Society

Monday

Peter Hoskin

Debate for naught?

The debate over the raid on Damian Green’s office is trundling along in the Commons (you can watch it here).  So far, the talking points have been a (failed) attempt to get the debate extended to six hours, as well as some Tory resistance to Michael Martin’s proposed committee on the matter.  This should be Parliament at its very best – a packed House, debating an important issue that’s angered many – but there’s a sad air of pointlessnes about it all.  I guess it’s something to do with Gordon Brown’s whipping of the Labour benches.  As Bob Marshall-Andrews put it earlier, he and his Labour colleagues are on a

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A horrifying agenda

Since the Mumbai atrocities there has been a lot written about the need for a settlement in Kashmir. Undoubtedly, a resolution to this conflict is to be wished for on it own terms and because it would make cooperation between India and Pakistan easier. But as Patrick French argues in a trenchant op-ed in today’s New York Times, the idea that the ending of the Kashmir dispute would see the terrorists put down their arms is naïve in the extreme. Here he describes the views of Hafiz Saeed, the leader of Lashkar-e-Taiba “who lives on a large estate outside Lahore bought with Saudi Money”: “Mr. Saeed’s hatreds are catholic —

Daniel Korski

The unknown surge

Everyone following developments in Afghanistan will know of the demand by military commanders on the ground for more international troops to be deployed. A former NATO commander said he needed at least 400,000 troops. Doctrinally, a 20:1,000 security force-to-population ratio is deemed necessary for counter-insurgency operations. That would mean putting at least 200,000 troops into the southern and eastern parts of the country, a figure well beyond NATO’s capability. But there has, in fact, been a steady –- if unknown — increase in the number of NATO troops deployed to Afghanistan, including from Europe: Clearly this is not enough and numbers do not equal capability – as many of the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Not just cricket

It is wonderful news that a full-strength England team will head to India today for the Test series. If England had pulled out or sent a weakened team, it would have been a triumph for the terrorists; proof that they had succeeded in one of their goals, making Westerners think twice about going to or investing in India. It would also have threatened the future of the international game. By going the cricketers are demonstrating their solidarity with the Indian people and showing a welcome defiance to the terrorists. It would be petty to sneer about whether a desire to play in the lucrative IPL affected their decision or the level

Peter Hoskin

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 8 December – 14 December

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

Peter Hoskin

Convincing the creditors

The dangers of mounting national debt are spelt out clearly and persuasively by Frank Field in an article for today’s Guardian.  Well worth reading the whole thing, but the bottom line is that desperate times may call for desperate measures: “If the debt can’t be sold, it will be impossible for the government to continue. The only options then will be to print money, with all the dangers for a country of going along with such a policy; or for the political parties to come together – in a national government – to try to convince the gilt market that the country is serious about bringing under control the gap

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Top Lib Dem donor quits party in tax row

Sam Coates breaks the news that Lord Jacobs, the Lib Dem’s biggest donor, is quitting the party. But reading about his policy dispute with the party, one wonders why he was a Lib Dem in the first place. Sam reports that: “His beef is that he wants Clegg to go further on tax, taking the lowest paid out of tax altogether but also reducing the rates for higher earners. The party is reluctant to raise employers national insurance by the required amount to pay for it, and relations have clearly broken down. Now Lord Jacobs wants to be free to hawk his tax plan around Labour and the Tories –

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Did a Cabinet minister think Brown was breaking the law?

The oddest, and potentially most significant, story in the Sunday papers is the Tories claim—reported in the Mail on Sunday—that two senior Labour people, including a current cabinet minister, passed on information to them about Brown, Balls and the Smith Institute. The two Labour sources apparently pushed the Tories to see whether the relationship was illegal. This claim is bound to increase the paranoia levels in Downing Street. If it is true and not just pys ops by the Tories, then it is testament to how bitterly personal of the divisions in the Labour party are. But it should be remembered that the information was passed to the Tories in

Peter Hoskin

A third term for the Speaker?

Despite his cynical attempts at buck-passery, the heat’s still not off Michael Martin.  Numerous MPs across the House are thought to be, at best, underwhelmed – and, at worst, disgusted – by his actions before, during and after the police raid on Damian Green’s parliamentary office.  A survey of MPs by the Beeb puts some numbers on the discontent: of 130 Parliamentarians, 32 said they have no confidence in the Speaker, against 56 who still have confidence in him.  On a separate question, 50 thought Martin culpable over the search of Green’s office. One thing that may have been holding back Martin’s detractors – and even those 56 who apparently

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Green-gate coming to an end?

Ian Kirby has the scoop about the Damian Green investigation: TORY MP Damian Green and his Home Office mole will NOT be charged in the leak scandal, the News of the World can reveal. Prosecutors say papers seized from Mr Green’s Commons office cannot be used as evidence in a trial. They add that cops FAILED to conduct a proper search in Westminster. The conclusions, in a secret early review by the Crown Prosecution Service, coincide with the initial findings of an independent police probe. That investigation is already concluding the case is “not prosecutable”, and the decision to arrest the Shadow Immigration Minister was “over the top”. One source

Saturday

The Spectator

Letters | 6 December 2008

Nancy and the Keynesians Sir: Nancy Dell’Olio is a Keynesian (‘John Maynard Keynes, my hero’, 29 November), but if Keynes were alive today, he would be revising his doctrine. In the 1930s government expenditure was a much smaller proportion of GDP than it is today. So was the tax take. Then, with the private sector devastated by the slump, increasing government expenditure was the strongest lever to change sentiment and reflate the economy. Now, both the private and the public sectors are crippled with debt. Increasing government expenditure threatens the nation’s credit-rating, and tweaking VAT to encourage people to spend is at odds with people’s desperate desire to save. With

Melissa Kite

Real life | 6 December 2008

My friend Stephen rang me in a tremendous huff, just as I was trying to eat a mince pie. ‘I no longer wish to be a part of this society. You can cease referring to me as a British citizen. I no longer accede to the precepts of this system we call Britain.’ I tried to sympathise through mouthfuls. ‘Yeth, itsth really terrible. Gordonsth rubbisthsth.’ ‘I can tell you are busy, I will leave you to it. I’m going to Waterstones to buy L’Etranger.’ I tried to eat a second mince pie to make up for the enjoyment of the first having been ruined but it was no good. Why

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 6 December 2008

We first encountered Ahmed, our dragoman in Cairo, when he stepped forward to greet us at passport control. He was dressed soberly in dark suit, black tie, black shoes. Shaved head. Designer glasses. His manner was brisk and unsmiling. But now and again an engagingly complicit smile lighted his hawkish face to remind us that he understood as well as we that all is vanity. He expedited the entry formalities then led us outside to a waiting people carrier and slid back the door for us. Ahmed sat up in front, beside the driver. The driver spoke no English and gave his full attention to the road ahead. Ahmed, on

Taki

High life | 6 December 2008

New York A funny thing happened to me on my way out from a party on 17 November in London. I was temporarily confused until I ran into Naomi Campbell in the Royal Hospital Gardens. She was carrying some packages into her car and offered me a ride. ‘Are you going on to Andrew’s?’ she asked sweetly. ‘Hop in, I’ll take you.’ We chatted away and I reminded her how she had once applied a vice-like grip around my neck when I was about to leave the dance floor and decapitate a poisoned dwarf, who had thrown a missile at me. It was a private party in a private house

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 6 December 2008

Q. I have a well-established and generally wonderful cleaning woman whose job, in her view, includes chatting. This was fine in the past when my children were out at school all day but now my 16-year-old son is attending sixth-form college and comes back to work at home between lessons. I have asked my ‘treasure’ to leave him undisturbed at this time but she seems not to take the request seriously. She just goes into the room where he works, sits down on the arm of his chair and chats away. A ‘Do Not Disturb’ notice on the door has had no effect. We do not want to wreck the

Toby Young Toby Young

Status Anxiety | 6 December 2008

In a recession, head for the mall where you can buy seven Crunchies for £1.49 I was awestruck. As a long-term resident of West London, I had been looking forward to my first glimpse of this emporium, but it was even better than I imagined. I simply had no idea shopping centres could be this good. From now on there would be no need to go anywhere else. It was the answer to all my prayers. I am not talking about Westfield, obviously, but the Oaks Shopping Centre in Acton. The new £3 billion retail park in Shepherd’s Bush may boast a branch of Tiffany, but the Oaks has a

Peter Jones

Ancient and Modern – 6 December 2008

In the last two columns we have considered Barack Obama as novus homo and orator. But what about his mixed race? The racist seeks the cause for the differences between groups of people in either physiological or genetic determinism. The resulting characteristics are unalterable and define them as inherently inferior. But are prejudice, xenophobia and stereotyping ‘racist’ in those terms? If they are, Romans were certainly racist, as probably all people of all colours, ages and backgrounds have been and always will be. A major theme is the contamination that results from contact with foreigners. Romans living in the East, we are regularly told, stood a fair chance of being

Tamzin Lightwater

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody – 6 December 2008

Monday A few loose ends I’m still trying to get to the bottom of: 1) If Damian was running the mole — and there’s no evidence to suggest he was but let’s just say he might have been — then who was running Damian? Wonky Tom says it’s Mrs Damian, the nice lawyer lady. Possible the whole idea was Damian’s I suppose, but seems v unlikely. 2) Was I involved in the leaks and if I was, have I done anything wrong? This is tricky. Been racking brains and do remember Mr G once asking me to pass someone something in a brown envelope. But I didn’t look inside so

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Would a fourth term Labour government try and take Britain into the euro?

Gordon Brown has done something great for Britain: he was one of the people most responsible for keeping this country out of the European single currency. As Chancellor, he was a roadblock to Blair’s ambitions on this front. So when the idea of Britain joining the euro was floated last weekend, I thought it was just Peter Mandelson getting too far forward on his skis and being a bit, from his perspective, too hopeful. But Peter Oborne reports in the Mail today that it was actually part of a coordinated plan: “It was as a result of these talks [with Barroso] that Lord Mandelson floated the tragically misguided idea of

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What the Butler saw

Robin Butler, the former Cabinet Secretary, gave a most interesting interview to Steve Richards on the Westminster Hour this morning. Butler was Cabinet Secretary between 1988 and 1998 and so was there for the slew of leaks that occurred during the tail-end of the Major government. He admitted that most internal leak inquiries achieved little and that he would often ask the police to investigate. However, he noted that he could not “command” the police to help, he could only ask. The police, Butler said, generally refused to get involved unless there was “prima facie” evidence that a serious crime had been committed. It does appear that this approach has been