Society

Wednesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

McCain-Obama 2. This Time It’s Fraudulent

Well, campers, if it’s Wednesday you know it’s Disappointment Time. Yes, John McCain and Barack Obama are “debating” again tonight. This time in an all-holds barred “town hall” format. Can you contain your excitement? Well, for those of you who remain, despite all previous warnings to the contrary, demons for punishment, fret not we’ll be here too. That is to say that, against my better judgement, I’ll be live-blogging the nonsense again. What joy. Swing on by and stick around and treat yourself to a gimlet or something. What’s left to lose? We’ll be live in, like half an hour’s time…

Alex Massie Alex Massie

They Knew They Were Right

There’s plenty one could say about National Review’s blog The Corner. If nothing else it affords a grim panorama of the decline of the American conservative movement. Decline, at least, in as much as NR is considered the house magazine for mainstream Republicanism. Here, for instance, is Andrew McCarthy on last night’s debate: Now, as the night went along, did you get the impression that Obama comes from the radical Left?  Did you sense that he funded Leftist causes to the tune of tens of millions of dollars?  Would you have guessed that he’s pals with a guy who brags about bombing the Pentagon?  Would you have guessed that he

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

The Archbishop outclasses the atheists

In an interview with Stuart Jeffries in the Guardian, Rowan Williams has a nice little dig at Dawkins – he’s calmly patronising, seemingly by accident. “As he escorts me from his study, he tells me he admires Dawkins. “There’s something about his swashbuckling side which is endearing.” He invited atheism’s high priest and his wife to a Lambeth Palace party last year. “They were absolutely delightful.” Again, classic Williams: the better man being nice about his foe…But the real reason the Dawkins were invited is unexpected. “My son wanted to meet Mrs Dawkins.” Why? “She was in Doctor Who.” Really? “Oh yes. She played an assistant when Tom Baker was

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The politics of the crisis

Westminster is convinced that Gordon Brown is the political beneficiary, at least in the short-term, of the current financial turmoil. Brown looks more energised and confident than he has in a long time, the rebellion within the Labour party has been quashed, and the Tories are in a bind. They have to be supportive of the government lest they be accused of playing politics with the situation but this leaves them looking like they have no ideas of their own as David Cameron found to his cost at PMQs. But the Populus poll in today’s Times, obviously taken before today’s bail-out, suggests that there is less of a Brown bounce

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Mortgaged futures

Today’s WSJ reports that almost one in six US homeowners now owe more on their mortgage than their house is worth. 16 percent now do so compared to 4 percent in 2006. Among those who purchased their residence in the last five years, the figure rises to 29 percent. One wonders what the equivalent UK figures will look like by the turn of the year.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Interest rates set to keep falling

Had six central banks not agreed to cut interest rates by the same amount today –50bp – I suspect the Bank of England would have gone lower. We’re at 4.5% now but we’re probably on a downward track to 3.5% or even 3.25%. Great news if you’re on a variable mortgage anchored to the base rate, but we’ll see how the interbank rate reacts. There is still much we have to learn, including how this £50bn bank bailout will be financed. Darling’s Mais lecture is tonight (delayed from last night) where he’s likely to tell us about a new set of rules for the age of debt which will dominate the

Michael Millar

Forgive and forget?

On this morning’s Today Programme Alistair Darling came as close as I reckon he’ll ever come to setting out his stance on guaranteeing bank deposits. He said: “What we do in relation to that will differ from institution to institution…what I will do is in every single case and every single instance…I have been very clear I have never ruled anything out.” So finally an answer of sorts, and that answer is the Chancellor will play each ball as it lies. Basically this means our savings are safe but it’s just a question of who ends up being the guardian – be it a Spanish bank or the government itself.

Patrick Cook

Parallel Life

As Kevin Rudd’s press gallery romance sours, Turnbull sharpens his knife Mr Rudd pursed. Mr Rudd rearranged his pencils, first by height, second by colour, third by the order in which they displeased him. Mr Rudd was out of sorts. His sermon to the UN, on the world’s crises, as they related to Mr Rudd, was not the pinnacle entered in his BlackBerry planner. If he held the General Assembly in the palm of his hand, it was because the audience could have fitted equally comfortably into a departing cab, which, during the course of his remarks, it did. To be fair, his triumph was programmed for the UN equivalent

Ian Cowie

Time to bet against excessive pessimism

Just as directors’ dealings often reveal more about the immediate outlook for their companies’ shares than can be gleaned from annual reports, it often makes sense to follow what fund managers do, rather than what they say. So it was a pleasant surprise over lunch the other day to find myself in step with one of the most successful investors alive in Britain today. Anthony Bolton, president of investments at Fidelity, the biggest unit trust manager in the world, is buying shares again, two years after he called the top of the bull market. This should give comfort — and pause for thought — to the herd who are dumping

Judi Bevan

‘Business only thrives when society thrives’

Judi Bevan hears the views of Paul Myners, the left-leaning millionaire art collector who has just become Gordon Brown’s City minister There is a telling mischief about the way the new City minister dresses. A double-breasted dove-grey pinstripe suit is worn with a white shirt worthy of a detergent ad, no tie but tasteful cuff links, black brogues and socks. There is an arresting slash of colour from a chunky orange plastic watch strap for his black Calvin Klein timepiece. All very Mondrian — but then until his appointment last week, Paul Myners, soon to be Lord Myners, was the chairman of the Tate trustees. He is such a keen

Paul Marshall

A riposte to the Archbishop

When Rowan Williams and John Sentamu took up their crosiers against short-sellers, they chose strange company: Ken Lay, the disgraced chief executive of Enron, Dennis Kozlowski, the jailed boss of Tyco (who took out full-page ads against short-sellers, before his company sank under the burden of accounting fraud) and the former prime minister of Malaysia Dr Mahathir Mohamad are probably the most renowned critics of short-sellers. In recent weeks they have been joined by assorted Labour frontbenchers, including Yvette Cooper and Hazel Blears. They are a motley crew. The common thread, linking business executives and politicians, is blame shifting — or to use a more biblical term, ‘scapegoating’. The best

Matthew Lynn

Safe as houses: why Nationwide survived

Matthew Lynn says Britain’s largest building society prospered by refusing to follow fashion — while its bolder, greedier rivals have all gone bust or been taken over Over the last 25 years, Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and the hare has been a poor guide to financial markets. As the swashbuckling investment banks rose in power and influence, every- one had their money on the fast, fluffy creature with the big ears. In markets that favoured speed, innovation and boldness, there wasn’t much space left for slow, solid creatures with shells on their backs. Until now, that is. In the wake of the credit crunch, financial tortoises may be having

Paul Johnson

And Another Thing | 8 October 2008

People who are infuriated by the huge sums paid for stuffed animals in tanks and the adulation heaped on Francis Bacon’s squiggly horrors should grasp that there is no reason or logic in aesthetics. Andy Warhol, no mean exponent of effrontery, if not of skill, summed up the game for all time: ‘Art is what you can get away with.’ This is certainly true of modern fashion art. Was it always true? In studying the history of the subject, I am often struck by the bizarre careers of artists. For instance, that obscure figure Grünewald was better known in his day as a hydraulic engineer than as the painter of

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Only Abba can save the world financial markets

At the historic moment when the House of Representatives passed Hank Paulson’s bail-out bill last Friday night — thus, we must hope, despite early indications to the contrary, significantly improving the world’s chances of avoiding economic cataclysm — I was conducting some research into the Scandinavian solution. I don’t mean the policies followed by the Swedish government to steer its banking sector through a near-terminal crisis in the early 1990s, of which more in a moment. I mean I was sitting in the back row of a packed cinema watching Mamma Mia!, the Abba-singalong movie, and observing the impact of a mass inoculation of feel-good on a crowd that had

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Strictly Come Dancing is not the BBC’s core broadcasting

Rod Liddle — a former editor of the Today programme — says that the Corporation must stop pretending to be democratic if it is to keep the licence fee. Unashamed elitism is the only chance that the Beeb has in the new media world One of the first things to go to hell when the Soviet Union collapsed was elitist early evening television. Within a remarkably short period of time the opera and the ballet and the documentaries moved down the schedules to be replaced by the sort of free and democratic programming with which we in the West are familiar: jabbering cretins, vapid celeb monkeys talking crap, mindless lumpenprole

Pg Morgan

Maybe Polanski was right to flee America

P.G. Morgan goes in search of the truth about the great director’s flight from the US courts — and uncovers some uncomfortable truths worthy of a scene in Chinatown High above the heat and smog of Los Angeles, a small cardboard box sits on a shelf in LA’s Superior Court building awaiting its Hollywood moment. The handwriting on the box — P v Polanski #A334129 — has faded in the Californian sun. But the box’s contents — witness statements and lurid court depositions from Roman Polanski’s statutory rape case — remain as sensitive now as when they were filed away in February 1978. The box was coaxed out of hiding

Anthony Beachey

The man with the Midas touch

The perfect timing of this book rivals the brilliance of Warren Buffett’s many invest- ment coups. For years, this true ‘master of the universe’ has highlighted the dangers posed by derivatives — or ‘financial weapons of mass destruction’ in Buffett-speak. Losses from these highly complex instruments, based on sub-prime US mortgage debt, precipitated the credit crunch and now threaten the entire global financial system. Presciently, Buffett warned in 2003 that derivatives could push companies into a ‘spiral that can lead to a corporate meltdown’. But Wall Street’s investment bankers ignored his advice, and while they now head for the pawnshops, the world’s greatest investor continues to accumulate wealth faster than

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Sarah Palin* Killed My Laptop

Which is why blogging has been non-existent these past few days. However my new MacBook arrived half an hour ago and, all being well, we’ll be back up to speed pretty soon. *OK, I snorted liquor all over the keyboard in response to something preposterous she, or one of her cheerleaders, said. I forget which. Result? Computer No Worky.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Tonight has to be the night McCain begins to turn this round

The polling news for the McCain campaign right now is grim. Yesterday, two polls in Virginia had Obama over 50 percent and ahead by double-digits; McCain pretty much has to win the Old Dominion to get to 270. Nearly all the toss-up states are now leaning to Obama, while states where McCain had a mild but significant edge are now becoming toss-ups. McCain has to change the game. McCain’s last best chance to do so is tonight’s debate. It is a town-hall meeting, which suits McCain, and being on stage with Obama for an hour and a half he has a chance to force Obama into a major error. McCain