Society

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Going down the tube

Those of us who have to travel by Tube every morning are wearingly familiar with the announcement that lists the bits of the tube that aren’t working—this morning, it was that the Circle Line was suspended because of a signal failure at South Ken—and ends with the self-congratulatory announcement that ‘a good service is operating on all other lines’, some days one is left wondering what other lines are there. What makes the poor state of the Tube all the more galling is the crazy sums that the bureaucrats of Transport for London are paid. As Andrew Gilligan writes in the Standard today: “One hundred and twenty-three top TfL managers,

Peter Hoskin

Dodging the split story

Do take the time to read through the Independent’s Q&A with Ken Clarke today.  Beyond his classic answer to the question “What was your biggest mistake as Chancellor of the Exchequer?” (clue: it involves malt whisky), the most noteworthy thing is how ably he dodges the numerous, inevitable, “split” questions.  There’s the stock reponse of “I have no intention to change or challenge the party’s policy on x”, but he mixes in a few tongue-in-cheek curveballs, which do a great job of defusing the situation.  This has to be one of them: In December you came out against supporting marriage through the tax system. David Cameron feels differently. Have you changed your mind? JENNIFER BURT,

Alex Massie Alex Massie

51 All Out

Apologies for the radio silence. I’m still struggling to comes to terms with England’s Jamaican debacle. Matters were scarcely improved by an ill-considered trip to Murrayfield yesterday. Back to the drawing board then. Still, while there was a certain grimness to Scotland’s sluggish performance against Wales, at least it didn’t plumb the depths of England’s cricketing fiasco against the West Indies. When the tourists stumbled to 15/3 I suggested, jokingly, that they might lose by an innings. But I didn’t actually expect them to go ahead and do it. Right now the Ashes look as though they will be contested by two pretty mediocre sides (though Australia should, alas, still

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The politics of the surge

Tom Ricks’ series on the surge in The Washington Post continues with a riveting account of how David Petraeus beat back both a chief of Central Commander who wanted to return to the pre-surge tactics that had failed and Congressional Democrats who wanted to admit defeat. Ricks’ account shows Petraeus and his team to be almost as skilled at the art of politics as they are at counter-insurgency. When you consider that Admiral Fallon, the head of Central Command, wanted to halve the number of US combat forces in Iraq and downgrade the importance of security as a goal, you realise that the man above Petraeus in the chain of

Martin Bright

Talent spotting | 9 February 2009

I hope to bring on new talent through this blog, so here’s Tara Hamilton-Miller’s drawing of the panel on social entrepreneurship: From left to right: Robert Phillips CEO of Edelman, Suzanne Moore, David Aaronovich, Professor James Woudhuysen, Oli Barrett, Louise Casey.

Peter Hoskin

Just what we need – another committee

Forgive me for being exasperated, but Team Dave’s latest Big Announcement is just plain exasperating.  An Economic Recovery Committee to – and I quote the press release – “review and analyse the economic situation”; “discuss immediate policy proposals to deal with the current crisis”; and “coordinate strategy for the long term reconstruction of Britain’s economy”?  Now, it all sounds well and good – and something may come out of it.  But it’s little more than slapping a name on something that the Tories should – and will – be doing already, and packaging it as something new.  It was cynical enough when Brown did it, with his National Economic Council, but

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 9 February – 15 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

Martin Bright

A note from Portmeirion

I’m posting from the We are Names not Numbers symposium in North Wales and wondering what the founder-builder of Portmeirion, Clough Williams-Ellis, would make of this discussion of individualism in the consumer society. His motto was Cherish the Past, Adorn the Present, Construct for the Future, which could come straight from an American mangement guru. I’ll report back later today but, so far, only one panelist has mentioned the imminent collapse of capitalism…

James Forsyth James Forsyth

When Cameron faced down Paxman

Reading Decca Aitkenhead’s profile of Jeremy Paxman in The Guardian today, I was reminded of David Cameron’s Newsnight interview back in November 2005. Cameron’s electrifying conference speech and his victory in the MP’s ballot had made him the prohibitive favourite to win the leadership. The Paxman interview, though, was widely regarded as the time when we would see if Cameron could take a heavyweight punch. Cameron turned in a superb performance (you can watch it here), one that sealed the leadership for him and established him as a heavyweight on the scene. He threw Paxman onto the defensive, telling him, “This is the trouble with these interviews, Jeremy. You come

Peter Hoskin

No credit where it’s due

However hard he tries, and however much taxpayers’ cash he throws at the problem, Gordon Brown just can’t seem to get credit flowing to UK businesses.  Here are details of two surveys, released today, from today’s FT: Conferederation of British Industry survey: “While 63 per cent of businesses who had sought new credit said its availability had worsened in the past three months, 59 per cent said they expected it to be harder to access in the next three months.” Federation of Small Businesses survey: “Many small businesses told the trade association that banks had turned down their applications for government-guaranteed credit. Others complained that public sector bodies were ignoring

Sunday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Martin Bright joins Spectator.co.uk

We have a new signing to reveal today: my old counterpart at the New Statesman, Martin Bright. We have long admired his writing here at Coffee House, and we’re delighted that The Bright Stuff will be joining Melanie Phillips, Clive Davis and Alex Massie under the heterodox, multicoloured Spectator e-umbrella. It’s not just the sharpness of his analysis and strength of his contacts that makes Martin a must-read. From a left wing perspective, he has investigated what he calls “Whitehall’s love affair with radical Islam” as well as pretty much hounding Ken Livingstone out of office. So is he finally coming over to our side then? If only. He remains

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

Golliwog, Totem and Taboo

Commentary on the Carol Thatcher business has been predictably superficial and self-righteous. Its real meaning is that racial correctness can only be understood in relation to religion. Bear with me. Did she commit a serious offence? She referred to someone as a golliwog, obviously knowing that it was a taboo word, capable of causing great offence to black people, and of producing a frisson of disapproval among the white people who were actually present. It was, perhaps, a momentary lapse of judgment, a brief failure of self-censorship – there is no evidence that she holds racist views. For this lapse she has been dropped from a television show, and her

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The government expects unemployment to hit record levels next year

Sophy Ridge has a good scoop in The News of the World today: the government is operating on the assumption that the number of unemployed will peak at 3.5 million in October 2010. This would be the largest number of people unemployed in modern British history. Indeed when you add in the people on other out of work benefits, it would suggest that the real figure for unemployment will be around 6 million. That unemployment will not reach its peak until October 2010—after the next election—suggests that the economy will not start growing again in the third quarter of this year as Brown and Darling predicted in the PBR.  It

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Obama should listen to the architects of the surge

Tom Ricks has a fantastic essay in The Washington Post about the generals who—in defiance of the military establishment—pushed for the surge and the change of tactics in Iraq that have been key to that country making such progress in the last two years. One of the key points in the piece is how the architects of the surge, oppose any rapid draw down of US troops—something that Obama remains committed to. Ricks writes: “Obama is likely to find Odierno and other generals arguing passionately that to come close to meeting his commitment to keeping U.S. troops safe, keeping Iraq edging toward stability and maintaining the pressure on extremists, he

Peter Hoskin

How far we’ve fallen

To be honest, I don’t often stray into the Sunday Times Travel supplement, so I’m not sure whether their ‘Holiday Money’ table – setting out the exchange rates between Sterling and a host of foreign currencies, as well as the position they were in a year ago – is a regular inclusion or not.  But it caught my eye this morning.  Sure, the fall of Sterling is hardly news, but we often hear about it in terms of dollars and Euros.  Seeing the prices against, say, the Kenyan shilling or the Argentinian Peso really hammers the point home.  So I’ve reprinted the Sunday Times table below.   The numbers in brakets

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Time for Cameron to put his colleagues front and centre

Judging from the interview with Alan Johnson in The Sunday Times, Labour have given up on its attempt to character assassinate David Cameron. Johnson concedes that Cameron is “likeable” and that “He’s articulate. He’s a nice guy.” But Johnson argues that Cameron’s own qualities don’t matter that much as this “is a party system” and Cameron’s party hasn’t changed. Labour’s new line of attack is hardly novel but it marks an important step for Cameron, it is a recognition that his persona is established enough with voters that it can’t be changed by ever more vigorous attacks from his opponents. Cameron now needs to adapt his approach to this new

Saturday

The Spectator

Letters | 7 February 2009

A failure of fairness Sir: Rod Liddle’s defence of the BBC (Liddle Britain, 31 January) does not stack up. Of course people with close connections to Palestinians, those fully aware of their sufferings and traumas, were in the forefront of calling for the BBC to air the charity’s appeal. How could it be otherwise? Yet for good reason, the BBC’s decision united Fleet Street left and right, triggered criticism of the Corporation from Cabinet ministers as well as the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and inspired probably the largest number of MPs in living memory to sign a motion regarding Palestine. This appeal was not about being pro one side

Alex James

Slow Life | 7 February 2009

I wonder how much of what we think we love and need is merely habit. It’s only ten weeks since I stopped smoking 100 a day and now I hardly think about it. For sure, I fancy one occasionally, but I suppose I could say the same thing about women, and I’m happily married. Really, I’m absolutely astonished how quickly cigarettes ceased to preoccupy me, part of another life already, although lighters and papers, flints and filters are still turning up in coat pockets. Of course there’s always plenty of room for the wheels to fall off the no-smoking bus, but I hope they don’t. I think I’m over it.

Jeremy Clarke

Low Life | 7 February 2009

Apart from going to the nearest town one afternoon to have teeth out, I hadn’t been out of the village for six weeks. I might have been depressed about this normally, but a jolly outing I had entered and underlined in my diary for the end of January kept my spirits up. I was popping up to the metropolis to watch a football match — an evening game, under floodlights. Our new manager, whom the critics were, to start with, eager to write off as an ingénue, a loser, a chancer, even a chimpanzee, was proving to be a man of honour, wisdom, good humour and sanity. Under him, the

Taki

High Life | 7 February 2009

Gstaad Last week I ventured down to Geneva for a meeting with my banker, a gentleman of the old school who did not get carried away by Bernie Madoff’s siren songs. To the contrary, he went as far as Odysseus, tied himself to his desk and plugged up the ears of his underlings. Metaphorically, that is. He had some interesting things to say. The mega-crook and fraudster never met suckers in person, except for those — mostly Jewish — friends of his in Palm Beach and in the Big Bagel. Europeans and Latin Americans were handled by his feeder fund managers, around 150 known ones, and, according to my banker,