Society

Friday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Cricket Fans Reluctant to Embrace “Modern” Game; Insist Old Ways Best.

As a member of the English cricket team’s supporters club (vital for snaring Ashes tickets next summer) I was pleased to receive this email from the ECB today: ‘Tests are best’ say fans – We received a fantastic nearly 3,000 responses to the recent online TwelfthMan survey where, amongst many other things, you indicated that although you love the razzmatazz and big-hitting of the Twenty20 game, Test cricket still gets the majority vote – a staggering 94% of you in fact. Full survey results will be with you in the new year. Thanks to all who took part as it really does help us at ECB understand the game from

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Cruiser Goes Down

Conor Cruise O’Brien’s death, at 91, comes as a jolt. By the end, the Cruiser was something of a reactionary (his hostility to nationalism had led him to embrace Bob Macartney’s UK Unionist Party) but that shouldn’t detract from his achievements as a historian (especially his books on Parnell and Burke), journalist and public intellectual. Most of all, however, his death reminds one of how completely Ireland has changed in the past 20 years. The Cruiser’s battles with Charlie Haughey (he was right about Haughey years before the full extent of the former Taoiseach’s crookedness became widely apparent) and his fulminations on the national question have a certain antiquated feel

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Rick Warren Goes to Washington

Well, you wouldn’t expect Christopher Hitchens to be impressed by Barack Obamas decision to ask Rick Warren to give the invocation at the new President’s inauguration, would you? Sure enough, he’s not pleased: A president may by all means use his office to gain re-election, to shore up his existing base, or to attract a new one. But the day of his inauguration is not one of the days on which he should be doing that. It is an event that belongs principally to the voters and to their descendants, who are called to see that a long tradition of peaceful transition is cheerfully upheld, even in those years when

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Tartan Blogging

A reader notices an absence of blogging on the subject and asks: “What’s happening in Scotland?” Answer: Bugger all.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Why don’t you just cancel the bus service?

It’s good to see that not every sector of the economy is knee-capped by the “credit crunch”. So hurrah for NHS Lothian who are advertising this exciting opportunity: Job Title: Health Promotion Specialist: Physical Activity (Walking, City of Edinburgh) Band 5: £20,225 – £26,123 per annum Fixed Term – 3 Year Contract Ref: CO/AL/094 An exciting and challenging opportunity has arisen to take forward work in Partnership with City of Edinbrugh Council and Paths to Health to increase physical activity levels of whose who live and work in Edinburgh through walking. You will establish good working relationships with NHS Lothian, City of Edinburgh Council, Paths to Health and partner agencies

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Is Mandelson really going to become Lord of the Dance?

This story seems almost too good to be true: Peter Mandelson is, apparently, going to make a guest appearance on Strictly Come Dancing tomorrow night. The Belfast Telegraph reports that: “The Secretary of State for Business is expected to take to the dancefloor alongside celebrities Lisa Snowdon, Rachel Stevens and Tom Chambers to wow the crowd in a Christmas extravaganza.” The plus side for Mandelson in going on is that it will do much to soften his image and help elevate him above the political fray. The risk is that he’ll be seen to be tangoing while the economy crashes. Who’d have thought at the beginning of the year that

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Class confusion

The Daily Mirror is, to put it mildly, obsessed with David Cameron’s social background. But Paul Routledge demonstrates an alarming lack of knowledge when he fumes that: “Deregulating the City, so bankers could steal the cash and get rich was [Thatcher’s] idea. Cameron is hard-wired with them. They’re his tribe. He gets his money from them, mixes with them, married one, and went to school with the b******s.” Leaving aside that the old aristocracy and those who profited from the big bang and other Thatcherite reforms are actually fairly distinct groups, Samantha Cameron is not and never has been a banker. More broadly, Routledge should decide who his enemy is.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A question of priorities

At his press conference this morning, Gordon Brown said that he would reply to David Cameron’s letter about meeting with the civil service in due course. It is an improvement on a spokesman’s answer last weekend that, “The prime minister is in Afghanistan, so it is not top of his list of priorities” But it is still ridiculous and petty that the Prime Minister won’t sign off on these meetings that play an important role in ensuring the smooth transfer of power when the governing party loses an election, something that we can surely all agree is in the national interest. It says something about Brown’s priorities that he has

Peter Hoskin

Sticking up for savers

An effective article by George Osborne in this morning’s Telegraph, sticking up for savers and pensioners. It’s well worth reading the whole thing, but here’s the first couple of paragraphs: “Over the past year, someone with £10,000 of savings in an easy access high street account has seen their income fall from £50 a month to less than £25. Having planned for their retirement and put money aside for a rainy day, pensioners and savers are seeing their living standards fall. Those who weren’t caught up in Gordon Brown’s Age of Irresponsibility are being made to pay the price for it. Of course, cuts in interest rates by the Bank

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Mandelson and Charlie Whelan <em>have</em> met

The enmity between the Blair and Brown camps seemed to be perfectly captured by the fact that Charlie Whelan had to resign after Mandelson’s first resignation. The Blairites were convinced that Whelan had leaked the story and the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth demanded that Whelan go too. It is only under the most compelling circumstances that you could imagine the two men working together again. That’s why the rumour that the two had met in Downing Street caused such excitement last weekend; it appeared to be an indication that general election planning was under way. The rumour was so heavily denied that

Peter Hoskin

A dangerous precedent?

So, is bailing out Jaguar an urgent necessity or a dangerous precedent?  According to the papers this morning, Business ministers – marshalled, of course, by Peter Mandelson – are veering towards the former viewpoint, while the Treasury veers towards the latter.  If so, I’m with HMT on this one.  Although Mandy warned yesterday that the Government doesn’t have an “open chequebook”, the framework he’s created – i.e. as Robert Peston puts it, “he would only save businesses that are of strategic importance to our economy and would be sound in a world where credit was flowing freely” – implies that countless other companies will be able to make demands for

Thursday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Rendition Problem

Ross Douthat has a very interesting, honest post about torture here. (With subsequent posts here and here.) As if by magic, National Review appears with an editorial defending the Bush administration’s approach to interrogation here. I don’t find it especially persuasive, and doubt you will too. Conor Friedersdorf has more too. Amidst the debate on torture and “torture-lite” (or “enhanced” interrogation), one element of US policy is often overlooked: Extraordinary Rendition. To some extent you can argue about policies applied at Guantanamo and CIA black sites around the world, but there’s no denying, I think, that Extraordinary Rendition amounts to anything less than state-sponsored torture. After all, that’s the entire

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Canterbury and Downing Street

Gordon Brown may be a son of the Manse, but it’s the Archbishop of Canterbury, of all people, who has picked up a presbyterian cudgel with which to whack the Prime Minister. To wit: The Archbishop of Canterbury criticised the government’s fiscal stimulus package on Thursday, likening it to “an addict returning to a drug.” Then again, it hardly matters. It’s not as though many people listen to the Church of England anyway….

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Threat from Australia

Adapt and change or die is the mantra of the day. And not just in economics neither. Here, for instance, is the Australian rugby coach Ewen McKenzie, currently in charge at Stade Francais, arguing that the experimental rules used this season in the southern hemisphere be adopted in europe too: “I understand the debate, change is difficult,” he warned. “But we are now in the entertainment business. Kids have all sorts of technology in their homes now so we as a sport have got to do things to make them get off their bums and come to watch our game, especially when the weather is cold. “That means you have

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Kennedy Reveals All

So Caroline Kennedy is kind enough to explain why she thinks she should be appointed the next Senator from New York: “I come at this as a mother, as a lawyer, as an author as an education advocate and from a family that really has spent generations in public service,” she began, in response to a question about why she’s running, saying this is “a time when nobody can afford to sit out.” Personally I’d be wary of trading upon her grandfather’s public-service career, but then again perhaps she liked the old bastard. Clearly, however, she’s decided that there’s no point ignoring the dynastic/entitlement issue and has chosen, instead, to

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Department of Correction

Ah, it’s that time of year again! Yup, the splendid blog Regret the Error rounds up the most entertaining newspaper corrections of the year. Some of my favourites: The Daily Mail was among the newspapers to report that David Gest contracted herpes from Liza Minnelli on their wedding night. Not so! In articles published on 23 and 26 May 2008, we gave the impression that Mr Gest had contracted a sexually transmitted infection and alleged that he had Liza Minnelli’s dog killed without her knowledge. This was wrong. David Gest has never had a sexually transmitted infection and did not have Ms Minnelli’s dog killed. We apologise to Mr Gest

Peter Hoskin

Speakers’ corner

Inspired by last week’s New Statesman cover piece, we at Coffee House Central figured we’d pick out some of our favourite political speeches.  You can find them listed below – along with our comments and YouTube footage, if availiable.  Do mention any of your own favourites in the comments section.  I’ll get the ball rolling with my own pick… Peter Hoskin Disagree with the man, disagree with his politics; but there’s little denying that John F. Kennedy was one of the great political orators of the Twentieth Century.  He may have made better speeches, but his 1962 address to Rice University – on the NASA moon landing program – strikes a

Peter Hoskin

Now it’s the Archbishop’s turn to give Brown a kicking

And the Quote of the Day belongs to Rowan Williams.  Here’s what he said to the Beeb earlier on Gordon Brown’s borrowing binge: “I worry a bit about that, it seems a little like the addict returning to the drug.” Say what you will about the Archbishop getting involved in politics, but this is manna from heaven for the Tories.  First it was the Germans and now it’s the Church.  The list of detractors to Brown’s economic approach grows longer by the day…

Harry Maude

Would Brown perform during an election campaign?

With the election speculation mounting, two points in Iain Martin’s Telegraph article today are worth bearing in mind. The first is that Tories have penciled in 26th February as a potential snap election date. The second is that we’ve never really seen Gordon Brown doing the whole frontline campaigning thing – something that may be either a symptom or a cause of any reluctance he may have to go to the polls. As Iain writes: “It is hard to envisage the country, confronted by Brown each day during a contest, growing to like him more. The format of an election campaign will suit Cameron’s style because the “toff” has form