Society Archives

Tuesday

22 Jul 2008

Guess who didn’t come to dinner

Downing Street has just released the names of all those who have received official hospitality at Chequers. Most of the Cabinet are on the list but there are some notable omissions. It is rather surprising that the Chief Whip and the deputy leader of the Labour party have not been entertained at the PM’s country residence. While Douglas Alexander’s omission lends credence to the rumours that the International Development Secretary’s role in letting the speculation about an early election get so out of hand has seen him expelled from Brown’s inner circle More worrying, though, is that at a time when the country is fighting two wars, neither the Foreign

James Forsyth

Glasgow East: still difficult to call

The news that Pete just posted about how the odds on Labour winning Glasgow East have shortened is, perversely, bad news for Gordon Brown. Labour holding Glasgow East is now priced into Brown’s share price and so he’ll get no bounce from Labour avoiding defeat. However, if the SNP were to pull off a spectacular upset it will be an even bigger story for everyone having written off their chances. Personally, I’m extremely dubious of anyone predicting the result from Glasgow East with any certainty. By-elections are notoriously hard to call and the social make-up of the constituency makes this one particularly hard to predict. Mike Smithson, the genius behind

James Forsyth

How can Obama say that, knowing what he knows now, he would still have opposed the surge?

Only someone wearing ideological blinkers could claim that the surge has not transformed the security situation in Iraq and provided the space necessary for political progress. So, it is depressing to see Obama claiming that – even knowing what he knows now, and after seeing the progress in Iraq at first hand, and being briefed by General Petraeus – he still would have opposed the surge if he had to go back in time and make the decision again (see video below). Indeed, Obama’s answer to this question displays his Bush-like quality of refusing to allow the changing facts on the ground in Iraq to influence his thinking. Rather than admit

James Forsyth

Balls forced to face Parliament

The Speaker has ordered Ed Balls to the Chamber to answer questions about the whole Sats debacle. The question is who will enjoy watching Michael Gove skewer Balls more, Tory MPs or Balls’s enemies on the Labour benches.

James Forsyth

There’s been a cock-up and Balls should take responsibility

One of the more disgraceful aspects of the Sats scandal is Ed Balls’s attempt to deny all responsibility for the fiasco. Michael Gove rightly roasts Balls for this in The Guardian this morning: “Balls is keen on accountability when it suits him. He has used the power of his office to harry successful faith schools and to name and shame those schools the prime minister calls “failing”. We have been concerned that some of the faith schools were unfairly smeared and the blanket condemnation of 638 schools didn’t help those on the path to improvement. But if he wants to operate in that sort of fashion, he must expect that

Monday

21 Jul 2008

Alex Massie

Onwards and upwards to the Ryder Cup!

OK, one more golf comment… No-one anticipated Europe’s crushing victory at Oakland Hills in 2004 and precious few more thought that the 2006 edition of the Ryder Cup at the K Club in Ireland would also end ina European blow-out victory. Time after time hotly fancied American sides have been found wanting even if the rankings and, perhaps, common sense suggest they should have won. Why? Well, Padraig Harrington’s remarks today give credence to one powerful explantion for this success: european golfers care about the Ryder Cup much more than their American counterparts do. This isn’t a universal rule of course, after all Kenny Perry, for one, made making the

Alex Massie

Gone sailing

Blogging will be light this week. In fact, apart from a few things I’ve prepared to keep the place ticking over, it will be non-existent. I’m sailing around Corfu, courtesy of some kind friends who have a boat. Since I’ve not been on a non-ferry sea-going vessel of any description in, oh, at least 15 years, I trust I won’t be expected to do more than hold the end of a rope from time to time. There was a reason I joined the RAF section of shirkers, not the Royal Navy wastrels back in those not-so-fondly remembered CCF days… See you next week! Photo by Flickr user Mafleen, used under

James Forsyth

Anthony Browne joins Team Boris

Anthony Browne, the director of Policy Exchange, is going to work for Boris Johnson as the Mayor’s policy director. This means that the job of running the most influential think tank on the centre-right is now up for grabs. Given Policy Exchange’s influence on the Tory leadership—James O’Shaughnessy went from being head of research at Policy Exchange to being head of policy for the Tories, and many of the party’s best ideas have their origins in a Policy Exchange pamphlet—there will be intense interest in the Westminster Village in who gets the job.

Fraser Nelson

The welfare Perestroika

What to make of James Purnell’s reforms? When I heard Neal Lawson from Compass on the radio this morning debating IDS, I thought that Purnell will be delighted: is this the toughest opposition he can get? The Campaign Group of socialist Labour MPs would always oppose him. In a way, it’s precisely what he wants. But what he may not be so please dabout is this statement just released from a group called America Works. It’s intended as a compliment, but there can be nothing more likely to get Labour backbenchers wound up: “This green paper, based on Freud’s recommendations, demonstrates that the British government has finally come to accept the

James Forsyth

Obama and Brown

At some point, dire poll ratings begin to undercut a Prime Minister’s standing on the international stage as other leaders decide that there’ll be a new PM along soon so there’s no point in investing that much in the relationship. Gordon Brown appears to have already reached this point if Barack Obama’s comments are any guide. Here’s what Obama said in an interview broadcast on Sunday: “The objective of this trip was to have substantive discussions with people like President Karzai or Prime Minister Maliki or President Sarkozy or others who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to ten years. It’s important for me to have

James Forsyth

It’s time we were told all about ETS

One of the things that has come out in the Sats scandal is how there was a complete failure to do due diligence on ETS, a company whose track record did not inspire confidence. It now turns out that even after the problems with Sats had begun to emerge, the Immigration Service approved the use of ETS testing to assess immigrants’ knowledge of English; the tests form part of the new points-based approach to immigration. The consequences of these tests being messed up in the same way that the Sats have been are horrendous. Immigrants could be refused the right to work here or put on the path to citizenship on

James Forsyth

The proliferation problem

One of the many reasons the world should worry about Iran going nuclear is the danger that Iran will sell the technology to raise cash; not an unlikely prospect given the shaky foundations of the Iranian economy. As Dan Gillerman, Israel’s outgoing UN ambassador, points out to Newsweek, Pakistani politicians have already come under pressure to sign off on selling Pakistan’s nuclear know-how: “[Benazir Bhutto] told us that when she was prime minister, the heads of Pakistan’s atomic-energy agency came to her and said, “Pakistan is in deep economic trouble. We can make a lot of money by providing know-how and selling our nuclear capability.” She said, “You are crazy,

Peter Hoskin

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 21 July – 27 July

Welcome to this week’s Wall. As always, this is your space to write and chat about any topics you want. Do let us know if there are things you’d like to see us cover on Coffee House. Or if you’d like to post any photos or videos to the Wall, please e-mail them to me on phoskin @ spectator.co.uk. We’d be particularly keen on anything related to the Glasgow East by-election. In fact, the best contribution on Glasgow East (be it a photo, video or comment) will this week win a bottle of champagne from the Coffee House cellar.

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 21 July 2008

…here are some posts made over the weekend on Spectator.co.uk: Matthew d’Ancona claims that the latest Batman film is brilliantly dark. Fraser Nelson presents a guide to Glasgow East, and highlights new statistics which show that four out of every five drug addicts are on welfare. James Forsyth suggests that Brown will take a pounding during the summer recess, and identifies Alistair Darling’s interview with the Times as “the start of a new chapter in British politics”. Clive Davis celebrates Melody Gardot. And Americano wonders whether Obama can seal the deal this week.

Sunday

20 Jul 2008

Alex Massie

Shark Attack

American golf writers are a rum bunch. Here, for instance, is Damon Hack, late of the New York Times and currently berthed at Sports Illustrated: Norman could be on the verge of turning the sports world upside down and righting a dozen wrongs from his career. A Norman win would arguably top Tiger Woods’s U.S. Open triumph from a month ago, and it might even surpass Jack Nicklaus’s 1986 Masters triumph at age 46. Nicklaus hadn’t won a major in six years when he shot 30 in the gloaming on the back nine at Augusta National and won his 18th professional major title. Norman, seven years older than Nicklaus was

Alex Massie

Congratulations Padraig!

So the old Claret Jug is staying in Ireland for another year. The list of people since 1945 who have retained the Open Championship is: Bobby Locke, Peter Thomson, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods. You can add Padraig Harrington to that list. A remarkable feat, achieved in testing conditions on two of the toughest courses (Carnoustie and Birkdale) on the Open rotation. His five wood from 272 yards to within five feet at the 17th was a shot of exquisite class, worthy of winning a championship. Considering that he contemplated withdrawing from the Open on account of a wrist injury, Harrington’s feat is all the more remarkable.

James Forsyth

Not aiding the cause

One of the most frequent complaints that you hear from those who have served in Afghanistan is that DFID is simply not fit for purpose. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Stuart Tootal, the commander of 3 Para who recently quit the army, gives a depressing example of how the DFID bureaucracy puts obstacles in the way of necessary projects: “The hospital sheets were filthy and the doctor said they couldn’t wash them,” he explained. “But we said, ‘You have an industrial washing machine sitting there in cellophane.’” The US aid agency that had donated it withdrew when the British arrived so it had never been installed.An engineer with

James Forsyth

Our delayed trains

There’s a depressing piece in The Observer today detailing the horrendous delays that anyone trying to go on holiday in August using various train lines is going to be subjected to. (Full disclosure: I’m planning to go up to the Lake District in August so am going to get caught up in all this). What makes these delays all the more galling is how expensive train travel is. According to The Observer £10 in Britain buys you 27 miles of train travel while in Ireland it gets you 38 and in France 50. The Observer also reports that: On many lines into London from the South East there is no

James Forsyth

Blair’s most unpopular decision is more popular than Labour under Brown

Looking at the numbers from that Independent poll, one thing stands out to me: today, more people agree with Blair’s decision on Iraq than support Labour under Gordon Brown. Labour has support from 24 percent of the electorate while 26 percent disagree with the assertion that “Britain should never have become involved in Iraq”. It says something about how low Labour’s standing currently is that Blair’s supposedly most unpopular decision commands more support than the party does. It makes a mockery of all those Brownites who used to say that Labour could only reconnect with the electorate once Blair and the stigma of Iraq had been removed

James Forsyth

Brown to take a pounding during the summer

There is a lot of debate in Westminster about whether the summer break will be good for Gordon Brown’s standing or not. Labour optimists argue that over the summer, people will drift back to the party. But Iain Martin in The Sunday Telegraph points out one of the flaws in this theory: Here’s a prediction. By the end of August, millions of Britons will be grumbling about the level of the pound, and it will be a live issue as the nation returns from its holidays. It will not top the list of complaints but will feed concern over inflation, the state of the economy and Gordon Brown’s mangling of