Society

Friday

David Blackburn

A man of few words

The Evening Standard reports that General Sir Richard Dannatt is “absolutely unrepentant” about demanding better equipment for British forces serving in Afghanistan. Attending a Help for Heroes charity event, he said: “We have got some very good equipment but with an increase in the forces overseas, we have got to get more out there.” He doesn’t say much, but every time Dannatt opens his mouth the contrast between his no-nonsense honesty and the connivances of defence ministers becomes starker. And, because the government’s response is so infantile, Dannatt’s few words are doing Gordon Brown potentially irreparable damage. Sir Richard is yet to elaborate on what it is that blocks the

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Lockerbie and the Special Relationship

One of the most tedious aspects of the UK-US relationship is the fretting that happens in Britain each and every time something happens that could possibly be construed as “damaging” the “special relationship”. The tone of the commentary that follows or accompanies any such event always makes it clear that the sanctity of the Anglo-American relationship should have trumped all other considerations. Naturally, the decision to let Abdebaset Ali al-Megrahi go home to die in Libya is one such example of this phenomenon. Iain Dale, for instance, has a post headlined “How will the Al-Megrahi Decision Affect US/UK Relations?” Like that’s the most important issue here! One can disagree with

Peter Hoskin

An essential entry in the NHS debate

There will be few more moving entries in the NHS debate than Ian Birrell’s article in the Independent today, and I’d urge all CoffeeHousers to read it.  Birrell recounts his attempts to get his disabled daughter treated in the system, and the result is a catalogue of ineptitude, frustration and – even – deception.  One story Birrell tells is of how a doctor assured him a crucial blood-test had been sent for analysis to Germany, when actually it had been “dumped in storage and forgotten”. What makes this all the more powerful is that it comes from someone who doesn’t hate the NHS, but who can see the need for

Peter Hoskin

Cameron planning to set out “fine print” of spending cuts before election

I’ve just got round to reading the Economist’s interview with David Cameron, and this passage jumped out at me: “If a fiscal squeeze is on its way the Tories will want to win a mandate for it. ‘Getting the deficit under control will make or break my government,’ he admits. Accordingly, more fine print will emerge before the election. But by accepting the principle that spending must fall, Mr Cameron says he has already been braver than the government. ‘I can’t think of an opposition party going into an election promising spending cuts since 1929.'” It’s crucial for the Tories that they set out more “fine print” in advance.  The

David Blackburn

Why global climate change policy must change 

A co-founder of Greenpeace, Rex Wayler, wrote last December: ‘We’re not going to recover from global recession by consuming more resources and energy. Growth cannot solve the problems created by growth.’ Austerity is the key to an environmentally friendly future. In today’s Times, Oliver Kamm brands this smug and inflexible assumption as counter-factual – that economic consumption and growth will drive human ingenuity to find alternatives to the finite and environmentally damaging carbon economy. Here are the important sections:    ‘Green campaigners are rightly concerned with environmental degradation. There is copious evidence of global warming due to man-made emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that trap heat. For all that,

Thursday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Lockerbie Decision: The Backlash Begins

I was wrong. I argued that people can disagree in good faith on the question as to whether Kenny MacAskill was correct to let Abdebaset Ali al-Megrahi return to Libya to die. I should hav known better. Those who think the decision mistaken appear to believe there are no reasons – none! – to support taking a different view. Douglas Carswell, for instance, thinks it awful that a lack of compassion (on Megrahi’s part) should be met by a degree of compassion (on the part of the Scottish legal system). That’s a valid point, but it’s equally valid to note that our justice system is not in fact predicated upon

David Blackburn

July budget deficit is the largest since records began 

The figures for last month’s borrowing are terrifying. In a month when revenues are supposed to exceed spending, the government borrowed £8.016bn. As ever, John Redwood has some incisive analysis: ‘In the April-July period last year the government borrowed an extra £16 billion. This year they have borrowed an extra £50 billion. It means we are on course to exceed the eye wateringly large sums they forecast for this year’s total borrowing. Spending is up a massive £19 billion on last year in the first four months, and revenue is down a predictable £21 billion thanks to the VAT cuts and the fall in activity. No wonder the Governor thinks

Olivia Amory

Why we need our Carnival more than ever!

Following the violence of last year’s Nothing Hill Carnival people have been asking this week whether the event is really worth the trouble. Locals are complaining about being made to endure the noise and increase in crime which the festival brings with it. Some of them have come to dread the bank-holiday weekend so much that they leave London in order to avoid it. After putting up with this year after year they are out of patience: they want it banned. This would be a mistake. We have to look past the inconsiderate behaviour of a few members of the crowd and remember that the Carnival remains a grand and

Peter Hoskin

Cameron should avoid these Twitter traps

Oh dear.  The Twitter wars are continuing apace, now that David Cameron has risen to John Prescott’s challenge of a debate on the NHS.  The mediators are the Manchester Evening News, who have just published Cameron’s response to Prescott on their Twitter feed.  So what is it?  Erm, this: “The real question is why won’t Labour match the Conservatives’ pledge for year on year real-terms increases in NHS spending over the next Parliament” As I said last week, there are definite dangers with the Tories pushing this line quite so eagerly – not least because it plays into the Brownite idea that spending is a good thing in and of

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

A bleak day for Scotland

From the offset, Gaddafi seemed to have a strange faith in the Scottish authorities. Al-Megrahi would have a fair trial in Scotland, he said, because the judges would not face “pressures from intelligence services nor to a British Government order.” It was as if he thought Scotland was already an independent country, hostile to England. At the time (1999), some wondered if he was trying to stir up mischief in the year the Scottish Parliament was being set up. But I doubt he could have imagined just how devolution would work in his favour – that al-Megrahi would be a political football that these first-time politicians in Edinburgh could not

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Localism Is Barred From Your Local

One of the things that’s happened as a consequence of devolution is that sometimes Westminster finds itself following Holyrood. It’s almost as if the latter has actually become a mini-laboratory of democracy. That’s as it should be. Alas, the reality is that it’s more of a laboratory for managerialism. Perhaps, one bright day, this will produce some good ideas that Westminster will feel like copying. At the moment? Not so much. So it’s no surprise that David Cameron seems to be moving towards copying some of the SNP’s ideas on “combatting” the problem of cheap booze and hooliganism. Minimum prices for alcohol would seem to be one idea Cameron is

Peter Hoskin

The loser from the Kevan Jones storm is Gordon Brown

Guido went there, and the newspapers decided to follow.  After the political blogosphere’s favourite son outed Kevan Jones as the minister behind the attempted smear campaign against Richard Dannatt, the defence minister gets namechecked in all of this morning’s publications. Jones is, naturally, distancing himself from the accusations – but there are intriguing hints that Dannatt himself knows who the culprit is, and may act against him.  This in today’s Sun: “The General knows the identity of the man behind the bid, The Sun can reveal. He has considered forcing his resignation.” If Jones – or any other member of the government – can be tied to the smear plot,

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

Why high pay restrictions are a bad idea

I’m not sure how I missed Hamish McRae’s latest column in my morning dash through the papers but, now I’ve seen it, I’d recommend it to all CoffeeHousers.  Why?  Well, it’s the bottom line on the debate about limiting high pay that has been rumbling on for the past few days; a cogent reminder of how futile and destructive such a move would be.  I was particularly struck by McRae’s description of how his former employer, the Guardian, got around restrictive pay policy in the 70s:   “Because an employer could not increase people’s pay they had to find other ways of retaining them when another company tried to bid

Edward Mancey

Obama’s internet support comes back to bite him

The internet generation who made Obama’s campaign possible through a mass of micro-transactions have struck again. During the past 24hours over $100,000 has been raised by over 1,500 donors keen to ensure that the President doesn’t back down on his plans for a health care reform, after his Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Sunday that a public option was “not essential”. What’s so interesting about this story is that, having paid to get him where he is, the internet donors now feel they have a stake in Obama. We kept our end of the deal by electing you, they’re saying, so now you better deliver the

Peter Hoskin

Why Cormack’s proposal makes the case for greater public involvement

So, Sir Patrick Cormack has proposed a solution to the expenses row: doubling MPs’ pay to around £130,000 and then banning all allowances, save those which pay for staff and the maintenance of a constituency office.  The general response has been dismissive – a “Tory grandee” sparking “outrage” – and both Labour and the Lib Dems have quotes on the wire attacking this “out of touch” idea. But, to my mind, this is one of those cases where both sides of the argument can be understood and – paradoxically – perhaps even agreed with.  Doubling MPs’ pay, while removing allowances, would streamline the system, make it much more transparent and

Anna Fazackerley

A beacon of hope?

Let’s be frank. If you get AAB in your A-level results tomorrow and your university offer is for three As – or worse, if you haven’t secured a place at all yet – things do not look good. Leading research universities have all wedged their doors firmly shut. This year was hugely competitive with great heaps of top grade applicants to choose from (that, of course, is another story). And they are determined not to take any of the 10,000 extra unfunded places thrust at them by a Government desperate to quell the rising tide of Parent Fury. Some modern universities will still enter Clearing. But it will be a

Peter Hoskin

Something the Tories shouldn’t admit to

There’s an intriguing story in today’s Telegraph about how the Tories plan to “decapitate” – that is, target and win the seats of – certain Labour ministers come the next election.  The list is said to include Alastair Darling, Ed Balls and Jack Straw.  Here’s what a “senior shadow cabinet source” told the paper: “Certain Labour Party big beasts, and they know who they are, are already experiencing more activity on the ground from us. We are going to make Ed Balls and Alistair Darling and some of their ministerial colleagues feel very uncomfortable. They will not only be fighting their most difficult general election campaign on a national front

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Logic, School Choice, Milton Friedman… And Polly Toynbee

Unsurprisingly, Brother Nelson has a useful primer on some of the latest skirmishing over the Tories plans to introduce (in England) Swedish-style education reform. I’m also pleased he highlighted this Polly Toynbee column since, while she tries to claim, erroneously, that Sweden’s Free Schools are merely middle-class playthings she ends up by arguing that: The only countries where children succeed according to talent and perseverance more than social class are the most equal societies: the Nordics, Japan, the Netherlands. Whatever the school system, Britain’s dysfunctional inequality will usually trump teaching. Japan is a case unto itself for all sorts of reasons, but it’s worth observing that two of her other