Society

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why we need public service reform

Hamish McRae, whose coverage of the crash has been prescient and authoritative, sets out the key question that comes out of the state of the public finances in his column today: “We have had over the past decade the largest increase in public spending that has ever taken place in peacetime. It is also the largest increase that has occurred, proportionate to GDP, of any major economy during that period. So we have in effect been carrying out a huge experiment: to what extent can you improve public services by spending much more money on them. (The tax take, by contrast, has actually declined as a proportion of GDP.) I

Peter Hoskin

Humanising the numbers

Gordon Brown loves hiding behind numbers.  He does it almost every PMQs – when he reels off the usual tractor production statistics – and he has done it in every Budget he’s been involved in, either as Chancellor or Prime Minister.  My guess is that he hopes to cover up not only how bad things are, but also the human dimension of the fiscal and economic crisis.  £billions, £trillions of debt, what does it matter?  So long as he can continue to talk abstractly about “investing in growth”. Of course, revealing the debt crisis for what it is – an aberration which will burden the British public for decades –

Peter Coleman

Australian Notes

Editing a small magazine is like writing a poem. It is half judgment, but also half inspiration. It can never be done by a committee. So I sensed disaster when I read that the Monthly in Melbourne boasted a committee that met regularly to make editorial decisions (even if it did meet, as reported, in Jimmie Watson’s wine bar in Carlton.) The idea of an editorial committee trying to direct, overrule or censor the editor is repugnant, philistine and almost always counterproductive. At best, such a committee is useful as a list of names to indicate support. One or two of them may have an idea worth ringing the editor

Christopher Fildes

A new bank from a very old stable

My racing correspondent, Captain Threadneedle, thought that banking and racing went together. He wanted Barclays to buy the Tote: perfect synergy, he thought, with matching systems, merged accounts, an overlapping customer base and a marketing slogan that would write itself: ‘You can bet on your overdraft with Barclays.’ He was, as we now know, before his time — and then the banks (Barclays included) took to betting on their own account, splashing out on doubles, trebles and accumulators, collecting piles of toxic betting slips and deservedly losing their boots. It has been left to Weatherbys, a very old name in racing, a new name in banking, to vindicate the Captain’s

Harry Mount

Wales and the Welsh are no longer a dismal joke

In the hall at Aberglasney — a fine, classical country house, built in 1720, 20 miles north-west of Swansea — high up by the cornice, an elaborate chunk of plasterwork is missing. To give the full catalogue entry, it is a rococo console, carved with twirling honeysuckles, a motif dear to the ancient Greeks. I know, to my deep and lasting shame, where to find it. In fact I can see it now, on a mahogany stand next to my desk. Its protuberant plaster leaves provide a nice perch for my keys where I don’t forget them. For all its usefulness as a key perch, the console would look better glued back

Tuesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Republican dilemma

Parties of the right fall into a simplified, intellectual comfort zone when they have been in power too long. It happened to the Tories and it has happened to the Republicans. David Brooks sets out the problem in his New York Times column: “Republicans are so much the party of individualism and freedom these days that they are no longer the party of community and order. This puts them out of touch with the young, who are exceptionally community-oriented. It gives them nothing to say to the lower middle class, who fear that capitalism has gone haywire. It gives them little to say to the upper middle class, who are

Peter Hoskin

New media, same old message

Brace yourselves.  Gordon Brown has hit YouTube with another video message for his adoring public (watch it after the jump).  To be honest, it’s not a bad as his last comedy effort – he’s stepped out of the bunker, for a start, and there’s less rictus grinning – but it’s hardly going to set the Internet alight: The most striking thing is how Brown is using the new media to relay the same message we’ve heard a thousand times before.  He kicks off with the line, “We’ve got to take action to get out of this downturn, and you can’t cut your way out – you’ve got to invest your

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The disconnect over Gurkhas

Watching Joanna Lumley give evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee (I haven’t seen Keith Vaz so excited since he took Shilpa Shetty to Parliament), I suddenly realised what ministers don’t understand. Sure, the Gurkhas understood the terms of their employment when they signed up; no agreement has been broken. Sure, they have seen action serving the people of Bosnia and Iraq rather then Britons directly. But what has changed the argument is immigration. In the past ten years it has doubled to the current staggering total of 1,500 a day. If we are to let so many settle here, why shouldn’t that include veterans who have fought for our

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Ouch

Ephraim Hardcastle’s column in the Mail today contains this story about the Prime Minister’s tense relationship with the Number 10 staff: ‘A switchboard operator rang him back the other day and said they wouldn’t put up with being spoken to like that. Brown had to apologise.’ Its appearance is further evidence that it is now open season on stories about Brown’s temper.  

Peter Hoskin

Death by mail

Oh, how difficult life is for a Prime Minister who’s lost pretty much all his political capital.  Almost every major Commons vote becomes a potential landmine, threatening to blow a premiership apart.  And so it is with the Government’s plans for Royal Mail.  As today’s Times reports: “David Cameron holds Gordon Brown’s political life in his hands after the Prime Minister’s decision to risk a Commons defeat over the Royal Mail sell-off next month, senior government figures believe. Downing Street insisted last night that Mr Brown was determined to press ahead, despite weekend reports that he was preparing to shelve reforms championed by Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary. His decision

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Gurkha blame game gets resolved

Pete has already flagged up Rachel Sylvester’s column, but there’s one line in it about the Gurkhas that particularly caught my attention: “I am told that ministers agreed in a Cabinet sub-committee that the issue should be resolved, but they were overruled by No10.” On Friday, there was a huge blame game going on about who was responsible for the Government getting itself into such a predictable political and presentational mess. Some briefed that it was Jacqui Smith’s fault because her department was in charge of the legislation, others said Darling and the Treasury were to blame because they had said it was too expensive, and there was whispering that

Peter Hoskin

The Mandy factor | 5 May 2009

There’s plenty of noteworthy stuff in Rachel Sylvester’s column this morning – Hazel Blears getting the “hairdryer treatment” from Gordon Brown; Downing Street overruling Cabinet ministers who wanted to “resolve” the Gurkha issue; and confirmation that a “Blairite” could stand as a stalking horse candidate after the local elections – but nothing more so than this passage: “The one to watch is Peter Mandelson. By bringing his former enemy back into the Cabinet last year Mr Brown locked in the modernisers and ensured his own survival. But if the Business Secretary were to turn on the Prime Minister (either in private or in public) no one could be more deadly.

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The nuclear worry

I’m becoming increasingly convinced that in a year to 18 months time, we’ll come to view the global situation as even more alarming than the economic one. Arguably, the greatest cause for concern is Pakistan. (I still, though, tend to view Iran’s nuclear ambitions as the greatest potential threat.) In Pakistan, almost every concern of the post 9/11 world comes together: a weak to failing state, an Islamist insurgency, nuclear weapons, a security service compromised by its links to militants and terrorists seeking a base of operations. Everyone in the West talks earnestly about the need to strengthen the Pakistani state. But there are few concrete and practical ideas of

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 4 May – 10 May

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 – provided 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

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Can Brown move on from the culture of the Wednesday meeting?

Today’s Times reports that Peter Mandelson and Ed Balls will head up a weekly strategy meeting in Downing Street. This along with the fall of McBride presumably means the end of the infamous Wednesday meetings. These Wednesday meetings summed up what so many people inside the Labour party disliked about Brown and his way of doing politics. Jackie Ashley has a telling anecdote in her column today about how strongly those who had advised Blair disliked the Wednesday meetings and all that they represented: “A few weeks ago, I’m told, he called in Alastair Campbell, Philip Gould and Peter Mandelson for a Tuesday strategy summit. But they found out about

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The tragedies of a wasteful system

Anyone who wonders how the NHS can almost treble its phenomenal budget while its service grows worse on many measures should read The Guardian this morning for an example. The 2004 GPs’ contract – Stuff Their Mouths With Gold II – meant their pay soared to an average £120,000, but that for just a £6k salary sacrifice they could opt out of those antisocial shifts. A stupidly good offer, which nine out of ten accepted. So, as our GPs hit the golf course, the NHS often has to fly in doctors from overseas to provide cover*. The problem is, if you drag Germans straight off the plane and send them

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Whether they mean to or not, Harriet’s friends are doing Gordon a favour

The Telegraph has a front page story which guarantees that the Labour leadership speculation will continue for a while yet. It reports that Harriet Harman’s “friends have told The Daily Telegraph that Miss Harman will not stand aside in favour of a rival considered more appealing to voters” if there is a contest. In anything but the shortest of terms this is good news for Gordon Brown. What would serve Labour best is to do what the Tories did with Michael Howard: bring in an experienced pro as leader following a resignation and without contest on the understanding that they will only stay through the election and the leadership contest

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A Republican Ridge to the future

Arlen Specter, the senior Senator from Pennsylvania, switched parties for no higher reason than to save his seat: that is what should worry Republicans. That Specter thought he had no chance of winning as a Republican in a state that until the 2006 mid-terms had two Republican Senators is a sign of how far and how fast the GOP is falling. A significant element of the GOP’s problems is illustrated by these two numbers, which come from Ron Brownstein’s latest National Journal column: “In the Senate, for instance, Democrats hold 22 of the 58 seats representing the 29 states that twice voted for George W. Bush. … After Specter’s leap,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Three blows to Balls

Ed Balls faces his own trio of troubles this Sunday. First, there’s Charles Clarke’s not so coded call for him to resign. Then, there is the overwhelming decision by the National Association of Head Teachers to boycott Sats for 11 year-olds despite a personal appeal from Balls not to just before the vote at their conference. Finally, and most worryingly for him, there’s the ongoing row about whether he and his junior minister Jim Knight have been straight with the Commons about last summer’s Sats disaster. As the Sunday Times reports: “On at least three occasions, including on the floor of the Commons, Balls and Jim Knight, his junior minister,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Three things keeping Brown pinned down

Three themes dominate the political coverage in The Sunday papers and demonstrate just how big a hole Brown is in. There are another slew of expenses stories, according to Labour’s internal polling this is the most important issue in driving its former supporters away. To go with the expenses stories, there is an excess story: the News of the World reports that David Miliband wants a private jet permanently on call to take him round the world on official business, not very age of austerity. Then, there are tales of Brown’s temper. The Mail on Sunday claims that Peter Mandelson had to calm Brown down in between TV interviews on