Society

Wednesday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

A hate crime is a hate crime, no matter who commits it 

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so vile, so sickening, so inhumane as the killing of the pensioner Ekram Haque in front of his little grand-daughter, Marian. It happened in Tooting, south-west London. You can watch what happened on CCTV (above) although you’ll need a strong stomach. It seems to have been a racist attack on this decent, hard-working Muslim chap, but I don’t know that this makes the crime any worse. Simply, I suppose, that it will not attract the same amount of attention as if it had been, quite clearly, a racist attack. Ie, had Mr Haque’s attackers been white instead of black. I’ve written about this

David Blackburn

Beating up the ASBO

Theresa May has taken the truncheon to the previous government’s rather singular anti-social behaviour policy. The ASBO, of which more than half were ignored in 2008, will be a thing of the past; supermarkets will not be able to sell alcohol at less than cost price; and 24 four hour drinking licenses will be subject to local vetoes, even if the residents do not live near or adjacent to pubs and clubs. On confronting anti-social behaviour, May pledges that ultimate political cliché – a coherent and comprehensive strategy. At the moment, there are few details beyond fines for selling drink to underage drinkers. Limiting booze intake is welcome, but alcohol

Tuesday

Mark Littlewood

Never again should so much be wasted by so few

If you tire quickly of the tediously lengthy build up to Christmas, which starts about now, then heaven help you in dealing with two years of hyperbole about the 2012 Olympics. Even the most enthusiastic synchronised swimming fan will find it hard to imagine that the actual event will live up to the billing. And as a keen follower of sport (well, proper sport like football or motor racing), I hope that the London Olympics absolutely bomb.   I want half empty stadia, feeble athletic performances (particularly from British competitors) and embarrassingly low television viewing figures. Because – after this fiasco has finally ended – I don’t want there to

Robert Mcilveen

Forging a cheaper green policy

The debate over climate change is one of the most polarised in UK politics, between those advocating doing everything possible (no matter what the cost) and those who refuse to think about doing anything at all. If, like us, you take the view that the science tells us there are major risks from climate change – albeit with uncertainty around how bad, when and where the risks might bear out – but that costs matter, you are likely to find yourself simultaneously denounced by both sides as a ‘denialist’ and a ‘warmist’. Our new report, Greener, Cheaper explores how we can cut the costs of cutting carbon. We assume that

Peter Hoskin

More grist for the welfare reform mill

How many incapacity benefit claimants could actually work? Well, we get a sense of the answer with some figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions today. They show that, of the people who have gone through the new Work Capability Assessments so far, some three-quarters are able to look for a job. Scale that up for everyone on incapacity benefits, and it suggests that around 1.8 million claimants could return to the labour market. Although the numbers are eye-catching, they’re not entirely surprising: similar figures were published when the WCA was introduced under Labour.  And it could be worth holding fire until the necessary review of those assessment

Peter Hoskin

Cameron’s provocative language over Gaza serves to obscure the issue

And there’s me thinking that David Cameron’s overtures to Turkey were newsworthy enough, when he drops this into his speech in Ankara: “Let me also be clear that the situation in Gaza has to change. Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp. But as, hopefully, we move in the coming weeks to direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians so it’s Turkey that can make the case for peace and Turkey that can help to press the parties to come together, and point the way to a just and viable solution.” In a wider sense, this

Monday

Peter Hoskin

The Hayward saga draws to a close

There has been an inevitability about Tony Hayward’s departure from BP ever since the first aftershocks of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. But now, despite BP’s peculiar denials this morning, that inevitability has reached fever pitch – and it’s widely expected that Hayward will be booted out of his job tomorrow morning. As a thousand comment writers have quipped, he can now get his life back. The question on most observer’s minds is, does he deserve it? And it’s a question which Allister Heath answers persuasively in City AM today. My quick take is that, yes, Hayward came under unfair and politically-motivated fire at times, but much of the criticism flung

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 26 July – 1 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

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Out and proud

I accept that this thread follows a little uncomfortably from my previous thread – I mean, if ever there was a happy challenge to the stereotype then this is it. Peter Tatchell has just received an honorary doctorate from Sussex University, for his services to human rights etc. Good, so he should, few deserve the accolade more. In his acceptance speech he said the following: “Be sceptical, question authority, be a rebel. All human progress is the result of far-sighted people challenging orthodoxy, tradition and powerful, vested interests. Don’t accept the world as it is. Dream about what the world could be – then help make it happen. In whatever

David Blackburn

Few smoking guns in these leaks

Courtesy of WikiLeaks, the Guardian and The New York Times have obtained classified documents pertaining to the killing of civilians in Afghanistan and the duplicity of Pakistani spies. The White House is furious, condemning the leaks for ‘endangering US and allied servicemen’ on active duty – a statement that seems reasonable until the White House added that the documents pre-dated President Obama’s assumption of office and that they ‘do not reflect current on-ground realities’. But that makes the allegations contained therein irrelevant or dated. Judging by the two newspapers’ coverage, the leaks are vague and certainly not novel. It’s obvious that Pakistan is an unwilling ally, and one which has its

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Protecting the Coalition’s vulnerable party

The Coalition’s first full political cabinet marks a stage in its development. The fact that Tories and Liberal Democrats were prepared to sit down with no officials present and discuss political strategy for more than three hours shows how comfortable the Coalition partners are becoming with each other at Cabinet level. As I say in the Mail on Sunday, the tone of these talks was, for obvious reasons, distinctly anti-Labour. Much of it was about the importance of branding Labour as in denial about the deficit. The challenge that Labour poses to the Coalition will, obviously, depend heavily on the result of the party’s leadership election. The two Miliband brothers—who

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Gone Cricketing | 25 July 2010

All will be quiet here this week. I’m heading offline and, more importantly, to Ireland for a week of cricket. Six games in six days across three provinces is a punishing, even optimistic schedule. Then again, it can’t go any worse than it did on Saturday when my two overs were walloped for 29 runs. Anyway, see y’all next Tuesday.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Housekeeping

First, I was a guest on the most recent House of Comments podcast, talking about the Big Society, the future of the BBc and various other stories. Also appearing was the lovely Claire Spencer of Noonday Thoughts and, of course, Mark Thompson and Stuart Sharpe who host the podcast each week. You can listen to it here or you can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes here. Second, Iain Dale wants everyone to vote for their favourite British blogs in his annual Total Politics poll. If this is the sort of thing you like doing then these are the rules: 1. You must vote for your ten favourite blogs and

Saturday

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 24 July 2010

Q. Next month my husband and I are taking guests for a week on a boat in Turkey. They are people we do not know very well. Since a lot of our guests are Americans they will not be drinking very much and I wonder if you can suggest any ways in which we might break the ice in these slightly claustrophobic conditions? A.A., London NW1 A. Try an after-dinner game, The Ark, which has been a great hit this summer at house parties. Everyone takes an animal’s name out of a hat. The room is plunged into darkness and you must find your ‘partner’ animal by barking, baa-ing or

Melissa Kite

On the shelf

I’m not exaggerating. There used to be a lovely big Books Etc on Victoria Street where you could lose yourself for an hour and find all sorts of unexpected treasures: while browsing in the sports section there I bought a copy of Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand, which had me in tears after ten minutes. But when I went to where Books Etc had once been the other day, I discovered that it had transmogrified into something called Oliver Bonas. This sounds like the sort of place that might sell dog treats but in reality it was not nearly so useful. It was, in fact, a modern day bazaar of overpriced

Jeremy Clarke

War and peace | 24 July 2010

I was in Ypres, about which Churchill said, ‘A more sacred place for the British race does not exist in the world.’ Thousands of members of that race were knocking about in the town. We were easy to spot among the more prosperously dressed Belgians. But not always. I said bonsoir to this bloke who was coming out of the hotel as I was going in, and he said, ‘I’m English. You don’t have to “bonsoir” me, mate.’ ‘Here for the war cemeteries?’ I said. ‘Oh, yes,’ he said. ‘I come twice a year every year without fail. I am obsessed by the Great War. I came here once and

Taki

Greek legacy

Athens As everyone knows, Sigmund Freud was a fraud. And, like many frauds, he thought the Parthenon might also be one. But he summoned his nerve and visited the sacred site and was delighted as well as shocked at what he saw. This was 1904. Like other visitors, Freud dreaded that the real thing might not live up to his expectations, but it did and continues to do so today. Unlike other cultural icons — the ‘Mona Lisa’, the pyramids — the Parthenon never disappoints, and even a philistine such as Bill Clinton has been photographed misty-eyed between the columns. Mind you, the one that takes the booby prize is

Ursula Buchan

Inspiration for all

In every generation, there are at least two famous gardeners who inspire universal respect, if not necessarily affection, in their contemporaries. From the 1870s they were William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll, in Edwardian times Reginald Farrer and E.A. Bowles, in the post-war period Vita Sackville-West and Graham Stuart Thomas, and, since the 1970s, Christopher Lloyd and Beth Chatto. Only Beth Chatto remains but, at 87, she is in good fettle and presently celebrating 50 years since the Beth Chatto Gardens at Elmstead Market, Essex, were founded. It would be impossible, I am sure, to find anyone, however generally ill-natured and carping, who would say an unkind word about Beth Chatto

Robin Oakley

Goodwood glamour

They have been racing over this patch of the Sussex Downs since 1802. King Edward VII, who popularised both the panama and the linen suit, called it ‘a garden party with racing tacked on’. For me, it is Ascot without the excess. Goodwood’s stands with their floating canopies don’t look like a concrete imposition on the country, more an Arabian Nights children’s book fantasy, dream castles that could be wafted away to a never-never land where the Pimms flows for ever and punters back nothing but winners. Certainly, it is quality sport. You won’t see horses running faster than they do in the Goodwood Stewards’ Cup when the sprinters breast

Toby Young Toby Young

Summertime, and a trip to a ‘family-friendly’ festival beckons

It’s the summer and that means the festival season is upon us. I say that as if I’m a veteran of the festival circuit when, in fact, the last one I went to was Hood Fayre (sic) in Totnes in 1980. That was the year I took my O-levels and I remember sitting in a tent, sucking on a Camberwell Carrot, when I bumped into my History teacher. ‘Shouldn’t you be revising?’ he said. It won’t surprise you to learn that I failed everything apart from Eng Lit. Some 30 years later, I decided to dip another toe in the water. Caroline and I were offered a free day pass