Society

Thursday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Questioning the Climate Change Establishment

So, this is now the coldest winter for thirty years and the snow is likely to hang around for two weeks, maybe three. How does this square with last year’s prediction from eminent scientists – the Met, the UAE change-the-numbers-monkeys, Marcus Brigstocke etc – that 2010 was going to be the hottest year on record? It could still be, of course – but it will have to go it some. Let’s keep an eye on the figures – so far, coldest for thirty years, remember. December was cold too, if you remember – yet apparently not included in the figures for 2009 which, if you recall, were jubilantly announced as

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

What does the Cabinet silence mean?

It’s only been two hours, so how much can we read in to the silence from most of the Cabinet over the Hoon-Hewitt rallying cry? I didn’t think Brown was in that much trouble, until I heard Margaret Beckett come on Five Live to defend him. Is that the best his defence operation can do? Beckett, Andy Burnham, John Mann, Tony Lloyd? In fairness, I wouldn’t break my lunch to say something nice about Brown either – but his team at No.10 exists to defend him against his many Labour enemies. You can bet that, right now, there are scores of furious messages on Darling’s and Mandelson’s mobiles. Darling is,

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Law might be absurd, but all must be equal before it

Apologies for having been a bit remiss on the blogging front recently – I’ve been busy panic-buying groceries from the local supermarkets. I saw this cold snap coming. The Daily Mail this morning says that Britain is running out of food, energy, money, etc etc and that we are all going to die. One way or another, right or left, people are yearning for an apocalypse. But, to the point at hand: what are we to do about Carolyn Mellanby? Cazza is the district judge in the case of seven Muslim men charged with having incited racial or religious hatred. These were the chaps you may remember from their very

Alex Massie Alex Massie

John Wayne Explains the Culture Wars

Here’s the Duke being interviewed by Canadian television in 1960. It’s striking how contemporary it all sounds once the conversation moves on to politics. Fifty years on and you hear many of the same arguments… Hat-tip: Terry Teachout whose new biography of Louis Armstrong comes highly recommended.]

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

A Question for the Nudgers

As we know, Team Dave are fans of Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s Nudge. The authors advocate something called “libertarian paternalism”. Steve Hilton, Cameron’s style guru, is especially enthusiastic about using insights gleaned from behavioural economics to advance “progressive Conservatism”. Here’s one example he cites in a recent strategy memo: A few years ago, the authorities in Montana managed to cut binge drinking amongst students – something that the Labour Government has tried and failed to do over the past decade. How? They simply put up advertising that stated: ‘80% of Montana college students drink fewer than four beers per week’. This led to an immediate fall in binge drinking

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Tory health policy is confused and contradictory: so why do they want to talk about it?

I don’t know why the Conservatives released their NHS manifesto yesterday. Can they really want people to read it? Do they think that’s a good idea? I’m not sure it is, you know. Granted, there’s the promise of a free health pony to every sick kid in the country and plenty of nice-sounding stuff about decentralisation and patients’ rights and accountability and all the rest of it. But there’s also, as I suppose might be expected, an awful lot of “we will” and very little “this is how we will” accomplish all these goals. For instance: “We will give people access to a doctor or nurse when the local family

Alex Massie Alex Massie

A Case Against Profiling

In the wake of the Knicker-Bomber’s attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner it’s hardly a surprise that plenty of folk are calling for more rigorous profiling of muslim (or arab) passengers wanting to board aircraft. Some go so far as to suggest that all young muslim men should be strip-searched. Brother Blackburn doesn’t go that far but does say that it’s just common sense at work. Plenty of commenters agree with him. So, since I don’t think profiling of this sort is a terribly good idea let me concede that it might make a difference to airline security. This might be the case even though there are plenty of

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A man bites dog story

Here’s something we won’t see very often during this election year, a candidate breaking with his party to praise a policy of the other’s side. But that’s what Alex Hilton, Labour candidate for the rock solid Tory seat of Chelsea and Fulham, did today—and all credit to him for that. Hilton, a veteran Labour blogger, is arguing that Labour should adopt– rather than rubbish–Tory plans for a deliberative, online policy development tool. This tool would allow the public to enter into the policy making process. This idea is the brainchild of Tom Steinberg of the apolitical MySociety who has been sufficiently convinced by the Tories’ commitment to this agenda to

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Christmas Quiz! The Answers!

As promised, here are the answers to this year’s Christmas Quiz. It turns out that it was perhaps a little harder than I’d appreciated since no-one (or at least no-one who sent me their answers) came very close to getting it right. The most valiant efforts – and most efforts were most valiant now that I think of it –  scored some marks on a little more than half the questions but no-one scored points on more than 22 of the 30 questions. Still, many thanks for playing and better luck next year… 1.  What’s the connection between Dartford, St Pancras North, Beaconsfield and Edinburgh South? These are parliamentary constituencies

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall January 4th – January 10th 

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

David Blackburn

Two new Tory health policies

Localism and results-based healthcare are central to the Tories’ NHS reform measures. They plan to arrest the widening gap between the life expectancy of rich and poor by introducing a Health Premium, a new policy, to direct funds to the poorest communities. The second new initiative is the creation of ‘maternity networks’, which will link hospitals, doctors, charities, volunteers and consultants, replacing top-down management with co-operation in a bid to widen expertis, improve services and lower costs. This reflects the belief that local solutions can have national benefits and concurs with the broader aspects of Tory policy regarding the state and welfare provision. There is still no precise detail about

Alex Massie Alex Massie

English Schadenfreude

Everyone always says that there’s no english equivalent of schadenfreude and I’ve always assumed, recklessly as it turns out, that since everyone always says this it might be true. Not so! Hats-off to Mr Ciaran J Breen of Celbridge, County Kildare for writing to the Irish Times to explain that: But there is a one-word English equivalent. It is “epicaricacy” which means rejoicing at, taking fun in, or getting pleasure from the misfortune of others. The word is derived from the ancient Greek “epi” (meaning upon); “kharis” (meaning joy) and “kakos” (meaning evil). The German language equivalent, Schadenfreude, is more commonly used as a loan word in English. – Yours,

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

New Year, same old Brown

Gordon Brown was on Andrew Marr this morning. Brown didn’t make much news but I thought there were three aspects of the interview that tell us much about how Brown intends to campaign. First, take his response to Marr pressing him about how Labour would cut the deficit: “No, we’re raising your taxes to do it. You will have to pay more in the top rate of tax to do it. The pension tax reliefs that were very generous in the past have had to be removed. We’re raising national insurance by 1% to protect our public services so that we can still spend more on health and more on education

Saturday

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 2 January 2010

Q. As everyone knows, it is very hard to find non-cowboy plumbers in London so when our boiler broke, we went straight to an established firm of professionals. We paid £90 per plumber per hour but the job was done properly — by uniformed men who turned up on time and gave us a five-year guarantee. My problem is that my housekeeper, who I have had for nearly 30 years, kept trying to chat to the men while they were working, despite her knowing how much they were charging. The plumbers were very professional but she definitely distracted them. She even brought in her family photograph album, and asked them

Toby Young Toby Young

The keys to happiness are money, fame and status, regardless of what the romantics say

I recently received an email from a friend asking if I would contribute to a book he’s editing entitled What Matters Now: prescriptions for a simpler life. ‘A new genre of literature is emerging about the roots of happiness,’ it began. ‘Authors like Alain de Botton, Oliver James and Naomi Klein argue that the materialist/celebrity culture has left people unhappier than ever. They argue that older and simpler pleasures — a walk in the country, the companionship of family and friends, a beautiful view — provide better oxygen for the soul than the acquisition of more branded goods or the pursuit of money, fame and status.’ I told him I

Taki

Lost cause

Let’s start 2010 right and mention a few honest people in the news. I wrote this sentence a couple of hours ago, not realising how difficult it was going to be to find even one honest boldfaced name. Like old Diogenes, I am still looking as my deadline nears. Which reminds me: at least the white-bearded old Greek had a trademark lamp to help him in his search, something I refuse to carry as it gets in the way, especially when trying to ski. Diogenes credited his teacher Antisthenes with introducing him to a life of poverty and happiness — the two went in hand — but the Greek should

Jeremy Clarke

Diary of a bore

Almost without fail, I bash out a daily diary entry on a loose sheet of A4 then shove it in an old ringbinder. Glued on the inside cover of this ringbinder is a yellowing newspaper clipping. It’s a column by the late Nigel Nicolson, written around the time of the New Year, offering Sunday Telegraph readers some useful rules, from a lifelong diarist, about how one should go about keeping a diary. Write first thing in the morning when the mind is fresh, he says. Be truthful, he says. Don’t feel obliged to write daily: write only when you feel that you have something to say. Write your diary in

Melissa Kite

Less is more | 2 January 2010

Top of my ambitions for this year: be less nice. Do fewer good turns. Be less amenable and most of all a lot less kind to animals. While this sounds a bit grim, you have to consider that I am starting from a very high base. If I go out of my way to be heartless every time a stray needs rescuing, I reckon the most I can hope for is that I won’t end up with every single one of them in my house. Just 50 per cent of them. Frankly, I would settle for that. Because I must not continue the year as I have started. With another

The Spectator

Letters | 2 January 2010

In the wrong hands Sir: It simply will not do for Ed Balls to dismiss the loathsome pamphlet written by Farah Ahmed, head teacher of the Hizb ut Tahrir-linked school he supports and funds, on the grounds that it is ‘not evidence of extremist views actually being taught in the classroom’ (Letters, 12 December). In fact, what should ‘actually be taught in the classroom’ was precisely the subject Mrs Ahmed was writing about. And the school’s curriculum, which I also mentioned in my article, displays striking parallels between what Hizb teaches its recruits and Mrs Ahmed teaches her pupils. The real question for Mr Balls is whether he thinks Mrs Ahmed,

Tamzin Lightwater

New Year resolutions

Tamzin Lightwater’s New Year resolutions Seal the Deal Goodness knows why, but the polls are still suggesting that a few strange voters are not yet 101 per cent sure they want Dave for PM. This sounds wacky, but we have to take it seriously and do everything we can to address that last tiny bit of doubt. As such we will be monitoring Dave’s parting 24/7 to make sure it doesn’t creep up into a quiff. Be Less Posh I’ve just spent five hours going through shadow Cabinet biographies on Wiki erasing public school references. Painstaking work but the sort of dedication that is going to be needed if we