Than miserable looking employees in Santa hats. Getting my coffee this morning, I was struck by just how dejected all the baristas in Santa hats looked. If some Union wants to launch a campaign against folk being forced to wear them, I’m with them.
Dmitri Medvedev, who Vladimir Putin anointed as his successor yesterday, today pledged to make Putin Prime Minister of Russia when he takes office. Medvedev even admitted that Putin would be more powerful than him: “In order to stay on this path, it is not enough to elect a new president who shares this ideology,” Mr. Medvedev said. “It is not less important to maintain the efficiency of the team formed by the incumbent president. That is why I find it extremely important for our country to keep Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin at the most important position in the executive power, at the post of the chairman of the government.” So while
Rupert Murdoch is such a hard-right supporter of Israel — Ariel Sharon was his great hero (he even visited him on his farm) — that many regard him as a Zionist. So the staunchly pro-Israel Wall Street Journal has nothing to fear on that front as the Murdoch tentacles get to grips with it. The same might not be true for Murdoch’s London titles — The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and News of the World — all strongly pro-Israel under the guidance of Murdoch’s heavy hand. But that might be about to change for these newspapers are all now under the control of Murdoch’s son, James, who has
Former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young (who is black) was campaigning for Hillary Clinton today. He seems, however, to have gone off-message: He also joked that author Toni Morrison may have been on to something when she referred to former President Bill Clinton as the “first black president.” “Bill is every bit as black as Barack,” he said. “He has probably gone out with more black women than Barack.”
From 6:45pm, listen live on Spectator.co.uk to a Spectator / Intelligence Squared debate on the future of Iraq. William Shawcross and Lt Peter Hegseth, executive director of Vets for Freedom, will propose that the surge is working and let’s win before we leave. Ali Allawi and Sir Christopher Meyer will argue for a staged withdrawal as part of a negotiated settlement. The case that allied forces should withdraw as soon as possible will be put by Tony Benn and Rory Stewart. The debate will be broadcast live from Methodist Central Hall in Westminster and will be chaired by Andrew Neil. Once you’ve heard the panel’s views, have your say by
At first blush, Vladimir Putin’s decision to anoint the relatively liberal Dmitry Medvedev as his successor rather than the hawkish, former KGB agent Sergey Ivanov appears to be a signal that Russia is not set on out and out confrontation with the West. But this New York Times story suggests that Putin might just be playing for time, realising that the West will be keen to accommodate Medvedev as the least worst option and so likely to accede to more of Russia’s demands. The great unanswered question, is what will Putin do once his term expires. The chairmanship of Gazprom is now open with Medvedev’s move. PS This stat, highlighted
Chris Patten is trying to assure us all that there is nothing to worry about in terms of foreign policy in the EU Treaty previously known as the Constitution. Playing a weak hand, Patten tries to change the subject, telling Mark Mardell: “The biggest issue to effect our sovereignty in the last few years has been our commitment in Iraq; without having any real say over what was happening there; which British servicemen and women were being shot at and being killed there. “That is a huge sovereignty issue. Nothing, nothing, that happens in the European Union is going to be anything like that in its dimensions.” This argument simply
If you want a feel for how dramatically both the Republican and Democratic primary races have tightened in the US, consider this: “The only candidate in either party with a lead outside of the margin of error in the big 3 states (Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina) is Republican Mike Huckabee who sports a double-digit lead over his nearest competitor. No Democrat has a lead outside the margin of error in those three states and the Republican races in both New Hampshire and South Carolina are also margin-of-error close.” The importance of these early states in the process can not be over-stated and the worry for Hillary has to
People ask me sometimes if I still do any music and I always tell them that music is a garden and, once you’ve been there, you never stop going back. It’s true. Then I go and talk to someone else. I know people ask my old band mate Damon the same thing sometimes, possibly just to annoy him. It is really annoying, actually. Never ask anyone who was once in a famous band if they’re still doing music, unless you want to annoy them. Of course they are. It’s heroin. I’ve got a big show on Friday. It’s at Geronimo’s pre-school. He asked if I’d come in with my guitar.
‘Where are you going?’ said the nurse. ‘Guyana,’ I said. She looked blankly at me. ‘South America,’ I said, passing on information I’d only recently learned myself. ‘Next door to Venezuela.’ She got the health advice website up on her computer screen, typed in Guyana and read out the list of recommended immunisations. ‘Tetanus, hepatitis A, typhoid, yellow fever,’ she said. ‘Also advised are TB, hepatitis B, rabies, diphtheria.’ ‘But I’m only going for a week,’ I moaned. ‘Do I really have to have all of them?’ She shrugged. ‘Up to you, matey,’ she said. I’d half-imagined that the inoculations would be compulsory. If they had been, I don’t think
How we determine the membership of the world’s most exclusive club New York OK. Next to last column before the end of the year one, and of course it has to be about the crisis that has enveloped Pug’s, the world’s most exclusive of clubs. For any of you who may have missed it, here, for the benefit of Speccie readers, is the membership list: Patron: Lady Gabriella Windsor. President: Mr Taki Theodoracopulos. Executive Chairman: Count Leopold Bismarck. Chairman and Director of Admissions: Professor William Gimlet, OBE (aka Mr Nicholas Scott). Members: Mr Timothy Hoare, Prince Heinrich von Fürstenberg, HRH Prince Pavlos of Greece, HH the Maharajah of Jodhpur, Mr
After Denman, the deluge. The downpour which followed the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury reduced my notes to soggy pulp, but no matter. I will remember almost every stride. Denman’s victory, carrying 11st 12lb on sodden ground and beating a field of the best handicappers in the country out of sight, was one which will be imprinted on the inner eyeballs of everybody who witnessed it. Leg-weary horses with lesser burdens in earlier races climbed over the last few fences like slow-motion clockwork creatures. Denman, already clear of his field, soared majestically over the last two as if on springs, leaping in the process into co-favouritism with his stable companion
Q. Although I consider my dog Claude to have been born without a brain, he miraculously remembers that Wednesday is the day for his extra-long walkies and sits by the front door, thereby allowing no one to exit without his being in tow. So it was that this Wednesday Claude took up his position, collar on and gazing nobly as blue Great Danes are so adept at doing. At 7.43 a.m. precisely we set out and would have followed the customary route which entails an eager rush along Tite Street, greeting the Honourable Mrs Schleswig-Mopps’s trio of pugs, over Royal Hospital Road, navigating the four-wheel-drive tractors in Durham Place and
When the letter arrived last April I thought it was a joke. ‘Dear Sir,’ it began. ‘On behalf of the publishers A & C Black, I am very pleased to invite you to compile an entry for the forthcoming edition of Who’s Who . . .’ Was this a cruel prank being perpetrated by the editors of the Guardian’s G2 section? In a couple of weeks’ time, the ‘entry’ I had submitted would appear alongside those of other ‘luminaries’ they had gulled into playing along such as Jordan and Vernon Kay. This unforgivable act of vanity would then haunt me for years to come, with my father-in-law producing the article
Some years ago The Spectator was sued for libel. It was a silly case, but it went to court and, early on, the counsel for the defence explained that The Spectator had no connection with the periodical of that name founded by Addison and Steele in 1711. But in the summing up the judge said, ‘And here we have a respectable magazine, founded by Addison and Steele . . . ’ I was reminded of this absurd incident by a reader, Mr Lawrence Brewer, who spotted the zeugma in Boris Johnson’s tribute to the late James Michie (Jaspistos), where he wrote of his ‘sitting with a glass of wine and
The new champagne bar at St Pancras Station — sorry, St Pancras International — is said to be the longest in Europe, which is fine, although I pity the poor person — a workie, probably, they get all the duff jobs, if they get any jobs at all — who had to find this out. ‘Hello, this is England calling. Can you tell me how long your champagne bar is, please?’ Perhaps it even aimed to be the longest champagne bar in the world but the workie quit after Europe, saying, ‘Forget it. Don’t you realise work-experience kids are only meant to fool around on the internet while everyone in
The US needs the UK Sir: David Howell is certainly correct (Letters, 1 December) in pointing to the massive shift of wealth to Asia and oil producers, a development to which I have repeatedly called attention in my columns for the Sunday Times, most recently this past week. But that, so far, has little to do with my contention that the maintenance of world order remains the responsibility of the United States, a responsibility that can best be discharged with Britain at its side. Yes, Britain should pursue other relationships that a changing world makes useful to it. But Gordon Brown’s deliberate snubbing of the United States when he met
Sunday Weekend duty totally ruined by silly Sayeeda’s trip to Sudan. Spent all day yesterday fielding calls for pre-trip interviews, but she couldn’t do any of them because she had an urgent appointment at Daniel Galvin for a cut and blow dry before she went to the airport. Dave and Mr Hague think it’s all v bad idea and will go horribly wrong on account of her uncanny knack of saying exactly the wrong thing at precisely the wrong time. Jed declared at one point it would have been better to send Mr Hague and let him ‘bore Bashir rigid about how Islam is just like Judo’. Monday The row
Well, I’ve learnt my lesson. After my last Speccie diary was satirised by the Guardian, Emily Maitlis, Michael White, Taki, a newspaper called the Asian Age, and — honour of genuine honours! — Craig Brown in Private Eye for being too name-droppy, this one is just going to be a sober chronicle of what I did last week, no frills attached. After that comprehensive going-over, I’m not going to run the same risk twice. Monday: Dinner at Brown’s with Paul Wolfowitz and his girlfriend Shaha Ali Riza, the lady over whose job there was all that fuss at the World Bank and State Department. Needless to say they don’t conform
No-one seems to know quite how many Britons have flown 7,000 miles to be in Las Vegas this weekend, but most estimates suggest it’s at least 15,000 and possibly as many as 25,000. Since no more than 4,000 of them can actually have tickets for Saturday’s fight between Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather this is an invasion army of impressive proportions. But then the British – and especially the English – have always loved their fighters and their fights and Ricky Hatton today enjoys the sort of celebrity once known by the great prize-fighters of the nineteenth century. If a spot of foreign travel can be thrown in then all