If you want a handy primer on why so many people think we’re slipping into a new Cold War, read Fraser Nelson’s cover story on the Russian arms build up under Vladimir Putin. As Fraser points out, while we’ve been fixated on the Middle East, Putin has been preparing the ground for an aggressive restoration of Russia’s great power status.
Richard Littlejohn is perhaps the funniest journalist in Britain today, but it’s a mistake to be distracted by the brilliance of his jokes. He regularly unearths the social and political trends making a direct impact on people’s lives. Today its the “global warming racket” – how councils are hiring “carbon advisers” on £30k a year. Hull Council has 30 staff working on “environmental issues”, he says, none of whom proved any help when its flood defences succumbed. This is my problem with the global warming “debate” – it skews priorities, and allows councils to assemble a highly-paid green Gestapo while losing track of their basic duties (like keeping council tax
I’m afraid blogging is likely to be even lighter than usual this week as I’m going to be in Turkish Cyprus, attending the 33rd edition of “Peace and Freedom Day”. Should be fun.
Ah, Facebook… No sooner do I announce that I’m off to Cyprus than this harsh but fair note appears: I look forward to you being kidnapped by Turkish Cypriot terrorists, and the video clips of Massie after 50 days in a makeshift prison cell. And all his mates saying “He looks better than he usually does, doesn’t he?”
The key to Barack Obama’s phenomenal fund-raising success, $58.6 million raised so far, is that he is working both ends of the spectrum equally hard. He is playing the grassroots card for all its worth by registering anyone who buys so much as bumper sticker as a donor and has raised more in small donations than the rest of the Democratic field combined. But he is also tapping the banker class hard. If you look at the five firms from whose employees he’s raised the most money they’re all finance houses: Lehman Brothers, $160,760; Citadel Investment Group, $152,150; Goldman Sachs, $103,550; JP Morgan Chase, $101,950 and Citigroup $61,125. Just to add
This exchange between Lindsey Graham, John McCain’s right-hand man, and Jim Webb, Ronald Reagan’s navy secretary who is now an anti-war Democrat, gives you a good idea of how heated the Iraq debate is now getting in the States. Senators, who pride themselves on their Roman reserve, don’t squabble like this in public. The debate is going to become bitterer still before General Petraeus’s delivers his make or break update to Congress on the war in September. In reality, we’ll be faced with the same dilemma then that we are now. Leave—and resign ourselves to the genocidal civil war that will surely follow and the boost that Iran and al
I am on holiday in the Hamptons. Conrad Black’s guilty verdict merited two paragraphs in the newspaper. I feel totally starved for news. I found a turtle on the lawn on my second day here. My niece and nephew wanted to keep it as a pet. I took them to the pet shop in an effort to get the shopkeeper to reinforce my mantra that it is cruel to keep pets when you are a mere “visiting tourist”. I grew up thinking pets were forever, not just for Christmas or summer. But I forgot this was America. “Ma’am many of our holiday makers take temporary custody of animals for the
It’s been going for a while now, but do check out this blog. It’s a collection of letters written by Private Harry Lamin to his brother and sister in England. Each letter, scribbled in the trenches of the Western Front, is being published 90 years to the day after Pvt Lamin wrote them. Collectively it’s a moving and illuminating project.
Sir: Charles Moore’s insinuation (Spectator’s Notes, 7 July) that following Alan Johnston’s release the BBC would now report Hamas more sympathetically is baseless. Beeb remains unbiased Sir: Charles Moore’s insinuation (Spectator’s Notes, 7 July) that following Alan Johnston’s release the BBC would now report Hamas more sympathetically is baseless. If he needs evidence he should consider that during the time that Alan was in captivity the BBC continued to report Gaza objectively — despite the incarceration of one of our own. Thankfully Alan is now free and, as ever, the BBC will report the region with courage and integrity. Adrian Van Klaveren, Deputy DirectorBBC News & Controller, London W12 Arresting
‘Darling,’ I asked, ‘In your day did they call them specialities or specialties?’ ‘Darling,’ I asked, ‘In your day did they call them specialities or specialties?’ ‘Do you know,’ replied my husband, ‘I can’t remember.’ So that’s his last useful function gone. I was asking because, in a discussion of hospital posts for young doctors, the news kept referring to specialties, and I itched for specialities. Fowler’s Modern English Usage confirms that specialty is used especially in North America, but also in Britain, in the two chief senses of ‘a special pursuit’ and ‘a special feature or skill’. But the Oxford Guide to English Usage says that specialty is ‘restricted
Is Gordon Brown the first prime minister who can’t drive since, well, since Asquith? Is Gordon Brown the first prime minister who can’t drive since, well, since Asquith? Hard to imagine the 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith mastering a non-synchromesh gearbox. His successor and rival, Lloyd George, was out of office for 23 years and lived until 1945, so had plenty of time to learn; but neither cars nor driving are indexed in John Grigg’s definitive biography. In those days he wouldn’t have had to pass a test, of course, and anyway motoring (motorism to early enthusiasts) was such a minority pursuit that perhaps it shouldn’t be expected of
Rome They changed the name of the most famous city in the world, and renamed the place Valentino, or so it seemed last weekend in the Eternal City. What can I say? I know nothing about fashion, except that I know a beautiful dress when I see one, but I do know a lot about parties, and this one took the cake, all three days of it. Valentino’s blend of elegance and sexiness has always attracted brand names. I suppose Jackie Onassis was among the first to spot his rare talent, but, to his credit, Valentino never went the way of Lagerfeld and other snooty seamstresses. In fact, on the
The moment the announcer stated that the 9.05 to Newquay was leaving from platform four, virtually the entire crowd on the concourse at Paddington station arose like a Zulu impi and ran towards it. Platoons of young totty, hampered by pink and lilac suitcases as heavy as themselves, screamed with excitement and frustration as they were left standing by the swarms of young lads who raced along the platform to secure seats. I was standing, fortunately, beside the entrance to platform four, and was in the vanguard of the pell-mell race for the second-class carriages at the front of the train. Spotting a vacant seat in the carriage on the
It happened in New York. As I reached for a small basket of ‘heirloom tomatoes, Little Compton Farms’ I felt my lips curling slightly — was it out of pity or contempt? — on account of the poor soul next to me who had merely chosen ‘vine-ripened organic’. It happened in New York. As I reached for a small basket of ‘heirloom tomatoes, Little Compton Farms’ I felt my lips curling slightly — was it out of pity or contempt? — on account of the poor soul next to me who had merely chosen ‘vine-ripened organic’. At the checkout counter the sun-ripened young woman ringing up my purchase favoured me
Hong Kong It is very good to be back. So good that I can ignore the horror of the summer weather. The humidity suffocates and is only relieved by sudden and violent downpours. But these are minor irritations in a city that is back to its best. The economy booms and the shops and restaurants are full. I watched a pro-democracy march and was reminded of the glorious fractiousness of the Hong Kongers. No power on earth should pick an argument with them. It is a passionate nature which can occasionally find expression in unfortunate ways. Take the case of Mr Kwok who finds himself very nearly eyeless in Kowloon.
Monday Have drawn up shortlist of potential husbands. It is my Number One Priority to end my single status asap now that Being Married is official Conservative policy — not to mention a jolly good way of making a bit of extra cash from the super tax breaks! (£3,000 a year would cover my congestion charge so I could drive into town every day!) My tabloid paramour M is obviously top of the list although I have always felt it unlikely he will stop playing the field even for a rising star of the Incoming Compassionate Centre-right Administration. Besides, there are now a few other ‘candidates’, shall we say —
As globalisation of business and communications grows, to what extent will we see globalisation of values? The experience of the ancient world suggests it could be to quite a large extent. Greek and Roman society was, at one level, notoriously conservative. With a social structure that privileged the (very) few at the top of the scale against all the rest, slave-labour, an education and religious system that looked to the past for its justification and continuation, and the absence of technological or economic advance, change was never going to be top of any agenda. Yet Greeks and Romans never ceased to absorb foreign influences and turn them to their advantage.
Happy Bastille Day, mes amis!
I carry no candle for Conrad Black and I’ve never worked for him. But his conviction on charges of fraud (albeit for raking in a comparatively trivial $3m) has occasioned another one of those interesting and illuminating differences between British and North American journalism. Without exception every British journalist I’ve talked to feels rather sorry for Lord Black of Crossharbour; without exception every American or Canadian hack seems pretty pleased that he’s come a cropper. Doubtless there are exceptions to this general rule (after all, my sample size is pretty small in the scheme of things) but it’s striking nonetheless. The case for Black’s defense is simple: he’s a newspaper