Society

Wednesday

Bronwen Maddox

Faith in the Founding Fathers

The American Future, by Simon Schama This is the most exhilarating book that has been written about America for at least eight years, although it depends on the premise that the influence of George W. Bush is over and that Barack Obama will be the next president. Simon Schama is fortunate that this outcome looks more likely by the day. He has not been helped, on the other hand, by the suddenness of the financial drama which has overtaken the world’s most powerful economy, and which calls into question some of the American future he describes. All the same, this intricate and ambitious account of American inspiration and of the

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The unravelling of the great buy-to-let scam

Ross Clark says speculators and fraudsters saw easy money in buying city-centre flats with borrowed money — but investors and lenders now face huge losses as prices crash I have developed a rather ghoulish pastime. It involves thumbing through auction results for repossessed apartments in city centres, then checking what those same properties sold for when new, a year or two ago. My record so far is a two-bedroom flat in a development called Beauchamp Place, Coventry, which was auctioned in September for £85,000 — less than 40 per cent of the £214,000 for which it was sold new in June 2006. That flat has, however, performed better as an

Sir Les-Patterson

Diplomatic Notebook

I am an elder statesman, but I’m a versatile old bugger. In about a month’s time I’m hitting the boards in Austin, Texas as a support act for Dame Edna. She’s not a happy lady about it because we’ve never hit it off, or got it off for that matter, and she’s got this bee in her bonnet that the Seppos (Septic Tanks — Yanks) might find me a bit too forthright in the language department and I could end up as popular as a bastard on Father’s Day. I beg to differ. She can stick her opinions as far as I’m concerned, and I’ve got a gut feeling I’m

James Delingpole James Delingpole

My real focus group scorned climate change

If you ever want to get in touch with the real world, try pretending to be a second world war GI. This is what I did the other weekend and it was quite an eye-opener. I don’t mean the stuff I learned about the correct procedure for debussing and advancing to contact from an armoured half-track — fascinating, obviously, though that was. I mean what I discovered about my fellow Living History re-enactors in the pub, afterwards, when we got on to the subject of impending ecological disaster. ‘Oh that? No, it’s a load of old bollocks that is,’ said my neighbour, and I did a double take. It has

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

42 Days: Jacqui Smith

Here’s video of Jacqui Smith’s contemptible performance in the Commons last night. Basically, she says that if you don’t support giving the police carte blanche then you’re on the terrorists’ side. At the very least, if you dare to question the government you don’t care about security. And of course all you yoghurt-munching civil liberties pansies also don’t care about the liberty of “not being blown up”. Seriously. As I say, contemptible. Note too the bald-faced lies she tells. Apparently every security expert supports the government’s proposals. Not so. Former policemen and, as I say, two former heads of MI5 opposed the government last night. So too, one should note,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How Labour should behave

Sunder Katwala at Next Left, the Fabian Society’s excellent blog, has laid down some rules for how Labour supporters should act  during the current crisis: “1. Behave sensibly. At all costs, avoid triumphalism about an economic crisis, however well the Prime Minister handles it. 2. In particular, could anybody banging on about the Falklands please stop it. It is in very poor taste all round. 3. And, particularly particularly, if any MP wants to say ‘when the crisis is over, perhaps there might be an early election’, perhaps arrangements could be made for them to be quickly taken out and shot.” This is wise advice. Considering the damage that the election

James Forsyth James Forsyth

McCain has put country first by not raising Rev. Wright

The civility cops have been giving John McCain a hard time for the tone of his campaign. But they are ignoring the fact that McCain has held back from using a political line of attack that could be highly effective because of what it could do to the country. Obama’s connection to Rev. Wright are, potentially, hugely damaging to his candidacy. It dredges up a whole set of emotive issues surrounding race and brings into question much of his political persona. The attack ad on the issue Tucker Carlson sketches out over at the Daily Beast shows the kind of punch that a spot on it could pack: “The spot

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Whither the euro

The financial crisis has partially revived the euro debate. Eurosceptics think that it might bring the whole thing down while those who favour British entry believe that they have found a new argument for it. To date, it has been the usual suspects making the case on either side. But today Simon Tilford and Philip Whyte of the Centre for European Reform, a pro-European think-tank run by Charles Grant, have a piece in The Guardian which is surprisingly bearish on the euro’s prospect. Here’s the key section: “The credit crunch should test conclusively whether it is sustainable for countries to share a single currency outside a political union. The financial

James Forsyth James Forsyth

If the financial crisis came from America, one of its main instigators was Gordon’s friend and adviser

A crucial part of Gordon Brown’s plan for getting away from the financial crisis with his reputation enhanced is to treat it as something nasty that blew in off the Atlantic. Brown is desperately hoping that the public will be persuaded by this line and that this will allow him to dodge questions about his weakening of the regulatory structure, the huge levels of debt in the economy and the extent to which he let the City do whatever it wanted because it was covering up the economic failings of the rest of the country. But someone needs to ask Brown about role his friend Alan Greenspan, chairman of the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Glenrothes will either inflate the Brown bubble or deflate it for good

Guido has the scoop that Brown has written to Labour MPs telling them that he and Sarah will campaign in Glenrothes ahead of the by-election there “global financial situation permitting”. This is a sign of renewed confidence in the Brown bunker and if Labour does hold the seat after Brown has campaigned there the media will rush to declare that ‘the mighty Gord is back’. It will cement the media narrative that the financial crisis has revived Brown’s premiership and restored his authority. But if Labour lose to the SNP, who hold the equivalent seat at Holyrood, then it will be the beginning of the bursting of the Brown bubble.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Sats for 14 year olds to be abolished

Ed Balls is making a statement to the House at 3.30 today in which it is expected that he will announce the abolition of Key Stage Three tests, those that are sat by 14 year olds. This is actually quite a canny move even if it does come in response to the whole Sats debacle of this summer. Nation-wide testing at 11, 16 and 18 (for those who remain in education) should be quite sufficient. 

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How the Tories plan to respond

Tim Montgomerie has an absolute must-read up on what the Tories are thinking about the current economic crisis and its impact on the political situation. Tim reports that the Tories believe that Brown’s weakness is that while he might have rescued the banks he has not rescued the real economy. The Tories are confident that they can present themselves as the party that can sort out the real economy.   Tim notes that the Tories are relatively relaxed about being out of the news. I think this is sensible of them. Gordon Brown wants the Tories to either be echoing him or rubbishing his plans. If they do the former he’ll

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A good day for Gordon but the reckoning is coming

I suspect Gordon Brown let out a roar of delight on hearing that the US government has reversed course and is going to take an equity stake in nine of the banks that it is bailing out. This deviation from the Paulson plan brings the US response to the financial crisis more closely into line with what is being done in this country and allows Brown to claim that he is setting the policy agenda that the world is following. This is an exaggerated claim—as Fraser has noted—but to be fair, the British model is better than the appalling, original-version of the Paulson plan. The Prime Minister should enjoy this

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

RBS is Nationalised

The big news, obviously, is the collapse of RBS as an independent entity, now that the government is going to pump in as much as £20bn and take 60% of the company. In the long-run this is probably a good deal for taxpayers. At least in as much as that 60% ought to bring a return once (if) healthier times return. Still, it is a stunning fall from grace for RBS. And for Scotland. The financial implications are one thing, so too the political and, just as importantly, the psychological impact. It’s not a coincidence that Alex Salmond was always quite happy to let folk know he had once been

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Blogger wins Nobel Prize for Economics

This is going to upset a lot of people… Paul Krugman wins the Nobel Prize for Economics. I can’t wait for the loopy-right to complain that even when the Nobel committee awards prizes to Americans they only give them to Americans who hate America. Or something like that. UPDATE: Tyler Cowen, as you might expect, has much, much more. I should also say that whatever anyone thinks abotu Krugman’s politics, pretty much everyone I know who knows a lot about economics considers him a serious, hugely influential figure. So the award is not, or should not, be that controversial. Still, don’t expect that argument to convince everyone…

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Cricket and ASBOs

Like Norm, I am entirely unsurprised by this: The Phrase “it’s not cricket” is reverberating again around state school classrooms. Good old-fashioned cricketing values have prompted an improvement in behaviour in schools, according to the evaluation of a project to promote the sport in schools to be published later this week. The “Chance to Shine” scheme, designed to promote cricket in state schools by sending in club coaches to teach the game, has had a spin off beyond PE lessons. According to researchers at Loughborough University, schools which have taken part in the scheme report improved behaviour in school generally as a result of participating in it. Admittedly even cricket

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Apple Grumble

Can anyone explain why Apple thinks it’s fine* to charge one £800 for a new MacBook that arrives without a proper freakin’ word processing programme? This seems to be a new development, since my previous two Apple computers were so equipped. Why, Steve Jobs why? *I suppose it’s because brand loyalty and convenience  – ie, knowing how to use Macs but not a  PC – means that they can fob one off with this sort of nonsense and trust that we’ll still pony up for the latest edition of iLife. So, anyone have recommendations for a good open source word processing programme?

James Forsyth James Forsyth

42 days fails in the Lords, government to drop measure from counter-terrorism bill 

It is a sign of the extent to which the financial crisis is dominating the news that the Lords voting down 42 days by a huge margin, 309 to 188, is not a headline-grabbing story. Jacqui Smith will, The Guardian reports, make a statement at 8.30pm in the Commons. It is expected that she will announce that the government will drop the 42 days clause from the bill but prepare separate legislation for if it is required in an emergency. The legislative language around 42 days was a dog’s dinner; one left-wing Labour MP even told his fellow backbenchers to vote for it because the bill was so badly drafted