Society

Tuesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Dice are loaded against Brown

The news that stamp duty is to be axed on houses costing less than £175,000 is rather underwhelming—the Tories proposed abolishing it on homes under £250,000 last year but is indicative of the problems that the government is going to have with its re-launch. The best chance for a successful re-launch would have come from a genuine period of silence over the summer followed by the rollout of a set of new initiatives. Instead, what we are seeing is confirmation that variously extensively trailed ideas are going to be implemented and often in less radical form than first suggested. This, as the Populus poll in the Times shows , is

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Wolverines!

Matt Zeitlin, a Cal golden Bear soon, I understand, to become a Northwestern Wildcat, is kind enough to say some nice things about my piece on college football.  Nonetheless Mr Zeitlin also says this: There’s only [one] glaring problem with Massie’s piece – the love for Michigan. I mean, I guess as a Scotsman, he has free ground to pick a team, and one could do worse with Michigan, but one of the most annoying things about college football is how sycophantic the media is toward old, established, mostly Midwestern teams. Michigan isn’t the best example, Notre Dame is. This is true. In 1996 I was a student at Trinity

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Mooseburgers and other ephemera

So, apparently Tim Pawlenty though it was going to be him. My own suspicion – and it is only a hunch – is that McCain  may have wanted to choose Joe Lieberman but was persuaded that the consequences of doing so would doom his chances in November. The party wouldn’t wear a pro-choice candidate (any more than the Democrats could stomach a pro-life Veep). Lieberman’s appeal was that he would be a “game-changing” selection; once he was out of the running, what would be the point of a grey nonentity such as Pawlenty or, worse still, someone as well-kent and uninspiring as Mitt Romney. Thus the search was on, as

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Reforming the Vice-Presidency

Just how bad might a McCain presidency be anyway? Happily David Broder is on hand to tell us: By picking Palin, McCain has strengthened his reputation not as an ideologue, not as a partisan, but as a reformer — ready to shake up Washington as his hero, Teddy Roosevelt, once did. My guess is that cleansing Washington of its poisonous partisanship, its wasteful spending and its incompetence will become McCain’s major theme. Because lord knows that what we need is another crazed crusader* in the White House who can’t see – or imagine – a windmill without wanting to have a bloody tilt at it. Anyone who thinks McCain –

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Should we care about Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter being pregnant?

The Republican Convention, Minneapolis, Minnesota Word that Sarah Palin is to become a grandmother, aged 44, is spreading rapidly through Minneapolis. Should it matter? James says no, but personally I can’t see how it can avoid being an issue. Just three days ago, Palin was on a stage introducing her entire family to America. The system here involves the candidates invading their own privacy to an extent unheard of in Britain. The tradition of spousal speeches strikes Brits as bizarre and it is tough to work out where the line is drawn between political and private life. Character is king in American politics, and voters like every metric they can

Sean Martin

The higher education charade must stop

A study has shown that 1/3 of graduates receive no financial benefit from having a degree. And there’s been a 12% rise since 1992 in the number of graduates in non – graduate positions five years after leaving university. The worst performers were converted polytechnics and new universities spearheaded by the Labour government. These findings show the dangers of the incentivisation of higher education. A couple of weeks ago I said school wasn’t for everyone. Well, university isn’t either. Bribed into A levels by EMAs, and fooled by dated graduate salary figures into university, young people are sleepwalking into up to £20,000 of debt. And it’s not just a few

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Brown is neither feared nor loved

When David Miliband wrote his infamous Guardian piece and then further stoked the controversy with a series of provocative media appearances many of us expected the Brownites to knee-cap him. After all, vicious party in-fighting is what they do best. But the Brownites—reportedly because of Stephen Carter’s intervention—backed away. At this point, the air of almost physical menace that surrounded the Brownites evaporated. Maintaining discipline within the Labour party has consequently become far harder. No one now fears the consequences of speaking out in the way they once did. (It was once seriously put to me that Charles Clarke was prepared to stand up to Brown because his belly acted

Peter Hoskin

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 1 September – 7 September

Welcome to the latest CoffeeHousers’ Wall.  For those who haven’t come across the Wall before, it’s a post we put up each Monday, on which – provided your writing isn’t libellous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency – you’ll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no topic, so there’s no need to stay ‘on topic’ – which means you’ll be able to debate with each other more freely and extensively. There’s also no constraint on the length of what you write – so, in effect, you can become Coffee House bloggers. Anything’s fair game – from political stories in your local

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Will Brown’s conference speech be a mea culpa?

Jackie Ashley’s column is, as always, well worth reading this morning. Perhaps, the most significant thing in it is the suggestion that Gordon Brown might admit to his own mistakes at conference: “Brown, who has been talking a lot to former Blair advisers, is said to be drafting a speech that will go further than he has ever done before to admit personal failings and explain why he wants to stay in office, even pushing ahead with reforms he used to oppose. We’ll see. He is said to be deeply frustrated by his own performance, and ready to listen to people he used to dismiss out of hand.” I’ve long been convinced

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Carter got

The Independent on Sunday’s report that Stephen Carter has been demoted is hugely significant. If it is right, and I have no reason to think it is not I just haven’t independently confirmed it, it suggests that a change in strategy is coming; that the Brownites are going to adopt a more bare-knuckle approach. In recent weeks, Carter has been advocating not trying to tear David Miliband down, he played a key role in the brokering of the Peace of Minorca, and trying to separate David Cameron from his party, Carter argues that the public believe Cameron to be a decent guy and a moderate so attempting to demonise him

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A political hurricane

It seems rather Jo Mooreish to be discussing the political implications of Hurricane Gustav as people are forced to evacuate their homes but with the hurricane expected to make landfall as the Republican convention gets under way and with the legacy of Katrina there is an unavoidable political angle to this story. As Fraser notes, the Republicans cannot in the current circumstances have a typical convention. It would be wrong both stylistically and substantively to have speakers indulging in partisan rhetoric as a natural disaster strikes. At first blush, this appears to put John McCain at a further disadvantage. While the Democrats had four days of wall to wall media

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Will Hurricane Gustav dent McCain’s hopes?

I’m in Denver airport waiting for what a Republican friend in St Paul has just informed me is likely to be a one- or two-day convention. Even if Hurricane Gustav does not cause the destruction expected, it may yet blow away McCain’s chance of victory. The Republicans are acutely aware that this brings back memory of the Bush administration’s disastrous handling of Hurricane Katrina. Bush and Cheney are the last people the Republicans want on stage, and they have both pulled out. McCain knows he will be judged more by his response to Gustav than what he says in the speech, so even he may not turn up – there’s

Daniel Korski

The East London Carnival?

The streets around my house have now been cleaned, shops have opened again and any trace of the colour-packed, music-filled event that is the Notting Hill Carnival has disappeared. The event was a success. Towards the end, police did fight a battle with about 40 youths and ended up arresting 330 people – up from 246 last year. But overall, the event went smoothly with about 850,000 people enjoying the music, floats and the alluring energy of African-Caribbean popular culture. So why, one week after the event, am I writing this blog? Because I think that the event needs to move on. Rather than plan next year’s event, the organisers

Saturday

Melissa Kite

Real Life | 30 August 2008

Dimly, I remember the time when you could buy a sandwich as the result of a perfectly normal interaction between two human beings facing each other across a counter. You would ask for something, they would give it to you, you would hand over money. But that was before UK sandwich-buying was standardised. I do not know whose idea standardisation was and no doubt it has brought many benefits for the customer. But you need to have your wits about you. Do not fall into the trap I did when I put my veggie option down on the counter and feebly started trying to ask for tea. ‘Can I have

Jeremy Clarke

Low Life | 30 August 2008

What rain! And what gales! No wonder sales of thermal underwear have shot up by 50 per cent already this year. I live a stone’s throw from the beach and I haven’t had a dip in the sea once yet, let alone done a stint relaxing on the beach with the kids. And along at the far end of the beach, at the designated naturist section, only the most diehard nudists are sticking it out this summer. The only thing to do in continuously foul weather like this has been to keep indoors and watch the Olympic Games. I watched as much as possible down at the local gym on

Taki

High Life | 30 August 2008

Gstaad I’ve written this before on these here pages: Israel in cahoots with the Americans is going to bomb Iran before the 4 November US elections. How do I know, especially after sitting on a sailing boat for six weeks? That’s an easy one. Over the years I’ve made some pretty good contacts in Washington, and there is such a thing called email, a hard nut I have managed to crack going on ten years. Here’s how the Taki scenario goes: (with a little help from a Washington-based Belgian count). Russia has now shown America to have a loud voice but to carry a small stick. The Americans and the

Sarah Standing

Diary – 30 August 2008

Sarah Standing battles to board a plane bound for Ibiza Needs must and I’ve become extremely skilled at booking cheap, credit-crunching flights on easyJet. The volume of hours, energy, blood, sweat and tears I’ve devoted to acquiring dream e-tickets for my family ought to qualify me for some sort of tenacious travel operator award. This summer I’ve truly gone for gold: four returns to Ibiza, singles to Nice, Corfu and Toulouse and a brace of cancellations to Gibraltar. I’ve come to the conclusion that making holiday arrangements in cyberspace requires real chutzpah. Getting the flights you want is a gamble and not dissimilar to playing the Las Vegas slot machines. The

Tamzin Lightwater

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody | 30 August 2008

Monday I wish people would stop sending in complaints about the cost of hotels in Birmingham. I am not the English Tourist Board! But as we’re on the subject, let’s be clear — the point of having conference there is not to save money, or have fun. It’s so we can get out to parts of Britain we would not normally see. And could I just say to Mr Hargreaves from Chipping Norton: I’m not convinced by your claims that in Blackpool you could get a B&B, slap-up meal, bumper pack of rock and still have change from a £20 note. Nor do I believe that we are going to

The Spectator

Letters | 30 August 2008

We did it, not the state Sir: I am not a social historian but surely Liam Byrne fatally undermines his whole argument when he praises the founding of various organisations and movements 150 years ago to deal with the ‘huge change which swept millions from the countryside to the cities’ (‘Give us back our Big Idea, Mr Cameron’, 16 August). Isn’t the whole point that the state did not do this — individuals and groups did? Less state interference allows individuals and groups to help their communities and Britain as a whole rather than being strangled by the red tape, form-filling and box-ticking so beloved by Liam Byrne and New

Toby Young Toby Young

Status Anxiety | 30 August 2008

I am currently in Cornwall where I am spending the last week of August with my family. I cannot claim to have been basking in sunshine — the weather here is no better than the rest of the country — but I am luxuriating in the warm glow that comes from being on an environmentally friendly holiday. As I make my way towards Fifteen, Jamie Oliver’s restaurant in Watergate Bay, I exchange approving nods with the other dads. I had no idea that saving the planet could produce such a powerful sense of wellbeing. Admittedly, this feeling is quite hard to sustain once I have returned to the car park.