Society

Saturday

Hugo Rifkind Hugo Rifkind

Shared Opinion | 28 June 2008

If a policy is in crisis, hand it to the Post Office — or the Girl Guides Well I never. You think the government has taken its eye off the ball. You think they’ve got nothing to do except rear up in the Daily Mail to tell us how lucky we all are, or pen little slurs in political magazines because they are jealous that they never get to hang out with Shami Chakrabarti. Then, suddenly, they go and hit you with a move of real, breathtaking political genius. They decide to hand over ID cards to the Post Office. That’s a good one, isn’t it? That’s raw, political cynicism

Theodore Dalrymple

Global Warning | 28 June 2008

No doubt a Martian arriving on earth for the first time would perceive little difference between an inhabitant of Great Britain and an inhabitant of New Britain (off the coast of New Guinea), except perhaps that the former showed a greater propensity than the latter to get drunk and scream in public. Similarity and difference are what G.E. Moore would have called non-natural qualities, and are in the eye of the beholder: as a woman was overheard to remark in a Dublin bus, now that the Emerald Isle has become an El Dorado, ‘Russians, Nigerians, Chinese, they all look the same to me.’   It was Freud who remarked on

Friday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Returning to Brideshead

Back to Brideshead! Last month I took a fairly relaxed view of the forthcoming Miramax travesty. The only real question would seem to be whether it is enjoyably or enragingly terrible. The Weekly Standard’s Jonathan Last suspects the latter and seems particularly aggrieved by the treatment Lady Marchmain has received: Yes, the new Brideshead features a villain–Lady Marchmain. Instead of a pious, if clumsy, near-saint, Lady Marchmain is now ambitious and manipulative. “I hope you didn’t let Julia mislead you,” she sternly warns Charles. “Her future is not a question of choice.”… The bizarre reimagining of Lady Marchmain seems to be a result of the excision of Catholicism from the

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Always the Germans…

The New Republic, America’s most football-friendly political magazine, asked me to write something mean about the Germans: Today’s question then, is: Does Germany’s record in international soccer confirm: (a) the absence of God, (b) the capriciousness of justice, or (c) the futility of romance? Or: (d) all of the above? Full piece here. Prieviously, in a more generous mood, I defended David Beckham for TNR here.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

When the Oval Office meets “The Office”…

David Frum has an interesting piece in this month’s Prospect on the lessons Barack Obama (or, I suppose, John McCain, will learn from the structural short-comings of George W Bush’s White House organisation. Frum makes the useful point, often overlooked these days, that though Bush was inexperienced in traditional political terms, he was well-versed in the internal office politics dynamics of the White House. Alas, he drew lessons that made it easier for the White House to function, at the expense of its ability to operate effectively. As Frum puts it: McClellan was not alone in being deficient at his job. George W Bush brought most of his core first-term

Alex Massie Alex Massie

As go newspapers, so goes the Top 40

Responding to a reader’s suggestion that pop music became terrible once folk could just download (legally or not) any music they desired, Megan McArdle sensibly disputes the premise, writing: I’m not sure that musical talent is eroding so much as being dispersed. The rise of cheap distribution means there are more genres and sub-genres than there used to be–and also that acts don’t need to broaden their appeal so much as they once did. If you don’t need to get on a top forty station to make it big, you will lose the elements you once might have added to attract that audience. Conversely, the pop acts will stop trying

Maurice Gerard

The streets fall silent, as Zimbabweans head to the polls

Harare, Zimbabwe A battered peace holds on the streets and townships of Harare on poll day. After months of virulent political campaigning the streets have fallen silent; there are few cars on the road and the giant minibus station in the bustling Mbare township is empty. Polling stations – giant, white, marquee-like tents – have been set up in some areas more than others. I counted eleven such stations, with short queues snaking in the midday sun, within a square mile of Mbare alone. Next door in Highfield, Harare’s east, I found one. A local journalist said that  Zanu has been concentrating on areas where it can pick up votes. “They can

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall | 27 June 2008

This week’s CoffeeHousers’ Wall is here. Head over there to have your say on the week’s events and to let us know what you’d like to see on Coffee House. And remember that the CoffeeHouser who makes the best contribution to the wall this week will win a bottle of bubbly.

Thursday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The positive component of Brown’s legacy

Walking down Whitehall the other day on a beautiful summer’s evening, it struck me what Gordon Brown’s positive legacy will be: the flags flying on top of public buildings. When Brown first suggested the idea last July I was rather sceptical, but looking up Whitehall and seeing the various Union Jacks fluttering in the breeze I was thoroughly won over. I doubt that any government will reverse this move—there’s too much risk of negative publicity—so it will be a permanent change. I am sure Brown would prefer his positive legacy to be based on a rather more significant achievement, but when he returns to Downing Street for the Queen’s Diamond

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A Coffee House challenge | 26 June 2008

With the polls suggesting that there’s very little chance of a Brown comeback—according to ICM only 24 percent of people think that Labour can win the next election if Brown’s in charge—people in Westminster are beginning to think seriously about what the governing priorities of the Tories will be. As Pete outlined earlier, Fraser’s cover story this week details some of the measures on education and welfare that would be in Cameron’s first Queen’s Speech.  But what I’d like to know from you is what would Coffee Housers like included in David Cameron’s first legislative programme? I’m sure many of you, for understandable reasons, would like radical tax reform or some other

Maurice Gerard

Inside Zimbabwe

Many thanks to Maurice Gerard, who will be blogging for Coffee House from inside Zimbabwe over the next week.  Here’s his first post – Pete Hoskin Driving to Harare down acacia-lined highways from Zimbabwe’s border post at Victoria Falls and the casual visitor could almost mistake the country for being normal – albeit with occasional touts peddling black market luxuries like Coke and diesel fuel in rural lay-sides. In the run-up to Friday’s poll Zimbabwe has become a hybrid country, oscillating between queasy tranquility and sporadic outbreaks of extreme violence. Some areas, such as Matabeleland, home of the fiercely anti-Mugabe Ndebele people, have almost escaped the political violence altogether. One

Michael Millar

Harriet Harman unleashes positive discrimination

Harriet Harman is about to let the spectre of positive discrimination out of the bag. The Equality Bill before parliament today gives employers the right to choose an ethnic minority candidate or female candidate over another a white male, specifically because they are an ethnic minority or female. This is a mistake. A company should recruit on talent and that’s that. If it discirminates on grounds of race or gender it is stupid and deserves everything it gets. Positive discrimination is a sure fire way to create resentment and will inflame the basest and most unpleasent prejudices, as illustrated by the Daily Express front page today, which shouts: ‘White men

Wednesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Beyond The Lunatic Fringe

So, yes, there’s been a mini-hiatus around these parts. Cricket and an unexpected trip to Edinburgh for a first meeting with my godson were largely to blame. Plus, you know, idleness. Anyway, we return to consider this remarkable passage: The Salmond/Saeed axis is not merely a disturbing sign of Salmond’s own prejudices.  It has a potential strategic significance that goes beyond Scotland. The Brotherhood’s strategy for Britain is to promote separate Islamic development, declare sharia-only enclaves and infiltrate mainstream institutions as a springboard for Islamising the entire society. Since Salmond’s aim is to make Scotland independent from the rest of the United Kingdom, with one leap the Brothers could achieve

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The View from Montparnasse

In Paris, Byron York ponders the foreigners’ view of the American presidential race:“But why wouldn’t you vote for Obama?” I’m having lunch with an Obama supporter at La Coupole, the venerable brasserie in Paris’s Montparnasse neighborhood. The woman who asked me that question, along with her fiance, has come to discuss something else, but the talk inevitably comes round to the U.S. presidential race. And the question here, as all across Europe, is: What reason could there possibly be for Barack Obama not to be the next president of the United States? Put another way, why would anyone vote for John McCain? Well, leaving aside the fact that plenty of

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Department of Fatigue

An email from a friend in Washington who’s active in Democratic politics: Honestly, I haven’t been paying attention to the Presidential race at all. I’m sick of it and the coverage of it is terrible… Yesterday, MSNBC had a report on what Obama has in his pockets.  It’s a lucky poker chip, a lucky arrowhead, and a lucky penny if you must know…all given to him by supporters (I assume they aren’t lobbyist donations). I think there must be many people who feel this way. Already. Happily, there are only four more months of campaigning.

Peter Hoskin

Mugabe stripped of his knighthood

At last decency has prevailed, and the Queen has stripped Robert Mugabe of his honorary knighthood.  What’s more, Andy Burnham has blocked the Zimbabwe cricket team’s tour of England next year. As far as the plight of the Zimbabwean people is concerned, these are only the tiniest of gestures.  But sometimes small gestures can signal an immense tidal shift in attitude and action.  Hopefully, these will mark the start of a much less forgiving approach to the Mugabe regime by our government. 

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Welfare that works

James Purnell has again repaid my faith in him. What he is proposing is a much needed expansion in the part-privatisation of the benefits industry. As I say in tomorrow’s magazine, the task is not so much welfare reform as regime change. The DWP boasts that it spends more money than the economic output of Portugal. With 5.1m on benefits, it also has more people than the entire poulation of Ireland, Norway or Lithuania. Yet Purnell, following the tried-and-tested procedures in Australia and America, will invite bids from the private sector for welfare-to-work contracts, by which the private companies would be paid by results. Remember, a huge chunk of those on

Peter Hoskin

Apologies

We’ve been having a few technical problems with the website.  Everything’s been fixed now, so normal service can resume…  P.S. There’s a backlog of comments churning through the system, so they may take a while to appear on the site.  Again, apologies.   P.P.S.  If you think any of your comments haven’t got through, you can always e-mail to me on phoskin @ spectator.co.uk and I’ll post them manually for you.