Society

Saturday

Tim Congdon

There is nothing magic about this Keynesian fad

Mr Brown’s bank recapitalisation exercise has been portrayed in the British media as a financial and political coup. The Financial Times has been particularly enthusiastic, describing it as ‘a global template’. Mr Brown’s admirers apparently believe that the British government’s programme is both intellectually original and a real-world success, and is therefore being copied in other leading nations. The truth is very different. The government’s policy is not intellectually original, it will not be fully implemented in practice and, to the extent that it is implemented, it will be a disaster. Further, no other country is copying Brown’s plan or behaving as vindictively as Britain towards its financial system. Admittedly,

The Spectator

Schoolboy errors

In December 1998, as Peter Mandelson resigned from the Cabinet for the first time, he and Tony Blair spelt out a modern doctrine for responsible political conduct. ‘We came to power promising to uphold the highest possible standards in public life,’ Mandelson wrote to Blair. ‘We have not just to do so, but we must be seen to do so’ (italics added). The then Prime Minister replied: ‘As you said to me “we can’t be like the last lot”.’ This, rather than any technical breach of the rules, was why Mr Mandelson had to go ten years ago, when his secret £373,000 home loan from Geoffrey Robinson was disclosed. Thus

Aidan Hartley

Wild life | 25 October 2008

Yemen For a fortnight our group has spent nights on the desert beaches east of Aden, looking out to sea. We strain to hear voices above the waves. At dawn the water’s surface is calm and dimpled with shoals of fish. The tide line is scattered with dead puffer fish, plastic rubbish, dolphin skulls. Fat yellow crabs gather behind your back and close in when you are not looking. Each morning emaciated people emerge from the ocean in their dozens. They are Somalis fleeing war in Mogadishu, or Ethiopians escaping their overpopulated dustbowl. Many die crossing the Gulf of Aden. The smugglers’ boats are crowded like slave ships. Passengers are

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Another voice | 25 October 2008

Wherever the civilised English gather to discuss the state we’re in, it is almost axiomatic to allow that we’re getting less refined. Discourse, public and private, is (we tell each other) getting cruder; wit is duller; our culture is dumbing down. A vulgarity and obviousness is gaining ground over the art of delicate suggestion. Nowhere do we assume this to be truer than in the use of language for the purposes of discourtesy. Twenty years ago, when I first began putting together an anthology of insult and abuse, I would have subscribed to this view. The book was to be called Scorn and as we began combing through literature ancient

Friday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Department of You Coudn’t Make It Up

Not for the first time this year, one has to wonder what question Fred Thompson could possibly be the answer to. K-Lo remains charmingly indefatigable: Unleashing Fred Thompson works his magic to get out the vote. No further comment required.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Travels in Wingnuttia

There are loonies everywhere, of course. Still, Jon Swift’s summary of some of the anti-Obama conspiracy theories that have swilled around the wingnut blogosphere this year is a treat. He introduces his post, thus: Hampered by quaint, old-fashioned rules of journalism that require citing evidence and reputable sources, the mainstream media has failed to report a number of important stories about Obama and the conservative blogosphere has had to step up and do the media’s job for them. As a public service I have collected some of the most important of these stories in one place. Pulitzer Prize judges, take note! Some of the stories below are shocking and even

The Spectator

The week that was | 24 October 2008

Here are some of the posts made during the past week on Spectator.co.uk: Matthew d’Ancona outlines the warning that ‘Yachtgate’ has delivered to the Tories. Fraser Nelson lauds the true defenders of liberty, and reveals how Gordon Brown has fiddled the debt figures. James Forsyth says the worst seems to have passed for Osborne in the ‘Yachtgate’ scandal, and suggests that the Tories need an enforcer who can protect the shadow cabinet from themselves. Peter Hoskin makes the case for an austerity Olympics, and reports on the latest crime statistics. Stephen Pollard regrets a trip to the theatre. Melanie Phillips gives her take on ‘Yachtgate’. Clive Davis highlights why a recession could

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Oh Darling

On October 7th, Alistair Darling called the Icelandic Finance Minister in an attempt to find out what iceland was doing to protect British savers who had money deposited in Icelandic banks. Here’s how the conversation starts: Mathiesen: Hello. Darling: Hello. Mathiesen:  This is Árni Mathiesen, Minister of Finance. Darling: Hello, we met a few months ago, weeks ago. Mathiesen:  No, we have never met. You met the Minister of Trade. Darling: Alright, sorry. Mathiesen:  No problem Perhaps, not the best way to kick things off.

Peter Hoskin

The case for an “austerity Olympics”

60 years ago, in the economically-depressed aftermath of WW2, Britain successfuly staged an “austerity Olympics” – pared-down, efficient, organised and even profitable, it was widely considered a momentous success.  In today’s Guardian, Simon Jenkins persuasively argues for another austerity Olympics in 2012 – the times call for it, he says.  And it’s hard to disagree.  Even if you think Darling’s spend-our-way-out-of-trouble approach is the right way forward, there remains the question of what all that public cash should be spent on.  There’s something deeply irresponsible about “pour[ing] crazy sums of money – £9.3bn – into two weeks of sport”.  Particularly when that £9.3 billion budget is particularly – and unnecessarily – swollen anyway. 

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Mandelson sketches out his policy vision for Labour

Peter Mandelson’s interview in Progress is well worth reading. In it, he sets out the three areas where he thinks Labour needs to up its policy game: “First, social mobility where Labour needs to provide ‘new ladders for working-class youngsters to climb, taking advantage of the growing aspiration of … parents for their children to go to university.’ Second, the party also needs to outline a vision for ‘the jobs of the future … regearing our economy and our sources of employment to match the opportunities the changing global economy is going to offer’. Finally, Mandelson advocates ‘further individualisation of our public services’. In education and health, particularly, he argues,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Recession and oligarchs

The Deripaksa story rumbles on in the papers today but Osborne will be relieved to see that he appears to be out of the woods now. The Guardian reveals that Mandelson and Deripaksa met in October 2004, a meeting which his Brussels staff appear to have been unaware of. Meanwhile, The Independent reports that David Cameron took free flights to go and see Rupert Murdoch aboard his yacht.  In other news, official figures out later this morning are expected to show the first quarter of negative growth since 1992.  One imagines that the public are not overly impressed by tales of politicians spending their times on super yachts with Russian

Thursday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

A Mad World, My Masters

Clive Crook pops back to Blighty and finds himself pining for the sanity and phlegmatic common-sense of life in the United States. Can’t say I blame him. Consider this story, for instance: plans for a Christmas ice-rink in Bath have been abandoned after complaints that the temporary rink would be a magnet for paedophiles who could take advantage of it to “groom” children. Seriously. Not to get all Daily Mail on you, but not for the first, nor I fear last, time there’s not much you can do except wonder what on earth is wrong with this country. [Hat-tip: Mr Worstall]

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Photography We Can Believe In

Callie Shell has been following and photographing Barack Obama for Time since the beginning of the campaign. You can see some of her work here and, especially, here. I particularly love the photo of Obama doing a pull-up moments before delivering a speech. There’s a matter-of-fact coolness about it. Glamour too, as Virginia Postrel could doubtless confirm. Actually, the Obama who appears in – or is presented by – many of Shell’s pictures is, to my mind, strikingly reminiscent of a star such as, say, Paul Newman.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What should McCain’s final roll of the dice be?

The state polling numbers are grim for McCain right now. One poll today even had Obama up by 10 in Indiana, a state Bush won by 20 points. McCain clearly needs to do something to shake things up. Mike Murphy, who worked on McCain’s 2000 campaign but in recent months has been a critic of the style of McCain’s campaign, has an intriguing idea: “There is no state by state way to break out of the campaign’s current spiral. Trips to Iowa will not do it. McCain has to go global with a big closing message. So, why not… Strip down the state by state media budget and use the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A mad world

Keith Dovkants has a great feature in the Standard on  the relationship between Rothschild and Deripaska. But this anecdote stood out to me: “Witness his excursion into Kalmykia, a remote Russian republic run by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a charismatic leader who fought an election campaign on promises of providing a free mobile phone for every shepherd and a guarantee that Diego Maradonna would be signed up by the local football team. Ilyumzhinov confides in friends that he had been captured by aliens and has glimpsed a view of the universe not allowed most mortals. His political ruthlessness is combined with a sense of divine right and what rare visitors to his

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The heart of the matter

One of the oddest aspects of this whole Deripaska affair is why Nate Rothschild went nuclear on George Osborne. It was understandable that Rothschild was irritated about Osborne breaching the privacy of his fellow guests but writing a letter that could have destroyed Osborne’s career seems like a disproportionate response. Especially when you consider that Osborne and Rothschild are old friends. Charles Moore puts it typically well: “But why did Nathaniel Rothschild write to the Times? Yes, he was genuinely annoyed that George Osborne had relayed Peter Mandelson’s disobliging remarks about Gordon Brown to the Sunday Times. The then Mr Mandelson was Mr Rothschild’s guest, as was Mr Osborne. Mr

Peter Hoskin

It’s the statisticians wot done it

Much hoo-hah – and rightly so – over the crime statistics that the Home Office have published today.  The issue is with the “Most serious violent offences” figure, which has risen by 22 percent since last year – an increase that Jacqui Smith attributes to previous inconsistencies in how the police totted up the “GBH with intent” numbers (for the official explanation, click here).  But a passage from another Home Office document (pdf, here) is worth highlighting: “At least two-thirds of the 26% increase in GBH with intent can be attributed to the clarification in the counting rules referred to earlier. This also influences the overall figure for ‘Most serious violence against the person’.” In

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The true defenders of liberty

In Uganda there is a law against annoying the president, and last night I met an incredible person who has been jailed 12 times for breaking that law. Andrew Mwenda, founder of The Independent newspaper, was giving the keynote address at The Bastiat Prize and asking why the West was so timid in defending free markets and the open society which people like him put their lives on the line to support. A crash isn’t a crisis of capitalism, he said, it’s a characteristic of capitalism – when banks err they are punished. Why do so few in the West make this point? I asked him later if he worries

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The worst seems to have passed for Osborne

There will be relief in Tory circles this morning that today’s papers contain no further damaging revelations about George Osborne and Andrew Feldman’s holiday activities. The Tories can begin to hope that this story is on the wane or that the focus of attention will soon shift back to Mandelson; do see Melissa Kite’s revelations about Mandelson and Deripaska. The greatest danger to Osborne now is an accidental recommencement of hostilities. For instance, if a Sunday tabloid designed to try and dig dirt on the Rothschilds, Nate might go nuclear even if the Tories had not played any role in encouraging the paper. He is clearly a man with a

Wednesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The T St Rag

Here’s the usually-savvy Helen Rittelmeyer: Let’s take it as a given that Martin and Maltz are correct that Red Staters like to follow traditions and bicoastal elites like to question them; it certainly sounds true enough, at least as far as wild generalizations can be. Even given that assumption, most South Carolinians are more morally and philosophically sophisticated than most cosmopolitan Obamaniacs. Let’s put aside the question of whether or not New Yorkers really question their moral assumptions (although if someone else wanted to take up this line of argument, I wouldn’t stop them) and simply look at the end result of this Blue State skepticism. Most of the time,