Society Archives

Friday

5 Dec 2008

Taking a pounding

How much should we worry about a falling pound? Since Monday sterling is off 5 percent against the Euro, 6.5 percent against the dollar, 9 percent against the Yen and 3.4 percent against the Hungarian forint: Hungary, of course, had to be bailed out by the IMF. This is worrying for the government as its survival plan for the next five years involves borrowing untold billions from the Arabs, Chinese or whoever has cash – who may not relish the thought of pumping billions into IOU notes in our rapidly devaluing currency. Of course it’s true that a weaker currency is good for the economy overall, as will help exports.

James Forsyth

A return for David Davis looks increasingly likely

At the moment, David Davis would probably rather be arrested than return to the shadow cabinet. But the prospect of Davis being asked to come back to the top table looks more likely now than at any point since his spectacular resignation in June. Davis could well be back in his old job after a reshuffle in the New Year. The Damian Green affair has reminded the Tory leadership how much they miss someone with Davis’ hunting skills. Dominic Grieve was impressive in the Commons yesterday but he has failed to cut through in the media. He was outperformed on Newsnight the other night by Chris Huhne which is rather

James Forsyth

The Tories must remember Mandelson is mortal

It is hard to disagree with Martin Kettle’s assertion that Peter Mandelson is the “most interesting” figure in British politics right now. Since his return from Brussels, Mandelson has had a key role to play in every major political story and has revelled in the quite extraordinary amount of coverage he has received. As Kettle—who interviewed Mandelson for an hour or so at Saturday’s Progress conference—notes, Mandelson is now a far more intellectually confident figure than he was in 1997. Much of Mandelson’s success has stemmed from the fact that the Tories are so intimidated by him; they talk about him in hushed tones. They are convinced that everything Mandelson

Thursday

4 Dec 2008

Alex Massie

Amazon

I’ve finally got round to joining amazon’s Associates programme. Unless I’ve made a complete hash of things then anytime you click through to via the little Amazon button on the right I should receive a commission on anything you purchase. Clearly this is the way to do your Christmas shopping… Also, a friend said that I should really have an Amazon “Wish List” of stuff I’ve been meaning to purchase but, er, haven’t. So here it is. I mean it would be embarrassing, but kind of wonderful, if anyone paid any attention to this sort of thing. However, shopping at amazon via this site costs you nothing more than what

Alex Massie

The Politics of Being Way Down in the Hole

Back to The Wire: Ross is of course correct to argue that one of David Simon’s great achievements was creating a television show that was open to multiple legitimate interpretations. Though I might see the show as grist for a certain libertarian strain of thinking, I can quite see why an ardent drug warrior could also find plenty of evidence to support his analysis. As much as anything else, in fact, its this argument between competing worldviews that proves the shows’ brilliance. “Shakespearian” is a word bandied around far too often, but it’s apt and worthwhile in this instance. And of course the validity of these multiple interpretations is in

Alex Massie

Department of Names

Much blogospheric hand-wringing on whether to refer to a great Indian city as Bombay or Mumbai. This is a road I’ve been down before. Ezra Klein says that “Bombay is the term of the colonialist oppressors. Mumbai is the term of the people who live and vote and die there.” Well fine. Does this mean Americans will cease referring to Edinburgh as Edinboro? UPDATE: Commenter Deiseach makes the essential, and correct, point: “I presume when you were in college in Dublin you referred to Kingstown, Kingsbridge Station and King’s County? Anyone who thinks they have a consistent way of using place names in these situations is kidding themselves.” As it

James Forsyth

Gordon gets his headline but the devil is in the detail

Holding up the front pages on Newsnight last night, Jeremy Paxman observed that Brown couldn’t have got better coverage for his mortgage package if he’d paid for it. But as always with one of Gordon’s initiatives, a look at the small print reveals it to be not quite such a good deal after all. Both Tim Worstall and Dizzy point out huge flaws in it. It does seem that this was done on the fly to catch out the Tories. Last night, one representative of the ‘third sector’ was commenting that Brown had just beaten the Tories to the punch on this and a Minister deeply involved in the development

Peter Hoskin

Did a minister have advance knowledge of the Green arrest?

This from Iain Martin over at Three Line Whip: “…the strong rumour is that one minister with good police contacts did know [about the Green arrest in advance] and has remained well under the radar since the row erupted last week, for understandable reasons. One thought: if that person was aware of what was going on, when it backfired would they actually ‘fess up to the cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell, the PM or the media or just stay uncharacteristically quiet until the row blows over?” If it does emerge that a minister had advance knowledge of the Green arrest, then it’s one of the worst things that could happen for the

Peter Hoskin

Reid tells Smith how he’d have done things differently

No real bombshells in Jacqui Smith’s statement on the Damian Green affair earlier (video here). She pushed the same lines that we’ve heard from her throughout the past week: that it was right to involve the police; that she didn’t know anything about the arrest; that the leaks coming from the Home Office are a “serious matter” etc. etc. As Andrew Sparrow points out, the most eye-catching moment was an intervention by John Reid. The former Home Secretary’s been relatively quiet over the past few months – but he popped up with a point of order during the Speaker’s statment yesterday, and today he hurled this barb in Smith’s direction: “I have to

James Forsyth

Washington or Whitehall whispers?

As Matt reflected just after Obama’s election win, both David Cameron and Gordon Brown desperately want to be and be seen to be Barack Obama’s best friend. There’s a bit of a blow to the Cameron campaign today with a New Statesman story about how Obama branded Cameron a ‘lightweight’. But a close read of it suggests that the sources for this claim might be in Whitehall not Washington: “Instead, I have been told, Obama exclaimed of Cameron after their meeting: “What a lightweight!” He apparently also asked officials about Tory Euroscepticism. Soon, word about the rather awkward encounter between the two self-professed candidates of change made its way quietly

Lisa Hilton

Faithful to infidelity

Oscar Wilde said that one of the charms of marriage was that it made a life of deception essential for both parties. I agree; the opportunity to commit adultery is surely one of the few advantages of wedlock. Yet so zealously monogamous has our culture become that infidelity is agreed upon as the last taboo. It is the one crime that, all nice people concur, is Absolutely Unforgiveable. Amidst all the prurient judgments cast on poor Gordon Ramsay and his alleged mistress Sarah Symonds, the consensus is that he has committed a dreadful evil and that The Woman Pays. Sure you can accuse Ramsay of hypocrisy, if you think that

Peter Hoskin

Put your questions to Theresa May

Theresa May – the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, and MP for Maidenhead – has kindly agreed to a Q&A session with Coffee House. Just post your questions for her in the comments section below. And, next Monday, we’ll pick out the best ten and put them to her. She’ll get back to us with answers a few days later.

Peter Hoskin

The Speaker’s inaction does not make him unaccountable

Steve Richards puts it pithily in today’s Independent: “The Speaker ‘was told’ the night before about a possible arrest. Did he not consider cancelling his plans and asking a lot of questions? Did the Serjeant-at-Arms not consider asking questions as she ‘was told’ what was going to happen. This is a saga that exposes incompetence, as well as a lack of proper accountability.” The key point in all this is the Speaker’s near non-involvement in the raid on Green’s office – he happily outsourced every single bit of responsibility to the Serjeant of Arms. Now he’s trying to outsource the blame to her too. But, to my mind, his non-involvement

Wednesday

3 Dec 2008

Alex Massie

On Evangelicals and the American Future…

Hurrah for Alan Jacobs at the fabulous American Scene for alerting me to this excerpt from Laura Miller’s new book in which she visits Wheaton College, Illinois. (Wheaton is Billy Graham’s alma mater and the college at which Jacobs teaches.) Miller’s book is about how a religious sceptic can still lose themselves in Narnia, but it’s her comments about evangelicals that concern me here: I arrived at a different historical moment, just before the midterm elections of 2006 took Republican hubris down several notches. By that time, the GOP had enjoyed control of the White House and Congress for six years. The religious right claimed responsibility for a decisive portion

Alex Massie

Bush 2016!

Seriously. Well, not impossibly. Perhaps. Weirder things may have happened*. Yup, Jeb Bush is apparently considering running for Mel Martinez’s soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat. I imagine Jeb would win handily. These days I think people forget that Jeb was the Bush who was supposed to be President. One of the hinge moments in recent American political history is election night 1994** when George W won the Texas gubernatorial race and Jeb lost his race to become governor of Florida. By just 63,000 votes. If memory serves, Bill Minutaglio writes in First Son (still, in my view, the best book about Dubya’s pre-White House life) that W was furious that Poppy and

Alex Massie

The Death of Ink

Another sign of the times: every single employee of the Glasgow Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times was sacked today and told to reapply for their jobs (on changed – that is, less favourable – terms and conditions of course) if they hope to have some sort of a future in newspapers. Or at least at the Herald Group. Early indications are that the company wants to cut the workforce by something like 20%. But journalists and readers alike should not fret: Managing director Tim Blott said: “We are creating an efficient operation fit for the 21st Century which will provide even more compelling and unique content for readers of

Alex Massie

Mexico Dispatch

Courtesy of the Los Angeles Times: At least 38 people have been killed in Tijuana since Saturday, nine of them decapitated, in escalating drug-related violence that appears to have left in tatters a Mexican military offensive launched two weeks ago. To which NRO’s Mark Krikorian responds: “Better Get That Fence Built”. I suppose that’s a point of view, but a more rational response might be to rethink the drug policies that have a) been such a success in Colombia and b) are now being exported to Mexico. That might do more good than fretting about the possible impact all this might have on the American border.

James Forsyth

The Serjeant at Arms has to go

It is hard to see how anyone can have confidence in the Serjeant at Arms. It is incredible that having been warned that an MP might be arrested and that the police might search a Commons office, she did not think to check what the rules and precedents surrounding this were. This is nothing less than a dereliction of duty on her part. Some on the left are trying to claim that she is a victim of sexism and maybe some of her critics are sexists, but it is hard to see how anyone can think that she has performed her duties competently. It was telling that Harriet Harman—who no

Peter Hoskin

Brown’s mortgage surprise

A quick, capsule review of the Queen’s Speech debate in the Commons: Cameron was at his rapier-like best, while Brown performed his typical dodge-the-question act. But the PM did have one trick up his sleeve, and quite a big trick it was too. He announced an agreement between the Government and the UK’s 8 largest banks, by which downturn-hit homeowners will be entitled to defer their mortgage interest payments for up to 2 years. The Government will guarantee against any losses that the banks would otherwise suffer because of this. It’s odd that this got no mention in the Queen’s Speech itself (I suspect the plan was to unsettle the Tories

James Forsyth

Speaker’s ‘regret’ leaves Brown isolated

Michael Martin came close to apologising to the House when he said that he “regrets” that police entered Parliament and searched Damian Green’s office without a warrant. Tory grandees including Michael Howard and Iain Duncan Smith pressed the Prime Minister on whether he too regretted that all this had happened without a warrant. Brown was left looking rather lonely as he repeated his pre-packaged line that he respects the police’s operational independence. It’ll be interesting to see if Jacqui Smith will go further than this when she addresses the Commons tomorrow. During Cameron’s speech, the interventions of several Labour MPs show that they wanted to pull Cameron into this affair;