Society Archives

Saturday

6 Dec 2008

The global currency crisis is still to come

Now that businessmen from Kazakhstan to California speak a single language, it’s perhaps not surprising that we endured a Babel of borrowing over the past ten years. And like all towers which reach too high, it fell — and great was the fall of it. So great, in fact, that the financial world was overwhelmed. The debris of dislocation and default rained down upon the fortress of the financial system, smashing it to matchwood. Shocking: but all, it seems, is not lost. With screeching tyres a jeep has come into view. Who’s that at the wheel? Why, it’s King Canute! And with him, Gordon Brown, Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson and

Paul Johnson

And Another Thing | 6 December 2008

Plus ça change in the bustling hurly-burly of Westbourne Grove The chill winds are already blowing down Westbourne Grove as the recession takes hold. They would, wouldn’t they? The Grove is a peculiarly fragile and sensitive street, and has been ever since it was set up in the 1850s. At one time it was known as Bankruptcy Alley. The turnover in the shops and restaurants is allegro con brio. When we first came to live in our delightful little street, Newton Road, a quarter-century ago, the Grove was a pretty bedraggled place, only slowly emerging from the near-slummy grime which lasted from the Great Slump, through the war and into

Matthew Parris

Another Voice | 6 December 2008

To understand the true nature of history, let us start with the question of Napoleon’s piles Cometh the hour, cometh the piles? Well, Wellington called Waterloo ‘the closest run thing you ever saw in your life’, and on the morning of battle, Napoleon was too exhausted and distracted by pain from his haemorrhoids to focus or to ride out. So did piles cost Napoleon that winning edge? Is Alaska part of the United States because in 1867 Tsar Alexander II had overspent on a big naval expedition and was temporarily but acutely short of cash? Is our belief in the potency of spinach due entirely to the misplacing of a

Rod Liddle

The law applies to Damian Green, too

Great news — grooming is now a criminal offence. I’ve always had problems with it, frankly. When about to go out somewhere special for the evening my personal grooming consists of hacking at my face with the blunt Bic razor my wife keeps by the side of the bath for when the waxing business hasn’t quite done the trick, and three strategic squirts of Lynx ‘Africa’ deodorant (a procedure known colloquially as a ‘Glasgow Shower’). I end up at functions heavily bandaged and smelling of Dr Milton Obote, but nobody seems to mind. Grooming, I always thought, was overrated. How nice that the police agree. Damian Green, the shadow immigration

Friday

5 Dec 2008

Alex Massie

DC a State? Why Not Hong Kong II?

Yglesias supports the idea of DC becoming the 51st state. This would be great news for Democrats since the party would be rewarded with a brace of Senators and an additional Congressman. That’s one reason why it will never happen. Still, DC’s lack of voting representation in Congress is a boon for foreign correspondents needing an idea every so often. I reckon you can squeeze a piece out of the matter at least every 18 months. And it’s true that foreigners are astonished to discover that residents of the US capital have no votes in Congress. So yes, it’s nice that DC car license plates carry the slogan “Taxation Without

James Forsyth

The police and politics don’t mix

Sam Coates makes a telling point over at his blog: “The Crown Prosecution Service, who decided it could not bring charges, has torn up electoral law in the process. They have decided Peter Hain was not legally responsible for over £100,000 of late donations because he wasn’t the signatory on the campaign accounts. This has come as a surprise to the Electoral Commission, who thought that as candidate he was the “regulated donee” and therefore should take the rap. So the much hated 2000 donations laws are now officially a complete mess, with the watchdog and police working by completely different rules. That wont sort itself out in a hurry.

Daniel Korski

The Forbes prescription

These days it can seem more popular to defend Morris dancing than free markets. In today’s recession-engulfed debate, failed ideas have come back from the dead. Capitalism is bad, intervention good. Financiers are evil, industrialists are good. Tax hikes are good, low-tax polices are bad. And so on. But if there is one person (beside Fraser Nelson, of course) who is willing to stand up for free-market capitalism it is Steve Forbes. The U.S publisher, flat-taxer and perennial presidential candidate has just published a punchy piece in his eponymous magazine – entitled “How Capitalism Will Save US” — and at a breakfast meeting in London, he laid out his ideas.

James Forsyth

How could Brown shuffle Hain back in?

There is a fascinating little dance going on between Peter Hain and Brown Central. As soon as the CPS decided they weren’t going to charge him, Hain was telling Sky News that “I only left government to clear this up, and would like to return, but that is a matter for the Prime Minister.” Brown repaid the compliment with his political spokesman saying, “We obviously welcome the fact that Peter Hain has been cleared in this matter. Peter has been a great servant of the Labour party and has much to offer in the future.” Now, you could see this as merely an exchange of pleasantries. But as Andrew Sparrow

Fraser Nelson

Taking a pounding

How much should we worry about a falling pound? Since Monday sterling is off 5 percent against the Euro, 6.5 percent against the dollar, 9 percent against the Yen and 3.4 percent against the Hungarian forint: Hungary, of course, had to be bailed out by the IMF. This is worrying for the government as its survival plan for the next five years involves borrowing untold billions from the Arabs, Chinese or whoever has cash – who may not relish the thought of pumping billions into IOU notes in our rapidly devaluing currency. Of course it’s true that a weaker currency is good for the economy overall, as will help exports.

James Forsyth

A return for David Davis looks increasingly likely

At the moment, David Davis would probably rather be arrested than return to the shadow cabinet. But the prospect of Davis being asked to come back to the top table looks more likely now than at any point since his spectacular resignation in June. Davis could well be back in his old job after a reshuffle in the New Year. The Damian Green affair has reminded the Tory leadership how much they miss someone with Davis’ hunting skills. Dominic Grieve was impressive in the Commons yesterday but he has failed to cut through in the media. He was outperformed on Newsnight the other night by Chris Huhne which is rather

James Forsyth

The Tories must remember Mandelson is mortal

It is hard to disagree with Martin Kettle’s assertion that Peter Mandelson is the “most interesting” figure in British politics right now. Since his return from Brussels, Mandelson has had a key role to play in every major political story and has revelled in the quite extraordinary amount of coverage he has received. As Kettle—who interviewed Mandelson for an hour or so at Saturday’s Progress conference—notes, Mandelson is now a far more intellectually confident figure than he was in 1997. Much of Mandelson’s success has stemmed from the fact that the Tories are so intimidated by him; they talk about him in hushed tones. They are convinced that everything Mandelson

Thursday

4 Dec 2008

Alex Massie

Amazon

I’ve finally got round to joining amazon’s Associates programme. Unless I’ve made a complete hash of things then anytime you click through to via the little Amazon button on the right I should receive a commission on anything you purchase. Clearly this is the way to do your Christmas shopping… Also, a friend said that I should really have an Amazon “Wish List” of stuff I’ve been meaning to purchase but, er, haven’t. So here it is. I mean it would be embarrassing, but kind of wonderful, if anyone paid any attention to this sort of thing. However, shopping at amazon via this site costs you nothing more than what

Alex Massie

The Politics of Being Way Down in the Hole

Back to The Wire: Ross is of course correct to argue that one of David Simon’s great achievements was creating a television show that was open to multiple legitimate interpretations. Though I might see the show as grist for a certain libertarian strain of thinking, I can quite see why an ardent drug warrior could also find plenty of evidence to support his analysis. As much as anything else, in fact, its this argument between competing worldviews that proves the shows’ brilliance. “Shakespearian” is a word bandied around far too often, but it’s apt and worthwhile in this instance. And of course the validity of these multiple interpretations is in

Alex Massie

Department of Names

Much blogospheric hand-wringing on whether to refer to a great Indian city as Bombay or Mumbai. This is a road I’ve been down before. Ezra Klein says that “Bombay is the term of the colonialist oppressors. Mumbai is the term of the people who live and vote and die there.” Well fine. Does this mean Americans will cease referring to Edinburgh as Edinboro? UPDATE: Commenter Deiseach makes the essential, and correct, point: “I presume when you were in college in Dublin you referred to Kingstown, Kingsbridge Station and King’s County? Anyone who thinks they have a consistent way of using place names in these situations is kidding themselves.” As it

James Forsyth

Gordon gets his headline but the devil is in the detail

Holding up the front pages on Newsnight last night, Jeremy Paxman observed that Brown couldn’t have got better coverage for his mortgage package if he’d paid for it. But as always with one of Gordon’s initiatives, a look at the small print reveals it to be not quite such a good deal after all. Both Tim Worstall and Dizzy point out huge flaws in it. It does seem that this was done on the fly to catch out the Tories. Last night, one representative of the ‘third sector’ was commenting that Brown had just beaten the Tories to the punch on this and a Minister deeply involved in the development

Peter Hoskin

Did a minister have advance knowledge of the Green arrest?

This from Iain Martin over at Three Line Whip: “…the strong rumour is that one minister with good police contacts did know [about the Green arrest in advance] and has remained well under the radar since the row erupted last week, for understandable reasons. One thought: if that person was aware of what was going on, when it backfired would they actually ‘fess up to the cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell, the PM or the media or just stay uncharacteristically quiet until the row blows over?” If it does emerge that a minister had advance knowledge of the Green arrest, then it’s one of the worst things that could happen for the

Peter Hoskin

Reid tells Smith how he’d have done things differently

No real bombshells in Jacqui Smith’s statement on the Damian Green affair earlier (video here). She pushed the same lines that we’ve heard from her throughout the past week: that it was right to involve the police; that she didn’t know anything about the arrest; that the leaks coming from the Home Office are a “serious matter” etc. etc. As Andrew Sparrow points out, the most eye-catching moment was an intervention by John Reid. The former Home Secretary’s been relatively quiet over the past few months – but he popped up with a point of order during the Speaker’s statment yesterday, and today he hurled this barb in Smith’s direction: “I have to

James Forsyth

Washington or Whitehall whispers?

As Matt reflected just after Obama’s election win, both David Cameron and Gordon Brown desperately want to be and be seen to be Barack Obama’s best friend. There’s a bit of a blow to the Cameron campaign today with a New Statesman story about how Obama branded Cameron a ‘lightweight’. But a close read of it suggests that the sources for this claim might be in Whitehall not Washington: “Instead, I have been told, Obama exclaimed of Cameron after their meeting: “What a lightweight!” He apparently also asked officials about Tory Euroscepticism. Soon, word about the rather awkward encounter between the two self-professed candidates of change made its way quietly

Lisa Hilton

Faithful to infidelity

Oscar Wilde said that one of the charms of marriage was that it made a life of deception essential for both parties. I agree; the opportunity to commit adultery is surely one of the few advantages of wedlock. Yet so zealously monogamous has our culture become that infidelity is agreed upon as the last taboo. It is the one crime that, all nice people concur, is Absolutely Unforgiveable. Amidst all the prurient judgments cast on poor Gordon Ramsay and his alleged mistress Sarah Symonds, the consensus is that he has committed a dreadful evil and that The Woman Pays. Sure you can accuse Ramsay of hypocrisy, if you think that

Peter Hoskin

Put your questions to Theresa May

Theresa May – the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons, and MP for Maidenhead – has kindly agreed to a Q&A session with Coffee House. Just post your questions for her in the comments section below. And, next Monday, we’ll pick out the best ten and put them to her. She’ll get back to us with answers a few days later.