Society

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The political backdrop to the Mumbai attacks

For any CoffeeHouser trying to understand the relationship between Lashkar-e-Taiba—the group that are believed to have been responsible for the Mumbia atrocities—and the Pakistani government, I’d thoroughly recommend Steve Coll’s post over at The New Yorker. This section seems to sum it up: “On the one hand, the group’s bank accounts remain unmolested by the Pakistani government, which gives Lashkar quite a lot of running room; on the other, the group resents the accommodations reached between Pakistan’s government and the United States. Clearly, Lashkar knows what it must do to protect the Pakistan government from being exposed in the violent operations that Lashkar runs in Kashmir and elsewhere. For example,

Peter Hoskin

Bare-knuckle rhetoric from Mandy

Peter Mandelson’s performance on Sky earlier was remarkably venomous.  Here’s the main thrust of it: “I also have to say I think that for many Conservatives, it is a self-serving smokescreen, behind which to hide their own apparent collusion with a Home Office official who was allegedly systematically leaking Home Office papers to the Conservative Party, in order to pursue his own personal political ambition… …I would like to know from the Conservatives whether their frontbench and their leader knowingly colluded with that civil servant in riding a coach and horses not only through the Civil Service code but also through the law.” Putting aside the strength (or weakness) of

Peter Hoskin

The Queen’s Speech: what to expect

What can we expect from the Queen’s Speech; the centrepiece of today’s State Opening of Parliament?  So far as policy is concerned, it’s doubtful whether there’ll be any surprises.  The Times has a great round-up of the measures likely to be contained in what’s being spun as a “fairness” programme, and most have been trailed weeks and months in advance of today.  Perhaps one thing to look out for is the emphasis that’s placed on welfare reform.  It’s top of the Times’s list of measures, but there has been some rumbling on the Westminster grapevine that Brown would play it down – or perhaps even jettison it – because it’s

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

‘They treat me more like a devil than a god’

Lloyd Evans finds that Bernard-Henri Lévy is not the ageing French dandy of caricature but a serious intellectual with views on everything from Barack Obama to the Muslim veil Oh goody. He’s late. Every journalist wants the interviewee to miss the appointment, if possible by several hours. It gives us the advantage and obliges our subject to apologise or face being lacerated in print for the transgression. French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy arrives 35 minutes after the agreed time and greets me with a disarming combination of lightly salted regret and a plausible excuse. In France, Lévy is so famous that he’s known by the simple acronym BHL, like a furniture

Mary Wakefield Mary Wakefield

After Baby P: the crisis in child foster care

Mary Wakefield talks to a courageous woman who blew the whistle on the deep systemic failures in the foster care service — and whose only reward was to be hounded and vilified I spotted Sarah immediately, though I’d never seen her before and she was tucked in among the commuter crowds ebbing and flowing through Marylebone station. She walked differently from the rest, less preoccupied, more determined, and she carried, as she had said she would, a big black folder under her arm. Sarah had told me about the contents of the folder already, so I knew what it contained: a detailed account of an injustice done to Sarah and

Justin Marozzi

Dirty diggers

The Buddha & Dr Fuhrer, by Charles Allen Charles Allen’s latest book on India has a suitably exotic, occasionally improb- able, cast of characters. Centre stage is Dr Anton Führer, an unscrupulous German archaeologist hell-bent on discovering the legendary — and legendarily elusive — city of Kapilavastu, where the Buddha grew into manhood as Prince Siddhartha. Then there is the thoroughly decent British landowner, William Claxton Peppé, who in 1898 made an astonishing find: a reliquary casket, surrounded by a dazzling collection of jewels and gold, purporting to contain the ashes of the Buddha. A continent away in Europe is the most eminent Sanskrit scholar of his day, Doktor Johann

Aidan Hartley

What I learned from the Somali pirates

Aidan Hartley says that Somali piracy is very well-organised and efficient and is opposed publicly only by militant Muslims — who may yet seize power in Mogadishu The ceaseless piracy off Somalia’s shores — another, Singaporean tanker was hijacked last week — is giving rise to a modern, real-life version of the novel Scoop. Evelyn Waugh’s book is set in Africa’s troubled state of Ishmaelia, where one foreign correspondent breaks a big story from a place called Laku. As soon as it is published, Fleet Street editors begin clamouring for copy from Laku, so the press corps rush into the jungle where they become utterly lost. No wonder. It turns

Tuesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The cheek of it

In the weeks since the Labour conference in Manchester, it has been clear that James Purnell has overtaken David Miliband as the leading contender among the Primrose Hill Set. Even though he is considerably more Blairite than Miliband, Purnell is attracting a wider range of support across the party because of his ability to put the Blairite agenda into left-wing language. Indeed, I suspect that if Labour do lose the next election, the ensuing leadership contest will come down to Purnell and Jon Cruddas. Purnell is now confident enough to indulge in a bit of tweaking of Gordon’s tale. As John Rentoul points out, Purnell wonderfully begins the final paragraph

David Blackburn

Top Tory calls for a cut in living standards

Labour have been making hay out of the tin-eared comments of various Tories on the recession. First, there was John Maples saying that the recession should be left to take its course. Then, there was Andrew Lansley speculating about the possible health benefits of a recession. But today John Redwood has topped them both with this post on his blog: ‘The truth is that both the UK and the US have to cut living standards… People and governments have spent too much and borrowed to do so.   Now the world’s markets are saying enough is enough. Living standards in both the public and private sector have to be brought

Peter Hoskin

In a spirit of cooperation

One of the more striking aspects of the Damian Green affair is how it’s angered MPs from every side, corner and alcove of the House.  And quite right too – this is something that could have hefty implications for Parliament as a whole.  The Tories and Lib Dems, in particular, have been singing from an almost identical hymn-sheet when condemning the heavy-handedness of the arrest, and now it’s emerged that they’ve taken the cooperation a stage further.  According to the Beeb, Cameron and Clegg are going to meet to “discuss tactics” ahead of the Queen’s Speech tomorrow.  Their aim is to secure a debate on the Green arrest; although one

Peter Hoskin

Shapps responds

Here are Grant Shapps’ answers to the questions put forward by CoffeeHousers: Colin “What advice do you have for the individuals who are now deep in debt, after a decade long credit bubble; especially now that the safety net of massive house price rises is not there to save them?” The first thing to say is that someone who finds themselves in debt should seek urgent debt counseling advice, ideally before things get completely out of control. Either way, seeking professional help from an organisation like the Citizens Advice Bureau is an absolute must because all creditors will prefer to be in discussion and negotiation with their debtor. Tempting as

Peter Hoskin

Jumping off a cliff?

The Standard’s Paul Waugh got there first, but it’s still worth highlighting the comments of Peer Steinbrück, Germany’s finance minister, in an interview with Der Spiegel.  He echoes Angela Merkel’s scepticism of Brown-style, debt-funded fiscal stimuli, but does so with a bit a rhetorical pizazz.  A case in point: “Just because all the lemmings have chosen the same path, it doesn’t automatically make that path the right one.” For more, head over to Paul’s blog.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The other responsibility to protect

The Pakistan problem is one of the thorniest in international politics. It is almost impossible to see how you deal with a nuclear armed failing state whose government claims, with some justification, that it can’t control its military, intelligence service and all of its territory. But as Bob Kagan writes in the Washington Post today: “…nations should not be able to claim sovereign rights when they cannot control territory from which terrorist attacks are launched. If there is such a thing as a ‘responsibility to protect,’ which justifies international intervention to prevent humanitarian catastrophe either caused or allowed by a nation’s government, there must also be a responsibility to protect

Peter Hoskin

Investigating the investigators

The decision by the Met to hold a review into the Damian Green arrest can only be welcomed – and is perhaps the clearest indication yet that the police feel something’s gone wrong somewhere down the line.  But what will come out of it?  One imagines that the conclusions will necessarily – and perhaps rightly – be limited to matters of police procedure.  Chances are it won’t answer some of the more pertinent questions swirling around the Westminster washbowl: such as which government figures knew what, and when; whether parliamentary figures have failed in their duties; and how Parliament can recover from any damage incurred by this matter.  As James

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A statistic that shames Britain

Camila Batmanghelidjh’s op-ed in The Times today contains a truly shocking fact: The truth, based on research by Kids Company and London University, is that one in five children in deprived inner cities is surviving neglect and abuse.  

Peter Hoskin

As transparent as possible?

An important article by Rachel Sylvester today, on the implications of the Damian Green arrest.  She sees it as a sympton of wider dissatisfaction with the way government information is disseminated: “The Freedom of Information Act, designed to open up the workings of the political elite to the masses, has, they believe, turned into a huge distraction. Last week, the Cabinet Secretary made clear his irritation when he gave evidence to a tribunal considering whether the minutes of Cabinet meetings in the run-up to the war in Iraq should be released. Other senior civil servants moan about the time they spend on freedom of information requests. ‘The whole thing has

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Message from Ottawa

Andrew Coyne defends Stephen Harper from his critics. Or at least, from some of them: While this laissez-faire, do-nothing government contents itself with spending more than any government in the history of Canada — 25% more, after inflation and population growth, than at the start of the decade — and pumping tens of billions of dollars into the banking system, what Canadians demand is “stimulus.” And stimulus, we all know, in a sophisticated, 21st century economy, can be delivered in only one way: by hiring large numbers of unionized men to dig holes in the ground (see “infrastructure.”) Loosening monetary policy doesn’t count. Tax cuts don’t count. It only counts

James Forsyth James Forsyth

ComRes has Labour within one point of the Tories

The consensus  in Westminster is that the Tories are back on the front foot following the PBR and the Damian Green arrest, but a ComRes poll in the Independent (reported on by Political Betting) has Labour closing the gap to one point. This is drastically at odds with the other polls that have come out since the PBR which have shown increased Tory leads. It is even more surprising when you consider that ComRes’s last poll has the Tories ahead by 11 points.  I’m tempted to dismiss it as a rogue poll but I’ll defer to the judgement of Anthony Wells who has yet to weigh in.  Hat Tip: Politics

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Ken Livingstone: I favour 75 percent tax

Ken Livingstone tonight made two quite remarkable statements tonight at the latest Soundings / Comment is Free debate on ‘Who owns the Progressive future?’ The first was boneheaded, the second demonstrated a quite remarkable disdain for democracy and human freedom. John Harris, who was chairing the event, pressed Livingstone on whether he welcomed the introduction of the 45p rate in the PBR and whether he saw this as an important shift—albeit more symbolic than anything else—to the left. Livingstone replied: ‘I’d rather have 45 percent than 40 percent but I’d rather have 75 percent.’ A few moments later, Livingstone mused that ‘real change is going to come out of China’ So