Society

Wednesday

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

Doing the Lambeth walk

Theo Hobson reports from the Lambeth conference.  Do take the time to read Theo’s magazine piece from a few weeks ago, on a Church of England “damaged beyond repair” – Pete Hoskin The first press conference is taken by the Archbishop of Brisbane, Philip Aspinall. It’s a bit like the press conferences in The West Wing: authority is wearing a friendly, jokey face, but with the expectation of having to fend off awkward questions any minute. Like C.J., Aspinall is conspicuously calm about the negativity-hunger of the hacks. The subtext is something like this: ‘We are completely ready for the cynicism that you the media are bringing – and we forgive you. Watch

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Will Brown lose the Obama PR war?

One could almost feel sorry for Gordon Brown on reading that Barack Obama will meet Tony Blair in London on Saturday morning. Blair excels at this kind of grip and grin occasion and one can easily imagine footage of Obama and Blair beaming at the cameras as Obama pays tribute to Blair’s work in the Middle East. Poor old Gordon won’t be able to compete on the star power front. To make things worse, as Obama is doing a solo press conference outside Number Ten’s famous front door, Brown could end up on the cutting room floor before the evening news is broadcast in the States. If this happens, news

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Don’t mention the Afghan–Pakistan war

At a recent dinner party in the British embassy in Kabul, one of the guests referred to ‘the Afghan-Pakistan war’. The rest of the table fell silent. This is the truth that dare not speak its name. Even mentioning it in private in the Afghan capital’s green zone is enough to solicit murmurs of disapproval. Few want to accept that the war is widening; that it now involves Pakistan, a country with an unstable government and nuclear weapons. But in fact the military commanders know that they are dealing with far more than just a domestic insurgency. Weapons, men and suicide bombers are flooding in from Pakistan every day. Like

Paul Johnson

And Another Thing | 23 July 2008

For anyone interested in fine painting, as distinct from ‘great art’, there is a treat at the Tate for them: a display of works by British artists, from the 17th to the 20th centuries, who depicted the Orient and those who liked to dress up in Eastern style. Many of the pictures are from private collections, and this is a rare chance to see them; they are often in their original frames, well preserved and of great beauty. The pellucid waters of this subject were thoroughly stirred and muddied by the polemicist and troublemaker Edward Said, who invented ‘Orientalism’ as a term of political and racial abuse, and won himself

Anna Blundy

‘Make him sit and wait’

The lady in the orange baseball cap is shouting to be heard. It is true that she hasn’t got much choice — the barking has become deafening. ‘You have to teach them to respect you!’ she screams. Owners tug sheepishly at their dogs’ leads and attempt to shush them without appearing to be unworthy of respect. ‘Otherwise they can make your life completely miserable.’ It occurs to me that this is a point that could be made about creatures other than 12-week-old puppies. While, for Marmite, Tip Top training is about getting little chunks of garlicky cheese for doing fairly rudimentary things on Hampstead Heath (though it is true that

Christopher Ondaatje

The stuff of legends

There have been many biographies of Sir Richard Burton, the renowned and enigmatic Victorian explorer, ethnologist, archaeologist, author, translator, and one of the greatest linguists of his era. Curiously, however, there have been no major novels based on Burton’s extraordinary life. Iliya Troyanov, in a remarkable German novel Der Weltensammler, has corrected this omission. The English translation of his work, The Collector of Worlds, has created a sensual adventure, and an exploration of Burton’s behaviour. Burton was a brilliantly charismatic scholar and adventurer. Even from an early age he set out to learn all he could about swords and guns. Duelling, riding, smoking, gambling and experiments with various forms of

Tuesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

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 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 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 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 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

Alex Massie 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.