Society Archives

Saturday

25 Oct 2008

Who will be the change?

There is an argument that British politics since 1994 is a historical freak, a product of a period of ever-increasing prosperity which allowed politicians to avoid the hard choices that typically define politics. As Charles Moore puts it in today’s Telegraph, “our two main parties have both been caught facing the wrong way. Their policy preoccupations, their political positioning, their promises have depended on perpetual prosperity. Now these look as relevant as estate agents’ freesheets offering timeshares in Spain. When a really big crisis hits, it takes people a surprisingly long time to understand the basic point, which is that Everything is Different Now. Fear makes people reluctant to admit

Lloyd Evans

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Howard Jacobson discusses his novel ‘The Act of Love’ with Peter Florence

No Jews. No hint of Jewishness anywhere. That was Howard Jacobson’s instruction to himself when he sat down to write his new novel, The Act of Love. ‘I took the restriction very seriously,’ he told Peter Florence in a discussion for Intelligence Squared on 22nd October. ‘I nearly set about writing the book without using any word containing the letter “J”. Then I realised that “Howard Jacobson” would appear on the cover.’ Jewishness defines Jacobson. It provokes, exhilarates and exasperates him but he can’t escape it. ‘I failed anyway,’ he shrugs with ironic pride. ‘Someone pointed out that the phrase “the sound of bells ringing in a Christian village” was

Roger Alton

Spectator sport | 25 October 2008

It’s showbiz As anyone with an unhealthy addiction to Saturday Night Live and presidential debates can tell you, Americans stage a contest like no one else. And that doesn’t just apply to the race for the White House. So if you find yourself in the mood for a slice of Uncle Sam as an election curtain-raiser this weekend, tune in to the American football. Or — if you can swing yourself a ticket somehow — go to Wembley and see for yourself. The NFL is coming to London, with the San Diego Chargers taking on the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. It will be a perfectly packaged event too, four

Toby Young

Status anxiety

Be careful what you wish for — or, as the old proverb puts it, if God hates you, he grants your deepest wish. All my life I have wanted to be famous and now that I am finally enjoying my 15 minutes I am not sure it is all it is cracked up to be. I mistakenly thought that becoming a celebrity would be liberating — I would shrug off the everyday constraints of being a repressed, middle-class Englishman and get in touch with my inner egomaniac. In fact, the opposite is true. Since How to Lose Friends & Alienate People became the number one film at the British box

Lucy Vickery

Competition | 25 October 2008

In Competition No. 2567 you were invited to submit a letter of application for a job of your choosing written by a character from a novel or poem who would appear to be a very unpromising candidate. Thank you to Michael Cregan — the idea for this comp is one of his, tweaked by me. Keith Norman made a persuasive pitch on behalf of the Pied Piper of Hamelin for the post of Head of Music at Eton: ‘I can, with all confidence, promise to take your entire student body with me in whatever I undertake…’, while Andrew Mason’s Ancient Mariner, applying to be Seabird Conservation Officer — ‘If you

Tim Congdon

There is nothing magic about this Keynesian fad

Mr Brown’s bank recapitalisation exercise has been portrayed in the British media as a financial and political coup. The Financial Times has been particularly enthusiastic, describing it as ‘a global template’. Mr Brown’s admirers apparently believe that the British government’s programme is both intellectually original and a real-world success, and is therefore being copied in other leading nations. The truth is very different. The government’s policy is not intellectually original, it will not be fully implemented in practice and, to the extent that it is implemented, it will be a disaster. Further, no other country is copying Brown’s plan or behaving as vindictively as Britain towards its financial system. Admittedly,

The Spectator

Schoolboy errors

In December 1998, as Peter Mandelson resigned from the Cabinet for the first time, he and Tony Blair spelt out a modern doctrine for responsible political conduct. ‘We came to power promising to uphold the highest possible standards in public life,’ Mandelson wrote to Blair. ‘We have not just to do so, but we must be seen to do so’ (italics added). The then Prime Minister replied: ‘As you said to me “we can’t be like the last lot”.’ This, rather than any technical breach of the rules, was why Mr Mandelson had to go ten years ago, when his secret £373,000 home loan from Geoffrey Robinson was disclosed. Thus

Aidan Hartley

Wild life | 25 October 2008

Yemen For a fortnight our group has spent nights on the desert beaches east of Aden, looking out to sea. We strain to hear voices above the waves. At dawn the water’s surface is calm and dimpled with shoals of fish. The tide line is scattered with dead puffer fish, plastic rubbish, dolphin skulls. Fat yellow crabs gather behind your back and close in when you are not looking. Each morning emaciated people emerge from the ocean in their dozens. They are Somalis fleeing war in Mogadishu, or Ethiopians escaping their overpopulated dustbowl. Many die crossing the Gulf of Aden. The smugglers’ boats are crowded like slave ships. Passengers are

Matthew Parris

Another voice | 25 October 2008

Wherever the civilised English gather to discuss the state we’re in, it is almost axiomatic to allow that we’re getting less refined. Discourse, public and private, is (we tell each other) getting cruder; wit is duller; our culture is dumbing down. A vulgarity and obviousness is gaining ground over the art of delicate suggestion. Nowhere do we assume this to be truer than in the use of language for the purposes of discourtesy. Twenty years ago, when I first began putting together an anthology of insult and abuse, I would have subscribed to this view. The book was to be called Scorn and as we began combing through literature ancient

Friday

24 Oct 2008

Alex Massie

Department of You Coudn’t Make It Up

Not for the first time this year, one has to wonder what question Fred Thompson could possibly be the answer to. K-Lo remains charmingly indefatigable: Unleashing Fred Thompson works his magic to get out the vote. No further comment required.

Alex Massie

Travels in Wingnuttia

There are loonies everywhere, of course. Still, Jon Swift’s summary of some of the anti-Obama conspiracy theories that have swilled around the wingnut blogosphere this year is a treat. He introduces his post, thus: Hampered by quaint, old-fashioned rules of journalism that require citing evidence and reputable sources, the mainstream media has failed to report a number of important stories about Obama and the conservative blogosphere has had to step up and do the media’s job for them. As a public service I have collected some of the most important of these stories in one place. Pulitzer Prize judges, take note! Some of the stories below are shocking and even

The Spectator

The week that was | 24 October 2008

Here are some of the posts made during the past week on Spectator.co.uk: Matthew d’Ancona outlines the warning that ‘Yachtgate’ has delivered to the Tories. Fraser Nelson lauds the true defenders of liberty, and reveals how Gordon Brown has fiddled the debt figures. James Forsyth says the worst seems to have passed for Osborne in the ‘Yachtgate’ scandal, and suggests that the Tories need an enforcer who can protect the shadow cabinet from themselves. Peter Hoskin makes the case for an austerity Olympics, and reports on the latest crime statistics. Stephen Pollard regrets a trip to the theatre. Melanie Phillips gives her take on ‘Yachtgate’. Clive Davis highlights why a recession could

James Forsyth

Oh Darling

On October 7th, Alistair Darling called the Icelandic Finance Minister in an attempt to find out what iceland was doing to protect British savers who had money deposited in Icelandic banks. Here’s how the conversation starts: Mathiesen: Hello. Darling: Hello. Mathiesen: This is Árni Mathiesen, Minister of Finance. Darling: Hello, we met a few months ago, weeks ago. Mathiesen: No, we have never met. You met the Minister of Trade. Darling: Alright, sorry. Mathiesen: No problem Perhaps, not the best way to kick things off.

Peter Hoskin

The case for an “austerity Olympics”

60 years ago, in the economically-depressed aftermath of WW2, Britain successfuly staged an “austerity Olympics” – pared-down, efficient, organised and even profitable, it was widely considered a momentous success. In today’s Guardian, Simon Jenkins persuasively argues for another austerity Olympics in 2012 – the times call for it, he says. And it’s hard to disagree. Even if you think Darling’s spend-our-way-out-of-trouble approach is the right way forward, there remains the question of what all that public cash should be spent on. There’s something deeply irresponsible about “pour[ing] crazy sums of money – £9.3bn – into two weeks of sport”. Particularly when that £9.3 billion budget is particularly – and unnecessarily – swollen anyway.

James Forsyth

Mandelson sketches out his policy vision for Labour

Peter Mandelson’s interview in Progress is well worth reading. In it, he sets out the three areas where he thinks Labour needs to up its policy game: “First, social mobility where Labour needs to provide ‘new ladders for working-class youngsters to climb, taking advantage of the growing aspiration of … parents for their children to go to university.’ Second, the party also needs to outline a vision for ‘the jobs of the future … regearing our economy and our sources of employment to match the opportunities the changing global economy is going to offer’. Finally, Mandelson advocates ‘further individualisation of our public services’. In education and health, particularly, he argues,

James Forsyth

Recession and oligarchs

The Deripaksa story rumbles on in the papers today but Osborne will be relieved to see that he appears to be out of the woods now. The Guardian reveals that Mandelson and Deripaksa met in October 2004, a meeting which his Brussels staff appear to have been unaware of. Meanwhile, The Independent reports that David Cameron took free flights to go and see Rupert Murdoch aboard his yacht. In other news, official figures out later this morning are expected to show the first quarter of negative growth since 1992. One imagines that the public are not overly impressed by tales of politicians spending their times on super yachts with Russian

Thursday

23 Oct 2008

Alex Massie

A Mad World, My Masters

Clive Crook pops back to Blighty and finds himself pining for the sanity and phlegmatic common-sense of life in the United States. Can’t say I blame him. Consider this story, for instance: plans for a Christmas ice-rink in Bath have been abandoned after complaints that the temporary rink would be a magnet for paedophiles who could take advantage of it to “groom” children. Seriously. Not to get all Daily Mail on you, but not for the first, nor I fear last, time there’s not much you can do except wonder what on earth is wrong with this country. [Hat-tip: Mr Worstall]

Alex Massie

Photography We Can Believe In

Callie Shell has been following and photographing Barack Obama for Time since the beginning of the campaign. You can see some of her work here and, especially, here. I particularly love the photo of Obama doing a pull-up moments before delivering a speech. There’s a matter-of-fact coolness about it. Glamour too, as Virginia Postrel could doubtless confirm. Actually, the Obama who appears in – or is presented by – many of Shell’s pictures is, to my mind, strikingly reminiscent of a star such as, say, Paul Newman.

James Forsyth

What should McCain’s final roll of the dice be?

The state polling numbers are grim for McCain right now. One poll today even had Obama up by 10 in Indiana, a state Bush won by 20 points. McCain clearly needs to do something to shake things up. Mike Murphy, who worked on McCain’s 2000 campaign but in recent months has been a critic of the style of McCain’s campaign, has an intriguing idea: “There is no state by state way to break out of the campaign’s current spiral. Trips to Iowa will not do it. McCain has to go global with a big closing message. So, why not… Strip down the state by state media budget and use the

James Forsyth

A mad world

Keith Dovkants has a great feature in the Standard on the relationship between Rothschild and Deripaska. But this anecdote stood out to me: “Witness his excursion into Kalmykia, a remote Russian republic run by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a charismatic leader who fought an election campaign on promises of providing a free mobile phone for every shepherd and a guarantee that Diego Maradonna would be signed up by the local football team. Ilyumzhinov confides in friends that he had been captured by aliens and has glimpsed a view of the universe not allowed most mortals. His political ruthlessness is combined with a sense of divine right and what rare visitors to his