Society Archives

Wednesday

13 Aug 2008

A Nudge on the funny bone

You either love these snappily titled American social science books—The Tipping Point, Blink, Freaknomics, Th!Nk and the one that the Cameroons are all reading: Nudge—or you hate them. Having just read Anne McElvoy’s review of Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler’s Nudge in Standpoint, I can guess which camp Anne falls in. But even as a bit of sucker for these books, I have to admit that her conclusion is hilarious: Of course, I could just stop carping, get with the programme and contribute some sequels. A new philosophy for the Blairmeronian centre ground, Sludge. For confused Liberal Democrats, Fudge. And for David Davis and his renegade Tory libertarians, Grudge. I

Sean Martin

What’s in a name?

I just stumbled across a site called Anagram Genius, which turns famous names into amusing anagrams. Here are a few of the political ones I found: The New Prime Minister Gordon Brown = Men now noted – wrong British Premier! David Cameron = Dave? Minor cad David Miliband = I’m livid and bad The Deputy Prime Minister John Leslie Prescott = Hits, injures. (Hot-tempered, completely inept, sir) Barack Hussein Obama = Bush, I can break Osama. Tony Blair = Tory in Lab Yes, ok, I have cheated a little with the names, but do CoffeeHousers have any alternatives?

Peter Hoskin

What the West should do now

There are two things that the West should now do in relation to Georgia. The first is to help preserve the fragile truce that now exists between Georgia and Russia. That means that Western policymakers have to be involved, encouraging and prominent. They should not shy away from using the carrot and the stick, in the form of incentives and sanctions. And they should consider deploying a peacekeeping force in the region, and what its role would be. So far, the French have lead by example. Hopefully, that example will be followed by other nations – including Britain – at an emergency meeting of EU nations later today. The second

Paul Johnson

And Another Thing | 13 August 2008

One of the great paradoxes, for most of us, is the hatred of work, and the need for it to fill what Dr Johnson called ‘the great vacancies of life’. We sigh for leisure, then don’t know how to handle it when it comes in abundance. Occupation is wearisome, but essential, and retirement is longed-for but disappointing. A typical example was Charles Lamb. During the 33 years he worked at the East India House he perpetually grumbled about the way his work gobbled up the best hours of each day and left him tired and listless, with virtually nothing for himself and his pleasures. Once retired, on a generous pension,

Rod Liddle

For a footballer to sue for ‘negligence’ is like a climber suing a mountain

The case of Ben Collett, the footballer awarded £4.5 million for a tackle that ended his career, bodes ill for the game, says Rod Liddle. Blame the zeitgeist, not the judge If you went rock-climbing in the Andes and, halfway up a vertical cliff face, the surface beneath your feet crumbled away and you slipped and fell — condors and local Indian tribesmen laughing in the background, air whistling past your ears and then bang, bang, bang as you clatter into the ground, sustaining disfiguring but not fatal injuries — well, would you sue the mountain for negligence? Get your lawyers on to it double quick, shove in a claim

Kate Chisholm

Eyes wide shut

What a dilemma. The synchronised diving, with young Tom Daley taking part for Team GB, was due on at 7.30 on Monday morning, but that’s when I have to write my column. How could I watch the Olympics on TV when I should be writing about radio? And yet, having missed the cycling and Nicole Cooke’s extraordinary gold, I really wanted to catch the atmosphere of watching this event ‘live’, just in case our plucky 14-year-old did succeed in seizing a medal. There was only one solution — Radio Five Live, which boasts it can give us all the action of the Olympics as it happens. But surely diving, and

Tuesday

12 Aug 2008

Alex Massie

Capello’s Common Sense

More evidence emerges that England selected the right man when they asked Fabio Capello to rescue their football team. From the Times today: On another issue – Wayne Rooney’s smoking habit – Capello was curiously indifferent, a stance that brought out sweat beads on the foreheads of his FA employers, fearful of their manager unwittingly being cast as the spokesman for a generation of English butt-heads. Capello later returned to clarify his position and the moral guardians were headed off at the pass… Capello’s lack of interest in making a judgment revealed that the difference between football people in Europe and Britain is not merely a matter of tactics or

Alex Massie

The Kosovan Connection

There’s not much point in arguing with Andy McCarthy, but National Review’s resident pop-eyed frother-and-splutterer-in-chief has this to say today: the recognition of Kosovo was a huge blunder, forced by those who think Muslim agitators will like us better, rather than sense weakness, if we appease and break the rules for them. On what planet was this the argument for recognising Kosovo?

James Forsyth

Reverend Wright plans an October surprise

New York Magazine has done a special issue this week on race and the US election. There’s lot of good stuff in the package but this line from John Heilemann’s cover story stood out to me: “In October, Obama’s former pastor, Wright, will publish a new book and hit the road to promote it” This is a huge problem for Obama. It means that the whole controversy over Wright’s racialist sermons and his friendship with Obama is going to be returning to the news agenda just as undecided voters begin to make up their minds. Wright’s performance at the National Press Club back in April showed that Wright revels in

Sean Martin

ICC must recognise politics

Western policymakers may be increasingly concerned about the situation in Pakistan, but the International Cricket Council still want to hold the Champions Trophy there in September. Today the ICC task force ruled that there are sufficient security measures in place. But Australia, England, New Zealand and South Africa still have massive worries, and are thinking about not taking part in the tournament. The ICC are employing the Pakistani coach, Geoff Lawson, to convince them otherwise. Just as it did before the 2003 World Cup, the ICC is acting like cricket is cut off from the real world. The time has come for it to face up to the dangers of

James Forsyth

Riding the Tory wave

The Cameroons love their non-electoral milestones and I think they passed a very important one this weekend. The News of the World ran a story on the Camerons’ swimwear which, in gushing terms, told its readers how they too could dress like the Camerons on the beach. The Camerons were being held up as the couple that News of the World readers should aspire to look like. You really have to read the whole piece, look at the pictures and especially the captions to grasp just how effusive the piece is about the Camerons, there’s a real Camelot vibe to it. But this section on David’s outfit gives you a

Peter Hoskin

Beijing’s true face

Many commentators were extremely impressed by the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. And many hoped it represented China showing a new, friendly face to the world. But now details are emerging that all may not have been as it seemed. The latest is that the 9 year old girl who charmed the audience with a performance of “Ode to the Motherland” was miming. The vocal line was actually sung by another girl behind-the-scenes, who was deemed to be less pretty by Chinese officials. Here’s what the ceremony’s musical director had to say: “The reason for this is that we must put our country’s interest first … The girl appearing on the

Peter Hoskin

Are the Key Stage 3 drops bigger than they first appear?

So, the provisional Key Stage 3 results have been released, and much is already being made of the drop in reading standards from last year. This drop is particularly marked among boys, whose performance in level 5 reading has fallen by 3 percent on 2007’s results. However, if you look back further, the fall in standards is even more dramatic. The boys who took Key Stage 3 tests this year took Key Stage 2 tests in 2005. Back then, 82 percent of them reached the requisite level in reading. But, of those same boys, only 62 percent managed to do the same in this year’s Key Stage 3 tests. In other words, the reading performance of the boys who

Peter Hoskin

4.4 percent doesn’t cover it

So the latest figures have annual CPI inflation – the Government’s official measure – at 4.4 percent. It’s the highest figure since records began in 1997. And, at 0.6 percent higher than last month’s figure, the biggest monthly change as well. The Government target of 2 percent has been well-and-truly smashed. But despite these grim records, it still signficantly undercuts the levels of inflation that the public will be facing. The RPI figure for inflation – which includes mortgage repayments – is higher, at 5 percent (for more details on this, see Fraser’s briefing on Brownie No1: Inflation). But even that fails to capture the above-inflation rises in water bills, and energy price rises of

James Forsyth

Brown should have learned from Hillary Clinton’s defeat

With hindsight it is clear that Hillary Clinton should have either hugged Barack Obama so close from the outset that he couldn’t wiggle free or set out to destroy him as soon as he announced his candidacy. Hillary, though, tried an odd mix of the two, giving Obama just the opening he needed. Gordon Brown had the same two options after David Miliband’s infamous Guardian op-ed. Team Brown, though, like the Clinton campaign couldn’t decide which option to choose. If Brown’s supporters had welcomed the op-ed and praised Miliband for going out there and taking it to the Tories, suggested it was all part of a grand plan and dropped

Monday

11 Aug 2008

Alex Massie

Prime Hutton

Lovely story told by Simon Hoggart in his Guardian column at the weekend: The death of Simon Gray lets me reprise a favourite story. He was a close friend of Harold Pinter, a great cricket lover. Once Pinter wrote a poem about his hero Len Hutton. It read, in its entirety “I saw Hutton in his prime / Another time, another time.” He sent it to several of his friends. Soon afterwards Pinter and Gray were at the same dinner party and Pinter asked what he thought of the poem. “I don’t know, Harold,” said Gray. “I’m afraid I haven’t finished it yet.” [Hat-tip: Stephen Pollard]

James Forsyth

Miliband is the boy who lived but Johnson is the man who might thrive

The 12 days since David Miliband’s Guardian op-ed has seen Miliband both achieve a tactical success and a tactical failure. Indeed, the real gainers from this initial phase have been the other possible challengers. Miliband’s achievement is that he is the boy who lived. He is the first Labour MP since Blair in 1994 to emerge as a serious threat to Brown’s leadership ambitions and survive. The fact that Miliband was not dispatched instantly means that his credibility has risen. His continuing presence in the government even after his performance on the Jeremy Vine show is a daily reminder of Brown’s weakness. But if Brown is forced out, Miliband will

Peter Hoskin

Coffee House FC

In the interests of maintaining a healthy competition between political blogs, Coffee House has entered a team into Iain Dale’s Fantasy Football League. Of course, it will be a sufficient reward to finish above ‘Iain Dale’s Hammers’. But should we win the £100 worth of books and DVDs on offer (and we’re quietly confident…), we’ll use them as prizes in Coffee House competitions. Anyway, here’s Coffee House FC, as selected by James and myself: James (Portsmouth) Shorey (Aston Villa) Campbell (Portsmouth) Woodgate (Spurs) Evra (Man Utd) Bentley (Spurs) Barry (Aston Villa) Modric (Spurs) Gutierrez (Newcastle) Torres (Liverpool) Defoe (Portsmouth) If any CoffeeHousers want to join the league, just follow the instructions on

Brian Cullen

The tough Tories

The shadow justice secretary, Nick Herbert, said today that the Conservatives believe much stricter bail laws are required – one year on from the death of Garry Newlove (who was killed by a gang whose ringleader had been bailed the same day). The ideas (clearly set out on ConservativeHome here) seem like common sense to me. However, they did stir my memory back to Guido’s observation last week that it has been a long time since we’ve heard the Tories talk about ‘freedom’ (barring David Davis). Do the Conservatives take it as a given that they’re the most libertarian major party and therefore want to show they still believe the state should

Peter Hoskin

Would modern Olympians do the same?

Exactly 80 years ago today: “At the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, Bobby Pearce, a third-generation sculling champion from the Sydney suburb of Double Bay, faced an unexpected challenge in the middle of his quarterfinal race against Victor Saurin of France: a family of ducks passed single-file in front of his boat. Pearce let them pass and then sculled to victory, much to the delight of the Dutch onlookers. In the final, Pearce defeated Kenneth Myers of the United States by the unusually large margin of 9.8 seconds.”