Society

Friday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The human cost of deprivation 

The news that in one Northern city, 15 percent of Neets, those young people not in education, employment or training, are dead within ten years in immensely depressing. It is a reminder of the horrendous toll that drugs and social breakdown take on our society. The director general of schools, who revealed this, stresses that these numbers shouldn’t be taken to be typical of the country as a whole. But seeing as we don’t have numbers for the rest of the country, this was a local study, it is impossible to know how serious the situation is nationally.   One can talk in policy terms about possible solutions to this

Peter Hoskin

Labour contra Harriet

Woah.  The anti-Harman brigade have come out in force today, supplying quotes to the Sun which draw comparisons between her and the Taleban.  Here’s the key passage: “Many Labour figures agree she would be a disaster for the party’s fortunes. One senior figure told The Sun: ‘If Harriet becomes leader it would be the end of the Labour Party. A number of us believe we have to take steps to stop it happening. Harriet is only concerned with number one. She is a fundamentalist, she’s like the Taliban when it comes to driving through her own agenda.'” Now, we’re no great fans of Harman here at Coffee House.  But it’s

Peter Hoskin

Miliband’s back with another vision

Oh look, David Miliband’s got an article in the latest issue of Tribune expanding on – as the cover has it – “his vision for Labour”.  Turns out a major part of that vision is “US style” primaries for selecting party candidates: “The traditional political structures of mainstream political parties are dying and our biggest concern is the gap between our membership and our potential voter base… …We need to expand our reach by building social alliances and increasing opportunity for engagement and interaction with our party… …We say we want to listen to our voters, why not a system of registered voters as in the US to create the

Thursday

David Blackburn

Leaked slides connected to Gray’s defence procurement report are very damning 

Further to the Gray report’s suppression, the BBC have been given what they are told are slides from a presentation made by Bernard Gray summarising his investigation into defence procurement. It is only a glimpse, but these slides, if they are genuine, illustrate quite how damning this report would have been, and could still be. Gray concludes that the “Ministry of Defence does not really know the price of any kit, and project management does not exist in the Department”. Other slides assert that the “top 40 programmes annually expect an 80% overrun on time, and 40% on cost” because the Ministry of Defence can’t afford to pay for these

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The difficult slog ahead

With about 5,000 people being laid off every day, it sounds strange to talk of an economic recovery – as Stephen Timms did at the World at One. But he’s right. I reckon that, even now, the recession is over and that the economy will be shown to have grown in Q3 – ie, July, Aug and Sep. This is, of course, just the end of the beginning. We will have started the long crawl to recovery – and it will be about five years before the British economy gets back to where it was before the downturn. So it is a rash politician who will say “all clear, recession

James Forsyth James Forsyth

For Afghanistan’s sake, Karzai must lose the election

Elizabeth Rubin’s profile of Hamid Karzai in the New York Times magazine is brilliantly done; it is long-form magazine journalism at its best. The two impressions that you are left with after reading it, is what a waste the Karzai presidency has been since his election in late 2004 and how his paranoia has increased in recent years; Rubin reports that in one cabinet meeting he ‘threatened to go to the mountains to fight the invaders himself’ and that he worries that there is a secret Anglo-American plan to aid the Taleban. Indeed, Karzai’s views of this country are particularly bizarre: he thinks that the British have a series of

Peter Hoskin

Mandy’s path to the premiership

Matthew Norman’s article in today’s Independent is representative of the growing “PM for PM” movement – “Peter Mandelson for Prime Minister,” that is.  And, as such, it sets out one of the more probable routes by which Mandy could ascend to the throne this side of the election:    “He could … remove Gordon Brown by deploying a nuclear resignation. Not his own, of course, because the Heseltinian doctrine about crowns and assassins holds good. But he has all the codes, and having persuaded David Miliband not to quit in May, he could easily unpersuade him in October. Assuming the polls remain hideous, and that a wretched party conference provokes

David Blackburn

Why Sugar is wrong

This letter appears in today’s issue of the Spectator: ‘Sir: We the undersigned wish to condemn Baron Sugar of Clapton’s threatened legal action against our colleague Quentin Letts for calling him a ‘telly peer’ who ‘doesn’t seem to have an enormous intellect’ on LBC on 20 July. According to a letter Mr Letts received from Herbert Smith, Lord Sugar will issue a writ against Mr Letts for libel unless he pays his legal costs to date, donates an undisclosed sum to a charity and gives a written undertaking never to criticise him again. When journalists have been sued by public figures in the past — particularly by Members of Parliament

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Hackette of the Week

Let’s hear it for Liz Jones – “funny, outrageous and downright rude” according to her employers at the Daily Mail – for this piece that, really, you’d think must actually have been written by Glenda Slagg. But, no, apparently it’s not a parody… I have long derided so-called ‘spas’, but the modern hairdressing salon is the female high-maintenance equivalent of being sent to Guantanamo Bay – torture. The horrid black nylon gowns are just as bad as orange jumpsuits. Despite the trendy piped music, sleek interiors and ‘massage’ chairs (have you tried one? It is like sitting on a sack full of ferrets) the modern salon is still stuck firmly

Peter Hoskin

MPs need to clarify their timetable

The ever-perceptive Andrew Sparrow has sifted through the ‘Parliamentary Trends: Statistics about Parliament‘ report so that you don’t have to.  I’d recommend you read his post for the whole series of “12 things you probably didn’t know about Parliament”.  But, given that we’re a couple of weeks into parliamentary recess, it’s this entry which jumped out at me: “The Commons sits for more days per year than almost any other legislature in Europe. In 2004 MPs sat for 160 days at Westminster. In France the National Assembly sat for 135 days, in Germany the Bundestag sat for 64 days, in Austria the national council sat for 33 days, in Belgium

Peter Hoskin

Dumbing down

If you ever want to convince people that exams are getting easier, point them to the examples of science exam questions which Michael Gove gives about a minute into this clip: Hat-tip: Conservative Home

Peter Hoskin

Why the headlines won’t help Brown

So the papers have picked up on a set of stronger-than-expected results in the housing, manufacturing, and services sectors, and are now talking about “new hope” and “economic fightback”.  As Mike Smithson asks over at Political Betting: are these the headlines that Brown has been waiting for?  Well, given what we hear about Brown’s green shoots strategy, they probably are.  But, like Smithson, I doubt they – or the potential recovery they herald – will do Brown much good. There are plenty of reasons why.  For starters, there are the political trends.  The tide has turned against Labour for reasons other than the economy: everything from Smeargate, through the expenses

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Why Cameron should ditch the 50p tax rate

When justifying his decision to keep Gordon Brown’s 50p tax for the super rich, Cameron has recently taken to saying that the well-off must “pay their fair share”. This is worth closer examination. The richest 1% in Britain contribute 24 percent of all income tax collected – it is unclear whether Cameron regards this as “fair” or not. But if he wants it to rise, then it is clear what he should do. Data released last week from America, and picked up by the smarter economics bloggers, gives us a striking example. If he wants to soak the rich, cut their taxes. This US data shows that the richest 1

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Georgia on my mind

Last August was dominated by Russia’s invasion of Georgia and two recent stories are reminders that this conflict could flare up again. Radio Free Europe reports that Georgian officials says that Obama told Medvedev and Putin that the US “would not stand aside” if Russia marched in again. At first glance, this seems odd. Obama stumbled during the presidential campaign last year because of his cautious reaction to Russia’s move and it would be unusual for him to be sounding more bellicose in office than he was on the campaign trail. Also, Obama’s diplomacy so far has been thoroughly realist — it would be more in keeping with his administration’s

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Are You Smarter than the US Congress? Almost Certainly.

As any fool knows, the principle benefit of the United States Congress is to make other legislatures seem positively benificent by comparison with the gallery of clowns on Capitol Hill. Compared with these people, even Westminster seems as though it must be populated by latterday Solons. Verily, we live in a Periclean age compared to our poor cousins across the Atlantic. Consider this piece of jaw-dropping idiocy: It’s hard to believe, but true: under a law Congress passed last year aimed at regulating hazards in children’s products, the federal government has now advised that children’s books published before 1985 should not be considered safe and may in many cases be

David Blackburn

Putin the Action Man

I thought Harriet Harman’s posturing could not be bettered, but Vladimir Putin’s annual Alexander Nevsky tribute act takes the biscuit. Each year he varies his macho stock in trade of hunting, shooting and fishing in the buff. Last year he invaded Georgia. And this year he played 20,000 leagues under the sea’s Captain Nemo, by manning a midget submarine and diving to the bottom of the world’s deepest lake. That it was a stunt is in no doubt: he gave some luckless Russian journalists a running commentary throughout his two hour descent into darkness. For those looking for an arresting image, the Telegraph’s report has this photograph:     Doesn’t

Peter Hoskin

Despite its reputation, the civil service recognises the need for cuts

Hazel Blears’ former SpAd, Paul Richards – who wrote that perceptive, Monty Python-referencing analysis of Labour’s defeat in Norwich North a couple of weeks ago – has an article in today’s Times on the “Sisyphean task” that the Tories may face in reforming the civil service.  It’s well worth reading the whole thing, but its central point is enshrined in this passage: “…the culture of the Civil Service is so risk-averse that it is hard to see it embracing its own transformation. When I arrived at the Department of Health I was told this story: when Tony Blair walked into the Cabinet Room at Downing Street for the first time

Peter Hoskin

Why Labour will copy the Tory open primaries

In its lunchtime email, LabourList asks whether Labour should now adopt the Tory idea of open primaries to select candidates.  To be honest, I can’t see them doing anything but.  Not only is the Tory primary getting good coverage in today’s press – and rightly so – as a decent reforming measure.  But, for the time being, it’s also one of the best potential get-out-of-jail-free cards for a constituency party caught up in an expenses scandal. How so? Well, the theory is that if you give all voters a chance to pick a single party’s candidate, then they’re somehow invested in that candidate and will be more likely to vote

Peter Hoskin

Harman-a-rama

Harriet Harman is everywhere in today’s papers.  I mean, just look at the stories in the Times.  On their cover, they have news that she’s clashing with her colleagues and civil servants over new rape laws: “Labour’s deputy leader used her position as Gordon Brown’s stand-in to demand a more radical overhaul of the law, such as targets for prosecutors and police to secure more convictions. She has the backing of Vera Baird, the Solicitor-General, but Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary and Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, do not want to widen the terms of reference and the review has been postponed… …According to Whitehall officials, she tore up plans