Society Archives

Wednesday

30 Jul 2008

Where’s the beef, David?

Camilla Cavendish’s column in The Times is essential reading about the Miliband leadership bid. She makes the point that for all the talk about Miliband being a big thinker with a firm grasp of policy, the Miliband manifesto is very vague: “His pitch is that a refreshed Labour Party must combine “government action and personal freedom”. But he is shy about saying where the balance should be struck. To be fair, he has been saying for two years that people want more control over their lives, and that Labour must devolve more power to people. He said it again yesterday – but without a whit of detail. The only policies

James Forsyth

Might Miliband move Labour to the left?

In media short-hand Miliband is a Blairite. But after talking to a bunch of folk over the last few weeks, I suspect that he might actually be a more left-wing PM than Brown. The theory goes that Miliband is not an uber-Blairitie, some of them express a certain disappointment in him—they brought him up and they expected great things from him but he has yet to deliver, and the political opportunities for Labour are on the left now. If Brown were to shift slightly more to the left, the commentariat would scream that he had ‘lurched to the left’. However, if Miliband were to do so his labelling as a

Peter Hoskin

An apology

As I’m sure many of you will have noticed, Coffee House has been inaccessible for much of the day. Apologies – we were having technical difficulties, which we’re assured have now been fixed. Let normal service resume…

Peter Hoskin

The Northern Rock redundancies

Of course, enforced job losses are never a pleasant thing. But at least Ron Sandler’s announcement that 1,300 Northern Rock employees will be made redundant falls short of the 2,000 redundancies that were originally envisaged. Regardless of the numbers, though, the redundancies represent the next stage of the Government’s “rescue package” for the bank – and it’s a stage they’ll want to sweep under the carpet. Guido – who’s been consistently excellent on the Northern Rock fiasco – made the point that the first family to have their home repossessed by the nationalised bank can be “the poster family for this whole incompetent mess”. Much the same stands for the first batch of Northern Rock workers to be made redundant. However

James Forsyth

It’s on

I’ve just been watching the Miliband press conference on TV and it is clear that Miliband isn’t going to back down. He didn’t actually declare he was standing for the leadership but he turned down countless opportunities to rule himself out. Typical of Miliband’s approach was that when he was asked if the Labour party would be mad to change leader before the next election, he jokingly replied that as a loyal Labour member he would say that the Labour party does anything mad. Miliband had clearly not been scared off by the assault on him in The Evening Standard by anonymous Brownite sources. The Sunday papers are becoming ever

James Forsyth

Blair’s prescience

Cast your mind back to the Seventh of September 2006, the attempt to force Tony Blair to name a date certain for his departure was at its height. Blair was touring a school in North London and afterwards delivered a brief statement to the press, (you can watch it here.) The opening line of Blair’s statement was pure genius: “The first thing I’d like to do is to apologise actually on behalf of the Labour Party for the last week, which with everything that’s going on back here and in the world has not been our finest hour to be frank.” In one sentence, he elevated himself and diminished those

James Forsyth

Turmoil ahead for Labour

The atmosphere in Westminster right now is incredibly febrile, no idea or speculation seems too outlandish to contemplate. But it does seem to me that a couple of things are being overlooked. 1). The Brownites won’t go quietly: All this talk about delegations, letters and rolling resignations often forgets that if the Brownites decide to stay and fight then this process will be very long and bloody. The reason that getting Blair to give a date for his departure in September 2006 was comparatively easy was that Blair did not want to get engaged in an unseemly struggle to stay in power. But it would be a major surprise if

James Forsyth

A nudge from the past

Rory Sutherland, The Spectator’s Wiki Man, sends along a historical example of nudging, the Cameroons’ new favourite idea: Frederick the Great of Prussia saw the potato’s potential to help feed his nation and lower the price of bread, but faced the challenge of overcoming the people’s prejudice against the plant. When he issued a 1774 order for his subjects to grow potatoes as protection against famine, the town of Kolberg replied: “The things have neither smell nor taste, not even the dogs will eat them, so what use are they to us?” Trying a less direct approach to encourage his subjects to begin planting potatoes, Frederick used a bit of reverse

James Forsyth

Miliband sets out his stall

Forget anonymous quotes, we now have a David Miliband op-ed to analyse. In a 900-odd word Guardian article explaining why he believes that “the times demand a radical new phase” in the New Labour project Miliband does not mention Gordon Brown once. (Interestingly, Jack Straw is the only Labour politician Miliband name-checks ). Indeed, the article takes several not-so-subtle shots at the Prime Minister. For instance, Miliband concedes that “With hindsight, we should have got on with reforming the NHS sooner” when everyone knows that it was Brown who blocked NHS reform. In a supposed dig at the Tories he declares that “in government, unless you choose sides, you get

Paul Johnson

And Another Thing | 30 July 2008

‘We can cause laughing by tickling the skin,’ wrote Darwin in Emotions (1872). We all know that. Difficulties arise when we probe a little deeper, where tickling hovers uncertainly on the borderline between eroticism, buffoonery and the slow, pleasurable but perhaps innocent process of having the flesh gently disturbed by the tips of another person’s fingers. Tickling is a very complicated matter, insufficiently explored by neurologists, Freudians and students of human behaviour, including novelists and poets. Erotic forms of tickling are themselves complex. When the Glasgow girl in the song says ‘Stop yer tickling, Jock!’, does she really mean it? In the phrase ‘slap and tickle’, the man does the

Sarfraz Manzoor

The tightrope walk and the terrorists

Sarfraz Manzoor talks to Philippe Petit, whose stunning walk between the Twin Towers in 1974 is the subject of a new film — and discovers the mirror image of the horrors of 9/11 It was one small step, but for Philippe Petit it was to be a giant leap into immortality. The date was 7 August 1974, the location New York City and the 24-year-old Frenchman was standing on the top of one of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center preparing to commit what became known as the artistic crime of the century. Petit, tousle-haired and baby-faced, had been planning this moment for the past six years and

John Torode

In Cyprus, warm words conceal dark intentions

Don’t be misled by the notional amicability between North and South, says John Torode. Many Cypriots believe that Turkey is determined to annex the North, with our tacit approval Something is stirring on Aphrodite’s Isle. For the first time since Turkey seized Northern Cyprus in 1974, thousands of Greek and Turkish Cypriots, forcibly segregated for decades, are in amicable daily contact across the great divide. The new president of Cyprus and his unrecognised Turkish-Cypriot opposite number met recently, and actually agreed to start formal peace talks in September. So why are senior politicians on both sides privately warning that a new disaster, as dangerous as the original invasion and partition,

Venetia Thompson

Jordan would have raised the tone at the polo

Venetia Thompson says that the pneumatic model — banned from the key enclosures — is no more of a ‘chav’ than the punters who throng at these increasingly vulgar events ‘What would we do/ usually drink, usually dance, usually bubble/All I want to do is tell you I love you/ That’s when I start promising the world to/ A brand new girl I don’t even know yet/ Next thing she’s wearing my Rolex.’ The sun has gone down and thousands of open-neck pale-pink shirts, blazers, Ray-Bans, blonde highlights and surgically enhanced perma-tan breasts bounce along to a surprise performance by UK rapper extraordinaire Wiley, singing his recent hit ‘Wearing my

Neil Midgley

It is commercial television that is really in peril

Channel 4 can’t afford Carol Vorderman and says it needs more cash for its public service remit. Nonsense, writes Neil Midgley: it is mass-market television that needs help Carol Vorderman has, apparently, become too expensive for Channel 4’s game show Countdown. Gone are the carefree days when Channel 4 could afford to poach Paul O’Grady from ITV to chase teatime ratings. Now, says C4 chief executive Andy Duncan, it can only fulfil its public service remit if someone — most likely Gordon Brown — gives it a new £150 million a year subsidy. Similar bleatings come from senior BBC executives when- ever the future of the licence fee is discussed

Tuesday

29 Jul 2008

James Forsyth

Power out

If you haven’t already, do read Melissa Kite’s column in the Telegraph today. It contains this very telling anecdote about Gordon Brown’s attempt to shoot the breeze with the press: “As is the tradition when travelling with the press, the Prime Minister came back during his flight from Baghdad to talk to the lobby hacks. After summarising his view on Iraq, which included a lot of baffling figures about economic growth in Basra, Mr Brown attempted some “small talk”. It was so alarming, it felt as if the entire plane was adopting the brace position. A couple of people looked like they were about to open the cabin doors for

James Forsyth

Harriet tries to be helpful

Harriet Harman has denied The Times story about her preparing a leadership bid but I’m sure this part of her denial will not go down well in Southwold: “I do not accept ‘it is over’.” With a few more protestations of loyalty like this, it might soon be over.

James Forsyth

The Times: Harman and Miliband are readying themselves for a contest

I’m sure most readers are sick of anonymous quotes and accusations but with so few people prepared to go on the record they do give a far better sense of what is being talked about in Westminster than the public protestations of loyalty that are coming from ministers and MPs. The Times has just published a story online by Sam Coates and Francis Elliot which contains a fascinating, if anonymous, insight into Harriet Harman’s current thinking: It is alleged that Ms Harman was spotted on Thursday night, watching the scale of Labour’s defeat in the Glasgow East by-election on the television, telling aides “this is my moment”. I’m sure many

Sean Martin

Too Cuil for school?

Web giant Google has a new rival this week, as the search engine Cuil was launched on Sunday night. The new service searches 120 billion web pages – 3 times as many as Google – and its central idea is to track down the most relevant content, rather than the most popular. A good thing, surely? But after a couple of days using Cuil, I’m not yet sold on it. Its deep-search methods actually seem to dig up even more irrelevant content. An example: type in “Gordon Brown + recession” into both Google and Cuil. Google’s top 5 includes articles from The Times, Guardian and Telegraph websites. Cuil, on the other hand, directs you

James Forsyth

The dilemma

Steve Richards’s column in The Independent is absolutely essential reading. Steve dismisses the argument that Jack Straw would be prepared to wield the knife just for the sake of the caretaker’s broom. If Straw does strike, he’s in it for the long haul—one reason why David Miliband would almost certainly challenge Straw if there was a vacancy. Steve concludes by summing up the dilemma that Labour MPs face: “If I were a Labour MP, I would note the polls, all of which suggest the Tory lead is soft and that almost as many voters identify with Labour as they do with the Conservatives. There has been no fundamental sea change

Monday

28 Jul 2008

James Forsyth

Another poll shows Labour heading for a Gord awful defeat

The latest Populus poll for The Times shows just what kind of defeat Labour are currently heading for at the next election. The Tories lead by 16 points from Labour who are on 27 percent. Peter Riddell report that on a uniform swing, this would lead to a Tory majority of close to 150 seats and see Labour reduced to having only three Southern MPs outside of London. 52 percent of voters say that dumping Brown would be good for Labour’s prospects. But 44 percent think that “a younger, fresher, more charismatic alternative” would not increase Labour’s chances of winning. Perhaps, most worrying for the government is how much more