Society

Friday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Lessons from Tyler

At an Economist roundtable, Tyler Cowen makes a bold suggestion: First, to the extent that the real problem is fear, this militates in favour of placebo policies. By that I mean initiatives which appear bold and have great symbolic value, but which don’t necessarily cost us very much. I haven’t seen us make a major attempt to identify such proposals, but it is unlikely that an $800 billion stimulus fits the bill…The reality is that we don’t actually know what will work, precisely because the problem goes beyond just stimulating aggregate demand.  I’m no expert on these matters but this seems plausible to me. And he also has this effective

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Tories are right to be thinking about how to buy time once they are in government

The incoming Tory government are going to inherit a mighty mess. Not only will the economy still be in bad shape but the military will have been running hot for seven years without adequate funding, the country will be on the verge of an energy crisis as soon as the economy starts growing again and all the problems of the broken society will still exist. The Tories will have to hit the ground running if they are going to have a hope of a successful first term. It is extremely unlikely that the Tories will have a Blair-style honeymoon; the situation that they will inherit is too dire and there

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Segolene Show Runs and Runs

The old line de mortuis nil nisi bonum has been joined, these days, by a convention that vanquished politicians respect the verdict of the electorate and mumble something nice about the victor while wishing them all the best and so on. Happily they do things differently in France. Segolene Royal has a new book out and it’s fair to say that she’s still miffed, and surprised, that she was defeated by Nicolas Sarkozy. Which, while distressing for Madame Royal, is good news for the rest of us. Here’s her appraisal of Sarko: What bothers me most about him is his immorality. ..He does not hide his greed, his bulimia for

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The government doesn’t know what to do about the Muslim Council of Britain’s boycott of Holocaust Memorial Day

On Monday, The Guardian reported that the Muslim Council of Britain has boycotted the “Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration in protest at the Israeli offensive in Gaza this month”. This was a big deal as the government had made clear that attendance at Holocaust Memorial Day was a “significant factor” in the government’s view as to whether the MCB had become more moderate or not. On Monday lunchtime, I called the Department of Communities and Local Government and asked for a comment. On Tuesday morning, I received this statement: “Officials here are due to meet representatives of the Muslim Council of Britain in the coming days. At that meeting the issue

Peter Hoskin

A roadblock to even more debt?

A snippet from the Times report on Brown’s “building programme” for council houses: Mr Brown has the support of Margaret Beckett, the Housing Minister, in pushing through new regulations, according to government sources, but Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, is said to be resisting proposals that could add billions of pounds to public debt. If you remember, there were numerous reports of tension between PM and Chancellor over debt ’round PBR time.  Of course, nothing may come of it – and it certainly hasn’t done much to restrain our eye-watering levels of public debt – but the idea that Darling is in some way a roadblock to Brown’s plans will surely fuel the ‘Cable for Chancellor’

Peter Hoskin

Olympic tax burden to skyrocket?

In an interview in today’s Independent, John Armitage, the chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), admits taxpayers may shoulder a greater burden for the 2012 Games as private finance options dry up.  Here’s how the Indy puts it in an accompanying article: John Armitt said it was possible that no private sector money would be found for the £1bn Olympic village in the heart of the park, the most high-profile victim of the global downturn which has already cost the taxpayer £326m more than was planned for. The authority has already given up hope of securing funding for the £355m international media centre, which will now be paid for

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Illinois Senate tries to end the embarrassment, convicts Blagojevich

Rod Blagojevich, the Illinois governor accused of trying to auction off Barack Obama’s old Senate seat, has been convicted in a unanimous vote of the Illinois Senate in his impeachment trial. Blagojevich has come up with a string of increasingly bizarre and amusing defences, for more see Alex’s post from last Friday, and his closing argument (video here) was no disappointment on this front.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Talk Radio Governance?

Arizona’s John Kyl had this to say about the Republican attitude to the stimulus package: “They can cram down a stimulus package without Republican support,” said Kyl, “but if that happens, then when, as we believe, in six months or so, when the American people say, ‘Wait a minute, we’re not better off. In fact, we’re worse off than we were six months ago. Who is responsible for this and what can be done to fix it?’ Republicans then are going to be in a position to say, ‘We didn’t have the input in this and that’s why it didn’t work.'” To which Andrew Sullivan responds “Ugh” complaining that this

Thursday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Heathrow hilarity

The contortions that Labour and its supporters are going through over the third runway at Heathrow are increasingly comic. The attraction of backing a third runway was all political to Brown central. It hoped that it would show Labour as pro-business, prepared to take the ‘tough decisions’ that the Tories duck and, above all, split the Tories between the greens and the ‘pro-business’ wing. But this has all blown up in Brown’s face which, perhaps, was why he was reportedly so emotional as he tried to persuade Labour rebels to back the measure. It failed to factor in that those who oppose the third runway do so with such ferocity

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Budget Holyrood

Alex has an intriguing post on the failure of the SNP to get its budget through at Holyrood. Here’s his view on what will happen next: “Will there be an election? I hae ma doots as we say up here, not least because I doubt any of the parties can truly afford a fresh campaign right now. But having tried an failed Salmond and Swinney are now in a markedly weaker position. If the opposition parties have any sense they will increase their demands, knowing that the Nats are playing a weak hand. It’s always tough when your bluff is called. For all that the Nats blame the Greens for

William Blackstock

If Wikipedia doesn’t remain true to its principles, another site will

Amid the excitement of a new President’s inauguration, it seems natural enough that the deaths of veteran American senators Robert Byrd and Edward Kennedy were missed by the mainstream media. Fortunate, then, that the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia carried the news. Only, of course, neither man was dead – it was a wiki-screw up and Wikipedia’s founder and “benevolent dictator”, Jimmy Wales (pictured), is furious about it. Though this sort of mistake happens often enough in newspapers (remember Mark Twain’s famous response to reading his obituary: “the report of my death was an exaggeration”) Wales has decided that anonymous editing of the site is to blame, and he has suggested restrictions

Peter Hoskin

Lib-Lab-love?

Sunder Katwala, General Secretary of the Fabian Society, makes the case for a pre-election Lib-Lab coaltion in this week’s New Statesman.  His central points are that it could save Labour from electoral wipeout and would enable the two parties to outflank the Tories on “progressive” policy.  This paragraph pretty much sums it up: “The coalition would not mean guaranteed re-election but – going into it with a majority of over 150 – it would have more than a decent shot. A Tory majority government could be well beyond Cameron’s grasp and the centre of gravity would shift away from the right in a campaign where two progressive ­parties challenge Cameron’s

Peter Hoskin

The challenge facing the Republicans

Just in case the GOP needs another reminder to broaden its coalition if wants to make headway in 2012, here’s a new study from Gallup.  It finds that just 5 states – representing 2 percent of the population – can be classed as Republican (i.e. a significant plurality of adults there identify themselves as Republicans).  Against that, there are 35 Democratic states and 10 “competitive” ones.  Here’s the graphic which illustrates it all:    Hat-tip: Andrew Sullivan

Alex Massie Alex Massie

White House Style

At long last, the long national nightmare is over. From a fun NYT piece on Obama’s looser White House regime: If there is one thing Mr. Obama has not gotten around to changing, it is the Oval Office décor. When Mr. Bush moved in, he exercised his presidential decorating prerogatives and asked his wife, Laura, to supervise the design of a new rug. Mr. Bush loved to regale visitors with the story of the rug, whose sunburst design, he liked to say, was intended to evoke a feeling of optimism. The rug is still there, as are the presidential portraits Mr. Bush selected — one of Washington, one of Lincoln

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Do the Republicans have a plan?

Good question! One of the odder aspects of American politics – at least for foreigners used to the rough and tumble of the House of Commons – is the elevation of bispartisanship to the status of some kind of political sacrament. A cynic would say that the principle motivation for this is to ensure that blame is shared between the parties, not hogged by whomever happens to be in the majority at any given moment. I always have the feeling, mind you, that respectable opinion in DC finds partisanship both excessive and, worse, rather vulgar. (To be more precise: polite society finds Democratic partisanship especially vulgar; since 1994 and the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cruddas on Cameron’s progress

Tory sallies into Labour territory on fairness and progress, two words that the left have long taken for granted as their own, are beginning to worry folk in the Labour party if Jon Cruddas’s interview in The Independent is anything to go by. Cruddas, who was at the launch of Phillip Blond’s Progressive Conservatism Project, says:   “It is very, very sophisticated, very worrying for us,” he said. “It is not just about policy but language. We [Labour] still have a one-dimensional take on Cameron. I think Cameron is doing well.” Cruddas confirms that the mood in the Parliamentary Labour Party is increasingly grim: “People were wildly optimistic before Christmas; they

Peter Hoskin

Mandy for Prime Minister?

Matthew Parris on top form in today’s Times: Fact: unsourced rumours circulated in the media last weekend that Lord Mandelson had rescued the Government by smoothing ruffled feathers in India after the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, “mishandled” his visit there. Surmise: The source of these rumours was Peter Mandelson. Fact: Miliband has entertained ambitions for the Labour leadership. Surmise: Mandelson wants to finish off Miliband’s hopes. Fact: It has been reported that Mandelson believes Gordon Brown is rubbish. Surmise: His Lordship has somebody else in mind as leader. I’m serious. Labour’s Christmas sugar-rush of optimism that all might not be lost is fading. The polls are tipping back down. Next

Peter Hoskin

Labour’s strategy is stuck in the past

As numerous Labour MPs have been saying recently, Brown needs to start doing something different if Labour are to reverse the Tories’ momentum in the the polls.  But, interviewed in the latest New Statesman, Alistair Darling indicates that Labour High Command are happy to stick by the old, tried-and-tested methods which are no longer getting them anywhere: Darling believes that the battle lines at the ­election will be clear: a simple choice between Labour investment versus Tory cuts. “The Tories seem to be going back to where they were in the early 1980s – saying the government’s role is pretty limited. They have set themselves significant cuts in public spending.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Our Age of Abundance

Despite the tenor of the times, it is still the case that almost all of us have never had it so good. As Brad DeLong writes at The Week: The current recession may turn into a small depression, and may push global living standards down by five percent for one or two or (we hope not) five years, but that does not erase the gulf between those of us in the globe’s middle and upper classes and all human existence prior to the Industrial Revolution. We have reached the frontier of mass material comfort—where we have enough food that we are not painfully hungry, enough clothing that we are not