Society

Tuesday

David Blackburn

Pope Benedict XVI is correct: the Equality Bill is fundamentally un-British

I doubt His Holiness and I would hit it off, but he is right that Harriet Harman’s Equality Bill would impose strictures upon religious communities that run contrary to their beliefs. The coalescence of British and EU anti-discrimination law is but an immodest garment for trenchant ideology. Harman’s bill strives to subjugate individual freedoms, such as that to religious expression, beneath state-imposed rights. This legislation is the progeny of faith in social engineering, not social mobility; it ignores that toleration and freedom in Britain were derived from the right to religious observance free from state proscriptions. If enacted, the bill will require organisations to employ without thought to suitability, and

Alex Massie Alex Massie

How to Survive a 35,000 Foot Fall…

Popular Mechanics offers some tips: You have a late night and an early flight. Not long after takeoff, you drift to sleep. Suddenly, you’re wide awake. There’s cold air rushing everywhere, and sound. Intense, horrible sound. Where am I?, you think. Where’s the plane? You’re 6 miles up. You’re alone. You’re falling. Things are bad. But now’s the time to focus on the good news. (Yes, it goes beyond surviving the destruction of your aircraft.) Although gravity is against you, another force is working in your favor: time. Believe it or not, you’re better off up here than if you’d slipped from the balcony of your high-rise hotel room after

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Mandelson is spinning to his heart’s content

Peter Mandelson was doing his full Alan Rickman impression at Labour’s press conference this morning. His aim was to imply that every time Labour put the Tories under pressure they wobble. As so often since his return to British politics, Mandelson delivered lines that were so memorable that they were bound to make it into copy. He said that the Tories “would strangle the recovery at birth”, that David Cameron was “bobbing around like a cork in water”, and that George Osborne was the Tories’ “weakest link”. As I type, Mandleson’s sound bites are being replayed yet again on News 24. Now, these lines aren’t going to cut through to

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Helping Haiti | 1 February 2010

How best to help Haiti? Plenty of people will tell you that writing off Haiti’s debt would be a good start. And, in truth, there’s an argument to be made for doing just that. But no-one should think that will really have much of an impact on Haiti’s ability to recover. What might make a difference, then? Letting Haitians leave Haiti, that’s what. Alex Tabarrok has a handy chart: The downside: What if all the best, most energetic people leave? Haiti may be a special, especially awful case but it bears saying that Haitians aren’t the only people who would benefit from greater international freedom of movement. Plenty of other

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 1 February  – 6 February

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

Daniel Korski

Leaked MoD report says, well, nothing really

What is the difference between a sieve and the Ministry of Defence? If you think of good punch-line send it in; in the meantime, suffice it to say that department seems to be leaking any and every sensitive document in its possession. Ministry of Defence staff have apparently leaked secret information onto social-networking sites sixteen times in 18 months. Over the week-end, it happened again: Sky News obtained a paper, which will form the basis of the forthcoming Strategic Defence Review. I have not seen the paper, but judging from the Sky reports there is not much to get excited about. Everyone accepts that the nature of warfare is changing,

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Tories making contingency plans for a second election in 2010

With another poll showing the Tories ahead but not by enough to secure an overall majority, The News of the World reports that the party is making contingency plans for a second election: The idea would be to take action on immigration, householders’ rights and business taxes and then go to the country again seeking a stronger mandate. To boost the Tories’ prospects, the paper says that Cameron plans to hold a boundary review beforehand. I’d be surprised if it was possible to do that quickly enough for new seats to be in place for a second election this year. There’s also a risk that this effort to remove Labour’s

Saturday

Melissa Kite

From the horse’s mouth | 30 January 2010

There are many greetings one might grudgingly accept as adequate when one arrives at a hospital emergency department. But a sign saying ‘Helpdesk’ is not one of them. ‘Reception’, ‘Report here’ or even ‘Check-in’ would have been a tolerable overture from King’s College Hospital when I pitched up with my hand crushed and bleeding. But Helpdesk? Helpdesk is what you thrust in people’s faces when they are queuing for IT support. Helpdesk is what you tell people they are getting when they want to make backup files from their hard drive. Helpdesk is not what you offer people who are hoping for their broken limbs to be treated. I suppose

Jeremy Clarke

The other club

‘Do you want a dance?’ she said. She stood there smiling at me with her hand held out invitingly. I’d already decided I wasn’t going to get caught up in the dancing. But this woman — well, you should have seen her. She was about 19; as full of health, life and potential fecundity as point-of-lay pullet. And yet a vulnerability in her smile gave the impression that she’d had to pluck up the courage to ask. I said to my friend, and my friend’s friend — we’d been deep in conversation about the perilous state of a football club dear to our hearts — how could I possibly refuse

Taki

Take three books

Reading good books is like making love. Reading bad ones is like masturbating. I’ve just read three good ones, one of which got on my nerves because it was about a homosexualist, as opposed to a homosexual. Which in fact was what the other two were about. Now if someone had suggested to me long ago that I would be reading three books about three men who preferred their own sex, I’d have said they’d been puffing on the magic dragon, but that’s neither here nor there. I was curious to read about James Lees-Milne (by Michael Bloch) because, although I never met him, I knew and know some of

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 30 January 2010

Q. A new flatmate at university is very likeable but I get the feeling that she only half listens to what I have to say. When we are chatting at the kitchen table, for example, she interrupts me, often mid-story, to tell a story of her own. This will invariably be very entertaining but it still feels a bit insulting that she did not bother listening to the end of what I was saying. How can I tactfully cure her of this habit without making her feel that I am jealous of her being wittier or having more interesting names to drop than I do? Name withheld, Leeds A. If

Dot Wordsworth

Mind your language | 30 January 2010

‘Kriek?’ shouted my husband. ‘Kriek?’ shouted my husband. ‘What do you mean, Kriek?’ He was only shouting because he was in the next room and couldn’t be bothered to get up. His question was a good one, for Kriek is one of the latest entries added to the Oxford English Dictionary. It is a far more interesting word than SMS, another new entry, but should it be there at all? It is never easy to know which words should be in an English dictionary. When James Murray, first editor of the OED, was working on the letter A in the 1880s he decided not to include the word African, since

Toby Young Toby Young

Defining yourself these days as ‘upper class’ is the kiss of death in every walk of life

‘The basic principle of English social life is that everyone thinks he is a gentleman,’ wrote Evelyn Waugh. ‘There is a second principle of almost equal importance: everyone draws the line of demarcation immediately below his own heels.’ That was written 55 years ago and today almost exactly the opposite is true. According to a Guardian/ICM poll published earlier this week, almost no one in contemporary Britain sees themselves as ‘upper class’. The pollsters didn’t ask the respondents to define ‘upper class’, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a majority of people draw the line of demarcation immediately above their own heads. In the course of my life I have

The Spectator

Letters | 30 January 2010

For richer, for poorer Sir: Ferdinand Mount’s article (‘David Cameron should honour his marriage vow’, 23 January) is not entirely accurate. After noting that Geoffrey Howe was unable to persuade Margaret Thatcher to agree to the introduction of transferable tax allowances between married couples, he writes: ‘Nigel Lawson after him argued the same, with no better luck.’ In fact, I announced the introduction of transferable allowances in my 1988 Budget, and it was duly implemented in 1990. The full story may be found on pages 881 to 887 of my memoirs, The View from No. 11. Nigel Lawson London SW1 Sir: Well done to Ferdinand Mount and The Spectator for

Tamzin Lightwater

Diary of a Notting Hill nobody | 30 January 2010

Monday Mr Maude is ecstatic. ‘A hung parliament! I told you so! People hate us!’ Dave v grumpy: ‘Speak for yourself.’ Quietly though, I think he is a bit worried that not as many people love him as unconditionally and totally as previously thought. It’s not the polls, exactly. It’s more to do with That Poster. There’s one in Brixton, for example, with a huge amount of mud mysteriously spattered all over it. Of course, it could easily have been a bus going through a puddle. But Dave is convinced it was hoodies. I think he could have put up with having mud slung at him by any other social

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 30 January 2010

Part of the purpose of the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war is what has become known, post the end of apartheid, as ‘truth and reconciliation’. Part of the purpose of the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war is what has become known, post the end of apartheid, as ‘truth and reconciliation’. That is why it does not matter much that material already studied closely in the Hutton and Butler reports is being gone over again: this time, the hearings are public. The trouble is that truth and reconciliation are rarely compatible with general elections. In a classic example of the lack of courage for which he is known, Gordon

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 30 January 2010

Britain technically emerged from recession, with economic growth of 0.1 per cent in the last quarter of 2009, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics, although these might be revised in a month’s time. Britain technically emerged from recession, with economic growth of 0.1 per cent in the last quarter of 2009, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics, although these might be revised in a month’s time. The previous six quarters of contraction had been the longest such period since 1955. Gross Domestic Product fell by 4.8 per cent last year. The 100 partners of Goldman Sachs based in Britain are having pay and bonuses

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Rawnsley revelations put Brown’s temper on the agenda

Stories of Gordon Brown’s temper are commonplace in Westminster. But they rarely make it into print. This, though, is about to change. The Mail on Sunday reports that Andrew Rawnsley’s follow-up to Servants of the People contains a string of revelations about Brown’s behaviour. The paper reports that Rawnsley has investigated whether the Prime Minister has hit a senior adviser, pulled a secretary out of her chair because she wasn’t typing fast enough and sworn at aides over the Obama snub. Downing Street is rubbishing these allegations. However, Rawnsley’s record is so good that these stories cannot easily be dismissed, also many journalists have come close to standing them up

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The return of IDS

What to do with Iain Duncan Smith? The Sunday Telegraph tomorrow says  he will be given a Department for Children and Social Justice – an idea that has been in the pipeline for a while now. At first, I was against IDS returning to the front bench given what amazing influence he has had as a backbencher. I fancied him as a Frank Field/Wilberforce type – someone used his public platform to advance radical ideas. But that changed when Theresa May was promoted to welfare reform, something which did more to damage my confidence in the Cameron project than anything else since 2007. It seemed to suggest to me that

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

A tale of two FTs

The Spectator isn’t in favour of many taxes, but we are calling for a mandatory insurance premium for banks. Depending on which version of the FT you picked up today, it seems the banks are agreeing to this too. But are they agreeing to a tax, or a fee? Even the FT isn’t sure – and has two different versions in two editions (pictured).  “Some of the world’s most prominent bankers have come out in favour of a global tax on banks,” says the first edition with a report from Patrick Jenkins in Davos. But later editions changed this to “a global bank wind-down fund” (ie, voluntary) and in the