Society

Wednesday

Daniel Korski

Negotiate, Negotiate, Negotiate

Whitehall has turned into the lobby of the UN General Assembly, as dignitaries gather to give NATO’s Afghan campaign renewed impetus. Will it all amount to much? It depends. In this piece for the magazine E!Sharp I set out my stall: ‘[if the conference] is to achieve anything more than fill out the evening news, the gathering must have only one aim: to help Hamid Karzai begin reaching out to insurgents and fence-sitters, drawing them into a negotiation that can drain the insurgency of all but the religiously-committed warriors.’ Part of this will involve giving money, jobs and security guarantees to foot-soldiers, as I recommended in a report back in

David Blackburn

Stimulating social mobility will take decades

Another pallid dawn brings more statistics proving that Britain is riven by inequality – ‘from the cradle to the grave’, concludes the Hills report. Unless the offspring of professionals pursue a peculiar urge to be writers or enter Holy Orders, they will bequeath ever greater advantages to their children. For those in converse circumstances, Larkin’s line about inherited misery comes to mind, albeit in a slightly different context. 50 years of unparalleled prosperity, and social mobility has stagnated. Before the wailing and navel gazing begins, it must be asserted that the continued aspirations of the privileged and the fulfilment of their opportunities are not to blame. The root cause of

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Sad Haggis Update

I should have known that the news was too good to be, you know, true. Turns out that all the excitement about the Unted States dropping its disgraceful ban on the importation of proper haggis is somewhat premature. A spokeswoman from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service emails to “clarify” the matter: Recently, several news articles have incorrectly stated that the U.S. will be relaxing or lifting its ban on Scottish haggis  At this time, haggis is still banned in the U.S. The APHIS rule covers all ruminant imports, which includes haggis.  It is currently being reviewed to incorporate the current risk and latest science

Daniel Korski

Kabul needs a big UN beast

The London Afghanistan conference is meant to appoint a civilian NATO coordinator to help align the counter-insurgency effort. The well-respected British ambassador in Kabul, Mark Sedwell, is a front-runner (as, incidentally, was Geoff Hoon until he plotted against Gordon Brown). If the press just publish the news, many questions will go unanswered. That’s not right. For the new post means that a two-year effort to make the UN the main aid coordinator has failed, and the appointee is likely to produce little unless individual NATO allies award him some spending power – a very unlikely scenario. There is nothing easier than to add a job to solve a problem, and

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Royal Family Update

I’m a monarchist- and much more keenly so than I was as a young chap – but the way this Daily Mail story is written is so ghastly and gawd-help-us that it almost makes one doubt the sense of having a non-elected head of state… Prince Philip has been spotted doing his bit for the environment – by clearing up litter at Sandringham. The Duke of Edinburgh prince surprised onlookers by bending down to pick up a discarded coffee cup and its plastic lid after church on the Royal estate in Norfolk. The 88-year-old prince did his good deed while walking back to Sandringham House after the traditional morning service

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Tories will contest every seat in Northern Ireland

On the Today Programme this morning, Sarah Montague kept pressing Sammy Wilson of the DUP on whether his party would enter into an electoral alliance in certain seats with the new Conservative and Ulster Unionist grouping. Wilson suggested that the DUP would stand but would welcome it if other unionists stood aside. But that’s not going to happen. The Conservatives are determined to contest every seat in Northern Ireland. They see this as crucial to their attempt to move politics there beyond the sectarian and constitutional issues. They must also surely know that any kind of electoral alliance with the DUP could, given the views of some DUP politicians, cause

David Blackburn

Redwood is right – prison sentencing may need reform out of fiscal necessity

John Redwood is one of the most original thinkers on the right; and tasked with finding solutions to cut expenditure, he has concluded that too many petty thieves and fraudsters are imprisoned. Redwood argues: ‘The first is all those people who commit crimes by taking money or property that does not belong to them, ranging from the common thief to the fraudster. Surely it would be much better to prove to them that crime does not pay. They should be made to pay the costs of the police and judicial system in handling and prosecuting their case. They should make full restitution to any third party affected by their actions,

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face & Welcome to America

At last, real change we can believe in: the Obama administration is lifting the pernicious ban on haggis that for more than 20 years* has deprived Americans the chance to munch the great chieftain o’ the pudden-race. True, during the long, dark years of prohibition some enterprising American butchers stepped into the breach and made versions of the noble creature that attempted to emulate the real thing. While fine as far as they go such enterprises can only go so far. Trying to make haggis without using sheeps’ lungs is, in the end, an insuperable problem. All heart but not enough pluck, you might say. So here at least Obama

Andrew Lilico

Here’s how you raise £100bn through tax hikes

Policy Exchange has repeatedly urged that the country’s fiscal problems should be addressed principally by spending cuts, combined with some tax rises.  We have recommended a ratio of 80 percent spending cuts to 20 percent tax rises. The “structural” deficit in the UK (i.e. the bit of the total deficit that will still be there once the economy has recovered) is estimated by the Treasury at 9 percent of GDP, or about £125 billion.  Not all of that needs to be eliminated quickly, but the vast majority of it does, say £100 billion.  So on a ratio of 80:20 our position equates to £80 billion in cuts in underlying spending

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall 25 January – 31 January

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

Daud Abdullah is a baddun, but the MCB is moving in the right direction

An interesting piece by the editor of the Jewish Chronicle, Stephen Pollard, in the magazine this week on the government apparently backtracking on the issue of the Muslim Council of Britain, and talking to it once again. The MCB was removed from the officially designated category of Good Islam a while back and placed in the ever expanding arena of Bad Islam, along with suicide bombers, Hizb ut Tahrir, women who wear copious veils etc etc. This was at least partly as a consequence of its boss, Daud Abdullah, signing something called The Istanbul Declaration, which demands that all Muslims must regard countries or individuals which “stand alongside” the “Zionist

David Blackburn

Out of recession and into debt

The deficit is in the Tories’ crosshairs this morning. George Osborne pens an article in the Times, castigating Brown’s obsession with continuity: ‘We need a new British economic model that learns from the mistakes of the past. First, that new economic model requires government to live within its means. We entered the recession, after years of growth, with one of the highest deficits in the developed world and we leave the recession with our credit rating under threat. That will have potentially disastrous consequences for international confidence. If Britain starts to pay the sort of risk premiums that Greece is paying, the interest bill on a £150,000 mortgage would go

David Blackburn

When it comes to localism, absolute clarity of aim is essential

How deep is David Cameron’s commitment top empowering local government? His response to the New Local Government Network’s latest report will be an indication. The report argues that elected mayors should raise or cut business rates and council tax, and spend the proceeds on local services. Mayoral coffers will hardly match the riches of the Spanish Main, the Times reports: ‘The authors have calculated that a 4p levy on business rates could raise £30 million for Birmingham, £10 million for Newcastle, £26 million for Leeds and £11 million for Milton Keynes.’ But even with a little more disposable cash, mayors could improve local infrastructure and oversee appointments to local primary

Sunday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The World According to Gilbert & Sullivan

Sunday evening: a roaring log fire, a calming glass of claret and listening to HMS Pinafore. For once, cruel world is vanquished. For a time anyway. And, of course, Pinafore helps illuminate our Britain too. Here, for instance, is how Bob Ainsworth became Secretary of State for Defence: And here is what the Barmy Army, if they had any wit about them at all, would sing* every time Kevin Pietersen** comes to the crease: *If sing they must. **Or Strauss, Trott and Prior too.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Harman thinks that parenting skills are all about income

There’s a quite astonishing quote from Harriet Harman in The Sunday Times today: “you can’t separate out good parenting skills from family income.” Now I doub’t anyone would disagree that it is easier to raise children if you do not have to worry about money, but the idea that how good a parent you are is determined by your family income is absurdly economically determinist. (I also think it is offensive—imagine how Labour would react if someone said middle class people were better at being parents than working class people) Harman’s quote, though, reveals what is wrong with the Labour’s policy approach in this area. It is all about money

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron’s military muck-up

One of the biggest mistakes David Cameron has made as leader of the opposition was the announcement at Tory party conference that Sir Richard Dannatt was to become a Tory peer and would likely serve in a Tory government. It devalued all of Dannatt’s previous criticisms of the government over its treatment of the army and the equipment shortages in Afghanistan. They no longer looked like the words of a general standing up for his men regardless of the political consequences but party political point scoring.  It also showed a lack of confidence in the current Tory defence team. Indeed, Cameron had to go out of his way to say

Peter Hoskin

Darling talks sense on public sector pay

How things change.  A few months ago, Alistair Darling would only go so far as to not rule out a public sector pay freeze.  By the time of the Pre-Budget Report, that became a 1 percent cap on pay rises.  And now, in an interview with the Sunday Times, he’s talking explicitly about public sector pay cuts.  He cites the example of the private sector, where workers have accepted cuts to hang onto their jobs. It certainly makes sense.  Wages make up such a hefty proportion of public spending, that any serious plan to cut the deficit will have to take them into account.  Besides, there’s the fairness point as

Saturday

Melissa Kite

Water, water everywhere . . .

It started with a drip. Never thought it would come to this. Actually, forget that. What has happened to me since I called out the plumber last week is so traumatic that, try as I might to make it more palatable by dressing it up with a Hot Chocolate motif, it’s not going to wash. As previously reported in this column, my boiler was dripping. A plumber came in and righted the drip by ripping the boiler to pieces. But the next day it started dripping again. So I called him back. ‘It’s all right, it’s just your undulating spivvlethwack valve,’ he said, or some such nonsense, as he cheerfully

Jeremy Clarke

Weighty subject

On Sunday morning I went outside and found that my recent bout of mild depression had gone, the sun on my cheek felt as warm as it does in May, and the birds were singing different songs. I was the first person in the gym — my first visit of 2010. I wished the bleary-eyed attendant a happy new year. Two hours later, showered, changed and brimming with vim, I jumped in the car and set off across town to find the address I had written down on a creased bit of paper. The evening before, I had answered a free ad for a 30-kilogram chrome dumb-bell set and arranged

Taki

Swell times

Gstaad I went to a wonderful party, three days of a non-stop feast. Although not at the Palace, mere hoi polloi were excluded, in theory at least. There was no sign of a Kate or a Mick — they must have forgotten the date. Actually, they were not invited, but Topper (who no one could say is a pleb — well bred is his motto, or is it well fed?) was there, as were Freddy and Minnie and Lolly and Bunny and George. I couldn’t have liked it more. Sorry, Sir Noël, but I write this rather hung over, the Muse having silently slipped away in the snow at around