Society Archives

Wednesday

9 Jul 2008

Labour’s latest problem in Glasgow East

After an embarrassingly drawn out selection process with potential candidates dropping out or refusing Prime Ministerial entreaties to enter the fray, Labour has a candidate in Glasgow East, Margaret Curran who is currently a Glasgow MSP. But there’s a problem: she’s not the only Curran in the race. There is also a Frances Curran who is standing for the Scottish Socialist Party. Just to compound the problem for Labour, Frances’s name will appear ahead of Margaret’s on the ballot paper. If this by-election turns out to be a close run affair, the votes lost to Labour by this confusion could cost it the seat; The Times reports that at the

Charlotte Metcalf

The Establishment paedophile: how a monster hid in high society

The five-year-old girl cowers naked and crying in a corner. She is so frightened that she urinates. One of the men in the room hits her repeatedly. The others laugh. Another man picks her up and throws her face down on the bed. Then the men rape her. She dies soon afterwards of atrocious injuries. This is the scenario that the respected art historian and curator, Roger Took, boasted repeatedly about in internet ‘chat rooms’ to fellow paedophiles. In the chat rooms, Took relates how a Dutch man bought the child in Cambodia, kept her for a week and how Took was part of the group who enjoyed ‘splitting her

Richard Northedge

Good news for the prudent: we’re heading for recession

So Britain is talking itself into recession. Keep chattering. If people want a recession, let them have one, so that the rest of us can benefit from it. This is not a suggestion that cold showers do us good or that a spell of reality in the housing market is overdue; it is a reminder that when other consumers have lost their confidence, the bold can take advantage of their apprehension. Slumps mean opportunities. When the majority are out of the market place, the brave can go there without being crushed or outbid. This is the time to be counter-cyclical. If for the past five years no builder even had

Irfan Al-Alawi-S-Schwartz

Our survey shows British Muslims don’t want sharia

Don’t believe the Lord Chief Justice any more than the Archbishop of Canterbury, say Stephen Schwartz and Irfan Al-Alawi A senior establishment figure has once more raised the question of whether sharia law should be introduced as a parallel system of justice for British Muslims. Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, the Lord Chief Justice, was following in the footsteps of the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who in February suggested that the institutionalisation of unspecified aspects of sharia law is ‘unavoidable’. Rowan Williams gave the appearance of mere cluelessness; discussing sharia in a vague, multiculturalist manner apparently intended to project warm feelings toward British Muslims. But Lord Phillips, in attempting

Michael Tanner

Entranced by Janacek

The Cunning Little Vixen Royal College of Music Candide English National Opera Janacek’s wonderfully unsentimental and warm-hearted opera about animals and human beings and the relations between them turned out to be an inspired choice for the students of the Royal College of Music to stage at the Britten Theatre. Any self-proclaimed opera lover who doesn’t keep a close eye on what the colleges are doing is a fool, a snob or a liar, probably all three. It is often in the intimate settings of their theatres that one has the most enjoyable experiences, partly thanks to the proximity to the performers, partly because since none of them has to

Tuesday

8 Jul 2008

Alex Massie

Hello Readers!

I don’t know who you are and I have, bless, no idea how you ended up here but for some strange reason I am happy that this blog is where you come to when you Google “libertarian spiders“. We’re all armed arachnids here… I mean, what could be better than that? UPDATE: On the other hand, it’s also super to be found by people searching for “fried pizza“.

Alex Massie

Department of Correction | 8 July 2008

I may have been too harsh recently. I scoffed at the idea of a lettuce “bolting” and made merry with the New York Times leader writer who suggested that, now that summer is (allegedly) here, lettuces were prone to do this. Now, rather inconveniently, my sister, who in addition to being a very fine artist whose paintings any sensible chap of means would buy, is also a budding horticulturalist, pipes up with this: “Bolting” is the term used by all gardeners on this, and seemingly that, side of the Atlantic for a plant that is running to seed (which generally means it’s past being useful for eating). Lettuces are quite

Alex Massie

What we have lost…

One’s not supposed to say this, but by god it’s boring since Hillary was beaten… (Ditto, though in a minor key, Romney’s defeat. He was at least, like Hillary, properly and rightly hateable…)

James Forsyth

How McCain can trump Obama’s convention address and change the course of the presidential race

On TV today, John McCain joked that the only way he could trump Barack Obama’s plan to deliver his acceptance speech not in the hall at the Democratic convention but at a 70,000 seat football stadium would be to parachute into the Republican convention in Minneapolis-St Paul. But there is something else he could do: hold a town-hall meeting with un-decided voters in Minneapolis-St Paul rather than deliver a conventional convention address. McCain can not hope to compete with Obama as a set-piece orator so he shouldn’t try. Instead, the McCain campaign should use the hours of prime-time coverage across all the networks to show voters their candidate in his

James Forsyth

Why Israel probably won’t bomb Iran during the transition

There is a lot of chatter at the moment about the idea that Israel might use the gap between the US elections in November and the inauguration of a new president in January to strike a blow against Iran’s nuclear ambitions. But as Bob Kaplan points out there is a good reason to think this probably won’t happen: There is a problem, though. Violating, say, Jordanian or Turkish airspace is not really the issue. The issue is that largely because of the on-going Iraq war, the U. S. controls the airspace over the entry points to Iran: in Iraq and in the Persian Gulf. Thus, an Israeli attack on Iran

Fraser Nelson

What I saw in Glasgow East

I’m in Glasgow East for the day, making a short film of my column in the current Spectator for the BBC. We’ve just been in perhaps the most run down housing estate I have seen – there is a doll in the doorway next to a dead rat. Houses were boarded up, and you’d think it was condemned if it wasn’t for a postman making his way inside. It made it all the more appalling to see two kids stepping over this junk to go back home. I spoke to them briefly – twins, aged 12. They said it was okay on the estate, aside from the gang fighting on Fridays.

James Forsyth

Did they vet the wrong Ray Lewis?

There is a quite remarkable item in Londoner’s Diary today: RUMOUR reaches the Londoner that the reason Boris Johnson’s office failed to pick up on the fact former Deputy Mayor Ray Lewis was not a Justice of the Peace is that it conducted a background check on a different Ray Lewis who is a Justice of the Peace in East London. The former deputy mayor for young people, Ray Lewis, gave the Mayor the impression he was a Justice of the Peace, a fact which the Mayor highlighted at his press conference last Thursday. The next day the Ministry of Justice said “he is not and has never been a

James Forsyth

Brogan: Brown should not beware Glasgow East but September

Over on his blog, Ben Brogan dissents from the conventional Westminster wisdom that Glasgow East is make or break for Brown, arguing that the polls post-conference will be more important: But even if Labour do lose – and I don’t think they will (gulp) – I’m not so sure it will trigger the kind of armaggedon folk are predicting. For why? Because things are bad enough already. A wild result in a Scottish seat is unlikely to tell us something we don’t already know: Gordon Brown is in trouble everywhere, even at home. But Scottish politics is different and the SNP are not the Tories. Labour MPs, those that haven’t

James Forsyth

A plurality of Muslims under 35 support there being areas of the UK where some elements of sharia law are introduced

A friend of Coffee House is in touch to point out that the numbers from the ICM poll for Peter Oborne’s Dispatches programme last night, show that a plurality of Muslims under 35 are in favour of there being some parts of the UK where elements of Sharia are introduced. Here are the numbers: “Would you support or oppose there being areas of Britain in which some element of Sharia Law is introduced?” All 34 and under 35 and over Support: 38 44 30 Oppose: 46 39 54 These numbers are worrying. As Paul Goodman, the Tory shadow minister for Communities and Local Government, said in a Spectator interview last summer:

James Forsyth

Minister, you have six seconds to make your case

Skimming the interview with David Blunkett in G2 on the Tube on the way home last night, this grabbed my attention: “In my time in politics, the soundbite on television has fallen from 25 seconds to six.” When you think about it, this does chime with the difference between TV news reports from the ‘80s and now. It certainly make you realise just how much a well crafted political message has to pack into a few words. PS Fraser is up in Glasgow East today, so check back later on for his report on what is going on up there.

James Forsyth

Addressing the social question

The Daily Mirror launches a predictable attack on David Cameron today, claiming that in his Glasgow speech yesterday he blamed the poor, the unemployed and the fat for their own problems and that “he has gone from hug-a-hoodie to kick-a-granny.” The rest of the press reaction, though, is fairly positive. Cameron is playing for big stakes. If he can persuade the electorate both of his analysis about society’s problems and that he can help people do something about them, then the electoral reward will be huge. As Rachel Sylvester argues in her Times column today, the social question is moving centre stage in politics. It is certainly telling that “grim”

Monday

7 Jul 2008

Alex Massie

Facebookery

Apparently Facebook has a new “blog network” facility. To what end, I know not. That’s not the point, surely? Anyway it’s obvious that good things must come of this somehow, somewhere down the line. So, there you have it: join the Debatable Land network here. You know it makes sense.

Alex Massie

Annals of Leader Writing

Newspapers are comfortable places to work. True, you find yourself working with a disturbing number of misfits and socially inadequate neurotics. But there are compensations. For instance, there are few more comfortable berths in any trade than settling down to life in a newspaper leader writing office. Other pleasing stations – foreign editor, golf correspondent, restaurant critic – suddenly seem unpleasantly bustling, tarnished by contact with the great unwashed and the world outside the office. Granted, there are times when, as the old saw has it, the editorial writers wait until the battle’s over before slinking down form the hills to stab the wounded. It is not often a position

James Forsyth

The Tory lead is down but this poll might encourage Labour MPs to move against Brown

Normally the news that the Tories had fallen and Labour had gained in the polls would be met with cheers in the Brown bunker but the latest Populus poll might actually hasten the Prime Minister’s exit. The poll shows that opinion has hardened against him and that at least some of the Tory’s new-found support is soft. The implication will not be lost on Labour MP in marginal seats: if they change leader they might just have a chance. Brown’s personal numbers are, as Peter Riddell notes, incredibly bad. Only 25 percent of those polled think Brown is up to the job of being PM. Three fifths of those who voted

James Forsyth

Obama’s most significant advantage

What should keep the McCain campaign up at night is not Obama’s financial advantage or even his poll lead but his ability to command the news agenda almost at will. Two events in recent days have underlined what a potent tool this is going to be for Obama between now and November. First, there is Obama’s coming tour of Europe and the Middle East. McCain has been on a couple of foreign tours and drawn some decent coverage. But now the Obama campaign is thinking about having their candidate deliver a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate, the same place where Ronald Reagan delivered his justly famous ‘tear down