Society

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

90 years since the end of WWI

Today marks the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day and the formal end of World War One.  I quote from the climax of Norman Stone’s stunning work, WWI – A Short History: “Meanwhile, as German morale was collapsing, the final crisis was precipitated by another act of desperation. In a weird descant upon the navy-army rivalry that had done so much to weaken the [German] war effort, the naval authorities resolved on a last, mad move. Captain von Levetzow, chief of staff of the navy, could see the likelihood that Germany’s great ships would be interned, none of them left for the eventual reconstitution of the Reichsmarine. Better, he thought, ‘immortal

Peter Hoskin

The Tory tax cut: first impressions

I haven’t seen all the numbers yet – or, indeed, many details at all – so consider the following as very loose, first impressions of the tax cut Cameron’s just announced (details here): What is it? Companies which employ workers who have been jobless for three months will get a cut in the amount of national insurance they pay.  The cut will be worth £2,500 for every such worker taken on.  According to Cameron, that could reduce the overall tax burden on companies by up to £2.6 billion, and create up to 350,000 jobs. How is it funded? Out of the cash that would otherwise have been spent on unemployment

Peter Hoskin

Labour close the gap

Today’s Populus poll in the Times – the first to be conducted in the aftermath of the interest rate cut and the Glenrothes byelection – has the Tories on 41 percent (down 4 since early October); Labour on 35 percent (up 5); and the Lib Dems on 16 percent (up 1).  That’s Labour’s highest level of support since March. I doubt Team Cameron will be unduly worried by those headline numbers – after all, they are still 6 points ahead; solidly in the 40s; and all after several weeks of positive coverage for Brown.  But some of the below-headline findings will cause concern. For instance, 52 percent of respondents think

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Big Jacqui’s Just Looking Out For You

All Home Secretaries are ghastly, of course. But Jacqui Smith may be an even greater nuisance than previous holders of the office. That’s tough competition when you recall that the field also includes Michael Howard, David Blunkett and Jack Straw. The latter, of course, shopped his own son to the police. But here’s the lie being peddled by the gruesome Smith today: Jacqui Smith says public demand means people will be able to pre-register for an ID card within the next few months. The cards will be available for all from 2012 but she said: “I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don’t want to wait

Peter Hoskin

Go ahead, punk…

Just to recommend a great debate that’s fizzing away over at Comment Central.  On one side there’s Daniel Finkelstein, who – I think it’s fair to say – is less-than-impressed with what he calls the Lib Dems’ “punk” tax cuts, and advocates a more cautious approach.  On the other, there’s Nick Clegg, who says those unholy, punk tax-cuts are right for our economically-depressed times. Finkelstein got the ball rolling with this post, in which he takes a jibe at the Lib Dems’ tax policy.  Clegg responded here.  I quote a paragraph with largely sums up that response: “Why does Danny think it’s impossible after a decade of spiralling Whitehall spending

Peter Hoskin

Cameron’s moral obligation

Good timing from David Cameron.  On the day the papers preempt the official notice that unemployment has risen above 1.8 million – its highest level since 1998 – the Tory leader gives a speech on the subject of mass joblessness. The main message is of how the Tories “will not stand aside” as people lose their jobs, and of how they have a “moral obligation” to help those who become unemployed as a result of the downturn.  It’s resonant language, which goes well beyond “we feel your pain”-style platitudes.  And, what’s more, it’s most likely backed up by a policy package – although we’ll have to wait for more details

Peter Hoskin

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 10 November – 16 November

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

Sunday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Verona Daily Mail

Condensed Shakespeare: nation’s tabloids report modern repeat of story of Romeo & Juliet under headline: KNIFE CRIME TOFF IN PAEDO SUICIDE PACT

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Further Adventures in Brave New Scotland

Can this really be true? Why yes my friends it can. A teenager from Ayrshire who was caught posing with a sword on the social networking site Bebo has been fined £200 at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court. Anthony Bowman, 19, pleaded guilty to displaying the image on Bebo between January 2006 and July 2008. His case came to light after police conducted a trawl of the internet in a bid to cut crime and disorder. Bowman was then identified by officers from the Strathclyde force’s Violence Reduction Taskforce. The teenager’s case was reported to prosecutors as part of Operation Access – an ongoing campaign against violence. Kilmarnock district procurator fiscal, Les

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Mr President, your priority should be…

Boston, Massachusetts Two of the Democrats’ biggest beasts take to the papers today to urge Obama to make their issue his top priority. In the New York Times Al Gore calls for immediate action on climate change while in the Washington Post Ted Kennedy declares that ‘Health Care Can’t Wait’. This is a taste of the pressure Obama will come under in the next few months; everyone knows that his political capital will never be this high again and that the first two years of his administration offer the best chance of enacting an irreversible political shift. Indeed, there are still political ads running on television—but they come from Democratic

Peter Hoskin

Who will win the tax war?

It now seems that Labour and the Tories are willing to follow the Lib Dem lead on tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners.  Yesterday’s papers had news that Brown & Darling are preparing a range of cuts for possible inclusion in the forthcoming pre-Budget report.  And today’s Telegraph reveals that Cameron & Co. are now lining up a preemptive tax cut of their own. There are strong moral, fiscal and political arguments in favour of targeted tax cuts, so – on paper, at least – it’s A Good Thing that all three main parties have hit on the same position.  But dividing lines remain, and they should ensure that

Peter Hoskin

<em>In Memoriam</em>

A poppy rests on a memorial for the fallen and missing of World War I, in Ypres, Belgium.  Today, thousands of remembrance services will take place across Britain, ahead of the 90th Anniversary of the armistice on Tuesday.

Saturday

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 8 November 2008

It is so important that the first black President is only half-black. The black side of Barack Obama’s heritage is the non-American bit. His black, Kenyan father was absent. His Hawaiian upbringing was white. One day, he recalls in his autobiography, his white grandparents, who were bringing him up, had a row. His grandmother (who died this week, just too soon to see her grandson elected), told her husband that she did not want to take the bus to work the next day. She asked her husband to drive her instead. He refused, and words were exchanged. Barack asked what was going on. His grandfather told him that she had

Tamzin Lightwater

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody | 8 November 2008

Sunday Just had an absolute nightmare setting up one of those conference calls. Jed thought it would be nice if Dave rang Mrs Palin to wish her luck. Simple enough you might think. Oh no. First of all he had to explain who he was. Literally. As in ‘Hello this is David Cameron.’ ‘Who, honey?’ ‘David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative party.’ ‘The whaaaat?’ ‘The British Conservative party.’ Then there was all this shrieking and giggling: ‘Oh my gaaad! What show am I on now? Are you from the BB of C? Is this Ronald Brand? Is Jolyon Ross on the line? Oh my gaaaaaaad! I just love you

The Spectator

Letters | 8 November 2008

The MoD’s failure of duty Sir: Charles Moore berates Oxford deputy coroner Andrew Walker for upbraiding officialdom in the matter of the death of Para Corporal Mark Wright, deeming such criticism of the military establishment to be ‘outrageous’ (The Spectator’s Notes, 25 October). The fact is that Tony Blair launched our armed forces into five wars in six years. Of the two ongoing conflicts, Iraq has lasted longer than the second world war and Afghanistan is more ferocious than Korea. When any government does this it takes on a very serious duty of care. That duty involves an absolute obligation that the men sent out to fight will have equipment

Melissa Kite

Real Life | 8 November 2008

With a sense of weary inevitability, I discover that it is not possible to have a washing machine delivered in my street without paying £100 in washing machine delivery protection money to Brixton town hall. Yes, indeed. I turned into my street the other day to find a lorry unloading outside my neighbour’s house in what ought to have been a boring, everyday scene of law-abiding folk going about their domestic business. That’s nice, I thought. My neighbour’s getting a new Zanussi. And I drove down an interconnecting road to get round the lorry thinking nothing awry. Until I heard the shouting. And then it hit me. A lorry unloading

Jeremy Clarke

Low Life | 8 November 2008

It’s a proud day when your boy goes for his first job interview with a career in mind and says he wants to borrow your suit. He left school two years ago, aged 16, knowing a bit about the Nazis and how to bake a scone and that’s about it. He gained no qualifications, something of an achievement these days. The parents’ evenings I attended each year were like going from one party political broadcast to another. Through their unhappy smiles, his overworked teachers assured me that my boy was either ‘brilliant’ or ‘doing brilliantly’. Which was a strange thing for anybody concerned about academic excellence to say about a

Taki

High Life | 8 November 2008

New York Back in the summer of 1960, a married Hollywood actress and her friend, a Hollywood wife, came to the south of France and met a randy 23-year-old who showed them around the place. The actress was the sexy Janet Leigh, then married to Tony Curtis, and her beautiful friend was Jean Martin, whose hubby was Dean Martin, while the randy one was the poor little Greek boy. We had a very good time boating around the various beaches during the day, dancing in Monte Carlo in the evening, Monaco being not only Russian- and vulgarian-free back then, but also looking like Ruritania-sur-mer rather than Las Vegas-on-the-sea. Both ladies

Toby Young Toby Young

Status Anxiety | 8 November 2008

About a year ago, I appeared on Watchdog to discuss identity fraud. A researcher for the programme had managed to become a ‘friend’ of mine via Facebook and, as a result, now had access to personal information that would enable her to impersonate me. For instance, she could apply for a credit card in my name and run up huge debts that I would be liable for. Was I not horrified to discover just how vulnerable I was to this type of crime? ‘Actually, no,’ I said. ‘The thing is, I want people to start going round impersonating me. Having people pretend to be you is a sign that you’ve