Society Archives

Saturday

20 Jun 2009

The Wiki Man | 20 June 2009

Whenever you make an optimistic prediction, you risk being wrong twice. First there is the risk that the prediction itself is wrong: 1,000 Concordes by 1973; flying cars; food in pill form. More often, though, it isn’t the prediction that’s wrong but the optimism that accompanies it. The commonest failing of techno- optimists is to be right about future technologies but naively idealistic about the lasting enjoyment they will bring. In reality, yesterday’s novelty soon becomes today’s annoyance (email, for instance), while many innovations fall victim to habit, snobbery or prejudice. Yes, mobile technology theoretically allows us all to work from beach huts, but nothing has yet unseated the belief

Eric Ellis

City Life | 20 June 2009

Morning calm in financial markets despite mad Kim’s nuclear endgame I feel like Forrest Gump, a barometer of Asian Armageddon. I’ve come to South Korea via Sri Lanka, where the triumphant Rajapakse brothers were parading the bullet-ridden body of Tamil Tiger leader Prabhakaran on state television to the tune of Star Wars. And now that I’m comfortably billeted in Seoul’s Hotel Shilla, preferred hostelry of Korea’s old-monied corporate clans, local media report that the former president Roh Moo-hyun has just killed himself and mad Kim up north is threatening to irradiate us all in an insane endgame of nuclear brinkmanship. Have I dodged suicide bombers in Sri Lanka only to

Matthew Parris

Another Voice | 20 June 2009

By this weekend most people won’t remember the details of, and some won’t remember at all, the exchange of emails between Lord Mandelson and the former Labour blogger Derek Draper, which took place in 2008 and before Mandelson joined Gordon Brown’s Cabinet, but which was leaked to a Sunday newspaper two weeks ago. What lingers is the vague impression that Mandelson thinks Mr Brown an awkward public performer, and perhaps a conflicted private personality. These impressions will have sunk quietly into that great national collective unconscious where current opinions find their roots without our even knowing it. One of those opinions, which that exchange was thought (and headlined) to reinforce,

Brendan O’Neill

The gym where they teach you how to beat up chavs

Brendan O’Neill is not impressed by a class of paranoid white-collar workers learning how to head-butt imaginary assailants and defend themselves with their laptops Have you ever wanted to learn how to beat up a chav, those baseball-cap-wearing, bling-sporting youngsters who inhabit inner cities, drink copious amounts of cider, and say unintelligible things in ‘Blackney’ (a mixture of ‘blackspeak’ and Cockney)? Well, now’s your chance. Gymbox, a chain of in-your-face gyms in London, is offering lessons in ‘Chav Fighting’. ‘Don’t give moody, grunting chavs an ASBO, give them a kicking!’ invites the Gymbox website: ‘Welcome to Chav Fighting, a place where the punchbags gather dust and the world is put

Sarah Standing

Standing Room | 20 June 2009

I have the fear. The fear wakes me up at 3 a.m. and for a split second I forget what it is exactly that I’m frightened of. And then I remember. I am a mother and one of my children is off travelling and is on the other side of the world. In the still of the night I prioritise The List. I practise the breathing techniques Betty Parsons taught me when I was first pregnant 24 years ago. The ineffectual huffs and puffs that were supposed to transcend pain. The List catalogues ‘worst case scenarios’ and I systematically shuffle my top five in order of anxiety. I have become

Friday

19 Jun 2009

Martin Bright

Another Way Out of this Mess

One of the reasons I haven’t been blogging as often as I should is that I’ve been writing a report for the Arts Council about self-employment in the creative industries. I’ve been convinced for some time that the government should be re-creating some version of the 1980s Enterprise Allowance Scheme to encourage entreprenership. The original scheme paid people £40 a week to set up their own businesses. This was slightly more than the dole at the time and this acted as an incentive for people to come off benefits. This was seen at the time as a way of fixing the unemployment figures, but it also launched a number of

Alex Massie

When Bad History Meets Warmongering

I should probably be inured to articles arguing that even though europe endured “two twentieth-century apocalypses that left it depopulated and permanently traumatized” it is wrong for europeans to have drawn any conclusions, or learnt any lessons, from the First and Second World Wars. And yet, I’m afraid, I continue to be irritated by such pieces, not least because they invariably demand that europeans prove their moral seriousness by going to war more frequently, regardless of the cost or even the cause involved. Equally, it’s startling quite how many people never met a war they couldn’t embrace and champion. Michael Oren, historian and prospective Israeli ambassador to Washington, seems to

James Forsyth

Scotland Yard will investigate abuses of expenses

The BBC is reporting that Scotland Yard will investigate some MPs and Peers over their abuses of the expenses system. The Met is refusing to say who is under investigation but the BBC says that it “understands Labour MPs David Chaytor and Elliot Morley are among those under scrutiny” and “that Parliamentary standards inquiries into Mr Chaytor and Mr Morley are on hold while the police continue to consider their cases.” The BBC also thinks that Baroness Uddin may face questions. It appears that the investigation will be narrowly focused, concentrating on the most egregious cases: any MP who is seriously investigated will already have had their political career effectively

The Spectator

The week that was | 19 June 2009

Here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the past week: Matthew d’Ancona introduces the Spectator’s 50 Essential Films, and observes Gordon Brown following a dividing line to oblivion. Fraser Nelson notes George Osborne’s milestone article, and watches Brown do the Time Warp again. James Forsyth thinks that Margaret Beckett would only just make a better Speaker than John Bercow, and comments on another Balls-up. Peter Hoskin picks up on a dividing line that’s dividing government, and says that Alistair Darling’s measured approach will drive Brown mad. Lloyd Evans reviews PMQs. Martin Bright says goodbye to the departing Treasury minister, Kitty Ussher. Clive Davis gives his take on

James Forsyth

Iran, the next phase

Reading about Khamenei’s speech at Friday prayers, it is clear that the situation in Iran has now reached a critical phase. The Supreme Leader has put his authority on the line with his demand that the protests now cease. As he put it, “street challenge is not acceptable”. If they continue tomorrow and the crowd is of the same size as Monday’s, then we are into a new phase where the protests are much more of an explicit challenge to the regime. The fact that Mousavi did not attend the speech, despite reported pressure to do so, suggests that he is not minded to back down. However, one senses that

Alex Massie

The Oldest Man in the World

Henry Allingham, Britain`s oldest man and oldest surviving First World War veteran celebrates his 113th birthday at HMS President at St Katherine`s Dock, London, on June 6, 2009. To commemorate such a historic milestone the Royal Navy is helping their oldest member to celebrate in style. A birthday cake and card signed by the First Sea Lord will be delivered by fast raiding craft of the Royal Marines, and a decanter of Pussers Rum, Henry’s favourite tipple, will be presented on behalf of the Fleet Air Arm by Rear Admiral Charlier. Photo: Geoff Caddick/AFP/Getty Images Henry Allingham isn’t merely Britain’s oldest man; he’s now the oldest man on earth, outlasting

Peter Hoskin

Brown and McBride: still partners in crime

So it’s as we suspected: Gordon Brown hasn’t ditched “McBride” after all. Here’s a great insight from the Telegraph’s Alex Singleton: “Before Mr Brown appeared on the Andrew Marr Show on May 31, he discussed his lines with Mr McBride by text message. This surely puts him at the heart of Gordon Brown’s inner circle. Given Mr McBride’s nickname – McPoison – isn’t it time Mr Brown found a more positive source of spin? And doesn’t it make the Prime Minister’s attempt to distance himself from Mr McBride and his smear emails look rather hollow?” Says it all, really.

Peter Hoskin

The “Politicians Against Redaction” movement is born<br />

Predictably, a skirmish seems to have broken out between Labour and the Conservatives over redaction. Here are two entries from Paul Waugh’s Twitter feed which caught my eye while I was wandering around Westminster just now: “David Cameron to outflank Brown by publishing Tory exes unredacted, unilaterally on line.” Followed swiftly by: “Brown has just outspun the Tories. He’s called for end to redaction. Tories should have got their msg out earlier.” All in all, I guess this represents a score draw between the parties in the spin war – and some welcome progress on the transparency front. But – as throughout the expenses scandal – you do wonder why

Peter Hoskin

Why Fred Goodwin delayed his pension concession

Now that Fred Goodwin’s poised to pay back a chunk of his pension, I’d recommend that CoffeeHousers read Jane Croft and Jean Eaglesham’s blow-by-blow account of the saga in today’s FT. Crucially, it answers the question of why Goodwin has waited until now to make the decision: “His decision finally to do so came several days after the legal review concluded that there was no conduct on Sir Fred’s part that would justify reducing the pension. Insiders say the timing is no coincidence. Sir Fred was awaiting that exoneration before agreeing voluntarily to reduce his pension to ensure the gesture could not be misinterpreted as an admission of wrongdoing on

Neil Obrien

Getting Byrned

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more dishonest, it does. I wrote a piece in the Telegraph this morning saying that the Tories should dramatise the scale of the Government’s debt crisis by symbolically dropping their IHT promise. I said: “Dropping such a high profile policy would have shock value. It would send the vital message that the country is going bust. That would allow the Conservatives more room to level with the public about the truly horrific situation they will inherit.” Predictably, up pops Liam Byrne MP to say: “Even David Cameron’s favourite right wing think tank now believes he is wrong to give £200,000 to just

Peter Hoskin

The point of no return

Look at pretty much any newsapaper front cover this morning, and you’ll see the word “blackout,” along with blocks of black ink meant to represent those censored expense claims. Flick through the pages inside, and the tone of the coverage is – rightly – vituperative, with the consensus being that yesterday’s expenses release is little more than an insult to voters. The Sun’s headline pretty much sums it up: “What a bunch of blankers”. Yep, just when MPs thought it couldn’t get any worse – it has. On the question of whether MPs can restore the public’s faith in Parliament, the Indy’s Andrew Grice writes that, “Probably it have gone

Thursday

18 Jun 2009

Matthew Dancona

The Spectator’s 50 Essential Films: Part One

Peter Hoskin and Matthew d’Ancona count down the first 25 of The Spectator’s 50 Essential Films The studio logo fades. The opening credits roll. And so we come to the main feature: The Spectator’s 50 Essential Films — a selection of the very best that cinema has to offer, and all in glorious Technicolor. This isn’t just a celebration of motion pictures — though it’s certainly that — but also a testament to The Spectator’s own passion for the medium. I’m certain that our offices on Old Queen Street contain a greater per capita proportion of film fans — crazed, honest-to-God, bleary-eyed film fans — than pretty much any other

James Forsyth

The argument that Mandelson lost, might be the argument that guarantees that Labour loses the next election

One of the few arguments Peter Mandelson is reported to have lost since returning to British politics, is how to present the argument about cuts. Mandelson was, apparently, in favour of making cuts and then claiming that any further cuts would endanger front-line services. This would have gone some way to acknowledging the fiscal reality but still enabled Labour to claim that public services are only safe in its hands. According to Politics Home’s Insiders survey—a politically balanced panel split between MPs, journalists and wonks—nearly everyone in Westminster seems to agree with Mandelson’s analysis not Balls and Brown’s. Now of course, the Westminster Village can often get it very wrong.

James Forsyth

The Iraq inquiry we need

John Rentoul is right that many of those who agitated for a sixth inquiry into the Iraq war will not be satisfied until an inquiry returns the verdict that they want, namely that the lying bastards lied to take us to war. Any inquiry that does not come to this conclusion is taken as proof that the lying bastards are still lying to us. But if not much is to be gained by going over the pre-war intelligence once more—and Gordon Brown only conceded this inquiry as part of his attempt to square a certain faction of the party to his continuing leadership, there is something to be gained by

James Forsyth

The Brown-Mandelson relationship

Donald Macintyre has a fantastic essay on the Brown-Mandelson relationship in this week’s New Statesman. Two things in it stand out. First, Blair cautioned Alastair Campbell against going back into government but encouraged Mandelson to do so: “Blair’s advice, similarly solicited by Alastair Campbell, whom Brown also offered more or less any job he wanted, was more equivocal. Campbell refused the job offer; he had built another life, which he enjoyed.” Second, when Mandelson and Brown were at their most detached, Brown still called Mandelson on the death of his mother: “Even during the worst of the feud, the bond was never quite broken. When Mandelson’s mother, Mary, the daughter