Society

Wednesday

4 Feb 2009

Six takes on the wildcat strikes

On top of our poll, we also put the question “Do you support the wildcat strikers?” to various friends of Coffee House. Here are some of their responses: Matthew Parris Businesses importing labour into recession-hit places need tact. An offshore barge filled with foreign workers was not unlawful but it was inflammatory. There’s something to be said for ministers being able to play Soft Cop to organised labour’s Hard Cop: look, you’re within your rights, old chap, but my friend Mr Wildcat-Striker has a nasty temper on him. Couldn’t we find a middle way? Matthew Parris is a columnist for the Times and The Spectator Douglas Murray Yes. The wildcat strikes are a terrific demonstration of

Peter Hoskin

Your take on the wildcat strikes

The Coffee House poll on the wildcat strikes closed at 10pm yesterday. Here are the final results: Question 1: Do you agree with the workers who have walked out in protest at the subcontracting of work to foreign companies and their workers? Yes: 53.4 percent No: 35.6 percent I don’t know enough about the details of the Total case: 11.1 percent Question 2: Do you support the free movement of workers within the European Union? Yes: 53.8 percent No: 39.2 percent

Alex Massie

The Federal Problem

Conor Friedersdorf makes a point that is too often overlooked: Abraham Lincoln often commuted three miles on horseback so he could sleep on the grounds of a military hospital at night; and that once during the Civil War a British traveler who wanted to meet Lincoln knocked on his door, got invited inside, and ended up spending over an hour chatting with the president. It is hard to imagine a modern president enjoying so much downtime. Perhaps so many early presidents are ranked among the best because though they faced grave problems, their tasks were limited. How would Lincoln’s job performance have changed if on top of his other duties

James Forsyth

Cricket needs a strong Windies

I always feel slightly ambivalent before the start of an England West Indies Test series. I, obviously, support England but I desperately want West Indies cricket to revive itself. The West Indies are the Yorkshire of world cricket: when the West Indies is strong, world cricket is strong. There are also few finer sights in sport than a West Indies team on form. So, how will England fare in the four match series that starts today? I expect they’ll win and that Kevin Pietersen, who has been in fine form in the warm up games, will score an absolute sack-full of runs and show everyone that while he might not

Peter Hoskin

The Tories have a marginal lead

Here’s a new poll of marginal constituencies by YouGov / Channel 4. On the whole, I guess the Tories will be pleased with it. They’re 7 points ahead of Labour (up 2 from a poll in October), and Cameron has a hefty lead on the question of who’s the best leader for the future. But there are some below-headline findings that may give them some small concern. Brown is still regarded as a better “crisis leader”, for instance (although, it should be said, Cameron is catching up with him). And a clear majority think Cameron is “talking down the economy” for political advantage. Still, overall, it makes much cheerier reading for CCHQ than for Number 10.

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 4 February 2009

Stay tuned from 1200 for live coverage of PMQs. 1204: And we’re off. First question from Karen Buck, on rising fuel bills. Asks Brown what further steps he will take to protect pensioners during the winter. An opportunity for Brown to mention the Winter Fuel Allowance 1206: Here’s Cameron. Leads by aksing whether a “retreat into protectionism” is the last thing the world needs. Brown responds that he’s made it clear that such a retreat is “the biggest danger” to the world economy. Slightly odd question from Cameron – allows Brown to mention “global action” and the G20. 1208: Cameron highlights the need to get India and China to make

James Forsyth

Another punishment beating for Ed Miliband

Brown central is said to have felt betrayed by Ed Miliband’s declaration of independence over the third runway at Heathrow. The sense of betrayal was heightened by the fact that Brown’s protégé was positioning for the post-Brown era. But one of the few things those in the Brown bunker can still do well is deliver a swift kicking to those in the Labour party who cross the Prime Minister. So, Ed Miliband is now being set up as the man to take the blame for the strikes. Kevin Maguire, a very good guide to what a certain section of Brownite opinion thinks, writes today that: “The PM is livid that

James Forsyth

Obama is losing momentum – and fast

Yesterday was the worst day of the Obama presidency so far. His agenda and his moral authority both took big hits. Tom Daschle being forced to withdraw from confirmation to be both Health and Human Services Secretary and the White House’s healthcare czar because of tax irregularities leaves Obama’s major domestic priority after the economy rudderless. Daschle, a former Senate Majority Leader, was picked because he was supposed to know how to get healthcare reform through Congress. The Obama administration knows where it wants to go on the issue and Daschle’s job was to steer them through the notoriously hard to navigate legislative shallows of the issue. The damage done

Peter Hoskin

Has Brown set a BJ4BW timebomb for the Tories?

Even now a reconciliatory deal looks hopeful, the Lindsey oil refinery remains a political minefield. Putting aside the question of how the proposed solution of giving around half of the 200 disputed jobs to British workers sits with EU law, the goverment will be worried that all this sets a dangerous precedent. There’s a sense that now the genie has been let out of the bottle – and given a potent rallying cry thanks to Gordon Brown’s deeply foolish and deeply misleading ‘British jobs for British workers’ claim – we will see more and more strikes like that in Lincolnshire. It’s a worry that’ll be exercising Tory minds too. Beyond

Alex Massie

Back from the brink on trade

At least that’s the message Obama seems to be sending to Democrats in Congress. In an interview with ABC News he was asked about the “Buy American” provisions in the “stimulus” bill and said he doesn’t want any “provisions that are going to be a violation of World Trade Organization agreements or in other ways signal protectionism. I think that would be a mistake right now. That is a potential source of trade wars that we can’t afford at a time when trade is sinking all across the globe.” Common sense, of course, but modestly encouraging nonetheless. UPDATE: Not so fast! Ambinder reports that the White House will “clarify” the

Hardeep Singh-Kohli

Turning 40 is a monsoon of my own mortality

By the time you read this I will have turned 40. Forty. Up until a few days ago, 40 was just a number, plain and simple — the sort of number that followed 39 and preceded 41; the sort of number that bands from Birmingham placed after the letters ‘UB’ before recording a few reggae-based songs; the sort of number that was occasionally mentioned on the Shipping Forecast, just before Cromarty, just after Viking and Dogger. My friends had emailed or called with concern, never quite broaching the subject directly, always skirting, dancing around the inevitability of my ageing, the ‘night follows day’ reliability of my mutability. I found myself

Lisa Hilton

We treat our pupils like Aldous Huxley’s Gammas

The historian Lisa Hilton is dismayed by the government’s latest proposals for the teaching of history in which the understanding of complex narrative will be marginalised Like any self-respecting adolescent, I spent most of my teenage years referring to my parents as fascists. What exactly that meant I had little idea, thanks to a state education in which world history consisted of Romans, mediaeval monasteries, the Industrial Revolution and the first world war, in a repetitious carousel of unrelated events. Presumably today’s stroppy brats can malign their parents with impunity, as practically all they learn about is Hitler, yet what of those other much used critical terms — ‘imperialist’, ‘colonialist’,

Tuesday

3 Feb 2009

Alex Massie

Davos Man Plays the Fool

British tycoon Richard Branson participates among other people and actors in a ‘Refugee Run simulation’ during the World Economic Forum on January 30, 2009 in Davos. During this event, participants have to face an ‘attack from rebels, a ‘mine field’, border corruption, language incapacity, black-marketeering and refugee camp survival’. Photo: PIERRE VERDY/AFP/Getty Images Simply because it is easy to mock the rich and famous is no reason not to do so. Has even Branson (whose airline I like, incidentally) ever looked quite so ridiculous? [Hat-tip: Foreign Policy]

Alex Massie

Choice Matters: Education Division

There are some policy ideas that one supports while recognising that they may come with costs, in some cases considerable costs (eg, drug legalisation, open borders, etc etc.) But I confess that I remain mystified by the ferocity with which so many people oppose something as seemingly uncontroversial as school choice. Because it’s not as though school choice doesn’t already exist. It does. But you have to be reasonably well-off to either pay for your kids to be educated in the private sector or pay the mortgage premium to move house to be inside a leading state school’s catchment area. Neither of these strike me as illegitimate choices (though logically

Peter Hoskin

A reminder | 3 February 2009

Our ‘Do you support the strikers?’ poll closes at 10pm this evening. If you want to register your vote before then, do so by clicking here. At the moment, the voting stands as follows… Question 1: Do you agree with the workers who have walked out in protest at the subcontracting of work to foreign companies and their workers? Yes: 52.8 percent No: 35.8 percent I don’t know enough about the details of the Total case: 11.6 percent Question 2: Do you support the free movement of workers within the European Union? Yes: 54.0 percent No: 39.2 percent

Alex Massie

The Day the Music Died

Fifty years, then, since Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the “Big Bopper” died. Yet it could have been even worse: Waylon Jennings was supposed to be on that plane too: “I remember the last time I saw Buddy,” Jennings said in his interview with CMT.com. “He had me go get us some hot dogs. He was leaning back against the wall in a cane-bottom chair and he was laughing at me. He said, ‘So you’re not going with us tonight on the plane, huh? Well, I hope your ol’ bus freezes up. It’s 40-below out there and you’re gonna get awful cold. So I said, ‘Well, I hope your ol’

Peter Hoskin

Setting a timetable for reprivatisation

Niall Ferguson’s article in today’s FT may concentrate on the case of US banks, but it contains much food for thought for UK policymakers. Here are a few key paragraphs: “The US could end up running a deficit of more than 10 per cent of gross domestic product this year (adding the cost of the stimulus package to the Congressional Budget Office’s optimistic 8.3 per cent forecast). Today’s born-again Keynesians seem to have forgotten that their prescription of a deficit-financed fiscal stimulus stood the best chance of working in a more or less closed economy. But this is a globalised world, where unco-ordinated profligacy by national governments is more likely

Alex Massie

Department of Pronunciation

A friend’s wife was conducting a teacher training session in Anacostia, Washington DC the other day: “In one of the classes that she worked in there were two children with oddly spelled, and thus oddly pronounced, names. Let’s see if you can figure out how these names are pronounced 1) “Bukat”- hint, the child is a boy and is named after a famous African American of the late 19th century and early 20th century 2) “La-a”- this one is challenging… The hyphen is part of the pronunciation. I confess, dear reader, that both of these names flummoxed me. Answers below the fold. 1) Bukat- this is pronounced (Book-uh-Tee) as in

James Forsyth

The bad war is coming good, while the good war is going bad

One of the more simplistic foreign policy notions of recent times is that Iraq is the bad war and Afghanistan the good war. Barack Obama, many members of the British government and the European establishment are—or at least were—subscribers to this notion. (Disgracefully, British Ministers would use it in semi-public setting even while British troops were fighting in Iraq). But, ironically, Obama and the West are now dealing with a situation where success has never been nearer in Iraq or further away in Afghanistan. The peaceful provincial elections In Iraq, where the extremist religious parties appear to have fared poorly, was further evidence that Iraq is on the rough path

Peter Hoskin

A vanguard for the Tories’ waste-cutting message

What with the snow, it’s been a testing couple of days for Transport for London. But the interview with the organisation’s head, Peter Hendy, in today’s Standard paints a encouraging picture. I was particularly struck by this passage: “It doesn’t help either that TfL, which employs 28,000 people, has just announced swingeing job cuts of up to 1,800 staff. ‘People have said it’s because of the recession but these cuts have nothing to do with the credit crunch,’ [Hendy] says. ‘In fact, the latest figures show that journeys taken on the Tube and bus are up one per cent and three per cent respectively on the previous year.’ Rather, the