Society

Monday

Peter Hoskin

An historic clear-out?

I wrote yesterday that things may be about to get much worse for Brown on the publication of MPs’ expense receipts.  To be fair, signs are that Parliament as a whole will take a kicking; although – by virtue of them having more MPs, and as they form the incumbent government – you still sense that Labour will feel the most pain.  Today’s Mail has a neat sidebox outlining some of the main nasties that will crop up – helicopter rides and holiday homes – and the concern among some MPs that affairs will be revealed by hotel receipts.  A “senior” Lib Dem frontbencher, worried for his future, is even

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why won’t the Tories say they favour the creation of a bad bank?

In his speech earlier today, George Osborne said: ‘we must deal with the toxic debts of the banks we now own. They will be zombies until we do. Neither dead nor fully alive.’ The clear implication of this statement, and several others that Conservative spokesmen have made in the last few months, is that a bad bank is needed. But the Tories always stop short of saying that they actually favour the creation of one. I can’t see any reason—political or economic—why the Tories shouldn’t say openly that a bad bank is a necessary step for ending this crisis. It seems to be another instance where the Tories would benefit

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron appeals for patience and signals that taxes will have to rise

David Cameron’s speech to Spring conference was summed up by the line, ‘In time we will set out the hard choices’. With 14 months to go until the election, the clock is ticking on this pledge. The speech did contain two important points. First, Cameron talked about what government should do when it was asking people to ‘put up with tax rises and spending cuts.’ He also, unusually, cited his own experience at the Treasury, saying that he had hated putting up taxes but it had been the right thing to do. The implicit message was that there will be tax rises under a Tory government. Second, Cameron is already

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Pickles story takes the biscuit

Eric Pickles just told a story that bears an uncanny resemblance to one of the most famous cricket sledges ever. Pickles says he was walking along Millbank when a Labour MP, who sounded like Prescott, heckled him saying “Pickles you are too fat to be party chairman”. To which Pickles says he replied, “It is because every time we win a seat I eat a biscuit.” This story sounds like it was inspired by the exchange between Glenn McGrath and Zimbabwe’s Eddo Brandes. McGrath said to Brandes, ‘Why are you so f***ing fat?’ Brandes replied, ‘Because every time I f*** your wife she gives me a biscuit”.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Not being Labour is enough to win, but not enough to solve this crisis

Last night a Tory candidate was telling me what her message to voters was on the doorstep. It was a very cogent critique of Labour. But when I asked her what her positive message was, I just got the same answer back with a slightly different top on it. Her inability to set out a positive message illustrated a problem that is bedevilling the Tories at the moment: they do not have enough of a vision for the country. To be sure, Labour’s manifold failings mean that the Tories will almost certainly win the next election. But the recession and the anti-politics mood in the country, Labour’s internal polling shows that it is the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Reshuffle rumour of the day

The Mail on Sunday reports this morning that: “One eye-catching change being mooted is the appointment of Peter Mandelson as Foreign Secretary – a job he has always coveted – in place of David Miliband, who is said not to be enjoying the brief. Mr Miliband could then be moved to the Home Office in place of Ms Smith.” My initial reaction to this story is that Brown would be unwilling to move Mandelson from his economic portfolio. He has proven an effective performer on what is bound to be the biggest issue of the campaign. But Brown might be thinking—as 50p suggests—of going down a far more populist route

Peter Hoskin

It’s all over now, Gordon Brown

I wouldn’t care to be a laser printer in No.10 this morning.  The papers are absolutely crammed with stories that are embarrassing, or just downright damaging, for Gordon Brown.  The Mail on Sunday claims that relations between Brown and Alistair Darling are at an “all time low”, and reveals that the PM went into a rage during his meeting with David Cameron and Nick Clegg about expenses.  The Sunday Times reports that a minister has placed a “large bet” on Brown not winning the next election.  Both Andrew Rawsley and Martin Ivens make the point that New Labour is dead.  And, to top it all off, John Rentoul calls for

Saturday

Melissa Kite

Real Life | 25 April 2009

After my triumph in extracting strong antibiotics from a local GP surgery, I decide to press ahead with this exciting project of getting something back for my taxes. I want to help myself to some of the services at those women’s health clinics one is always hearing about. Ministers are forever singing their praises and begging us to visit them. In fact, you could be forgiven for thinking that you are not a good citizen until you submit to a gamut of embarrassing tests yearly, thereby saving you and the NHS further bother down the road. I don’t make the mistake of trying to drive to St George’s Hospital this

Taki

High Life | 25 April 2009

New York A recent profile in a glossy described him as a member of the Wall Street aristocracy, a man to whose parties the rich and powerful trip over themselves to attend, a networker nonpareil — in short, the greatest big hitter who has ever graced this poor earth of ours. Leave it to an American glossy to out-Tatler Tatler, and get it just as wrong. His name is Steve Rattner, and he looks like a rodent, except that he wears glasses. He is a shifty-looking little balding man, who is to Wall Street aristocracy what Paris Hilton is to discretion. He is Obama’s chief adviser in dealing with Detroit,

Robin Oakley

The Turf | 25 April 2009

If she was human Rainbow View would be a stroppy teenager, chucking down her school satchel and heading straight out to the sort of club you wouldn’t want your daughter in. One word from a parent and she would do the other thing. Threaten a smacked bottom and she’d be off to the child protection officer, knowing her rights. She is a head-tossing little madam who puts the x into minx, the original wild child. But she also inspires infinite patience because her strength of will is matched with exceptional physical ability. Given the right mood on the day, Rainbow View will confirm that by winning the first fillies Classic,

Dot Wordsworth

Mind your language | 25 April 2009

In the Guardian Paul MacInnes last week suggested casting Russell Crowe as Derek Draper in the film McBride of Satan. The subject would of course be the filthy emails from Number 10, or Smeargate as the press has called the scandal. This means that two gates have been swinging open and shut simultaneously in the papers, the other being Liegate, an incomprehensible saga of Formula 1 motor-racing. The lame formulae Smeargate and Liegate show the lack of imagination of journalists, and the surprising vigour of the suffix –gate nearly 37 years after the incident that spawned it. Watergate was the name of a building in Washington DC where the Democratic

The Spectator

Letters | 25 April 2009

The beat goes on Sir: I read with growing rage James Delingpole’s column (You know it makes sense, 18 April). After castigating the policing of the G20 demonstrations, he takes the opportunity to list a number of actions the police have taken in recent times that he objects to. But some context is required. I have worked for nearly 20 years in a large metropolitan police force which deals with nearly 2,000 incidents a day on average. We arrest hundreds of people, and respond to thousands of calls for help and assistance. Nearly 4,000 of us do this — regular police officers, special constables (and sorry, James — they do

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 25 April 2009

In Princeton, New Jersey, last week, I gave two lectures on the legacy of Margaret Thatcher. I was told that the last outsider to have spoken at the university on this subject was Edward Heath. He had informed Princetonians that Lady Thatcher posed a greater threat to world peace than Saddam Hussein. My second lecture’s audience was not disposed to agree. They were members of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, a movement set up to counter the politically correct culture of academia. Afterwards I read Frank Rich in the New York Times complaining that the Madison Program is the semi-covert backer of an organisation which has

Tamzin Lightwater

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody | 25 April 2009

Monday What a great call for Dave to get ‘bloody angry’! It’s passionate, sexy and modern, not to mention emotionally intelligent, yet also authoritarian and traditional, and a tiny bit kinky at the same time. All the girls agree that it really suits him and should be used more often. Apparently Jed got it from Google in California where the execs often become ‘bloody angry’ in a dynamic way, usually in special areas filled with ergonomic stress scrunchers and organic beanbags. We are now thinking of coming up with just such a space at CCHQ, to compliment the Austerity Room. Some kind of Anger Zone would be just so exciting

Toby Young Toby Young

Status Anxiety | 25 April 2009

State of Play, the Hollywood remake of Paul Abbot’s six-part thriller, is bound to be politely reviewed by my colleagues because it portrays journalists in a sympathetic light. Indeed, Russell Crowe, who plays a fearless reporter, constantly reminds his cost-conscious editor of the vital role performed by journalists in the democratic process. Without us, he points out, there will be no one to hold corrupt politicians to account. As I watched the film in a screening theatre, surrounded by my fellow hacks, I wondered why it is that a Hollywood studio has decided to lavish all these resources on a eulogy to our profession. After all, newspaper reporters are usually

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 25 April 2009

Q. Arriving for a weekend celebration, I was announced and entered a room in which everyone stood at once in a random formation to greet me. There was the couple who had invited me to mark their golden wedding, their daughter and son-in-law, in whose house I was now to be resident as a guest, and the parents of the son-in-law, who were nearest to my point of entry. Bearing in mind that the latter, I fear, are easily slighted, in what order should I have greeted the people present? It did not help that cheeks and handshakes were proffered simultaneously. To avoid embarrassment, please just use my initials if

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Tories in Cheltenham

Cheltenham The Tories are gathered here in Cheltenham for their Spring Forum. They are unsurprisingly in confident mood  but there is a real sense of worry about just what a mess they will inherit. The dire numbers in the Budget, which in reality are even worse, seems to have concentrated minds.  Caution, however, is still the order of the day. Today has been deliberatley low key. The press have even being barred from the main speeches. (Activists told me that Michael Gove’s speech on education, the area where the Tories have their most developed and best policies, went down extremely well.) Tomorrow sees speeches from Cameron, Osborne and Ken Clarke.

Peter Hoskin

Introducing the Coffee House national debt counter

So what does Gordon Brown’s debt crisis actually look like?  Cast your eyes to the right-hand side of the Coffee House homepage and you’ll be able to find out.  We’ve added a new “debt counter” to the site, which reveals the UK’s spiralling national debt and the burden it places on each family.  It started at £609.1billion on 5 April 2009, and it’s going up, up, up by around £5,700 per second.   Hopefully, this counter will shine a light on what is not only a fiscal crisis but a moral one too.  Future taxpayers will be left picking up the tab for the £billions and – perhaps, one day

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Mandelson’s candid reflections on being the third person in Blair and Brown’s marriage

Robert Crampton’s interview with Peter Mandelson in The Times magazine today is compelling reading. Mandelson talks frankly about the Blair-Brown marriage and how he ‘was the third person in the marriage. I was the casualty.’ It is this that Mansdelson thinks ‘wrecked’ his political career. Mandelson is remarkably candid about how divided things were. At one point Mandelson declares, ‘Everyone was divided, the government was divided, MPs were divided, the media was divided, into camps’. The language he uses is also strikingly emotional even apart from the marriage analogy. When talking about advising Blair from exile Mandelson says, ‘I always felt it was important for me to be there for