Society

Friday

David Blackburn

A culture of intimidation and a conspiracy to silence

On the afternoon of 4 June 2009, John Hutton, then Secretary of State for Defence, told the House of Commons: ‘Every one of our servicemen and women has the right to know that we are doing everything possible to ensure that every pound of investment in our equipment programme goes towards the front line and is not wasted in inefficient or weak processes of acquisition. That is why I asked Bernard Gray in December last year to conduct a detailed examination of progress in implementing the MOD’s acquisition change programme, as I hope right hon. and hon. Members will recall. I have to be satisfied that the current programme of

The Spectator

The week that was | 23 April 2010

It’s been a busy week at Spectator Live, where Gaby Hinsliff argues that what’s wrong the TV debates is the visual aspect, and Rory Sutherland thinks that the Lib Dem surge may give the Tories a lasting advantage in Middle England. There is also a selection of videos, polls and additional articles for your delectation. Here is what Spectator.co.uk made of the second televised debate: Fraser Nelson says Cameron has pulled the Tories out of the fire. James Forsyth says an improved Cameron hasn’t burst the Lib Dem bubble. Peter Hoskin calls it Cameron’s evening. David Blackburn thinks the camera doesn’t like David Cameron. And Susan Hill bets that David

David Blackburn

Polls the morning after, and where next for Cameron?

With the exception of the Daily Mirror, the pundits’ concede that David Cameron and Gordon Brown closed the gap on Nick Clegg, but not decisively. That has transferred to the ‘who won the debate’ polls. Populus Cameron 37 percent (Up 15) Clegg 36 percent  (Down 25) Brown 27 percent  (Up 10) ICM Clegg 33 percent Brown 29 percent Cameron 29 percent Com Res Clegg 33 percent (Down 13) Cameron 30 percent (Up 4) Brown 30 percent (Up 10) You Gov Cameron 36 percent (Up 7) Clegg 32 percent  (Down 18) Brown 29 percent (Up 10) Angus Reid Clegg 33 percent (Down 15) Cameron 32 percent (Up 12) Brown 23 percent

Daniel Korski

Next time, do a Bill

So it’s all down to the next debate. The election will probably be decided in 90 minutes, each segment of 20 seconds for every day of a new five-year mandate. In which case, what is the one thing David Cameron will need to take away from last night’s debate, his “take-home”, as a US analyst might call it, to win decisively and get into the 37, 38, 39 percent range that he needs for the Tories to win a majority? He needs to do a Bill. Clinton, that is. Last night, the Tory leader did far better than in the previous debate. He started a bit slowly, and improved as

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Happy St George’s Day!

May this Scotsman wish all his English friends and readers a joyous St George’s Day? Why yes he may. And does. Here, for your delectation, are Flanders & Swann performing their splendid Song of Patriotic Prejudice. Great stuff.

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

TV debate – live blog

2130, PH: And that’s it.  I’ll be posting a verdict shortly. 2129, PH: Clegg tries to repeat his Amazing Memory Feat from last week – but this time it’s the issues discussed, and not questioners’ names.  Not as impressive.  After that, he talks “change” and delivers a few jibes about the “opponents of change”. 2128, PH: Cameron, to camera: “That sounded desperate … we need a clean break.”  Cameron says “clean break” again, and mentioned the “Big Society”. 2127, PH: Closing pitches now. Brown doesn’t look at the camera for his – it starts slowly, but he looks more enthusiastic when he gets to the bit about the Tories being

Daniel Korski

Memo to Adam Boulton: It’s about detail

Since the last thing David Cameron is likely to do is surf the web for advice for tonight’s debate, Nick Clegg needs no help and Gordon Brown deserves none, I will give my (again, unsolicited but free) advice to Adam Boulton, the moderator of tonight’s Sky debate. Ask for details. The leaders have rehearsed top-level answers and can express them confidently and fluently. But we need to know if there is anything underneath the surface, beyond the well-crafted lines. Take Afghanistan. They will all say that the fight is important, that a well-resourced military effort is key but will not be enough and that a politico-economic strategy is needed. Gordon

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Britain’s brain drain

Voting with one’s feet is always the most sincere sign of faith – or despair – in a country and its government. And for many the departure lounge, rather than the ballot box, is the surest route to better schools, lower tax and safer streets. The phrase “brain drain” was used in the 1970s and isn’t now – strange, because the emigration rate has doubled to 1,080 a day (ONS data here).  It’s not just Brits: over the years, even the immigrants who have lived here for long enough are scarpering. But because of our obsession with immigration, we haven’t really paid attention to those leaving. And incomers do outnumber

Peter Hoskin

Team Brown playing the same old tunes

The strange thing about last week’s TV debate is that, for all its transformative power, it doesn’t seem to have changed Labour’s campaign strategy in any fundamental way.  Team Brown were hoping for a hung Parliament, and courting the Lib Dems, before last week.  And, as Peter Mandelson demonstrated earlier, they’re still doing the same now.  The only difference is that it’s more likely their wishes will come true. But this creates problems for Brown so far as tonight’s TV debate and the rest of the election are concerned.  His instinct may well be to repeat the “I agree with Nick” positioning of last week.  But this has already been

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The little platoons are mobilising

There’s a great example of people power on the letters page of today’s Guardian. Last week, a bunch of the educational establishment wrote to the paper decrying the Tory plans to bust open the state monopoly in education and let parents, teachers and voluntary groups set up new schools. Today, 650-odd parent groups have written back, explaining why they want to set up their own schools and give to the many what is now preserved for the few: the right to choose a good school for their child.   There isn’t anything equal about schooling in Britiain at the moment. The vast majority of good state schools in Britain operate

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Clegg in storm over donations paid into his personal bank account

In 2006 several businessmen—all declared Lib Dem donors—paid money directly into Nick Clegg’s private bank account on a monthly basis reports the Daily Telegraph on its front page tomorrow. The Liberal Democrats point out that this money was being used to pay half the salary of a member of Clegg’s staff and not for any personal purpose and that the money was declared to the parliamentary authorities. Clegg’s accounting is certainly sloppy. For obvious reasons, it is not ideal to have donors paying money directly into a politician’s bank account. Politically, the problem this poses for Clegg is that he has set himself up as being above the old politics

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Will warnings of chaos affect the electorate?

Ken Clarke delivered the IMF warning today at the Tory press conference. Clarke, a politician experienced enough to remember the last time no party had a majority in the Commons and the last time the IMF was called in, said that if the electorate did not put in a government with a working majority that is serious about dealing with the debt and the deficit then the IMF will do it for us. He scolded the electorate, saying that ‘not every single member of the electorate seems to realise how serious this election is.’   The Tories hope that this bucket of cold water will help end voters’ infatuation with

Martin Bright

A New Tory Policy: Back to the Eighties

I cornered Ken Clarke after the press conference on employment and welfare today and asked him a direct question about my pet subject – Margaret Thatcher’s Enterprise Allowance Scheme. I couldn’t get in a question during the press conference itself, which was dominated by journalists from Channel 4 (three questions, come on chaps, fair’s fair!) and some bloke called Forsyth from the Spectator. I asked Clarke about his post on the Linked In social networking site asking for people’s experiences of the 1980s scheme for people wanting to come off the dole and set up their own small businesses. I have been lobbying for this for some time, as has the Federation of

Tuesday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Taking on the Dear Leader of Stoke Newington

I notice that the journalist Suzanne Moore is standing against Diane Abbott in Hackney North and Stoke Newington. Good for her. I know some of you may consider an Abbott-Moore contest to be on a par with, say, Gaddafy versus Assad, but Suzanne is at least not a hypocrite. She’s got a fight on her hands though; one assumes Abbott is carried around the constituency every day on a giant litter, accompanied by hordes of schoolchildren chanting rap anthems in her honour. It is very hard to match that sort of charisma, outside of Pyongyang. But good luck Suzanne, stick it to the woman.

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Tories back ahead with YouGov

Earlier in the camapign, a two point lead in the YouGov tracker poll caused panic in Tory ranks. But tonight, there’s a certain sense of relief that the Tories are back ahead by this margin with You Gov. The numbers are Tories up one to 33, Lib Dems down two to 31 and Labour up one to 27. Now this is, of course, only one poll and others show the Lib Dems still surging. But there’ll be a certain relief at CCHQ that the haemoragging of Tory support seems to have stopped.  

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Eh? Support for the BNP has nothing to do with immigration?

A quite bizarre report from the IPPR which attempts to prove that it is not immigration which tempts people to vote BNP, but a lack of “resilience”. This fatuous word, resilience, is used more and more by government and quangos and local councils, usually to transfer blame to ordinary people for the crimes of those in authority – such as putting up with mass immigration, or being poor, or having rotten schools, or being badly educated. “Resilient” communities are simply affluent, white communities – Richmond Upon Thames, Wokingham and so on. But what a deluded report, and how weak its terms of reference. The IPPR cross referenced where the BNP

Daniel Korski

A world without planes

In the book a World Without the West, the authors invite the reader to imagine the non-Western world where South-to-South grow so strong that they bypass the traditional Euro-Atlantic powers. Stuck in southern Europe because of Eyjafjallajokull’s eruption, I have begun thinking about life without airplane travel.   The last 15 years have not only seen an explosion in cheap airline travel – spawning new tourist industries in once-forgotten European cities – but there has been an increase in the use of air transport for goods, mail, soldiers and much else besides. What would happen if this is ground to a halt in Europe not for a weekend or weeks

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 19 April – 25 April

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

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris is the man to burst the Clegg bubble

Tonight’s YouGov poll is another reminder, if oner were needed, that the Tories have to burst the Nick Clegg bubble. But any direct attacks on Clegg are dangerous as they present him with an opportunity to attack the same old politics. What the Tories need to do is to deflate it with humour. They should point out the absurdity of a lobbyist turned Eurocrat turned MP presenting himself as the alternative to the old politics. Is there anyone better to do this than Boris Johnson? He’s quotable and has just the kind of gently mocking humour that could puncture this bubble. Boris has, to my mind, being under used in

Saturday

Melissa Kite

Election speak

‘It’s not good enough just to appear on your doorstep at election times,’ says the leaflet from Chuka Umunna, my local Labour candidate. Which is presumably why he hasn’t. This is not to imply that I have never seen him. I once caught a glimpse of him galloping past my house. I think he was speed canvassing. One of his helpers knocked on my door for a chat, though, which was nice. She was one of those cheerful, ruddy-cheeked, capable-looking community organiser types. The kind who knows how to administer basic first aid to a severed artery. She wouldn’t necessarily save your life but she’d make you a bit more