Society

Saturday

James Delingpole James Delingpole

Men only

I think it’s about time someone explained to women how to watch war films. I think it’s about time someone explained to women how to watch war films. They just don’t get them, in much the same way men don’t get handbags or expensive girl-shoes. They think it’s all boring and that the characters all look the same, so how can you care about them? They think there’s far too much shooting and killing and violence and horror and bang bang bang and it’s like watching paint dry. They’d rather let you watch on your own, if you don’t mind, while they go upstairs and read in the bath. This

Robin Oakley

The real McCoy

Biblical scholars say that five is the number of grace, three the number of perfection. ‘Fifteen, therefore, relates to acts wrought by divine grace.’ I don’t know if Tony McCoy was saying his prayers as his mount Don’t Push It cleared the last and headed round The Elbow for the Grand National finishing line but, like Frankie Dettori, who won his first Derby after 14 failed efforts, ‘AP’ too has now won the race that really matters at his 15th attempt. And he deserved any divine intervention that was going. So, too, did the punters who had backed Don’t Push It all the way down from 25–1 to 10–1 favourite.

Aidan Hartley

Let’s have an adventure

Colombian jungle The first day I was in Bogota I saw a big yellow bus speeding by, full of old-aged pensioners dancing Salsa. I knew I was going to like Colombia. They say there’s a jungle plant here called burundanga. If somebody spikes your drink with burundanga you lose all free will. You hand over your wallet, car keys and do what you are told, however absurd the order. I avoided the plant poison but I have been seduced by this place. I love the forests. I like the beer. The people are incredibly charming. They tend to drink chocolate rather than coffee and they do not smoke cigarettes much.

Friday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Lib Dems second in post-debate poll, Tory lead down to three

The results of tonight’s YouGov daily tracker poll are going to put the cat amongst the pigeons. The Lib Dems are second on 30, the Tories are on 33 and Labour 28. Now, this is just one poll. We don’t know whether those who have shifted to the Lib Dems will shift back as the memory of yesterday’s debate fades or if Clegg is less impressive in the next two debates. Looking at yesterday’s numbers—when the Tories were on 37, Labour 31 and the Lib Dems 22—it seems that Lib Dems have taken votes from both the main parties. Tonight’s results are spectacular for the Lib Dems. The Lib Dems

Peter Hoskin

The case for Nick Clegg

Ok, this won’t be one of my more popular opinions, but here goes … Nick Clegg is a Good Politician.  And I don’t mean that in some Machiavellian sense – although, for all I know, that might be true.  But, rather, that he’s got some decent ideas and ideals, and he presents them convincingly.  This is why he deserved his victory in yesterday’s TV debate.  It wasn’t the novelty factor, as Fraser claimed last night.  It wasn’t even really his plague-on-both-your-houses positioning.  No, last night was the culmination of two years in which – politically speaking – Clegg has kneaded and pulled his party into one which can stand, unashamed, on a

Thursday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Clegg and British democracy the big winners from tonight’s debate

Tonight’s debate was a good thing for British democracy. In terms of which party gained, there can be no doubt that the Lib Dems were the big winners. Nick Clegg took full advantage of the opportunity that the debate presented him with. In what will have been the first time that many voters have seen him deliver more than a sound-bite or two, he effectively rammed home his message that the other two parties were the same and that his party was the only one offering real change. This poses a problem for the Tories. Clegg and Cameron are fishing in the same pool, voters who want change but aren’t

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A night to remember?

I’ve just arrived in the press room in Manchester where the media will be watching the debate; the hotel lobby is full of hacks and spin doctors. The question being asked is whether this is the moment that the electorate begins to engage with the election. Although I know that some in CCHQ worry that tonight’s debate could be so he said, she said that it deepens the public’s cynicism about politics. Today’s extreme weather has added an intriguing angle to tonight’s proceedings. Douglas Alexander, who along with Peter Mandelson will be working the spin room after the debate, has already claimed that Brown is concentrating more on the lines

Wednesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

A Choice Revolution

Reihan Salam has a characteristically excellent post on school choice that has some bearing on the Conservatives’ proposed reforms in England. Reihan’s talking about the US and the suggestion that Milwaukee’s voucher programme hasn’t delivered as much as one might like, but his general argument applies to this side of the atlantic too. Bottom line: choice is not enough. Or, to put it another way, choice is a beginning, not an end*. As he puts it: [C]hoice-based reform at its best creates an opportunity for educational innovators to create new models, deploy new technologies, etc. The ultimate goal is to create a flourishing educational marketplace that goes beyond the binary

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The eve of the debate

Tomorrow’s debate between Brown, Cameron and Clegg is going to be the most important event of the campaign so far. All the parties are playing the expectations game at the moment—I wouldn’t be surprised if a party claimed that their opponent is the best debater since Cicero—but I suspect that the expectations game will be less important than we expect. There is an instant poll following the debate and that is going to mean that the result of the poll, not the verdicts of the pundits, is going to determine the tone of the coverage over the next few days. Given the state of the polls and that this is

The Spectator

Around the Web: Liberal Democrat manifesto

Analysis from Pete and Daniel is available and here’s what the rest of the Web makes of the Lib Dem’s manifesto: Nick Robinson notes that the Lib Dems have made fiscal responsibility and fiscal fairness their standalone issues: ‘But you don’t need to reach for a calculator or even call our friends at the Institute of Fiscal Studies to ask this question – if you were in government and could really find £17bn, would you actually be prepared to give it all away? Nick Clegg’s answer to that question is an interesting one. He argues that the public will only back what he once called savage cuts in public spending

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Children of Maggie

I was going to say that Labour have gone negative but, actually, their campaign has, for any number of understandable reasons, been negative all along. Still, that reached a new low (or height) this evening with this advert, broadcast in Scotland only: It’s impressively dishonest on many levels, not least because any decisions taken on Scottish NHS or education funding will be made in Edinburgh, not by any Conservative government in London. True, the block grant could be squeezed but this is true regardless of who is in power in London or who’s running Holyrood. Indeed, one could make an argument that for any number of political and symbolic and

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Trouble With Referendums

I’m not opposed to local referenda and ballot initiatives. But they need to be carefully handled. As commenters have pointed out and as California’s experience demonstrates these can easily fall prey to powerful interest groups. This is especially so if the threshold for putting an issue on the ballot is too low. And 5% of available voters is, I’d hazard, too low. Apart from anything else experience suggests that youcan get 10% of voters to believe in just about anything. Consider this example from tonight’s YouGov tracking poll: 11% of voters say they’d like to see a “Grand Coalition” in which the Tories, Labour and the Liberals share power. That’s

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Populus has the Tory lead at three, YouGov at eight

There are polls out tonight from the two firms polling for the Tories, Populus and YouGov, and they have pretty different results. Populus has the Tories on 36, down three from last week, Labour on 33 and the Lib Dems on 21. In the YouGov tracker, the Tories are on 39, Labour are down two to 31 and the Lib Dems are on 20.

Peter Hoskin

The return of Chris Grayling

Adam Boutlon’s interview with Chris Grayling this afternoon felt like a pressure valve being released.  Grayling’s recent low profile had already become a rolling story, and his absence from the speaking line-up at his party’s manifesto launch was bound to fuel more murmuring and speculation – so the Tories clearly decided to wheel him out in front of the cameras to calm things down a bit.  As it happened, Boulton was on combative form – arguing that elected police commissioners would just add “another layer of bureaucracy” to society – but Grayling sounded quite reasonable in response. Here’s the video, so you can judge for yourselves:

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Libertarian Paternalism in Action

This, folks, is how the Nudgers and so-called “libertarian paternalists” work. From the Tory Manifesto’s (rather brief) passage on civil liberties: The indefinite retention of innocent people’s DNA is unacceptable, yet DNA data provides a useful tool for solving crimes. We will legislate to make sure that our DNA database is used primarily to store information about those who are guilty of committing crimes rather than those who are innocent. We will collect the DNA of all existing prisoners, those under state supervision who have been convicted of an offence, and anyone convicted of a serious recordable offence. We pushed the Government to end the permanent retention of innocent people’s

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Nail A Cretin and Win Some Bubbly Update

Keep those excellent observations flowing in, please. Here’s one I found in the introduction to the Labour Manifesto, published yesterday. Gordon Brown wrote it, apparently: ‘This is a Manifesto about the greater progressive change we need because of the tougher times we are living through. There are no big new spending commitments, but there is a determination for every penny to be used wisely, and, as present plans make clear, to give the maximum protection to frontline public services.’ The first sentence, the one about greater progressive change, is utterly meaningless, especially the word “progressive”. In the second sentence the word “but” should be “and” and the sentence as a

Monday

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 12 April – 18 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

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 12 April 2010

Spectator Live – the Spectator’s new election microsite – has had a busy weekend.  Click here to access the homepage.  Read new contributions from our panellists Gaby Hinsliff, Tim Montgomerie and Rory Sutherland.  Or check out our latest poll results. Here’s what happened across the rest of Spectator.co.uk: Fraser Nelson takes The Times to task over its coverage of the marriage tax break, and makes the case for voting Conservative. James Forsyth previews the candidates’ debate, and wonders if Blair’s respect for the office of Prime Minister will extend Cameron. Peter Hoskin analyses the Liberals’ and Labour’s response to the marriage tax, and finds Labour up to no good. David