Society

Thursday

Daniel Korski

An open letter to General Petraeus

Last week I met with members of the 100-person team who are conducting a top-to-bottom assessment of Centcom’s area of responsibility on your behalf. I have to say I don’t envy them their task, or you your’s. The remit of your military operation, Central Command (Centcom) is expansive – ranging from Egypt to Pakistan – but the tools at your disposal seem fairly limited and traditional. And what must have started out as a repeat of your successful Iraq exercise will undoubtedly have been complicated by the many other on-going reviews, not to mention the need to await President Obama’s instructions, post-Inauguration. But as the Obama team knows very well,

Peter Hoskin

Brown bites back

Guido’s already highlighted Ed Balls’ repsonse to the German attack on our government’s “crass Keynesianism”, and now Brown’s weighed in on the matter.  Here’s what our PM said earlier: “I do not really want to get involved in what is clearly internal German politics they have a coalition in Germany of different political parties. The important thing is that every country around the world is doing what we are doing. Actually the German government is investing more and has just announced a fiscal expansion so they can invest in public works and help their banks,” It’s all part of Brown’s blunt approach that it permits no nuance.  Despite Peer Steinbrück’s

Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland

What will we be better off without?

Back in the 1960s an old Welsh steel magnate’s son, who in his youth in the 1930s had been immensely rich but had by now fallen far behind, was asked by my father what he thought about the likely result of the general election. “I don’t care who gets in”, he replied, “so long as they put an end to this damned prosperity.” Economic growth has its downsides as well as its benefits. In this week’s issue, Venetia Thompson and I list thirteen of them – the idiot trends and self-indulgent nonsense we won’t miss from the last fifteen years. What are yours?

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Is Mandelson an ideological Blairite?

Peter Mandelson is regarded as the ultimate Blairite. And certainly in terms of personal loyalty few match up to him. Despite Blair sacking him twice, Mandelson was still his most articulate defender in the various TV retrospectives on the Blair era. Mandelson even called Blair before accepting Gordon Brown’s offer of a seat in the Lords and a return to the cabinet. But John Rentoul in his Independent on Sunday column made the crucial point that “Mandelson is not a political philosopher; he is an operator.” The same instincts that led Mandelson to move Labour to the centre on economics now seem to be persuading him to move Labour to

Peter Hoskin

Eroding the message

So what emerges from Alan Sugar’s interview with Gordon Brown, a transcript of which is published by the Sun today?  Not a great deal, really.  The headline-grabbers are Brown’s sort-of-admission that the downturn has strengthened his position, and his “No, no, no,” when asked about joining the Euro.  The first of these is almost certainly true; the second may not be. Apart from that, the rest of the interview is largely a collection of the usual Brownite platitudes.  Sure, we’ve heard all the “Global crisis which started in America”-style lines before, but here they’re perhaps more brazen than ever.  Here’s how Brown sets up both America and British banks as

Wednesday

Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland

Things we’ll really all be better off without

Most journalists have spoken of the financial crisis as evidence of a failure of capitalism. But is it? Or is this kind of reversal in fact necessary if capitalism is to work at all? After all, a free-market economy doesn’t do a perfect job of rewarding success. It may pick better winners than, say, governments, but it is still largely arbitrary. Even relatively worthy successes such as Google’s or Microsoft’s may be as much the result of lucky timing as anything else. Instead, capitalism is at its indisputable best not when picking but when picking off. In unerringly killing off the bad: the inefficient, the redundant, the outdated or the

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Delaying Detroit’s Death

Now as it happens, American cars are, generally speaking, much better than they used to be. And Ford and GM have demonstrated that, in europe at least, they know how to build small cars capable of doing more than 20 miles to the gallon. Even in the United States, the Big Three have greatly improved reliability, build-quality and, at least in some of their plants, productivity. The best American cars really aren’t all that different, or poorer than their Japanese rivals. But though Detroit has responded to Japanese quality, carbuyers haven’t updated their perceptions. Hence this mock-ad: Harsh? Only partially. But this is a sentiment shared by millions of car-owners.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Tales from Modern Britain

When the spooks think matters have got out of hand then, you know, they’ve probably gotten out of hand. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) was passed in 2000 to regulate the way that public bodies such as the police and the security services carry out surveillance. Originally only a handful of authorities were able to use RIPA but its scope has been expanded enormously and now there are at least 792 organisations using it, including hundreds of local councils. This has generated dozens of complaints about anti-terrorism legislation being used to spy on, for example, a nursery suspected of selling pot plants unlawfully, a family suspected of lying

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Michael Gerson Cares More Than You Do

Michael Gerson, formerly George W Bush’s chief speechwriter, has been to the Congo. As you might imagine, it’s pretty grim there. So, naturally, Gerson has this to say: Security in eastern Congo is the prerequisite for political progress. Nkunda will continue to push until someone effectively pushes back. The Congolese army is incapable of defeating him. While the U.N. peacekeeping force is the reason that Goma was not taken, it does not have the political will and the capabilities to contain Nkunda. It lacks rapid-reaction forces and night-fighting capabilities. This leaves one alternative — a capable, hard-hitting European military force, supported by the United States, which would stabilize the situation,

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Got vs Gotten

I knew someone would call me out on this. And sure enough, commenting on this post, faithful reader Sam G writes: First paragraph: “gotten”? O tempora, O Mores indeed. To which I say: hooey. To begin with, there’s much to be said for the vigour of American English. Plus, as you know, gotten is merely an ancient form that, though out of fashion in the old country, was preserved in the new world. As is so often the case, we turn to the Sage of Baltimore for guidance. Here’s Mencken: Whatever the true cause of the substitution of the preterite for the perfect participle, it seems to be a tendency

Alex Massie Alex Massie

GOP Future Delayed? Maybe.

Bobby Jindal has fast become the GOP’s Great Brown Hope. He keeps demonstrating why. First he said he did not want to be considered as a potential running-mate for John McCain, now he says he won’t be running for President in 2012. Sensible laddie. 2016 is time enough. Apart from anything else, he has to be re-elected Governor of Louisiana in 2011 first. Sure, he might change his mind and, sure, Obama may be a very unlucky President, but smart people won’t be betting that way. At least, not yet.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Davis for defence?

Jane Merrick has a post over at The Independent speculating that David Davis could be made shadow defence secretary in the 2009 reshuffle. Certainly, back when Cameron was putting his first shadow cabinet together it was thought that Davis would get either the Home or Defence briefs. But I don’t think Davis will get defence for one of the reasons Jane Merrick thinks he might get it: Afghanistan. (I’d also be surprised if Cameron moved Fox). Jane Merrick notes that Davis “has been asking a lot of questions in parliament recently about troops in Afghanistan”. But I suspect Tory high command, which thinks about Afghanistan more than any other foreign

Peter Hoskin

One for the “worst predictions” list?

Over at Comment Central, Alice Fishburn’s highlighted a couple of 2008’s worst predictions.  Of course, we’ll have to wait to see how things pan out, but I reckon Alistair Darling’s claim that the economy will start recovering by the third quarter of 2009 could well be a contender for the list.  He first deployed it during his Pre-Budget Report statement, but it popped up again during the Chancellor’s appearance before the Treasury Select Committee today. Here’s how the indispensable Politics Home reports it: Mr Darling said that he expects the economy: “to start to grow in the second half of next year.” He said that this estimate was based on:

John Stokes

Obama’s security team dilemma

So far, President-elect Obama’s appointments to his new administration have received widespread plaudits but he is running into serious trouble finding the right people for his national security team. He ran his election campaign, in part, on a series of promises to break firmly with the Bush administration. US troops would be out of Iraq in 16 months; there would be no more illegal wiretapping of Americans, no kidnapping and certainly no torture. But since the election there has been a series of reality check admissions: Yes, there will be withdrawal from Iraq but troops will likely stay for a long time, torture is bad but then there might be

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Senate seat for sale?

Illinois politics is legendarily corrupt. But even by the state’s high standards, the charge sheet against the current governor, Rod Blagojevich, is impressive. Blagojevich was, so it is alleged, trying to sell the Senate seat that Obama’s election had left vacant. If that wasn’t enough, Blagojevich was apparently attempting to shake down the president-elect. The sale of the Senate seat isn’t the only charge against the governor. The New York Times summarises the others as follows: “The governor is accused of racing to solicit millions of dollars in donations from people with state business before an ethics law bars such behavior in January, and threatening to rescind state money this

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 10 December 2008

Welcome to this week’s Coffee House PMQs live blog.  What to expect?  Well, as always, there’s plenty for the party leaders to say on the economy – particularly in light of Cameron’s speech yesterday, and the news today that the economy may have shrunk by 1 percent in the 3 months to November.  I’d be fairly surprised if welfare reform doesn’t feature as well. 1205: Here’s Gordon.  Alison Seabeck starts: “Businesses and small businesses have welcomed the measures introduced during the downturn…”  A question which lets Brown say “We will take action, [they Tories] would do nothing.” 1207: Cameron now. Returns to the theme of a few weeks ago: has the bailout freed up credit for small businesses?

Lisa Hilton

Mind the shoes!

Still few signs of retrenchment in Notting Hill, although at a Euro-bankers party this weekend one wit did propose that Soda-Streamed Chablis might pass as acceptably crunchy Champagne. How the time must fly in what’s left of the City. Over the canapés (chestnuts wrapped in lardo, salmon with liquorice), one guest described the distress she had felt at the appalling poverty which co-exists with the conspicuous trappings of new wealth on a recent business trip to Mumbai. Recent tragedy aside, the Western press seems reluctant to criticize this aspect of the Indian economic boom, preferring to relegate teeming misery to the status of energetic vibrancy or authentic local colour. The

Peter Hoskin

A Freud’s-eye view

Just to recommend David Freud’s comment piece in the Times today.  You’ll read few clearer explications of the welfare dependency problem and of the reforms enshrined in today’s White Paper.  In spite of Freud’s role as a government adviser, he even hints at one of the more malignant Brownies*: the willful shifting of claimants off JobSeekers’ Allowance and on to incapacity benefit (“…about 2.6 million still on incapacity benefit. In origin this phenomenon no doubt reflected government massaging of the unemployment figures.”)  In terms of potential, at least, the welfare reform plan being announced today is one of the more important political events of the past decade.  There is so

John Patten

The prospects for a proud Olympic legacy are bleak

John Patten, an Olympics adviser, warns that there is still much strategic thinking to be done for 2012 — not to mention the lax anti-terror measures at the construction sites I had to be forcibly persuaded on to the rugby field at school. Now, to my amazement, I find myself advising the British Olympic Association. I sympathise with friends who become quite hysterical at the idea of my rubbing shoulders with Sir Clive Woodward and the titans of track and field. But the BOA wanted at least one member of the semi-detached and sceptical classes to be around as a counterweight to unrealistic tendencies. The London Olympic dream is for