Society

Saturday

Sarah Standing

Standing Room | 18 April 2009

It’s at trying times like these that my latent inner-bimbo gene struggles to reassert itself. It’s at trying times like these that my latent inner-bimbo gene struggles to reassert itself. Sod equal rights, sod women’s lib and to hell with emancipation. When my car mysteriously vanished outside Waitrose last Friday night I was immediately engulfed by a pathetically primal desire to play the role of helpless victim. I’d parked in good faith — albeit in a bay that had not one, but two large suspension notices; I’d carefully read both signs and deduced that the middle spaces were up for grabs. I’d overfed the meter, displayed my ticket and yet

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Stop being sanctimonious about the McBride emails. Make your own minds up

There’s a UK-based internet site called Urban Dictionary and I’m lucky enough to warrant an entry on it. The text reads as follows: ‘Rod Liddle — an odious, untalented, bigoted, low-level Sunday Times journalist who engages in buggery with Nazis such as Nick Griffin.’ Or at least that’s some of it. Incredible, don’t you think? — all lies. Or mostly lies — God knows how they found out about the Nick Griffin stuff. Maybe Nick told them, hoping it would boost the profile of the BNP somehow. There’s some more stuff about how I don’t like the football team Crystal Palace, which makes me think it was written by a

Aidan Hartley

Wild Life | 18 April 2009

Laikipia As our farm manager Celestino Sikuku drove home with two other workers last month a gang of bandits waylaid their vehicle. It was an inside job. Somebody had revealed that the car was carrying the payroll. At the first gunshots Celestino halted the car, slipped the others the cash and urged them to run. He predicted the attackers would pursue him, so he sped in the other direction. They quickly caught him, frisked him and became enraged when they found his pockets empty. When Celestino recognised one of his attackers, the man, carrying a machete, yelled to his better-armed accomplices, ‘Shoot him! Kill him!’ They refused. ‘Money,’ they said.

Friday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Dominic Grieve should copy Barack Obama on torture

Barack Obama announced yesterday that there will be no prosecutions of those CIA operatives who interrogated suspects using sanctioned methods that the US government now repudiates as torture. I think this is the right call. It would be, and I realise this is a subject where people get particularly passionate for understandable reasons, wrong to punish those who work on the front line for decisions taken by people in DC. Dominic Grieve made some very strong statements during the Binyham Mohamed which caused some disquiet in intelligence circles. I think it would be a sensible step for him to say that while a Conservative government will not endorse torture and will

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How big could Smeargate get?

PR Week has had a string of scoops about the inner workings of Brown’s Downing Street and this week it has another one. David Singleton reports that: Well-placed sources told PRWeek there was mounting fear in the heart of Downing Street that fresh revelations about senior MPs could emerge over the next few weeks and months leading up to the general election. Brown’s close lieutenants  such as Ed Balls, Tom Watson and Ian Austin are all believed to be vulnerable. It is feared fresh tales could be revealed by the handful of journalists who have in the past been fed negative stories by the Brown camp – or that stories

Daniel Korski

The West needs to stop being taken for a ride by China

Over the last twenty years, Western leaders have believed that engaging China would help shape Beijing’s policies. When China cooperated, the West engaged. When China became obstructionist, the West engaged some more. This failure to push for genuinely reciprocal engagement has, as my think-tank colleagues John Fox and Francois Godement argue, allowed China to take the West for a ride. For example, why is a Communist dictatorship that spends £20 billion on hosting the Olympics, receiving £30-odd million in British development aid? European nations have exacerbated this problem by engaging in an unseemly contest to become China’s new best friend. The Chinese have ably exploited this. As Fox and Godement

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The most worrying story you’ll read today

The New York Times carries a really important piece today on how the Taliban are exploiting social grievances in Pakistan. I would urge all Coffee Housers to read it. Here are the two key sections: “In Swat, accounts from those who have fled now make clear that the Taliban seized control by pushing out about four dozen landlords who held the most power. To do so, the militants organized peasants into armed gangs that became their shock troops, the residents, government officials and analysts said. The approach allowed the Taliban to offer economic spoils to people frustrated with lax and corrupt government even as the militants imposed a strict form

Peter Hoskin

Your questions for Eric Pickles | 17 April 2009

It’s been a week and a bit since we asked CoffeeHousers to put forward their questions for Eric Pickles.  We’ve since picked out a selection, and they’ve now been put to the Tory chairman.  He’ll get back to us next week. Anyway, here are the questions: Hugh How would a Conservative government reform the expenses system? DM Do you NOW understand why so many of the Question Time audience reacted as they did to you? Nicholas What exactly, if anything, will a Conservative government do to reverse and rectify the increasingly intrusive powers of the state and the erosion by the New Labour hegemony of the traditional freedoms, protections and

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Whelan’s disgusting attempt to justify the smears

Charlie Whelan’s column in his local paper is an attempt to divert attention from the actual scandals. He wants us to think that the Tories also indulge in dirty tricks and that the big issue is email hacking. But one line in it is disgraceful and as disgusting as McBride’s original emails: “the gossip contained in them was well known to every Westminster hack.” Judging from the various conversations I’ve had with fellow hacks in the last fortnight, I’d say this is simply not accurate. These were not rumours that were doing the rounds, although there is now a rumour that these smears had their origin in stories that a

Daniel Korski

Mitchell takes on the pirates

One of the more frequent charges against the Tory frontbench is that it lacks depth and breadth. Once you have played your Cameron, Osborne, Hague and Gove there is not much left in the hand. Or so the argument goes. Yet, to my mind, this argument was always overdone and – as the Brown government begins to self-destruct – voters are taking a closer look at what the Tory frontbench has to offer. In many cases I think they will like what they see. Take, for instance, Andrew Mitchell, the Shadow Development Secretary, who put in a fine performance on the Today Programme this morning. Mitchell has not always been

Peter Hoskin

Clearing up the mess

Martin Kettle has some very sensible advice for Gordon Brown in the Guardian today: “Proactive leadership is badly needed, not for Labour’s cause, but for the cause of politics. Brown should bring the publication of MPs’ receipts forward. The Commons should take the hit now, as part of an active strategy, rather than wait for it as part of a passive one. He should pre-empt Kelly too. He should go to David Cameron and Nick Clegg next week, hammer out some new rules on expenses on an all-party basis and then drive them through parliament before the June elections if possible. He could also take the opportunity to put Sir

Thursday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Kate Barker responds to the Spectator Inquiry

So – what went wrong with the British housing market? I interviewed Kate Barker, the economist and Monetary Policy Committee member, yesterday as part of The Spectator’s ongoing inquiry into the causes of the recession. Many thanks for your questions. As she is an MPC member, her words can come out at regulated intervals – ie, we have to run it today or not at all. So here are the top half dozen points. A full transcript follows. 1. Inflation targeting is not enough. “It happens that in the early years of inflation targeting, it did produce a stable economy. But I think it’s now clear that it can’t, by

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Even Maguire thinks Brown should have apologised earlier and directly to those smeared

From Kevin Maguire’s blog: “I can’t help thinking that if the Prime Minister was going to issue an apology, he should have done so in the “regret” letters to David Cameron et al a few days ago instead of during a visit in Scotland. Either the PM’s reinforced the Government’s problems, created a double-whammy, or it’s a good day to bury bad news” The right thing for Brown to do, both politically and morally, was to apologise straight away to those who had been smeared. The fact that Brown didn’t—or wouldn’t—realise this shows his flaws as a politician. Indeed, I think his apology today was still too limited to enable

Peter Hoskin

Is this enough?

So here it is. Brown has finally uttered the S-word over Smeargate. This is how the indispensable PoliticsHome reports it: Speaking in Glasgow, the Prime Minister said: “I am sorry about what happened. I have said all along when I saw this first I was horrified, I was shocked and I was very angry indeed.” He said he wanted to reassure people everything was being done to clean up politics in Britain and stressed he had written to all those affected to express his regret. “We have ensured there are new rules to ensure this cannot happen again,” he said. Asked if the buck stopped with him, he said: “I

James Forsyth James Forsyth

All those involved in the decision to arrest Damian Green should hang their heads in shame

The statement from the CPS explaining why Damian Green and Chris Galley will not be prosecuted shows just what a scandal it was that Green was arrested in the first place and that his Parliamentary office was searched. Here’s the key section: “I have concluded that the information leaked was not secret information or information affecting national security: It did not relate to military, policing or intelligence matters. It did not expose anyone to a risk of injury or death. Nor, in many respects, was it highly confidential. Much of it was known to others outside the civil service, for example, in the security industry or the Labour Party or

Peter Hoskin

Saying sorry

Matthew Parris’s notebook in the Times today contains an anecdote which deserves repeating: “Twenty years ago a political aide working at the heart of the office of the leader of the Conservative Party was exposed as having dispatched a wholly inappropriate communication. It was to a woman who had written complaining to Margaret Thatcher about her council house. The aide had replied that she should be grateful to have a taxpayer-subsidised house at all. Splashed across the press and coming as it had from the Boss’s office, the letter was rude and stupid. Thatcher knew what to do. ‘I’m so very sorry’ was a headline on the front page of

Peter Hoskin

There may be (more) trouble ahead

And so the day begins with reports that the government may be in line for additional trouble and embarrassment.  First, there are murmurings that more smear emails might be about to hit the public domain – and ones which could, in the words of the Times, “gravely embarrass ministers and undermine attempts to portray Mr McBride as a lone rogue”.  So far, the Government has been getting by on plausible deniability.  Anything which confirms the implausiblity of that could wreak untold damage on Brown. And then there’s the reappearance of the Damian Green scandal, courtesy of an MPs’ report on the matter.  Its unforgiving conclusion – that the Government “exaggerated”

Wednesday

Lawrence Kay

Welfare reform re-repeating

To Albert Einstein, an insane person was someone who repeated the same course of action over and over again while expecting a different result each time. He would have found it easy to spot the trait in the British politicians who have attempted to change the benefits system over the past thirty years. As we continue into the recession, the thousands of people who have lost their jobs and claimed Jobseeker’s Allowance (the count is now 1,459,840) are moving into a system that the Government claims will help them find work but will actually fail to do so. This means that many of them are at risk of moving from