Society

Tuesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Snow Balls

The Today Programme was as snow obsessed today as it was on Monday. Once more it dominated both the 7 and 8 am news bulletins, one would think there was nothing else going on in the world. But the height of absurdity was reached soon after 8.10 am when a reporter asked if we should invest in the same snow preparedness measures as Moscow and Stockholm. So, on Coffee House we’re launching a new feature that’ll last until the snow melts: Snow Balls. Leave in the comments the most ridiculous comments you hear or see in the media about the snow. The best entry wins the usual bottle of Coffee

Peter Hoskin

Mind the pay gap

Given the worries that many in the private sector have over both their financial and job security, the ‘pay gap’ figures highlighted by Francis Maude could well provoke a bit of anger.  Here’s how the Mail reports them: State workers now earn an average £62 a week more than their private sector counterparts  –  a 50 per cent increase in the differential since 2004. … It comes at a time when public sector employment is rising while private workers are losing their jobs at a rate of more than 1,000 a day. … In 2004, estimated median public sector earnings  –  those in the middle range of pay  –  were

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Organ Markets

Interesting piece from ABC News about people trying to find kidney donors via Craigslist. This leapt out however: But some families who talked to ABC News say once they find a kidney outside of the traditional organ-donor waiting list system, they have faced hospitals that are suspicious or unprepared to deal with the legal and ethical questions of harvesting an organ from a living person located through personal ads. Only 10 percent of transplant centers will consider doing a kidney transplant from an altruistic live donor who is not related or known by the patient. And only 20-30 percent of transplant centers are willing to perform a so-called “kidney swap”

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

License to Print Money

The nice people at the Tote would like to give you some money. How else to explain their generous decision to permit you to back Shivnarine Chanderpaul to be the West Indies leading run-scorer in the forthcoming Test series at the odds of 7/4? The “true” price should be, at best, about evens. I also think that 7/2 on the West Indies winning the series is not a terrible proposition either. They’re a team on the up and barring some sudden reversal of form it’s not obvious that England are well-placed to take 20 wickets all that often.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Stimulating support for the stimulus

One of the key political questions about the stimulus was whether it would increase or decrease Obama momentum, whether the President would find it easier or harder to get controversial legislation through Congress afterwards. The initial package Obama proposed was politically savvy, 40 percent of the stimulus would come from tax cuts—an idea that Republicans liked. This seemed to guarantee a decent level of bi-partisan support for the bill which would have strengthened Obama’s hand going forward. But then, House Democrats got their hands on the bill. In the package that the House voted on, only 22 percent of the stimulus came through tax cuts and funding had been added

Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland

The Super Bowl ads weren’t that super

I rather like baseball, but I must admit I find American Football incomprehensible and slightly absurd:  much of it seems to be a bad game of rugby played by motorcylists. Although, in its defence (pronounced dee-fence), the very best moments are spectacular. This year I forced myself to watch Superbowl XLIII, preferring to view online via www.ustream.com and not on the BBC in order to see the advertising. The Superbowl has over the years become a showcase for American advertising at its extravagant best – and the commercials now form part of the overall razzamatazz . A few—most famously the 1984 60-second spot for the launch of the Apple Macintosh,

Peter Hoskin

Snow: the last thing Gordon wanted?

Right, I’ve been determined to avoid posting about the snow, but this FT article is just too eye-catching to go unnoted.  It reports that today’s snowfall, and the increased absenteeism it’s precipitated, has cost the economy around £1 billion.  Hardly ideal during a recession, and things could get worse.  Here’s a quote from Stephen Alambritis of the Federation of Small Businesses: “If this goes on for a few days or even a week that could sink into the recession and make it longer than it would have been. This has knocked back the spring feel good factor, which we hoped would kick start the economy.” For once, Brown may be

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Do you support the strikers? Vote after the jump

Judging by the reaction to my post this morning and Fraser’s one on Sunday, most Coffee House commenters appear—unlike Fraser and myself—to be on the side of the strikers and against the free movement of workers within the European Union. To see where Coffee Housers come down on this issue, please do vote in our two question poll (questions after the jump). We’ll publish the results tomorrow evening. Online Surveys & Market Research

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Clegg needs to look more distinctive

Reading today’s Independent report on Nick Clegg’s town hall meetings, I thought they sounded like a copy of Cameron Direct, the Tory leader’s QandA sessions across the country. But it turns out Clegg held his first town hall on the 10th January, 2008 and Cameron didn’t launch Cameron Direct until the third of June. So if anyone is copying anybody else, it is Cameron. But in a way, this highlights the problem facing Clegg: even when he pioneers something, he doesn’t get the credit. The Lib Dems are at their best when they are distinctive from the two main parties. But Clegg, in manner and style, is just too similar

Peter Hoskin

Osborne banks on “debt responsibility”

Competent performance from George Osborne just now, setting out the Tories’ “new banking settlement” by which – among other things – the Bank of England would have greater powers to “call time on excessive debt”.  It sounds promising enough.  But, as usual with regulatory systems, the proof of this particular pudding will come with the eating.  Only a Tory government will let us know how it works in practice. Aside from that, Osborne dwelt on the familiar touchstones – welfare reform, schools reform, an Office for Budget Responsibility etc.  Although it seems to me that the Tories are now taking greater pains to set out just how difficult things will

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 2 February –  8 February

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

When to talk to the Taliban

Paddy Ashdown has an open letter to Barack Obama’s Pakistan and Afghanistan envoy, Richard Holbrooke, in The Times today. In it, Ashdown makes a crucial point about talking to the Taliban: “In the end it will probably be necessary, provided they will put aside the gun in favour of the ballot box. But they are in no mood for talking now, because they think they are winning. The first step is get them on the back foot, militarily – which is where the surge is so important. They must be convinced we have the force, the will and the staying power to beat them, before they will come to the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Just in case you missed them… | 2 February 2009

Matthew d’Ancona calls the next election for David Cameron. Fraser Nelson says that Brown’s language about ‘British jobs for British workers’ has laid the ground for recession rage and Clive Davis is unimpressed by Peter Mandelson’s response to the strikers. James Forsyth argues that it is time to stand up to those who wants to stop minorities joining the Met and celebrates Iraq’s provincial elections. Melanie Phillips points out that the Iranians have reacted with contempt to Obama’s peace gambit. Pete Hoskin wonders if Ed Balls might have Mandelson’s support. Alex Massie denounces Jonathan Porritt’s call for people to have no more than two children. Americano applauds the election of

Peter Hoskin

Clarke on competitiveness

So here I am at a conference put on today by my former colleagues at Reform.  It’s all about ‘A new economic agenda’, and the speakers include George Osborne, Vince Cable, John McFall, Tony McNulty and Will Hutton.  First, though, Ken Clarke, who’s just delivered a 15-minute address on competitiveness.  It demonstrated, perfectly, why Cameron’s brought the Big Beast back.  He seems to have an easy understanding of the issues; gets his points across in simple, lingo-free English; and – rare for a politician – he raises a few laughs too. Two passages worth pulling out from Clarke’s address. The first on Sterling: “Rapid movements in exchange rates are always

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Brown’s own words mean that the government can’t win the argument with the strikers

If you doubt the trouble the government is in over the wildcat strikes, just listen to Peter Mandelson’s testy interview on the Today Programme. Mandelson was making the case for economic openness, for the benefits that accrue from the free movement of people (a case I, like Alex and Fraser, broadly agree with). John Humphrys kept interrupting him, asking Mandelson to empathise with the skilled worker on Tyneside who has a wife and two children and can’t just up sticks and leave for a job somewhere else in the EU at a moment’s notice. When Humphrys referred to Poles stealing jobs from British workers, Mandelson snapped and accused him of

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Righting the stimulus

David Broder, the dean of the Washington press corps, notes in his column today that Barack Obama needs the stimulus package to get Republican votes in the Senate if he is to maintain his momentum. Certainly, passing such a huge piece of legislation on a party line vote in both houses of Congress would undercut Obama’s reputation as someone who can bring both sides together and make it hard to see how he could get health-care or other controversial legislation through until after the 2010 mid-terms, when the Democrats are expected to pick up additional seats. In these circumstances, it is tempting for the Republicans to sit back and simply

James Forsyth James Forsyth

It is time to stand up to those who want to stop minorities joining the Met

The appointment of Sir Paul Stephenson as the new commissioner of the Metropolitan Police has been broadly welcomed. As this magazine puts in its editorial this week, “Unlike his predecessor, Sir Ian Blair, and his chief rival for the job, Sir Hugh Orde — head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland — Stephenson is not a politician in uniform” but a policeman. But the welcome for Stephenson has not been universal. The Observer reports that the National Black Police Officers Association will “step up its campaign to dissuade black and Asian people from joining the force under the new commissioner.” It is disgusting that senior Met officers are, via

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Jonathon Porritt: Stupid and Wicked.

Tim Worstall rightly says this is stupid. I’d go further and also call it wicked. Couples who have more than two children are being “irresponsible” by creating an unbearable burden on the environment, the government’s green adviser has warned. Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the government’s Sustainable Development Commission, says curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming. I think this must be a new low in pro-abortion arguments. How long before Porritt or some other eco-lunatic advocates compulsory sterilisation? Not sure you want to be pregnant? Well think of the trees… [PS: Chances of Godwin’s Law being invoked in the

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Roger and Rafa Show

There isn’t anything in any sport better right now than the rivalry between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. This morning they produced another five set epic that was a fitting conclusion to the best Australian Open in years. And, for the fifth match in a row it was the Spaniard who emerged victorious. Not for the first, nor one suspects the last, time Nadal defeated Federer physically and mentally. This was a match Federer will feel he should have won: he had a legion of chances to break and win the third set but each time either his own timidity or, more often, Nadal’s seemingly inexhaustible supply of fortitude prevented