Society

Wednesday

David Craig

‘Don’t focus on what you can make, but on what you can lose’

David Craig, a pioneer of the British hedge-fund industry, recalls lessons learned from John Paulson, the New York investor who topped last year’s global earnings league New York in the mid-1990s: my long-time investing partner Richard Atkinson and I were in the city seeking out people with whom we might co- invest. We had run our own fund — reputed to be the first hedge fund in London — for 11 years, and had progressed to a stage where we thought we were getting good at this sort of talent-spotting. Nonetheless, we were particularly wary of getting fleeced by second-rate opportunists, or worse, fraudsters. We could only avoid that by

Christopher Silvester

Opportunities for vintage growth

Christopher Silvester says you don’t have to be rich to invest in fine wine, and the rewards can be handsome Wine as an investment asset class intimidates most people, who mistakenly assume it is a rich man’s game when in actuality it is open to anyone who is prepared to commit a few thousand quid and wait for a few years. In the distant past the only game in town was to buy through wine merchants, but in the last quarter of a century a new breed of wine investment company has emerged. These are much the same as advisory stockbrokers, in that they choose a portfolio for you and

Simon Nixon

Time to start putting clients first again

On the face of it, I picked a bad week to volunteer to write about the rebirth of gentlemanly capitalism. My thesis was that the credit crunch would lead to a profound shift in the way the City goes about its business, heralding a return — if not to bowler hats and brollies, liquid lunches and civilised working hours — then at least to an environment where longstanding relationships once again took precedence over the quick buck. After two decades in which the City appeared to have adopted Caveat Emptor as its new motto, I reckoned this financial crisis would bring about the restoration of its old one, Dictum Meum

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Department of Advertising

Shamefully, I don’t think I’d heard of Billy Beer until Mike Crowley posted this fantastic advertisement at The Stump. I mean, what better slogan could there be? Could an reader who’s actually tasted the stuff let me know what it’s like? Bonus points for using Billy Beer as a vehicle for measuring and interpreting the successes and failures of his brother’s Presidency.And if, as John McCain claims, a Barack Obama presidency will, in some mysterious fashion, be Jimmy Carter’s second term does that mean that Billy Beer will make a comeback too? We can but hope…

Peter Hoskin

The Government fails the poor

The Government’s latest poverty statistics were meant to be released back in April. But they’ve been delayed and delayed, such that they’ve only come out today. Now we know why. They record yet more failure from this multi-talentless government.  The amount of children living in poverty rose by 100,000 in 2006-07. Whilst pensioner poverty shot up by 300,000 – the first increase since 1998. Of course, alleviating poverty is an admirable political cause. Sadly, with this Government, it’s been reduced to a big statistical fiddle – spending £billions to get people from just below a (somewhat arbitrary) income level to just above it. Even so, it’s one of the indicators that Brown so frequently asks us

Peter Hoskin

Police lose their High Court challenge over pay

So, the High Court has turned down the Police Federation’s effort to get a 2.5 percent pay deal.  A good result for the Government, surely?  Well, yes.  But there’s a caveat.  I suspect it may make the police so much more determined to get the right to strike.  If so, Jacqui Smith’s problems have only just begun.  Watch this space. 

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Let parents be the tsars

Slip some truth serum into Lord Adonis and, yes, I suspect he will admit the flaw in proposing new combined primary and secondary schools. Not that they won’t work, but because the idea that the politicians know how best to educate children has been tested to destruction. The Tory proposal would let new schools set up in the most poular formats – if there was a demand for new sprawling school, aged 5 to 18, it would be met. More likely the demand will be for small, manageable boutique schools of around 300 pupils, a third of today’s average size. For as long as poliicians are pontificating on exam structure,

Stuart Wheeler

Why Britain needs a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty

[After the news that the British public want a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, here’s a exclusive blog from Stuart Wheeler. Stuart is one of the leading figures in the fight for a referendum, and he’s secured a High Court hearing (which began yesterday) over the Government’s refusal to hold one. Here at Coffee House, we wish him all the best with that, and thank him for his words below – Pete Hoskin] There is one issue in the United Kingdom that transcends age, gender and political persuasion – democracy. Democracy is the reason I am taking the Government to court this week. The people of Ireland will, on Thursday,

Peter Hoskin

Balls to get tough on failing schools

In an interview with the Guardian this morning, Ed Balls pledges to crack down on failing schools: “We don’t want to see excuses about poor performance, what we want to see is clear plans to raise standards in every school with a clear expectation that if by 2011 there are still schools stuck below 30% … and there’s not been a radical transformation at that point, our expectation will be that the school closes and reopens as a national challenge trust or academy.” Ok, so a drive to improve standards is a good thing. As, in essence, is a quickening of the academies programme. But let’s not forget that these are

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

When a wink is better than a policy proposal.

What accounts for John McCain’s popularity? By which I mean, of course, his popularity amongst the press and television pundit class. After all, by some conventional measures, McCain is a politician, with few legislative achievements to his name (the most significant being his highly dubious campaign finance reforms) who shows little interest in the actual business of government, beyond sweeping bromides about “national greatness” and calls to “service”. It helps that McCain is primarily interested in foreign affairs which carries much greater cachet in Washington than banal, number-crunching domestic policy. The pundit class considers a lack of foreign policy “experience” a serious handicap; having little interest in domestic affairs is

Alex Massie Alex Massie

No Country for Young Men (or Women)

Scotland on Sunday’s splash yesterday highlighted a report to the UN written by from the country’s Children’s Commissioner which presents a ghastly, even dystopian vision of Scotland as being, it would seem, one of the worst places on earth in which to bring up children. We won’t even let them play, apparently. The report highlights a culture dominated by: • Adults who are so afraid of being accused of harming or neglecting children that they do not volunteer to work with them, leaving youngsters bored and harming their development; • Children often having difficulty accessing everyday services such as shops and buses, because they are treated with fear and mistrust

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Obama: Better than a Mere Messiah

A friend in San Francisco sent me an article that, I suspect, has to be the best thing written about Barack Obama yet. Mark Morford, a San Francisco Chronicle columnist writes: Barack Obama isn’t really one of us. Not in the normal way, anyway.. Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher ina new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this

Mark Daniell

Having a flutter on Euro 2008

Ok, so Euro 2008 has kicked off (if my calculations are correct, we should be most of the way through France vs Romania right now). And the BBC still bellows “Who will you support?” Answer: no-one. We didn’t qualify, remember? Cinderella has never had so much empathy. I wrote on Friday night how we Brits could mine some enjoyment out of the tournament. But I just thought I’d pick up on another – albeit expensive – way of injecting some genuine emotional attachment into proceedings, and that’s to stake cash on them. These days there are some highly elaborate and intricate ways of losing money that you should know about. First

Peter Hoskin

What do CoffeeHousers think about a Manchester congestion charge?

What do CoffeeHousers – and particularly those based in Manchester – make of Ruth Kelly’s plans to impose congestion charges in cities other than London?  You see, there are two factors making me reluctant to comment myself: 1) I don’t own a car, and 2) I don’t live in Manchester.  As far as the London C-charge is concerned, I think it seems expensive and I’m dubious about how “green” it turned out to be under the Ken regime.  At least, then, the Manchester charge is less costly and it’s primarily being sold under a “growth” banner, rather than an environmental one.  But is it necessary in the first place?  Should these

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Dealing with knife crime

Knife crime is a serious problem—those who claim that the current concern over it is all a result of media fear-mongering are being far too flippant. But I do wish the government would concentrate on using the tools already available to it rather than coming up with yet more eye catching initiatives. As Stephen wrote the other week only a handful of those convicted of knife offences are punished to the full extent of the law. Today, Charlotte Leslie, a Tory candidate down in Bristol, notes in her Guardian blog another way in which the scourge of knife crime could be tackled without any additional legislation: “When we got back

Peter Hoskin

Dorries takes on the Beeb

Nadine Dorries’ latest blog post is a classic piece of telling-it-like-it-is.  Here’s how she kicks off: “The frenzied attack against Conservative MPs and MEPs, orchestrated by and emanating from the left wing BBC and press has equalled that of an animal in its death throes. The more terminal the position looks for Labour, the more desperate the BBC and left wing press become.” And she continues: “The incoming Conservative government has many big dragons to slay, the BBC has to be the biggest.” It’s a view that I’m sure many CoffeeHousers would agree with.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The Taliban’s suicide bombing campaign

If you ever wondered what a Taliban suicide bomber looks like, examine the boy on the left.  Aged 14, Rafiqullah was caught with a suicide vest but pardoned by President Karzai.  However, this did not dent the suicide bombing campaign which yesterday claimed the lives of another three British servicemen. The suicide bombers intercepted are invariably Pakistanti – which is why an increasing number of Afghans regard this not as an insurgency but an Afghan-Pakistan war. The bombers are plucked from orphanages or madrasahs in al-Qaeda’s new bolthole, the quasi-autonomous northwest tribal areas of Pakistan. Referred to as FATA (federally administered tribal areas) this is the source of the IEDs, the Taleban agents

Peter Hoskin

Do the professionals want 42-day detention?

One of the Government’s loudest defences for 42-day detention is that it will help the intelligence services and the police catch more terrorists. Problem is, the professionals aren’t exactly backing this claim up. CoffeeHousers who caught Jacqui Smith being interviewed yesterday will have heard her admit that MI5 haven’t asked for an extension from 28 days. And, today, the Guardian reveals that certain senior policemen are set against the Government’s proposals. Their worries deserve quoting:  [42-day detention will incur] Damage to relations with Muslim communities from whom intelligence to counter terrorism is needed;  Fears that detectives will face pressure to find, even manufacture evidence, against those held for 42 days;