Society

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

Introducing the revamped Spectator Book Club

Just to flag-up the The Spectator’s revamped, online Book Club – which you can access here.  Plenty of stuff there that bibliophilic CoffeeHousers may find interesting – including Book of the Month recommendations (this month: Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones); a massive, well-sorted review archive; and a discussion board.  Would be great to see some of you over there.   To mark the launch, The Spectator’s holding a short story competition.  There are full details in the latest issue of the mag – but, in case any of you want to enter, I reproduce the terms here:  To celebrate the launch of the Spectator Book Club, The Spectator is giving

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Would you take this bet?

Paul Krugman, the Nobel prize winning economist, and Greg Mankiw, chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under George W. Bush, are probably the most influential public intellectual economists in America from the left and the right respectively. The two take different-sides on the question of how effective the Obama stimulus will be and Mankiw is now challenging Krugman to put his money where his mouth is: “Team Obama says that real GDP in 2013 will be 15.6 percent above real GDP in 2008. (That number comes from compounding their predicted growth rates for these five years.) So, Paul, are you willing to wager that the economy will meet or exceed

Helen Thomas

The Bank needs to put us at ease about its strategy

Today ‘s Bank of England meeting should herald the start of the somewhat mystical practice known as “Quantitative Easing”. This prospect of printing money has prompted panicked headlines about Zimbabwean- style inflation.  But the process itself does not necessarily spell disaster. Normally the Bank manages inflation and activity indirectly, through interest rates.  Lower rates encourage more spending and less saving, and higher inflation. But in the current environment, even near zero interest rates are not enough to fight deflation, so unorthodox measures are needed.  The Bank of England is going to try and increase the supply of credit directly, by buying up corporate bonds from financial institutions.  To cut a

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Buckley and Limbaugh: Contrasting Conservatisms

Ross Douthat is obviously (well, it’s obvious to me) right to think that Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer and not someone who ought to be considered a spokesman for the Republican party. Too bad El Rushbo doesn’t see himself that way. In a piece for the (splendid) Daily Beast, Christopher Buckley observes that Limbaugh took the occasion of William F Buckley’s death as a cue to annoint himself WFB’s successor: A few days later, as I was planning WFB’s memorial service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, I was approached by an intermediary, a big player in the vast right-wing conspiracy, with the suggestion (“Wouldn’t it be appropriate….”) that Rush should give

Peter Hoskin

A neat little video

I’ve just got round to watching, somewhat belatedly, this footage of William Hague reviewing his own PMQs performance. It’s a bit more detailed than the post-match analysis that Cameron gave at the end of this video last year, and a cracking example of a politician engaging purposefully with the internet to give the public a nice insight into life at Westminster. From the Tories’ perspective, it also helps them push their own narrative of what happened in PMQs, so don’t be surprised to see this kind of thing again. Well worth a watch: Hat-tip: PlayPolitical

Wednesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Why waiting for Obama to fail is not enough

Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, says everyone should calm down and have a cup of tea: Barack Obama and the Democrats have the initiative. Until such time as their policies are perceived to have failed, it doesn’t matter too much what Republicans do. Yes, they obviously should endeavor to be sober and creative—replenishing their policy arsenal for the day when the public is seriously paying attention to them again—but the big question in American politics right now is how Obama handles the financial crisis and the economy. In the grand scheme of things, everything else is commentary. Aside from the fact that the Republican party is neither sober nor

James Forsyth James Forsyth

No game-changer

As Gordon Brown heads back to London he can content himself with the fact that his Washington trip has not turned into the disaster is threatened to during the whole not a ‘press conference but a pool-spray’ moment. His speech wasn’t up there with Blair’s 2003 effort, but his knowledge of American politics enabled him to hit most of the right notes and, at the risk of being guilty of the soft bigotry of low expectations, Brown’s delivery was better than usual. Brown must, though, know that the trip has not changed the course of British politics which, from his perspective, it needed to. To use an American sporting metaphor,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Brown’s speech to Congress: Live blog

Gordon Brown is about to deliver his speech to a Joint Session of Congress. When Blair addressed one in 2003, he received 19 standing ovations. Brown by having the Queen offer the ailing Teddy Kennedy an honorary knighthood has sweetened the mood and guaranteed him a few standing ovations.  One problem for Brown is that it is harder to hit the rhetorical high notes in a speech that focuses mainly on the economy than in one on foreign policy. Whatever you think of the content, Blair’s speech in 2003 was a rhetorical tour de force. In that respect, the bar is set almost impossibly high for Brown. He’s also far less

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 4 March 2009

With Brown in America, David Cameron on compassionate leave, and Nick Clegg looking after his newborn son, it’s a Harman-Hague-Cable match in PMQs today.  Expect a subdued affair, although there could be some sparks over Harman’s comments about Fred Goodwin’s pension.  Stay tuned for live Coffee House coverage from 1200.  You can watch proceedings here. 1205: First question for Harman from Keith Vaz, on the “increasing level on violence in video games”.  Harman: “There must be tough classification…” etc. 1208: Hague stands to cheers from the Tory benches.  Offers his condolences to the victims of the Lahore terror attack yesterday – Harman didn’t.  Follows it up by asking whether British troops in

Peter Hoskin

You know things are getting really bad for Brown when…

…Cabinet ministers would rather be in opposition than in his government.  This from Alice Miles in today’s Times: “Can the country really bear another 14 months of this? Not even ministers are sure they can endure it: one member of the Cabinet told me recently that, despite the hell of being in opposition, he could hardly wait for the election to get away from the misery and directionlessness of the Brown regime: ‘Gordon doesn’t start from a position of conviction, he just wants to create dividing lines with the Conservatives.'”

Peter Hoskin

A humble rift

So, it seems that Alistair Darling wasn’t speaking on message when he called for some “humility” from government yesterday.  The Mail reports that Brown was left “fuming” by Darling’s intervention, and there’s much talk of a rift between the PM and his Chancellor.  Brown’s since tried to paper over the cracks, telling Nick Robinson that there’s “always a need for humility”, but he then tore the paper down with this follow-up: “And the idea … that somehow this is a British problem that was a British government mistake, actually what happened is that round the world, as everybody understands, the whole global financial system seized up.” To top it all

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Conrad Black and Paul Pennyfeather

Conrad Black, late of this parish of course, describes his daily routine after his first year in prison: I get up just after 7 except on the weekends and holidays when it is possible to sleep in. I eat some granola and go to my workplace where I tutor high school-leaving candidates, one-on-one, though sometimes I have to deal with up to four at a time, around my desk, and talk with fellow tutors and other convivial people. I lunch around 11 with friends from education, work on e-mails, play the piano for 30 to 60 minutes, return to my tutoring tasks by 1, return to my unit at 3,

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

Spelman guilty of “inadvertent breaches”

As ConservativeHome reports, the official investigation into ‘Nannygate’ has found Caroline Spelman guilty of “inadvertent breaches” of Commons rules.  The “inadvertent” bit means she’ll keep her job in the shadow cabinet, but Paul Waugh writes that she’ll have to repay £9,600 of expenses that she used to pay her nanny.  Much like the Brown decision last week, I doubt the outcome will do much to revive people’s faith in the political class.

Isaac Beech

China gets Clintoned (or is it the reverse?)

Beijing It didn’t surprise many in the Western commentsphere that Hillary Clinton chose Asia for her first destination as Secretary of State. A young Chinese friend here in Beijing, however, was surprised that it wasn’t Obama’s treasury secretary who was the first to cross the pond (the Pacific is the new pond). But there’s nothing like a crisis to rewrite a job description: Clinton’s focus in China last week was all economic, encouraging them to keep buying US bonds. Amidst the hubbub that Clinton was zipping up on human rights issues like Tibet to cosey up to the economy which could help hers out of its mess, I can’t help

Peter Hoskin

Goodwin: a Government adviser until five weeks ago

Now this casts the continuing row over Fred Goodwin and his pension in a fresh light.  Turns out that Goodwin sat on a panel advising the Government about financial matters until five weeks ago, some months after his management of RBS has driven the bank to collapse and triggered its effective nationalisation.  According to the Newcastle Journal, Alistair Darling wrote to him on 28 January, relieving him of the position and thanking him for his “personal contribution”. There’s much talk around Westminster that the Government has used the Goodwin row to distract from other embarrassing stories.  But the bitter irony is that it could be far more politically damaging than any

Peter Hoskin

Is Brown’s global mission dehumanising him?

Over at The Bright Stuff, Martin flags up this passage in Rachel Sylvester’s excellent Times column today:  During one recent conference call involving Ed Balls and Lord Mandelson (Mr Brown’s new core team who have regular strategy meetings) the Prime Minister was pressed repeatedly to deal with a list of specific issues but kept turning the conversation to his plan to create a new economic world order. It’s a compelling snapshot, and cuts deep into many of Brown’s political problems.  Unlike his predecessor, our current PM struggles to do human; an impediment at the best of times, but potentially fatal when repossessions, bankruptices and unemployment are shooting ever skywards, and

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Progressive ends, different means

Jenni Russell’s piece in The Guardian today about how the left should support the “progressive wing” of the Tory party has set tongues wagging. Tim Montgomerie has some interesting thoughts on it and attempts to identify “the important ten” who one Tory told Russell form the “progressive wing” of the party. Personally, I must admit to finding that these arguments over the naming of things generate more heat than light. In his Demos speech, David Cameron laid out four things that progressive Conservatism stood for: moving people permanently out of poverty, a society with equality of opportunity, a greener, sustainable planet and a safer society. These goals, though, can be

Peter Hoskin

Tragedy on the streets of Lahore

Grim echoes of the Mumbai atrocities this morning, as the news came in that a bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team had been attacked in Lahore.  Once again, it seems that the perpertrators are a Pakistani terrorist organisation, perhaps even the same Lashkar-e-Taibar; once again, the attack is being described as “well organised”; and, once again, the end result is tragic: at least six people have died and around seven are injured.  Perhaps the main difference is that this took place on Pakistani soil.  Another is that the gunmen haven’t been captured or killed, and most likely won’t be. It encapsulates the chaos that reigns in Pakistan right now.  Aside from

Peter Hoskin

Is Darling paving the way for some “humility” from Brown?

Hm.  I was quite surprised by Alistair Darling’s interview with the Telegraph this morning.  To my ear, Government rhetoric has been hardening over the past few weeks; the same old soundbites about “Tory cuts” and “Problems which started in America” used ever more defiantly.  But here we have a softening of approach, and – although there are some sleights of hand (Darling refers to mistakes made over the “last 15 years” – i.e. these were Tory mistakes too) – something close to an admission of Government guilt.  Here are the key passages from the article: “There are a lot of lessons to be learnt by regulators, governments, all of us,”