Society

Tuesday

Sam Freedman

Balls serves up some Brownies

CoffeeHouse has been running a series of Brownies – statistical tricks which are used to create a misleading image. But this risks overlooking the important contribution of Ed Balls in the field of manipulating government data. His controversial claim that one-in-six schools is breaking the admission code is an absolute classic in the genre. To arrive at this crucial “one in six” statistic, Balls did his analysis on three local authorities and projected that across England. His key figure was that 96 out of 570 schools in such areas were found to be in violation. But what marks a violation? This is where Balls worked his magic. Of the 96

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Petraeus and Crocker on Iraq

The message from General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker’s opening statements to the Senate Armed Services Committee is that there has been significant progress in Iraq since September, but that his progress is fragile and that any rapid change in strategy would endanger it. The main news in Petraeus’s testimony was his commitment to a 45 day pause in troops withdrawals once US troop levels have been returned to a pre-surge level and his dismissal of the idea of a fixed timetable for withdrawal. Also worth noting from Petreaus’s evidence were his comments on the role of Iran and Hezbollah in training the extremist Shiite special groups and his contention that

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

CB Fry’s XI

After Armstrong, Benaud, Constantine, Dexter and Edrich it must be time for a bit of Fry. 1. Roy Fredericks (WI) 2. Jack Fingleton (AUS)3. CB Fry (ENG) (Capt)4. Tip Foster (ENG)5. Andy Flower (ZIM) 6. Aubrey Faulkner (SA) 7. Andrew Flintoff (ENG)8. Frank Foster (ENG)9. Bruce French (ENG) (Wkt) 10. Arthur Fielder (ENG) Fazal Mahmood (PAK)11. Tich Freeman (ENG) If some teams are a chore to select, others are a pleasure. This is one such delightful XI.There are names to conjour with aplenty: Fry, Faulkner, the (unrelated) Fosters, Freeman… And names one wishes to have been able to include too such as Percy Fender or Chuck Fleetwood-Smith. But there can

Peter Hoskin

Parisian protests

The Beijing Olympics are being overshadowed by the Tibet issue on every step of this ridiculous torch relay. And rightly so.    Today it was Paris’ turn to get one over the sinister, shell-suited heavies. The opportunity was seized with relish. Protestors forced the torch to be extinguished three times, and the event was ultimately cut short.   But is the message getting through to those in charge? It’s hard to tell. The International Olympic Committee President, Jacques Rogge, today expressed “serious concern” about the Tibet situation. But that seems to be as far as any official will go. Unless firmer pressure is applied, I can’t see the Chinese Government backing down over anything. No matter how many times

The Spectator

Introducing Spectator Business

We’ve made a few changes to the website, in anticipation of the launch of our new magazine – Spectator Business – next month. An extra tab has been added to the navigation bar above, which will take you through to the Spectator Business part of the site. Alternatively, you can head to: http://www.spectator.co.uk/business. There, you’ll eventually be able to access Spectator Business articles. But, for now, you’ll discover Trading Post TV and the Trading Floor blog. The blog is a business-minded sister to Coffee House, and will be frequently updated with news and analysis each day. Do check it out.

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 7 April 2008

Here are some of the posts made over the weekend: Peter Hoskin flags up a senior judge’s thoughts on family breakdown, and reports on another good poll result for the Tories. James Forsyth asks: can Nick Clegg recover? And analyses the situation in Basra. And, over at Americano, James also gives his views on Mark Penn’s resignation.

Sunday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Outrage is What Isn’t Seen as Outrageous

Terrific Nick Cohen column today, decrying the feebleness of a new ITV political satire show that oh-so courageously portrays Gordon Brown as some sort of Scottish miser. The truth, of course, is quite different: Brown couldn’t be further from a Dickensian miser if he tried. For 10 years, he has thrown other people’s money around with the abandon of a Roman emperor or Renaissance pope.. Try a thought experiment and suppose they had more confidence in themselves and their viewers and decided to deride Brown’s Britain intelligently. They might then have looked at the NHS, which Labour promised to save in 1997. In fairness, it has all but doubled the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The wrong sort of snow at Terminal 5

You really couldn’t make this up, the snow that fell today led to 100 flights being cancelled at Terminal 5. Now, I’ll grant you that you don’t expect snow in April but it was hardly a blizzard. One wonders what is left to go wrong at Terminal 5.  Stephen has more on the whole T5 experience

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Taking care of business

David Rothkopf’s Newsweek essay on the global super class is well worth reading if only for this anecdote:  “I once overheard a dinner conversation among the CEO of a leading aircraft manufacturer and a senior member of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee. “Here’s the deal,” said the CEO. “I want to sell a plane to Muammar Kaddafi and he wants to buy one. But we have sanctions in place that won’t let me sell to him. The U.S. wants this guy dead. So, what I’m thinking is, if you help me get the OK to sell him the plane, I’ll build with explosive bolts connecting the wings to the

Saturday

Richard Sennett

Cheese politics

‘No buffalo-thyme pizza?’ The grazing grounds around Naples are poisoned, grounds on which herds of water buffalo feed to produce Italy’s most delicate cheese. This ecological disaster has had a knock-on effect even here in Texas, where a rather-too-elegant youth and I are taking a snack break from the rigours of the Obama campaign. Sales of buffalo mozzarella in Italy are down 30 per cent to 40 per cent, South Korea bans its import and high-class eateries like the one we are in no longer serve it. The mere fact that a political operative could ask for buffalo-thyme pizza signals an earthquake of sorts in American life. When I began

Alex James

Letter to hope

There are only two kinds of people: the ones that make you feel better and the ones that make you feel worse. It’s a shame, but, as far as I can tell, most people make you feel worse. Some are deliberate s***s, but most of them can’t help it. It’s important to hang on to the ones that make you feel better. That’s not always as obvious or easy as it sounds. My favourite work of art, ancient or modern, is only my favourite because every time I look at it, it makes me feel better. I’m not kidding. It works like magic. It’s a photograph of a man in

Jeremy Clarke

Garden pursuits

The woman hired by the National Trust to see that nothing is pilfered from the upper floor at Clouds Hill, and to answer the visitors’ questions, knew almost nothing, she told me, about Colonel T.E. Lawrence, whose house it was from 1923 until he died as a result of a motorbike accident in May 1935. She was new to the job, she said. It was only her second shift. But she’d recognised already that for many visitors Clouds Hill was a shrine, and for their sakes she was determined to become as knowledgeable about Lawrence as possible. She and I were alone in the simply furnished room. It was more

Robin Oakley

Money and mud

It would have been nice to be at Nad Al Sheba racecourse last Saturday to see the burly, majestic Curlin obliterate the pretenders to his crown as the best racehorse in the world and saunter away with the Dubai World Cup. We only see quality like that once in a decade. Instead I was at Newbury, watching mud-splashed jockeys retreating thankfully to the weighing room like fighter pilots after a sortie, and soaking racegoers clustering ineffectually under blown-out umbrellas as the rain drove in from every angle. I was going to remark that it does not take a $20-million card for jumping folk to enjoy themselves. It is the sheer

The Spectator

Letters | 5 April 2008

A child’s needs Sir: I doubt the suggestion in your leading article (29 March) that clause 14(2)(b) of the government’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is a moral disgrace. The Bill breaks new ground in allowing two people of the same sex to be registered as the sole parents of a baby born through IVF. With female joint parents this raised the question of what was to be done about the provision in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 which requires that a woman shall not be provided with IVF treatment unless account is taken of the welfare of any resulting child. A parenthesis adds ‘(including the need of

Toby Young Toby Young

Status Anxiety | 5 April 2008

I am so strapped for cash that I have been forced to give up my outside office and start working from home. With three children under five, this is far from ideal, but at least there’s a small window in the afternoon when the eldest is at school, the middle one is at nursery and the youngest is asleep. It is during these precious few hours that I have to write my various newspaper columns, juggle the household accounts and work on the novel that is going to secure my family’s future. At least, that was the plan. Unfortunately, my move coincided with the start of the Easter holidays and

Dot Wordsworth

Mind your language | 5 April 2008

‘I wonder,’ writes Kim Parsons from Helston, or nearby, ‘if you have seen the new government-generated No Smoking signs which declare: “It is against the law to smoke in these premises.” Since when has on in this context become in?’’ I have seen the signs, because there is one at the church door in my parish, even though the incense continues to rise within. I suppose a church is ‘premises’, but the classic context of premises comes in the quotation from a licensing Act written above many an inn door, permitting the named proprietor ‘to retail beer, wine, spirits, and tobacco to be consumed on the premises’. What happens to

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 5 April 2008

Q. Our 16-year-old son is having 30 friends to a party. For obvious security reasons my husband and I will not go out but have agreed not to show our faces downstairs. This raises a problem with food. Our son refuses to have any, complaining that pizza, sausages, baked potatoes, chicken legs in barbecue sauce, et cetera — all things that can be prepared in advance — are ‘childish’ and too redolent of children’s parties. I feel his guests will not only feel cheated of food but will also get very drunk. What do you suggest, Mary? Name withheld, London SW7 A. On the day go to Pr

Oscar Humphries

Diary – 5 April 2008

My dinner parties are an exercise in patience. People used to tell me how much money they’d made buying in Islington when they did. ‘Good for you,’ I’d say, hating them just a little. I’ve noticed that recently my friends have stopped telling me how much equity they’d managed to suck out and try to change the subject whenever I bring house prices up — which I do with increasing pleasure and regularity. The other day I woke up to shouting. ‘Sorry isn’t good enough.’ Her voice was shrill with hurt, anger and profound disappointment. ‘What good is saying sorry? You’re not sorry. Not as sorry as I am.’ Sara,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The meaning of what happened in Basra

The consequences of the fighting in Basra and the subsequent cease-fire are still unclear. Some see events as testifying to Sadr’s strength, others point out that it was him who was forced to sue for peace.   Kimberly and Fred Kagan, key advocates of the surge, have a piece in this week’s Weekly Standard which acknowledges the uncertainty over what happened in Basra—an uncertainty, which as they point out, largely exists because of the British decision to abandon the city—but argues that most coverage is missing the most crucial fact about what went on: “The most important fact about the recent operations has escaped most observers, however. The government of