newspaper was lowered. The man was so engrossed in his paper he was oblivious to everything going on around him. She leaned an elbow against the wall in a sort of sarcastic ‘against our

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 31 July 2010

Q. I arranged to meet my son at King’s Cross to hand over some camping equipment for him to take to the Secret Garden festival. I planned to go by Tube (from Balham) but the load was heavy. I justified the ordering of an expensive minicab by the thought that I could work in the back seat on some admin. Instead, my driver struck up a conversation and, engaging though I found him, it meant those vital minutes (30) which could have been so productive were lost. How should a passenger cap a driver’s flow without being impolite or hurtful? J.F., Balham, London A. Text a friend to call you

Toby Young Toby Young

If Gove has won a battle for free schools, why are they so expensive?

It has been described as the most radical overhaul of the school system since the introduction of comprehensives. Ed Balls condemned it as ‘the most profoundly unfair piece of social engineering in this generation’. Yet on Monday night, the 2010 Academies Bill was passed by 317 votes to 225. Clearly, to be condemned so vehemently by the shadow education secretary is a badge of honour and not something I’d want to take away from Michael Gove. The boy done good. But to any impartial observer the most distinctive thing about the 2010 Academies Act is just how modest it is. Take Section 12, which stipulates that only charities are allowed

The Spectator

Letters | 31 July 2010

Colourful Mo Sir: I am surprised to read Charles Moore (The Spectator’s Notes, 24 July) opine that ‘in a better world’ there would have been no film about Mo Mowlam but instead one depicting the ‘heroic struggles’ of Owen Paterson. Mo Mowlam was vibrant, colourful and exuberant — an authentic character who was in every sense entertaining. Her story captivated millions; her unorthodoxy was appealing and her eccentricities made for compulsive viewing. She spoke her mind, even when that mind’s capacity was in moving decline. A film about Owen Paterson, by contrast, would not only be irredeemably dull; it would be viewed in just two households — those of Paterson

Dot Wordsworth

Mind your language | 31 July 2010

Every time he hears the words Big Society on the television or radio, my husband shouts out ‘Pig society!’ I am unsure whether he is inspired by George Orwell or the Earl of Emsworth’s Empress of Blandings. Every time he hears the words Big Society on the television or radio, my husband shouts out ‘Pig society!’ I am unsure whether he is inspired by George Orwell or the Earl of Emsworth’s Empress of Blandings. But if the Big Society is a great idea and not just a big idea why should it not be the Great Society? After all, we live in Great Britain, not Big Britain. I know that

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 31 July 2010

This column may not, I admit, have praised the Foreign Office at all times, so it is pleased to reveal an admirable FCO operation which has been going on, quietly and successfully, since early last year. In 2008, it became clear — many would say it was clear much, much earlier — that the plight of British citizens in Zimbabwe was desperate. Hyperinflation, and the refusal of Robert Mugabe’s government to honour their pensions, had made many destitute. In February 2009, the British government set up a resettlement scheme for British citizens over 70 who had right of abode here. If they agreed to settle permanently in the United Kingdom,

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 31 July 2010

Mr David Cameron, the Prime Minister, visited India, and on the way said he was ‘angry’ that negotiations for Turkey to join the European Union were so slow. Mr David Cameron, the Prime Minister, visited India, and on the way said he was ‘angry’ that negotiations for Turkey to join the European Union were so slow. While Mr Cameron was abroad earlier in America, Mr Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, had spoken in the Commons of the ‘illegal invasion of Iraq’. Four in ten people who said they had voted Lib-Dem would not have done had they known the party would enter a coalition with the Tories, a poll

Peter Jones

Ancient & modern | 31 July 2010

The French may legislate to ban the all-enveloping burka/niqab worn by some Muslim women, but Claudius, Roman emperor ad 41-54, would no more have banned them than he did trouser-wearing Frenchman. In ad 48, Gallic chieftains who had long-standing treaties with Rome and were of citizen status decided they wanted the right to enter the Roman Senate. Fierce debate ensued. Some Romans opposed it. They argued that there were enough properly bred Romans to fill the Senate, and enough non-Romans had been admitted anyway. The Gauls who came in would be descendants of people traditionally hostile to Rome, who had fought Julius Caesar and earlier still (390 bc) even sacked