Society

Wednesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Barry Bonds Passes Hank Aaron

Even political bloggers and policy wonkers seem to feel the need to write something about Barry Lamar Bonds. Matt Yglesias says he must be the best ever; Brian Beutler – being a self-respecting Dodgers fan – must and does decline to endorse that opinion; Megan McArdle is infuriatingly non-commital while Dan Drezner reminds one that Tom Glavine should receive more respect for winning his 300th game (though of course the “wins” statistic is one of the most misleading and useless in all baseball; this is the only explanation for its continued existence) Clearly this is one of those situations that can only be judged by a foreigner. That being the

The Spectator

Obama hits Hillary over Iraq

The contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is entering a decisive phase. The first primary is now only five months away and Hillary retains a commanding national lead, even if things are closer in the early states. So Obama needs to start taking chunks out of Hillary’s numbers soon if he is not going to fade away. This exchange between the two front runners and Chris Dodd, another Senator running for president, at last night’s debate shows how the battle lines are being drawn. Note how hard Obama hits Hillary over her Iraq vote and the reaction of the crowd, albeit one from Obama’s home state of Illinois, when Hillary

The Spectator

The 2008 version of the Olympic Spirit

A small, but telling, example of the nature of the regime that will be hosting the 2008 Olympics comes in James Fallows’s latest missive from China. “CNN International began its report talking about what is obviously the main deal-breaking threat to the Olympics: the air. The correspondent had gotten far enough into the story to say, “Some foreign athletes fear…” and then the screen went blank for the next two minutes or so.” Do also take a look at these fantastic photos that show just how bad the pollution in Beijing really is. It will be a wonder if they get through the games without the poor air quality disrupting

The Spectator

When discrimination is good

Thank God for the Act of Settlement (1701). It keeps us focused. In the past week newspapers have been focusing on poor Peter Phillips, tenth in line to the throne, who is engaged to Autumn Kelly, a Canadian Catholic. If she does not abandon her religion, he will have to renounce his right to succeed — or call the wedding off.  That’s the deal with the Act of Settlement — the Supreme Governor of the Church of England may not be married to a Roman Catholic — and RCs are said to be very cross. In the words of the Times’s excitable Ruth Gledhill, the Act ‘has for centuries been

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What’s wrong with the right

Over at Conservative Home, Peter Franklin has written a hard-hitting piece setting out some ‘home truths for the right.’ He accuses various bits of it of being self-indulgent, hypocritical and living in the past amongst other things. I wouldn’t agree with everything he says, but it is well worth a read. 

The Spectator

How emotional should politicians get?

Drew Westen, the super smart American political scientist who wrote for The Spectator a few weeks back, has extracts of his new book on why leaders need to connect on an emotional as well as intellectual level in G2 today. Westen makes a good case; there’s no doubt that much of the Republicans’ electoral success since 1968 can be chalked up to their superior ability to connect with voters on a gut level. But Westen goes too far when he suggests that Gore would have stood a better chance of being elected president if he had hit back during the 2000 debates when Bush questioned his honesty and called Bush

Tuesday

The Spectator

A Golden Opportunity for the GOP

A ballot initiative in California could have more impact on the 2008 presidential race than any of the back and forth that is going on between the candidates at present. Currently California gives all its presidential votes—and it has more of them than any other state, 55 of the 270 you needs to be elected president—to which ever candidate gets the most votes. This is good news for the Democrats as California is a solidly blue state. However, this ballot initiative would dish out California’s voters by Congressional district—giving the Republicans around 20 or so of its electoral votes, that’s equivalent to winning a state like Pennsylvania, Illinois or Ohio.

The Spectator

Why England industrialised first

Was the industrial revolution a product of downward social mobility? That’s the argument of a forthcoming book by the American historian Gregory Clark. His thesis is that as the rich had more children that survived than the poor, the population of England was by 1800 overwhelmingly made up of the descendants of the economic upper classes of the Middle Ages and that as the children of the rich spread throughout society so did the attitudes and values that make people wealthy. As he puts it, “Thrift, prudence, negotiation and hard work were becoming values for communities that previously had been spendthrift, impulsive, violent and leisure loving”. Clark posits that this

The Spectator

The state of Basra

The Washington Post this morning has a sobering account of the situation on the ground in Basra. The paper reveals that the US government has expressed concerns about the impact of the British pull back on the rest of Iraq at the highest levels to the British. While a senior US intelligence official tells the Post, “The British have basically been defeated in the south”.  All of which makes the government’s desicion to refuse to facilitate asylum applications from 91 Iraqi interpreaters who have worked with British forces in Basra all the more shocking. The Times is surely right that these brave folk should be welcomed to this country with open

Monday

The Spectator

Things you shouldn’t reveal on Facebook

If you’re the daughter of a presidential candidate who already has political problems because of his complicated family life it doesn’t help if you reveals on your Facebook page that your supporting another candidate. The only silver lining for Rudy Giuliani is that his Harvard undergrad daughter Caroline (pictured with her mother and Rudy’s second wife) is backing Barack Obama and not another Republican.  Hat Tip: Ben Smith

The Spectator

Another Rumsfeld blunder

Abu Ghraib was a shameful episode and Don Rumsfeld, true to obstinate form, never seemed to grasp quite how much damage it had done America. But what is equally revealing is the careless way that Rumsfeld disclosed the name of the whistle blower, Joe Darby. Dabry recounted the story in the Sunday Times: “Five weeks later I was sitting in the dining facility in Camp Anaconda in Iraq when a press conference came on that was the live feed from the congregational hearings about Abu Ghraib. There was an announcement that secretary Rumsfeld was thanking me for turning in the photos and allowing the investigation to go forward – thanking me by

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Miles off

‘Food miles’ is one of the new eco buzz phrases and makes people think that buying local food is inherently better for the environment. But an op-ed in the New York Times today flags up some new research that shows this is not the case when you consider all the energy used in producing the food not just the amount of CO2 emitted while transporting it. Here’s the key point about what the researchers discovered: “they found that lamb raised on New Zealand’s clover-choked pastures and shipped 11,000 miles by boat to Britain produced 1,520 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per ton while British lamb produced 6,280 pounds of carbon dioxide

Sunday

The Spectator

America looks for a first spouse

One of the most notable features of the 2008 presidential race is the amount of attention being lavished on the spouses of the candidates. Just today we have a New York Times interview in which Judith Giuliani responds to a scathing Vanity Fair profile of her and pieces in the Washington Post and Newsweek looking at the role of Fred Thompson’s wife Jeri (pictured) in his campaign. You can come up with lots of reasons for all this interest in the other halves of the candidates. Obviously, there’s the Bill factor with the fascination with him and the Clinton marriage spilling over onto the other candidates and their wives. There’s

Saturday

The Spectator

Letters to the Editor | 4 August 2007

Sir: Graham Lord (‘Is it a tough ask to speak proper English?’, 28 July) gives a clue to the increase in use of bad English when he points out that recent immigrants from eastern Europe speak our language much better than many of our own young people do. English lessons Sir: Graham Lord (‘Is it a tough ask to speak proper English?’, 28 July) gives a clue to the increase in use of bad English when he points out that recent immigrants from eastern Europe speak our language much better than many of our own young people do. The reason is that the incomers have been taught by people who

Robin Oakley

Ascot shows its class

The late Jim Callaghan told a few of us one day about life in the House of Lords after being an MP in the Commons. ‘In the Commons you wonder if you’ll survive the next election. In the Lords you wonder if you’ll live until Christmas.’ On his first day in the Lords, the Whip detailed to show him round stopped him after an hour or two and said, ‘Jim, you’re making two mistakes. You’re going too fast and you pass every lavatory.’ We are all in danger of rushing things too about the new Ascot. Yes, the sightlines are not perfect, although £10 million has been spent on improving

Taki

Dog days of summer

On board S/Y Bushido Sailing away from St Tropez, I felt a bit like Lot; I asked the wife to take one last look, but Alexandra, alas, remained unsalty and very much in command. Portofino was the next stop, probably the most beautiful of tiny ports anywhere in the Med, green and very much up and down rather than sideways. I got off and began to climb a small path snaking around grand villas to the top, passed the magnificent Hotel Splendido, where once upon a time I took a German countess for a dirty weekend, and she came down with the flu, leaving me alone in the bar talking

Jeremy Clarke

Homicidal urges

During the wettest July since records began, I was completely dry. As usual, not drinking made me angry and withdrawn. As usual, I had homicidal urges and couldn’t read. And, as usual, cleaning and polishing was the only way I could distract myself. I cleaned and polished the floors, windows, furniture, tools, ornaments and, of course, the car. Three coats of polish had the bonnet of the car reflecting the blackening sky like a mirror. This afforded me a momentary glimmer of satisfaction. Later I valeted the car inside and out using old favourite aerosol cosmetic valeting products such as Alloy Bright, Back to Black and Dashboard Shine. My aim

Roy Hattersley

View from the high ground

It was, I think, Governor Winthrop, one of the founders of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who said that politicians must think of themselves as a house on a hill. I have never been sure if he meant that they had the advantage of being ‘looked up to’ or the problem of being constantly visible to voters on the plains below. The last couple of weeks have, however, left me in no doubt about the benefits of literally occupying the high ground. The rain, which has swamped the road to junction 29 of the motorway, has passed us by. It has fallen in great quantities. That was only to be expected,

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 4 August 2007

Q. I was recently a weekend guest at a very large house. A series of unfortunate incidents meant I arrived at the house with no cash to leave for the cleaner at the end of the weekend. There were no cashpoints for miles around and to ask my host to drive me to one would have, I know, annoyed him. Although I stripped the bed myself and made sure the room was spotless, I fear it did not make up for the lack of wonga. Should I send the money now by post? Was there anything else I could have done at the time? E.W., Kensington A. You need not have