Society

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Brown gets clunked again

More Labour glum faces today, and much for them to be glum about. Cameron opened on a good theme: Brown’s plans to confiscate budget surpluses accrued by prudent schools. Cameron used this as an allegory for Brown’s statism, versus Tory localism. “Why does he think he knows how to use the money better than the teachers?” Brown replied (rather lamely) that “he’s not listening to what I’m saying” and proceeded to say nothing. Okay, that’s not quite true. He said the Tories have a £6bn black hole in their plans, and would cut education budgets by this amount. This is a lie, rather than an exaggeration. If Brown repeated it

Tuesday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Let’s welcome immigration but also prepare for it

Imagine a new city the size of York or Portsmouth being built every year for 30 years. This, according to the Office of National Statistics, is what’s happening for the foreseeable future with immigration: forecasts are up from 145,000 to 190,000 a year. That’s net immigration, so the actual number of newcomers will be over half a million a year (the working figure is 565,000 a year or 1,540 a day) until at least 2030. The immigrants have transformed our population outlook. My native Scotland is acquiring people again, birth rates are up (as immigrants have more kids).   I’ve long been concerned that ministers rely on immigrants to keep

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A peek at Gordon’s vision

One of the surprises of Gordon Brown’s premiership so far to date, is how little substantive policy there has been. Pretty much everything Brown has done has been about political positioning—putting the Tories in an awakward spot, distancing himself from Blair and the like. As Rachel Sylvester argues in the Telegraph this morning a positive Brownite agenda has yet to emerge. Sylvester thinks, though, that the recent hiring of Richard Brooks and Nick Pearce from the Institute of Public Policy Research hints at what Brown has planned for public service reform. She notes that a report the two contributed to shortly before been hired by Brown stressed the limits of

Monday

Nadine Dorries

Abortion lobby on the back foot

On Wednesday the Health Minister, Dawn Primarolo MP (pictured), will be giving evidence to the Science and Technology Select Committee. She has already provided her answers to our assumed questions via The Independent newspaper this morning. I won’t even go there with regard to how this is simply an attempt to use the media to spin a position which is now–in light of all the new evidence which the DOH are choosing to deliberately ignore–simply untenable. The desperate tricks taking place behind the scenes all have their roots in money and are nothing to do with choice. Let me explain. The DOH paid the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

The Skimmer

The Times: tabloid in news values as well as size

This morning’s Times has an interview with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan — not a bad journalistic commodity at a time when separatist Kurdish rebels killed at least 12 Turkish soldiers in an ambush near the Iraqi border and the drums of war are beating ever louder in Ankara.   Curiously, The Times could only find room on its front page for a 50-word write-off of its international scoop, demoting the main story to page 5. Instead, it chose to splash with yet another dubious story on childhood obesity.   Editor Robert Thomson is a serious, thoughtful man who has striven to keep his paper’s content serious even as it went

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why we need to look again at our abortion laws

Anyone who thinks that our abortion laws–or to be more precise, how they are interpreted—don’t need looking at should read this article from The Sunday Times. Here’s how it starts: “More than 50 babies with club feet were aborted in just one area of England in a three-year period, according to new statistics.  Thirty-seven babies with cleft lips or palates and 26 with extra or webbed fingers or toes were also aborted.”

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Backs against the wall stuff

Does politics imitate rugby? I just heard Martin Corry on Sky saying how England pulled itself together midway through the tournament. Heading for defeat, the players brainstormed with the coach, had what Nick Easter called a “clear the air meeting” changed their style, and at the last minute found their strengths and got to the final. Same with the Tories in Blackpool. They, and England’s rugby team, play best when they are ten points behind. The problem for both is finding these strengths when they are close enough to win. I watched the game from a pub in Southampton, where everyone – Poles and all – joined in the national

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Neighbours

Hilarious insights from Anthony Seldon, a Blair biographer, in his new book which looks at the tumultuous final year of Blair’s tenure. Ed Balls referred to Blair as a “moron” and (deliciously) to Brown as “a bottler” after he refused to make a leadeship putsch after last year’s local elections. At another stage Blair declared: “I’m going to take no more s%%t from over the road.” Except, he did. He took lots more. Blair’s cowardice in failing to deal with the mutinous Brown was matched only by Brown’s cowardice in not making a decisive move. Read all about it in the Mail on Sunday.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Pay them and they will come

A perennial problem in politics is whether you pay miscreants to behave if the cost of treating them is higher. Why not pay drug addicts to go clean, given that the cost of handling their eventual addiction could be several times the payment? The answer comes down to one of morality. Why should junkies be given cash we routinely deny to pensioners who have paid taxes for their lifetime? That’s why I think Liam Byrne, a minister for whom I have high regard, has made a grave error in promising  up to £4,000 to bogus asylum seekers who agree to go home. Cheaper that the £11,000 of enforced returns, he

Saturday

Melissa Kite

Bad trip

Your ordeal starts innocuously enough. ‘Welcome aboard the south east trains service to London Waterloo. This train will be calling at…’ You settle back in your seat and for a few moments wallow in blissful ignorance of the ruthless campaign of mental torture that is about to be unleashed on you as part of a complete moral and intellectual reconditioning by state agents for anti-democratic purposes. ‘The ticket inspector will shortly be making his way through the train.’ You recognise the silkily patronising voice of Patricia Hewitt but think no more about it. She can’t have had that many offers when Gordon took over, and it’s regular work. Of course,

Jeremy Clarke

All in the mind | 20 October 2007

The only light came from a reading lamp pointing at the centre of the room. The background music was whale song and randomly plucked harp strings. The room was the top floor of an 18th-century house. The only other floor I’ve seen that sloped as much as this one is in the Crooked House at Peter Pan’s Playground, which is next to Southend pier. On an assortment of chairs three men and a woman were sitting facing each other. They had tiny needles sticking out of their ears and forearms. One of the men also had a needle sticking straight up from the crown of his head. This I subconsciously

Taki

Control freaks

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is as gruesome a fellow as they come. Mind you, he’s not as bad as Governor Eliot Spitzer, but then not every public official is a habitual body-waxer the way Spitzer is. The trouble with both men is that at various times one or the other appears not to have felt the slightest contempt for commerce, foul play, hypocrisy or cowardice, among other things. Bloomberg calls himself America’s greenest mayor, but he’s as green as the fumes which choke Noo Yawkers every day, including holidays. Just consider this: Bloomie’s emissions are equal to those of 18 average Americans, 404 average Guatemalans, and I’d hate to

Mary Killen

Your problems solved | 20 October 2007

Q. I recently prayed to St Jude, the patron saint of lost causes, in the cause of a friend who was desperately ill. My prayers were answered. I have been told that it is protocol to acknowledge in writing favours received by St Jude. To where should I post the letter, Mary? I am confused. Name and address withheld A. You are not expected to write to St Jude himself. Instead, it is traditional to place a small ad in a publication with personal columns. Why not do this to coincide with 28 October, this saint’s feast day? Q. My wife and I are planning to visit the mediaeval countryside

Dot Wordsworth

Mind your language | 20 October 2007

When the postal strike was in full spate we heard quite a bit about ‘Spanish practices’, or at least we did sometimes. On one morning the BBC referred to ‘Spanish practices’ in the nine o’clock news and merely to ‘practices’ in its later bulletins, presumably for fear of offending any Spaniards who were listening in. ‘It used to be old Spanish customs in my day,’ said my husband, stirring in his armchair like a badger on a sunny winter’s day. But he was right about the grey years when unions would come out over the slightest disagreement over demarcation. They stayed true to old Spanish customs. To be sure, practices

Toby Young Toby Young

I know nothing about rugby, but Jonny Wilkinson is still my favourite quarterback

‘You’re joking, right?’ The person on the other end of the phone was Grub Smith, a sports-loving friend of mine who I was hoping might get me out of a spot of bother. The problem was, I’d arranged to watch this Saturday’s rugby World Cup final with some neighbours and I thought my knowledge of the game could do with some brushing up. The question that had prompted Grub’s incredulous response was about Jonny Wilkinson. For some reason, he was surprised by my reference to him as ‘the quarterback’. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t be afraid to reveal my ignorance in front of the neighbours, but not knowing about rugby carries all

The Spectator

Letters to the Editor | 20 October 2007

Promises, promises Sir: Fraser Nelson (Politics, 6 October) suggests that the approach that won David Cameron the leadership in 2005 was conveyed in messages like ‘social responsibility’ and ‘general wellbeing’. I, and I believe many others, decided to vote for Mr Cameron after he promised to withdraw the Conservatives from the EPP/ED Group in the European Parliament. A new Tory strategy based on specific promises will only be successful if there is a genuine commitment to carry these out. Richard Soper New Zealand Lib Dems and the EU Sir: We read that again the Liberal Democrats are blaming their leader for their fall in popularity in the polls. Does it

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s notes | 20 October 2007

There is much complaint that ‘ageism’ has toppled Sir Menzies Campbell. In theory, one must deplore prejudice against advancing years. Political leadership should come after accumulating decades of wisdom, rather than being treated, as Tony Blair seems to regard the premiership, as something to put on your CV. But the trouble is that Sir Ming’s leadership of the Liberals did exemplify the things that genuinely do get worse with age. He showed a slowness, a lack of mental agility, an imperviousness to new ideas. It was as if he were deaf. However, this column’s main explanation for his fall is the curse of the Iraq war. One should never tire

Jane Moore

Diary – 20 October 2007

Christmas is coming. In fact, clock the mince pies on sale in M&S or the ruddy selection boxes in just about every store except Millets, and you could be forgiven for thinking it’s here already. Last week saw the annual headache that is the publication of the top ten list of ‘must-have’ Christmas toys, all likely to be requested by those short people that live in your house and all guaranteed to be out of stock by 30 October because of a failure by manufacturers to pre-empt demand. Apparently, this year’s Tracey Island is an equally hard-to-come-by Igglepiggle, a cuddly toy described as ‘energetic but vulnerable’. I know how it

Liz Anderson

Property porn

I need help. I’ve got an addiction. It’s reading property magazines and newspaper supplements and watching property programmes on television. I’m not looking for a new flat or house to buy so there’s really no excuse for this time-consuming passion. The compulsion started some two years ago when I was looking for a flat to buy. So, like many addictions, mine started through necessity but has grown into something uncontrollable. It took me more than six months to find my flat (on the internet) and in that time I had become an expert on reading floorplans, unravelling estate-agent-speak and knowing the minimum square footage I could live in. I should

Mira Barhillel

Flippin’ amazing

Here is the scientific formula for calculating London’s top property prices: think of a figure, double it, add a few noughts, and voila! — or should I say nazdarovie, of whatever it is that oligarchs say when toasting a deal. Ordinary mortals nowadays are worried sick about their mortgage repayments, set to rocket when their short-term fixes come to an end and real-interest rates kick in. They lie awake at night with images of Northern Rock queues flashing before their eyes and wonder why Mr Darling, whose eyebrows failed to reassure over that issue, also failed to do anything for first-time buyers since taking office. But meanwhile, in a place