Society

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Protecting free speech

The American press is significantly freer than the British one because of the free speech guarantee enshrined in the First Amendment. In the US unlike in the UK, the burden of proof in libel cases is on the plaintiff not the defendant; making it far harder for the powerful to use the threat of libel actions to silence the media. However, there has been an increasing trend for people to indulge in so-called ‘libel tourism’, suing American authors and journalists in English courts. Senators Specter and Lieberman are proposing a legislative remedy to this problem: “Our bill bars U.S. courts from enforcing libel judgments issued in foreign courts against U.S.

The Spectator

In case you missed them | 14 July 2008

Here are some of the posts made over the weekend: The Russian and Chinese veto of sanctions on Zimbabwe is a result of the UN not being designed to be a moral body, argued James Forsyth. Fraser Nelson explained why he and so many of his friends are marrying foreigners. Americano noted a poll that shows Obama’s lead down to three points. Clive Davis wondered if people should be refused citizenship on the grounds that their religious beliefs are incompatible with the state’s values.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Inflation the highest it has been since 1992

Last week, the Bank of England held interest rates at 5 percent because inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, was 3.3 percent—above the Bank’s 2 percent target. Today’s Daily Mirror reports that the CPI will rise to 3.6 percent—the highest it has been since 1992—when new figures are announced on Tuesday. The Mirror also claims that its own Cost of Living Index shows that the ‘real rate’ of inflation is 18.53 percent. One can question the economic accuracy of the Mirror’s number. But there’s no doubt that the rise in prices has been dramatic. The Mirror notes a 30 percent rise in fuel costs, a 14 percent increase

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 14 July – 20 July

Welcome to this week’s Wall, as always this is your space to write and chat about what you want. Do let us know if there are things you would like to see us cover on Coffee House. If you’d like to add photos or videos to the Wall, email phoskin @ spectator.co.uk

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Obama talks God

Obama supporters hope that his comfort in talking publicly about his religious beliefs will both help Obama bridge some of the cultural gap that separates him from large chunks of the electorate and help him make inroads into the evangelical vote. This strategy suffered a huge blow with the Revered Wright affair which tied Obama’s faith up with a divisive, racialist world view; the new Newsweek poll shows that almost a third of voters state that Wright might stop them from supporting Obama. However, the Obama campaign clearly believes that talking about religion is still sensible politics. In this week’s Newsweek, Obama talks about how often he prays, his Bible

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The two sides to fighting crime

‘Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ is one of the great political soundbites. Sadly, though, Tony Blair’s government never managed to put both parts of into action. Any long term solution to the current spate of violence is going to require us to do both simultaneously. I’d urge all Coffee Housers to read Minette Marrin in The Sunday Times, who deals with the later part, and Alasdair Palmer in The Sunday Telegraph, who addresses the former. Minette Marrin makes the essential point that the social contract breaks down when people feel that they have no stake in society: “Morality depends on having something to lose. It isn’t

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The US, Israel and Iran

There has been a lot of speculation in recent weeks that Israel was stepping up its preparations to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities. But Jim Hoagland, The Washington Posts’s foreign affairs commentator, suggests that the Americans have persuaded the Israelis to back away from the military option to give coercive diplomacy another chance: “The most significant indication of that change comes from strong U.S. public and private pressure on Israel to forgo military strikes while Washington seeks new U.N. economic and travel sanctions against Tehran. Neither government will confirm that such pressure was exerted. Bush hates to say no to Israel, and he and Olmert do not want Iran to think

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Another big Tory poll lead

The latest YouGov poll for The Sunday Times shows no change in the Labour and Tory numbers—the Tories are still 22 points  ahead, 47 to 25. The good news for the Tories is that the longer this lead remains stable, the more voters will adjust to the idea of a Tory government. The leadership speculation is relatively muted this weekend. In his Telegraph column, Matt pours some cold water over the idea that Brown might face a serious challenge soon: “To return to the PM’s question: what does his survival tell us? First, that the Labour party are a bunch of wimps. Boy, they all talk the talk about getting

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Loving the trend

I’m in Austria for a wedding this weekend, as yet another one of my friends has got hitched to a European. It’s becoming a trend. Of the five closest friends I had when I was 21, four of us – including yours truly – started a cross-border relationship which ended in marriage. This has to do, of course, with love – but also, if I may be so nerdy, with technology and economic trends. My generation, born in the mid-70s, was perhaps the first to be able to enter long-distance relationships armed with the new tools of communication and transport. The old narrative of a long-distance relationship was meeting up

Saturday

Alex James

Slow Life | 12 July 2008

I wasn’t planning to take the family on holiday. We live on a farm and there’s always something happening. It gets harder and harder to drag oneself away. Claire got quite indignant about having missed the strawberries when we arrived home today. There were only a few soggy ones left. ‘If it’s not the strawberries it’s something else. We were always going to skip something. Try a redcurrant,’ I said cheerfully, spitting out a pip, but she ignored me. I even managed to find her some mulberries later, but I could tell she was still filled with loss. She’s pregnant and she needs strawberries. The year before last we went

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 12 July 2008

I’ve not been to Pamplona’s famous week-long ‘running of the bulls’ and bullfighting fair of Saint Fermin since 2002; but every year since, on 6 July, at midday, when the town council lets off the rocket signalling the start of the festivities, I’ve felt a pang of regret that I’ve once again failed to manage my life sufficiently well to be there with the thousands who have. I first went ten years ago, after reading Hemingway’s bullfighting encyclopedia Death in the Afternoon. After half a dozen chapters of meticulous description of the Spanish corrida, Hemingway admits that it is beyond even his powers of description to convey fully the effect

Taki

High life | 12 July 2008

I’m afraid that Pug’s Club ‘Turd of the Year’ award went unanimously to the ghastly Andy Murray, he of the centre court primal screams and primate fist pumping. Perhaps his mother, who looks straight out of central casting of a Hollywood stage mum, and then some, should file his teeth down a bit and make him look less like Dracula. Better yet, he should be forced to watch Federer in action and learn a thing or two about behaviour on court (100 hours of videos, and then 100 more). I know the hucksters who now run sport require announcers to be cheerleaders, but praising someone for acting like a bloodthirsty

Robin Oakley

The turf | 12 July 2008

I heard from a Nato general not long ago the story of two hot air balloonists in the US who got lost. They descended to check their bearings from visible landmarks and found themselves above a massive and curiously shaped building. Seeing a man crossing the car park one balloonist shouted, ‘Where are we?’ ‘In a balloon,’ the man yelled back. At which the other man in the basket stoked up the hot air and took them back up through the clouds. When his companion queried his action, arguing that their informant had been useless, he replied, ‘Oh, no. The information was short, accurate and no bloody use to anyone.

The Spectator

Letters | 12 July 2008

A pariah writes Sir: I dealt for 30 years with hundreds of Muslims, at first in Mr Doyle’s organisation, so I am not ‘ignorant’ of Islam (as he claims, Letters, 5 July), which seeks to conquer this world, not the next, politically. If he disagrees, he should consult Islam’s most ‘moderate’ authorities like Yusuf Qaradawi, all of whom boast that (as Doyle writes I noted), ‘Islam… is trying to take over the globe.’ As one could not be a Muslim absent this goal, the distinction Ms McCartney draws between ‘fundamentalist’ and moderate Muslims is absurd: history shows what all Muslims endorse. As I wrote: ‘After his [Mohammed’s] death in 632,

Rebecca Newman

Diary – 12 July 2008

Rebecca Newman gives a rundown of her week Rarely in my life have I enjoyed running. A tubby child and then a sickly teen, I spent games lessons hiding behind a piano with a book. Odd then, that this week I completed (half of) one of the toughest marathons in the world. Stranger still, I enjoyed it. The Lewa Marathon is a unique event, a challenge I was romantic and bloody-minded enough not to turn down. It snakes through the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in north-east Kenya, presenting a testing combination of dry heat, steep inclines and shingle descents. To top it off, Lewa is at 6,000 ft above sea level. But I

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 12 July 2008

Q. While staying in Gascony a local grandee, with a formidable brain and a château of great historical importance, was invited to dine. As dinner proceeded one of the two female houseguests seated next to him transmogrified herself from a kind, cosy, close and down-to-earth friend of mine, into a cross between Simone de Beauvoir, Françoise Hardy and some sort of Mata Hari. She poured (recently acquired) intellectual and musical opinions down the poor throat of the Frenchman while the other female friend, who also lives in an important house in England, was able to chat amiably and casually to this rather imposing guest. My hostess speaks perfect French and

Toby Young Toby Young

Status Anxiety | 12 July 2008

Last Saturday, I was due to attend a garden party being hosted by one of my oldest friends, but I did not have time. After picking up four-year-old Sasha from swimming I had to take her to a party, then pick her up from that party and take her to another, then take three-year-old Ludo to a party, then pick them both up and bring them home. I have no doubt that this pattern — or something like it — was repeated up and down the country. If a Martian landed in Britain on a Saturday afternoon, knowing nothing about us in advance, he would conclude that we live in

Dot Wordsworth

Mind Your Language | 12 July 2008

Dot Wordsworth on the word ‘sticky’. Longfellow, in the middle of writing ‘Hiawatha’, complained to his diary one hot day of ‘Chamber-maids chattering about — children crying — and everything sticky except postage stamps, which having stuck all together like a swarm of bees, refuse further duty.’ It’s funny how Longfellow wrote better informally than when he tried. Anyway, stickiness has, my daughter tells me, become a virtue in business circles. It is a desirable quality for websites, from which so many strive to squeeze money. Stickiness glues users to your site and makes them return to it, like flies to syrup. ‘Determining the sticky quotient of your website requires

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Poll has Labour 14 points ahead in Glasgow East

Gordon Brown’s effort to give up biting his nails just received a boost with the release of an ICM poll of Glasgow East which shows Labour 14 points ahead, 47 to 33 ahead of the SNP. This poll will create a strong expectation that Labour will hold the seat and probably put a stop to—or at least reduce—speculation about a challenge to Brown following a defeat here. However—as Anthony Wells points out—polling a constituency like Glasgow East is a phenomenally difficult task. It is also worth noting that the SNP has almost doubled its support in the seat since the last election which suggests that things will tighten further as the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Obama’s lead down to three points

We should be wary about getting overexcited about a single opinion poll but the new Newsweek poll will be causing some heartburn among Obama supporters. Last month’s Newsweek poll put Obama ahead of McCain 51 to 36 but in this month’s poll the gap has closed to Obama 44 McCain 41. The McCain camp can take further encouragement from the fact that 85 percent of undecided voters are non-Hispanic whites and the vast majority of these voters do not have a college degree; Obama has had real difficulty in gaining traction among this demographic. Obama’s lead in the RCP average is now less than five percent. Considering that the incumbent