Society

Monday

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 22 September 2008

COFFEE HOUSE CHALLENGE WINNER: A few weeks ago, we asked CoffeeHousers to “sell” a Cabinet. The winning entry is the post by ‘Ian’. Congratulations to Ian – to claim the prize of a bottle of champagne please send an email to phoskin @ spectator.co.uk. And here are some of the posts made over the weekend at spectator.co.uk: Fraser Nelson tallies up the latest Brownies, and reports on his run-in with John Prescott. James Forsyth describes how Alan Johnson is ruling himself out of a leadership bid, but reminds us that Miliband and Purnell are both very much in the running. Jon Cruddas treats us to the first two instalments of his conference

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Ed Balls is still fighting the war against Blair

The illusion of unity is just about holding up in Manchester. Both Alan Milburn and Peter Mandelson stayed away—much to the disappointment of us hacks—from the Progress rally last night despite being listed as speakers, and most attacks on Brown have been in code. All of this makes Ed Balls’ attack on Tony Blair at the Fabian Society Question Time all the more bizarre. The events had gone much as expected. The final question to the stellar panel—including Fraser Nelson of this parish, Jon Cruddas, Sunder Katwala and Zoe Williams, and superbly chaired by Gaby Hinsliff of The Observer—was about the role of the party in making policy, fairly innocuous

Sunday

Matthew Sinclair

The Sunday Essay: How cutting corporate tax rates raises revenue

Many thanks to Matthew Sinclair, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, for the Sunday Essay below.  We accept Sunday Essay submissions from any of our readers – be they MPs, policy wonks or nothing to do with politics at all.  For more information on how to submit an essay, please click here – Pete Hoskin With the public finances deep in the red many are arguing that there simply isn’t the money for tax cuts.  Britain has one of the largest deficits in the developed world and, as the economic slowdown leads to greater unemployment, borrowing could easily spiral out of control.  However, maintaining Britain’s high tax rates is not the way

Jon Cruddas

Jon Cruddas’s conference diary: part 2

Sunday 4.30.  Conference is split into three groups. The first are still attending the main event in the Hall listening to contributions from, among others, the Home Secretary and Jim Purnell. The second are enjoying the early autumn sunshine on the steps and coffee houses circling the main hall. The final group are those nervously waiting for the Ryder Cup singles to start- including most of the Press. Politically things are warming up. Early morning Marr and Boulton saw both Brown and Harman on good form. By lunchtime Prescott and Charles Clarke were going toe to toe on the BBC; a big points win for John. He then moved on

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Miliband makes progress

David Miliband just spoke at a Progress rally here in Manchester, and the Kremlinologists are going to have a field-day with his speech. Provocatively, when Miliband listed what made him proud of New Labour, he did not mention the economy or anything else Brown is associated with. At the end of the speech, the room erupted in applause, with Tessa Jowell clapping with the intensity of a campaign manager. Miliband walked out of the room with the air of a man whose confidence had been bolstered.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Purnell’s third way

James Purnell made a fascinating speech this afternoon. It was in some ways a very Blairite speech. He challenged the party to go further, faster. He was cutting about Labour’s self indulgent streak and unapologetic about modernisation: “we changed. because we were tired of being the conscience of a Conservative country”. But at the same time, Purnell went out of his way to explain policy in left wing language, something some Blairites forget—or are reluctant—to do. Defending his welfare reform proposals which are not popular with party activists, Purnell said that they were based on “a founding value of our party,. emblazoned in the name of our party. The right

Jon Cruddas

Jon Cruddas’s conference diary | 21 September 2008

Day one of the Labour party conference was a surprisingly enjoyable, even comradely, experience. The fringe packed; the bars friendly and the Manchester Conference Centre working well. Great speeches, in a super venue, made to warm, receptive groups of delegates. The weather: perfect. On show, the Labour party at its best- a respectful, modern pluralist party. To cap it all, at five past midnight I saw Tom Watson MP embrace Barry Gardner MP, Joan Ryan MP and Shioghan McDonagh MP. Tom was, allegedly, the leader of the 2006 ‘Curry Coup’ against Tony Blair, his colleagues, allegedly, leaders of the 2008 ‘Progress Putsch’.  Does this signal the end of the attacks

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A temporary lull before the storm

The mood here in Manchester is odd. No one expects a move against Brown this week but most people expect that this will be Brown’s last conference as leader. Talking to folk on the left, it seems that the one thing that could save him with the Labour party is him tacking hard to the left in the coming days. At the same time, no one is quite sure who will succeed him; it really is all to play for. David Miliband doesn’t seem prime ministerial yet. Last night he was at the excellent New Statesman party–he could be seen in a corner briefing some of the most influential commentators

Saturday

Alex James

Slow Life | 20 September 2008

Are you the driver?’ I asked. ‘No, I’m the owner,’ he replied, and I liked him immediately. It’s a lovely hotel, The Torre Maizza in Puglia, a walled Italian farm converted into a five-star gastro-spa, growing its own food and inhabiting its own time-zone. ‘Vitorrio,’ he said, shaking my hand and asking if I wanted to have dinner with him, and I liked him even more. There were so many things that I’d planned to do, that had nothing to do with being in Italy. I’d bought lots of stuff I had to catch up with, a guitar, coloured pencils, everything. I had plans. I always fail to foresee that

Jeremy Clarke

Low Life | 20 September 2008

I can feel a tremendous draught of change affecting me,’ said Dave, waggling his fingers at us as if playing a chest-high piano. ‘It’s the strongest, most noticeable draught I’ve felt for 20 years. You can feel the draught, can’t you?’ The meeting, last Friday night, was entitled ‘The Saturn-Uranus Oppositions of 2008–9 and the Eclipses of 2008’. We’d met in Dave’s study. Listening to Dave describe the planetary draughts he was experiencing, besides myself, were three women called Mara, Hara and Zhiva. Somewhere upstairs in his big old house, teenagers were galumphing about and shouting. I’d seen the meeting advertised on a café noticeboard. Not knowing much about astrology,

Taki

High Life | 20 September 2008

Gstaad Walking up mountains is not only healthy, it gives a man time to think. In fact, climbing in solitude offers one marvellous inner adventures, with epiphanies being the order of the day. There are no boulders where I climb, just a lot of green, steep hills separated by gorges, with lots of cows to keep me company. About 15 years ago I tried climbing up steep mountains tied to a rope, but it wasn’t for me. I suffer from vertigo and the way down was hell. But I did manage to conquer the steepest overhang of Videmanette, the highest mountain in the region. Never again. The fact that the

Robin Oakley

The Turf | 20 September 2008

What a glorious spectacle it was at Doncaster last Saturday. And no, I don’t mean Frankie Dettori launching himself at Sir Michael Stoute like an exuberant four-year-old vaulting into a parent’s arms for a hug, or even the mildly embarrassed trainer, a bonhomous but stiff-backed bear of a man, wiping off the smacker of a kiss that Frankie gave him later. Those were extra relish. No, I mean the triumph of Conduit, trained by M. Stoute and ridden by F. Dettori, in the last and longest of the English Classics, the 1m 6f St Leger. For me, St Leger Day at Doncaster is one of the best days out in

John Kampfner

Diary – 20 September 2008

One of the joys of writing a book about authoritarian capitalism is that I am spoilt for choice. My travels have taken me from Singapore to Luanda to Moscow to Rome and in the next few days I am off to the Gulf. Later in the year comes China. Last week I was back in Russia, for the annual Valdai conference, where experts from around the world are given red-carpet treatment. This time we were offered two for the price of one. Vladimir Putin indulged us with a three-hour lunch in Sochi. Not to be outdone, we were given similar treatment by Dmitry Medvedev in the bizarre setting of a

Tamzin Lightwater

Diary of a Notting Hill nobody | 20 September 2008

Monday This is ridiculous. I can’t be expected to understand the Labour leadership rules and off-balance-sheet arrangements. I’ve told Nigel it’s composite motions or derivatives, not both. My head won’t stand it. For the life of me I can’t see how something worth £738 billion can also be worth £36.8 billion. Wonky Tom says it’s simple: ‘The fair value is smaller than the notional amount.’ He may as well be saying ‘la la la la la elephants in pink pants’. It’s days like these I feel sure I should have stuck it out at the gallery and got married. I suppose I could try and keep my head down until

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 20 September 2008

Q. For her wedding present I gave my 28-year-old goddaughter a cheque, about five times the value that I would give to a mere family friend. I have now received a note from her which reads, ‘Thank you for the generous present. I hope you enjoyed the wedding…’ For some reason I feel that not enough gratitude has been expressed. How do I convey this without causing offence to her or to her parents, who are still my very close friends? Name and address withheld A. Some readers will be impressed that you received a letter at all, since so many twenty-somethings suffer from ‘entitlement syndrome’. All that will change,

Dot Wordsworth

Mind your language | 20 September 2008

‘Not really,’ replied my husband when I asked if he thought it would be nice for us to have the Gibsons over for supper. If you knew the Gibsons (not their real name), you’d see the force of his answer. Real is a slippery word. I laughed when reading, in Timothy Brittain-Catlin’s new book on parsonages, about mid-19th-century disapproval of stucco for making a building less real. Alfred Bartholomew (1801-1845), a translator of the Psalms and the architect of the Finsbury Savings Bank in Clerkenwell, prefaced his Specifications for Practical Architecture (1840) with a text in Hebrew, from the prophet Ezekiel: ‘One built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed

Toby Young Toby Young

Status Anxiety | 20 September 2008

It was the call I’d been dreading. Roger Cashmore, the Principal of Brasenose College, phoned to ask whether I would be willing to give a speech on behalf of the alumni at the College Gaudy. It was the 25th anniversary of the class that had matriculated in 1983 and I had already RSVPd. How was I going to wriggle out of it? The reason for my reluctance, obviously, is that it would provoke a tidal wave of resentment on the part of my contemporaries. Thinking about the moment when I got up to make the speech, I could already feel the gamma rays of hatred shooting out of their eyes.

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 20 September 2008

We are in a financial crisis which has been going on for more than a year. It is remarkable that, in all that time, no political leader has had anything much to say about it. In the United States, neither John McCain nor Barack Obama appears to have any understanding of what is going on. Over here, Gordon Brown’s supposed gift for economic analysis seems to have deserted him. One hears phrases like ‘the fundamentals are sound’, and trembles. David Cameron, pursuing the favourite strategy of keeping his party away from bad news, acknowledges the gravity of the situation without proposing remedies. It may be the right tactic, when in

The Spectator

Letters | 20 September 2008

Reports of my death Sir: I was astonished to read in John Michell’s review of Michael X: A Life in Black and White (13 September) that I died 35 years ago. Michell states that I went to Trinidad to investigate the murder, by henchmen of Michael X, of my sister Gale Benson, and that later I had died in an accident in California. In fact it was my younger brother Greville, Gale’s twin brother, who went to Trinidad at that time, and a year later died in a motor accident.  Greville’s accident took place in Morocco, where he is buried. I can hardly blame The Spectator for Williams’s slovenly research.