Society

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Government backs Blair for EU Presidency

I interview Jim Murphy in tomorrow’s Spectator, in which he gives his endorsement to Tony Blair as EU president. For the first time, we’re running a longer version of the piece online (click here). I’ve always rated Murphy, ever since I saw him shout down Trots in my student days at Glasgow. Coffee Housers are normally suspicious when we praise Brown’s younger ministers – what, it is asked, have they ever done? This isn’t a Cabinet, it’s a creche. Now, many of these criticisms are valid. But I consider Murphy a cut above for the following reasons: 1. He turned the safest Tory seat in Scotland into one of Labour’s

The Spectator

Musharraf’s Pakistan

Coffee House was recently sent the following letter from Wajid Shamsul Hasan, the former Pakistan High Commissioner to London: Sir, Your report by Rani Singh made quite a jolly read, referring to Musharraf’s ‘feminine side’, his liking for the arts’ and, as you put it, doing cuddly’.  Does one detect the influence of Musharraf’s well-oiled PR machine at work here? But for those of us who live with the reality of Musharraf’s regime, things are far from cuddly.  He is quite right to say Pakistan ‘needs a softer image, based around heritage, culture and sport rather than guns and violence’, but it’s a bit rich coming from him.  I wonder

Matthew Dancona

Sprinting leaves morality behind

As a sporadic but enthusiastic follower of British athletics, I find the Dwain Chambers story very dispiriting. There is something utterly compelling about the sprinters – from Jesse Owens, via Jim Hines’s 9.95 seconds in the 1968 Olympic 100m final, to the prodigious Carl Lewis, our own Linford Christie, and beyond. Britain has done well in these explosive events, and particularly so in 4×100 relay: black youngsters have performed with particular magnificence over the years, and acted as superb role models to children in deprived communities. So the selection of Chambers for next month’s World Indoor Championships sends all the wrong signals. The worst is the spectacle of an impotent

James Forsyth James Forsyth

O-mentum

Americano has reaction to last night’s Democratic and Republican primaries which saw Barack Obama and John McCain both notch up another three victories. With Obama having won the last eight contests, Hillary finds herself on the back foot and fighting for her political life. 

Joanna Pitman

The timeless beauty of a Stradivari

How many investments can bring you joy as well as financial gain? Unless pure lucre flows in your veins and you’re the sort of person for whom an excursion into the derivatives market is your greatest pleasure, then there are not many. Wine and art spring to mind, but one relatively under-exploited investment opportunity that can bring pleasure on many levels is that of world-class violins. If the violin is a high-quality instrument, it will bring steady financial appreciation as well as the chance to enable a top-flight musician to conquer the world’s concert halls. In the world of classical music, young and highly gifted musicians find it hard to

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Media narratives

On Christmas day 2007 in Washington DC I participated in a “Who will be contesting the presidential election?” parlour game and said that Barack Obama would beat John McCain. Admittedly the sole American had retreated to have a nap while half a dozen Brits confidently prognosticated upon all this… But still… Nonetheless, here’s young Yglesias: I think the college educated men who dominate punditland have spent a lot of time missing the fact that there actually are enthusiastic Clinton fans out there — they’re just mostly working class women and thus mostly not in the room when this CW gets hashed out. On top of that, I think Clinton’s succeeded

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Clinton’s latest straw-clutching

Dan Drezner asks whether the Clinton campaign’s arguments can be reconciled logically: Over the past few days, the Clinton campaign has made the following two arguments:  a)  Caucuses don’t really count as much as primaries because, “the caucus system is undemocratic and caters mostly to party activists.” b)  The superdelegates — which consist only of party activists — should not follow the primary results but instead, “should make an independent decision based on who they thought would be the strongest candidate and president.”  Well, no, they can’t. More interesting than the obvious contradictions at play here, is the fact that these arguments are even being made. It’s another sign, I

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Depends upon what you mean by “polluter pays”…

Good grief: THE Scottish Government is preparing to take on supermarkets and off-licences in the battle against alcohol abuse, forcing them to pay a levy under new plans to make retailers meet the social cost of the country’s “bevvy culture”. Proposals for a “polluter pays” charge have been extended from pubs and clubs to include every shop that sells alcohol in Scotland, amid a growing perception among ministers and senior officials that retailers are fuelling crime and anti-social behaviour by selling liquor… Details of the proposed levy will be announced in the spring and will be subject to public consultation, but Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary, yesterday made it clear

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Department of Taxing Questions

I agree with Ezra that it would be grand if all politicians asked themselves these sorts of question: I want a Democrat willing to say that the question is, “what are we paying for? And what do we need to pay for?”… The Republicans have succeeded in moving the tax debate onto grounds of “who pays,” and “how much.” Democrats need to remember to ask, “what for,” and “what if we don’t?” Granted, the answers Ezra would like to hear are rather different from those I would be encouraged by. But they’re the right questions. Asking similar questions of proposed legislation – whether at Holyrood, Westminster or, for that matter,

Peter Hoskin

The victims of a lifestyle culture?

A new YouGov poll for the DWP confirms the dangers of a lifestyle culture.  The bottom line: many young people now expect to enjoy certain luxuries when they retire, without having to save in the meantime.   There are, however, signficant regional variations.  84 percent of Scottish under-34 year olds expect the same lifestyle when they retire, compared to 37 percent in Tyne Tees.  Whilst two-thirds in the South-West haven’t started saving yet, compared to one-third in Wales.   When the two factors are combined – to calculate the expectation/saving gap – it’s the South-Westerners who top the “head in the clouds” chart:   Regions with biggest expectation/saving gap among under-34s 1 South West 2 Scotland 3 West Midlands 4 South

Peter Hoskin

Yet another rethink…

After a wave of criticism, Alistair Darling’s said to be considering a rethink over the Treasury’s non-dom tax proposals.  He’s right to do so – the current plans are a mess – but it’s likely to just increase the speculation surrounding Darling’s job.  After all, his Chancellorship has been little more than a series of copied polices followed by a series of embarrassing retreats.   Gordon Brown spent his time in No. 11 taxing-and-spending the economy into a hole (figures yesterday revealed that Brown’s spree cost the economy at least £14 billion), but at least he did it with conviction…  

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Will ye no’ come back again?

Should Berwick leave England and return to Scotland? An unofficial vote is taking place in the English borders town asking locals whether they want to switch from England to being part of Scotland. The town, which is near the Scottish border, has changed hands between the two countries at least 13 times… A television debate and vote is being held for the ITV Tonight show to gauge local views on becoming part of Scotland again. Fair enough. But in a spirit of conciliation, perhaps we could give england some town in Scotland as compensation for the loss of Berwick. I’m tempted to suggest Galashiels but am conscious there are many

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Them’s the breaks…

Matt Yglesias calls it like it is: Back in October 2007, Clinton was beating Obama in Maine by a hilarious 47 to 10 margin, but it seems he’s carried the state today, once again by a large margin. My understanding, though, is that this doesn’t really count because it’s a small state, much as Utah doesn’t count because there aren’t many Democrats there, DC doesn’t count because there are too many black people, Washington doesn’t count because it’s a caucus, Illinois doesn’t count because Obama represents it in the Senate even though Hillary was born there, Hawaii won’t count because Obama was born there. I’m not sure why Delaware and

Peter Hoskin

NHS on life support

Earlier, Fraser mentioned the work of the think-tank Reform, and today that same group released an insightful – and scathing – report on the state of the NHS.  Download it, read it, and internalise it, as it should set the healthcare agenda for the momentous year ahead.   The report’s key message is that the Government is talking the talk on beneficial NHS reform, but not walking the walk.  This floundering situation is all the more worrying as we’re about to enter healthcare’s equivalent of a “perfect storm” – during which demographic, lifestyle and technological changes will place an unprecedented level of stress on the already-creaky health system. The answer

Matthew Dancona

The Archbishop of Cant

One might have guessed that the Archbishop of Canterbury would find a verbally tortured way of explaining himself. “I must of course take responsibility for any unclarity,” he told the Synod this afternoon. What a curious word to use. In this case, I suppose, “unclarity” begins at home. It has been said by one or two more astute commentators since the row over sharia began last Thursday that Dr Williams’s whispering diffidence conceals an intellectual arrogance that lies at the heart of the problem. He admitted that the matter had been handled “clumsily” and made an allusion to unintended hurt from the Psalms. But, on the whole, I thought this

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Out of the mouths of babes | 11 February 2008

There’s a great piece in New York Magazine about why children lie. In short, they do so because their parent do. The good news if you’re a parent, is that if your child is telling porkies from a young age it is a sign they are quite smart—the brightest start lying around age 2. The speed at which children lie is quite astonishing: researchers found that the average 4 year old lies every two hours and 6 year old every 90 minutes. One other interesting statistic is that teenage rebellion peaks at between14 and 15.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

How to tax the rich?

As if to prove he’s still a left-winger, Frank Field today gives a lecture calling for an extra 10% tax on earnings over £150k that could be completely offset by charitable donations. In other words, “if you don’t give this to charity, we’ll tax you” – Field believes people spend their own money more wisely than bureaucrats.  I agree in principle, but also believe that taxing high income removes the incentives to earn it and the net result is that less money is produced. (Darling’s disastrous tax on non-doms, for example, will result in a net loss to the Exchequer.) So why not adopt Field’s policy for a fifth on

James Forsyth James Forsyth

You’re only as old as the ideas you think

John Mortimer had a piece in The Observer this weekend bemoaning ageism in our politics and contrasting the treatment of the 66 year old Ming Campbell with that of the 71 year old John McCain. But the issue is not one of age but attitude. In outlook, McCain is anything but old—indeed, he is actually the most modern candidate in the race on either side. No other candidate in this campaign cycle has thought more creatively or more deeply about the two great new political challenges of the 21st century: how to combat Islamic extremism and the need to find growth-promoting, technological solutions to our environmental challenges. By contrast, Ming

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Phil Woolas should not become collateral damage in the Sharia row

The last few days have been disastrous for community cohesion. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s ill-considered remarks have stirred up a visceral reaction and created the erroneous impression that Muslims can not be expected to abide by the law of the land. To add to the tensions, today’s Sun splashes on the ‘Talibrum’—the British-born members of the Taliban fighting against their own country in Afghanistan. So, the timing of Phil Woolas’s comments about the dangers of cousin marriage in a small section of the Muslim community is unfortunate to say the least. But the demands for him to resign are absurd. Woolas was identifying a problem that is real and did