Society

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Will Peter Mandelson end up a national treasure?

I know this will be anathema to most Coffee Housers, but I can’t help wondering if Peter Mandelson will become a much-loved figure once he leaves the political stage. Tony Benn proves that even the most controversial political figures can work their way into the nation’s affections once they are out of power. The thought first occurred to me at The Spectator Parliamentarian Awards where Mandelson reveled in playing up to his own reputation; if Alan Rickman was ever to tire of the role, Mandelson would be perfect for the part of Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies. Now, we hear from Andrew Sparrow that Mandelson is promising to

Peter Hoskin

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 17 November – 23 November

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

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Tories are being outspun

If anyone doubts that the Labour spin machine is once more firing on all cylinders turn to pages 2 and 3 of The Sun today. On page 2, under the headline ‘Hans off PM’s car’, Sun readers are informed that ‘Gordon Brown has snubbed German car maker BMW and insisted his new bomb proof limo is a British Jaguar.’ While on the opposite page, we hear about how ‘X Factor finalists were stunned to receive letters from the Prime Minister praising them for chart-topping charity single Hero.’ These are just small examples of a Labour operation that once more has the bit between its teeth. Just look at how effectively

Peter Hoskin

Do the forecasts point to an early election?

The CBI have come out with another set of gloomy forecasts this morning, by which the recession will be “deeper and longer lasting” than previously thought.  They predict that the economy will contract by 1.7 percent in 2009 and that unemployment will hit just under 3 million in 2010.   It’s still something that I think unlikely, but every forecast such as this strengthens the increasingly popular idea that Brown will call an early election.  Not only will he find it more difficult to maintain his Economic Saviour narrative as the recession worsens and unemployment skyrockets.  But also – if he waits – then the very real possibility of other

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A constitutional monarch is best seen and not heard when it comes to politics

Jonathan Dimbleby’s essay in The Sunday Times about the kind of king Prince Charles would be suggests that the monarchy will be in for a turbulent time if and when Charles ascends to the throne. Dimbleby reports that Charles intends to move away from the strict silence on political issues of his mother and instead adopt a role more akin to that of the German or Irish president. Obviously keen to avoid encouraging comparisons to To Play the King, Dimbleby stresses that Charles would avoid partisan issues. But the examples of topics where Charles might speak out that Dimbleby gives are intensely political, even if they are not particuarly party

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What needs to be done in Afghanistan

David Kilcullen is one of the intellectual forces behind the Petraeus strategy in Iraq which has transformed the situation there. It was Kilcullen, an Australian and an anthropologist by training, who grasped the pre-eminent importance of population security.  So, Kilcullen’s thoughts on Afghanistan, relayed to George Packer of the New Yorker, are well worth reflecting on. Kilcullen sees four crucial challenges the mission there must rise to:  “(1) We have failed to secure the Afghan people. That is, we have failed to deliver them a well-founded feeling of security. Our failing lies as much in providing human security—economic and social wellbeing, law and order, trust in institutions and hope for

James Forsyth James Forsyth

If Cameron shifted Osborne, he would place himself in danger

There is yet more speculation in the papers today about whether Osborne will be moved from his role as Shadow Chancellor. But it is almost certain that he won’t be. If David Cameron were to shift him he would be handing Labour, the press and his internal critics a major scalp. It would demonstrate that, under pressure, Cameron can be pushed into jettisoning even his closest political allies. We can debate if Osborne is the best choice for Shadow Chancellor until the cows come home, but this essential political reality cannot be ignored. If Osborne is shuffled away from his job, it will suggest that Cameron’s confidence is shot. It

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Institutional arrogance must be rooted out

Jenny McCartney’s column on the appalling arrogance of Haringey Council is essential reading this morning. Her conclusion is absolutely spot on: “Various commentators have said that there is little point in demonising Haringey council and the employees concerned. Well, no one is calling them demons, but there is surely every point in conducting a relentless, forensic examination of their decisions and holding those individuals accountable. That applies equally to Dr Sabah al-Zayyat, the paediatrician who only partly examined the boy and failed to spot that he had nine broken ribs and a broken spine. Two days later he died in agony. The case of “Baby P”, a child long known

Saturday

Tamzin Lightwater

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody | 15 November 2008

Monday I can’t believe people are saying that tax cutting is Gordon’s idea! This is an unbelievable cheek!! Dave has been banging on about cutting taxes for three years now. Every time he makes a speech it’s tax cuts this, tax cuts that. Tax, tax, tax — it’s all we ever talk about. You know what I think has gone wrong? We’ve been calling for tax cuts for so long now people just don’t hear us any more. It’s like white noise. This is probably why a lot of our tax cutting talk just hasn’t been reported. People are bored of it. I mean, there’s only so long you can

Dot Wordsworth

Mind your language | 15 November 2008

My husband’s remarks are sounding more and more like those of Jack Woolley in The Archers, but this week one of his questions proved quite useful. My husband’s remarks are sounding more and more like those of Jack Woolley in The Archers, but this week one of his questions proved quite useful. I’d been reading the very good new biography of the young G.K. Chesterton by William Oddie. My husband, having found my book more interesting than his, looked up from it and said: ‘What does he mean by pessimism?’ Certainly, a revolt against pessimism was the central event of Chesterton’s life. In 1894, when he was 20, he went

The Spectator

Letters | 15 November 2008

The licence fee is good value Sir: Charles Moore has really talked himself into a corner this time with regard to his pathological dislike of the BBC (The Spectator’s Notes, 8 November). Like many other ‘BBC bashers’ on the Right he seems to gleefully welcome the Ross and Brand affair as a vindication of his views. If we accept his logic, and his analogy of being made to pay for something you dislike and did not order in a café, one would conclude that unless people like absolutely everything the BBC broadcasts on the TV and radio then they are justified in withholding the licence fee. Of course this would

Alex James

Slow life | 15 November 2008

It was a rainy morning on Friday when I woke up warm as toast in a small castle in Northumberland, surrounded on all sides as far as the eye could see by the immaculate, formal gardens still dancing under the weight of the winter sky and beyond them racing-green moorland stretching to infinity and eternity in all directions. I’d brought my gun and my guitar and we’d all been up singing until the small hours, singing all the songs I could remember. Well, there were a few sore heads at the breakfast table but the atmosphere was jocular, festive. Most of the guests had known each other for many years

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 15 November 2008

Last Thursday I was volunteer driver for the day for a Heartbeaters’ outing. Heartbeaters is a local exercise and social club for people recovering from heart attacks that meets weekly (and perhaps weakly) in the Baptist church hall for an hour of gentle physical jerks. We went to Greenway, Agatha Christie’s house on the east bank of the river Dart in Devon. She bought Greenway and its 33 acres in 1939 for £6,000, and the National Trust has just spent £5.4 million doing it up, in the words of its website, ‘to retain the spirit of the place, its almost wayward character, its atmospheric beauty and its timeless qualities’. Solar

Taki

High life | 15 November 2008

New York Election nights in the Bagel were always spent at 73 East 73rd Street, in Bill and Pat Buckley’s house, more often than not described as palatial by eager-to-please gossip columnists. In reality it was a fine New York maisonette, better suited for entertainment rather than cosy living, the latter reserved for their tiny and warm Connecticut house. Alas, both Bill and Pat are now gone, so I had to fend for myself, liberal and politically minded New Yorkers not eager to entertain someone who found Palin sexy and appreciated McCain’s service to his country. Actually, it felt strange on election night not to be rubbing elbows with the

Robin Oakley

The turf | 15 November 2008

‘Look here, Sunshine,’ I remember Eric Morecambe responding to a raised eyebrow from André Previn about the comedian’s musical efforts. ‘I am playing the right notes, just maybe not in the right order.’ My tipping goes like that too. For the previous Flat season I suggested that William Haggas’s Conquest might ‘pop up at a nice price later in the season’. So he did. Unfortunately, Conquest’s 40–1 victory in the Stewards’ Cup and his 16–1 handicap victory happened not in the 2007 season but in the one just ended. After our healthy profit over jumps the Flat Twelve sadly proved more a case of appreciating quality than counting profits. But

Toby Young Toby Young

Status Anxiety | 15 November 2008

‘Wow, that’s brave,’ said John Kampfner, the former editor of the New Statesman. ‘I’d never do that.’ I had just told him I’d agreed to be on Have I Got News for You and, as soon as he said this, I began to have second thoughts. ‘Oh Christ. D’you think I’ve made a terrible mistake?’ ‘It depends how quick-witted you are,’ he said. He was right — and the truth is I’m not that quick on my feet. For instance, when I appeared on Question Time in 2005 I had to field one of those dreadful ‘funny’ questions at the end and completely fluffed it. The exchange went like this:

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 15 November 2008

Q. I am 44 and, for various reasons, have been single for about five years, but I now have a girlfriend. When people ring to invite me to dinner, I would like to say, ‘I have a girlfriend now. Can I bring her?’, but I do not want to embarrass anyone since I am well aware that one of the reasons I receive so many invitations is because people like to have a spare man at the table. On the other hand, I wonder whether maybe some of my hosts would like to meet my wonderful girlfriend and might be quite happy to invite her too. How should I sound

Peter Jones

Ancient & Modern | 15 November 2008

It is a relief that there is one magazine in which one will not be hauled up on a charge of libel or sexual harassment for writing that Barack Obama, the President-elect of the United States, is a novus homo. So too was the 1st-century bc Roman orator, philosopher and politician Cicero, and he never stopped boasting about it, as well he might — there were only 12 novi homines in the last 300 years of republican Rome. In strong contrast to our system, Romans sensibly designed their ‘constitution’ to make it impossible for anyone with no background in or experience of politics to reach a position of power. From

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The State is failing the most vulnerable

The Guardian reports today on the horrific state of child protection. The evidence it has uncovered suggests that the failings that led to no one intervening to protect Baby P are hideously common.  “More than 80% of children who are killed or seriously injured as a result of abuse or neglect are missed by the national child protection register, the Guardian can reveal. … The figures, obtained from unpublished government-commissioned research, show a widespread pattern of missed opportunities where police, social workers and health professionals fail to communicate or act on evidence of potential abuse. Postmortem case reviews included in the research where children died in the care of their

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Brown’s patriotism, the last refuge of a scoundrel

Labour has, predictably, accused George Osborne of “talking down” the pound for his comment that Brown’s reckless borrowing risks a run on sterling. Gordon Brown, doing his best father of the nation impersonation, says that he regrets the “partisan talk from the opposition”. But the truth is that Osborne’s warning is right; what Brown is doing at the moment is incredibly irresponsible and he deserves to be called out on it. Brown has long tried to rule huge chunks of criticism of him out of bounds. Anyone who questioned his economic management was talking down the economy, and now anyone who points out the dangers in his approach is talking