Society Archives

Tuesday

6 Jan 2009

A relationship on the wane?

A typically insightful piece by Rachel Sylvester today; this time on the Obama administration’s precarious commitment to the “special relationship”. The key revelation is about a report doing the rounds among British defence and diplomatic officials: “Perhaps most important of all, the military alliance between Britain and America – which has cemented the political alliance since the First World War – is beginning to crack. I am told that a report circulating at the highest level in the Ministry of Defence concludes that there are now serious doubts in Washington about the effectiveness of the British Armed Forces. Senior military figures are said to have been surprised, and shocked, by

Monday

5 Jan 2009

Alex Massie

I am Michael Common*

And so it continues. Not content with discovering “passive” smoking, the health boffins have now discovered something called “third-hand smoking” – all the better, presumably, to drive the last remaining smokers into the mountains (be they the Rockies or the Western Highlands) where, armed with only our wits, a lighter and a dwindling supply of contraband tobacco, we shall slip from cave to cave, lair to lair, all the while pursued by an army of “health professionals” hell-bent on saving us from ourselves… *The hero of Michael Heath’s long-running Spectator cartoon strip, The Outlaw, Michael Common is the last, still-persecuted, smoker in England.

Alex Massie

The Further Adventures of Lance Armstrong

When he finally gets off his bike (again), does Armstrong see a future in politics? Looks like it. Interviewed by the Daily Beast he puts it like this: If you feel like you can do the job better than people who are doing it now, and you can really make a difference, then that’s a real calling to serve, and I think you have to do that. I felt a strong desire to come back and race right now because I felt we had a place and I could have a real impact and that’s why I’m doing it. I don’t think you want to enter political life unless you

Alex Massie

But Sometimes Change is Real

Matt Yglesias correctly suggests that these photos are the Obamas attempt to reduce the “National Cuteness Deficit.” But there’s something else too: besides being charming, it’s striking how these photographs of Malia and Sasha preparing for their first day at a new school are both so very ordinary and yet also a reminder of howit really is momentous thing that this is the next First Family of the United States of America. The ordinary reveals and, in a sense, reinforces the extraordinary… NB: Close examination reveals that the President-elect is not in fact making a somewhat dismissive gesture to his daughter. Three fingers, not two.

James Forsyth

In 2009 the Tories need to kick their dependency on Dave

One habit the Tory party should aim to cure itself of in 2009 is its over-reliance on David Cameron to gets its message across. Some Tories defend the heavy use of Cameron by arguing that he is both the party’s most attractive face and the only way they can guarantee getting their message reported in the media. But using Cameron for nearly all high-profile announcements prevents other members of the shadow Cabinet from developing national recognition. For instance, I fail to see why George Osborne shouldn’t have made today’s announcements on tax. Also, as Tim Montgomerie has noted, if there are too many speeches by a party leader they become

James Forsyth

Things worth reading | 5 January 2009

The economic crisis is so bad that it is often easy to forget that the foreign policy challenges that so dominated the news a year or so ago have not gone away. The mission in Afghanistan will present General Petraeus with an even tougher challenge than Iraq, Iran’s nuclear ambitions will have to be confronted or accepted sometime soon, this year we will find out what happens in China when the economy stumbles, Russia still seems intent on reasserting its dominance in its near abroad and there is—of course—the problems in the Middle East that have so dominated the news in the past few days. So, I’m very glad that

James Forsyth

Obama’s double-play on taxes

The first order of business for the incoming Obama administration is going to be a stimulus package. With Obama’s vacation over and the President-elect moving from Chicago to DC, the details of the plan are beginning to become clearer. The Wall Street Journal reports that the administration will urge Congress to make 40 per cent of the stimulus, expected to weigh in at $775 billion, tax cuts. As it notes: “The Obama tax-cut proposals, if enacted, could pack more punch in two years than either of President George W. Bush’s tax cuts did in their first two years.” This is a clever move from the ever-pragmatic Obama team. The stimulus

Peter Hoskin

Claiming the future

I wrote yesterday that the race is on between Brown and Cameron to appear the best to lead us through the post-recessionary landscape. That race became even more competitive today, with both Brown and Cameron serving up their “optimistic” visions for the future. Our Dear Leader’s came in a speech to the Regional Economic Council, which was packed with nods to a “prosperous future” and to “investment in the future”. Whilst Cameron’s came in the press conference that Fraser blogged about earlier, during which there was much ado about “increased productivity,” “more efficiency,” and “greener technology”. On the whole, I’d say Cameron’s got out of the starting blocks quicker; but

James Forsyth

Cameron goes grey

Fraser is at David Cameron’s event so he’ll have more on the Tory announcement that they’ll abolish the basic rate of tax on savings and raise the personal allowances of pensioners by £2,000 My initial reaction is that it is a savvy political move, the population is getting older and old people vote in higher numbers than young people. It is, however, a micro not a macro announcement. As David Cameron’s interview on the Today Programme this morning showed the Tories still lack a clear convincing, and compelling answer as to what they would do to lead the country out of this crisis. (Although, it gladdened the heart to hear

James Forsyth

Dwelling on the past will damage Brown

The whole economic meltdown is less of an opportunity for the left in Britain than the US for the simple reason that Labour was in power here in the years leading up to it. Today, Jackie Ashley bemoans that Brown’s refusal to admit that mistakes were made means that the left might miss the opportunity presented to it by this crisis: “We really do live in a world ready to accept bigger government and fairer taxes. Yet to properly exploit that, Brown and his ministers have to change their tune about the past. To hear him claim he made no mistakes, and that everything about the Blair-Brown handling of the

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 5 January – 11 January

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

Peter Hoskin

Slower to demonise, faster to fix

Although I agree with the ultimate conclusion of Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s column today – that we shouldn’t, as a nation, “blame the outsider,” and that we should work towards greater integration – the tirade she launches before it is astonishing, and not in a good sense: “A new government report finds that [the white, working classes] feel “betrayed” and abandoned. Ruined by “ethnic minorities” they cry into their antimacassars and threaten to vote for fascists. The British working classes include people of every shade. But only white grievances matter. Nobody seeks to find out what life is like for the incomers living in the fog of nativist bitterness. Parliamentarians, the media,

Sunday

4 Jan 2009

Alex Massie

Mr Webb Returns To Washington

There were all manner of reasons for Barack Obama to pick someone other than Jim Webb as his running-mate (though there was a case to be made for Webb too). But, via Ross Douthat, here’s a reminder of why Webb is, as he might put it himself, a serious politician: This spring, Webb (D-Va.) plans to introduce legislation on a long-standing passion of his: reforming the U.S. prison system. Jails teem with young black men who later struggle to rejoin society, he says. Drug addicts and the mentally ill take up cells that would be better used for violent criminals. And politicians have failed to address this costly problem for

Alex Massie

Obituary of the Day

Some New Year cheer, courtesy of the Daily Telegraph’s obituaries column. The deceased, in this instance, is Lady Anne Cavendish-Bentinck, one of Britain’s largest landowners who, had she not been born on the distaff side, would have been the Duke of Portland. Anyway… Her grandfather, the 6th Duke, a younger half-brother of the Countess of Strathmore (mother of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother), had not been in direct line for the dukedom. He succeeded his eccentric second cousin, who had a horror of being seen and so supervised the digging of a network of underground passages and rooms at Welbeck – these included a tunnel 1¼ miles long, and wide

Alex Massie

Mr Pennyfeather finds a new job

You probably heard about the new school in Sheffield that won’t call itself a school because that word has “negative connotations”. Watercliffe Meadow will instead call itself a “place of learning”. Seriously. It’s all very Decline and Fall : “We class schools, you see, into four five grades: Leading School, First-rate School, Good School, School and Place of Learning. Frankly,” said Mr Levy, “Place of Learning is pretty bad…”

Alex Massie

Further Adventures in Live-Blogging

We were here for the primary debates last year. We covered Obama vs Clinton. We live-blogged the Presidential debates and we dared not miss Biden vs Palin. But all of that was but a warm-up for the main event tonight. Yup, taking live-blog absurdity to new heights, we’ll be live-blogging the final of the World Darts Championship tonight. Obama vs McCain was small beer compared to the feast of drama afforded by Phil “The Power” Taylor’s epic confrontation with Raymond “Barney Rubble” van Barneveld. So join us, from around 7.30pm UK-time (2.30pm EST) as we enjoy some terrific tungsten action tonight…

Alex Massie

Halls of Fame

In general, I suppose I don’t have too much against the idea of a cricket Hall of Fame though given that we’ve managed to get along fine without one for centuries there doesn’t seem any pressing need for one. But if you are going to have such a Hall, then for god’s sake include the right people. Via Patrick Kidd, I see that the ICC’s new venture has found room for an initial class of 55 inductees that, bewilderingly, fails to include Victor Trumper. While it’s fine to ignore players who only retired in the last ten or so years the lack of recognition of chaps from the Golden Age

James Forsyth

A first bit of bother for President-elect Obama as Richardson withdraws

Until today the transition had gone pretty much perfectly for Obama. His appointments were impressive and warmly received, his poll numbers have risen to record levels and the scandal about Governor Blagojevich allegedly trying to sell off Obama’s Senate seat has not hurt Obama or any of his staff. But today the transition hit a bump in the road: New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson had to withdraw from consideration to be Commerce Secretary. It was decided that a grand jury investigation into allegations of corruption in the awarding of state contracts in New Mexico would make his confirmation too difficult and distracting. Commerce is a second-tier post, though its importance

James Forsyth

A far from healthy attitude to accountability

There is a classic example of government waste and arrogance in today’s Observer. The Department of Health has taken to paying celebrities to appear in public health announcements. The thinking (and it is rather dubious if you ask me) being that a celebrity is more likely than anyone else to persuade us to eat five pieces of fruit a day and the like. The Observer put in a Freedom of Information request to find out how much these celebrities are paid for this work. But the Department of Health is refusing to disclose the sums involved, with a spokesman saying: “The Department appreciates that high-profile individuals are very successful at

James Forsyth

He’s bolder than you’d think

In The Observer today, Peter Oborne argues—as he has in the past—that David Cameron is far more of a radical than most people realise: “[Cameron] has been accused, especially by supporters, of being long on ambition, short on principles. This is almost the complete opposite of the case. I have read most of his speeches since he became leader and they are incredibly brave. Fundamentally, he has been calling for the British state as it currently stands to be dismantled, with power taken from central government and given back to local communities and institutions. There is an intellectual coherence here. In a series of brilliant speeches, Tory education spokesman Michael