Society

Wednesday

The Spectator

Spinning down the Tube

The other morning I came into work after one of those awful tube journeys that put you in the foulest of tempers. So it didn’t improve my mood to see a staged picture of Gordon travelling on a pleasantly full Tube train staring out at me from the papers. The Chancellor had, conveninently, found a Tube carriage in which it was perfectly possible to sit down and do some work. Iain Dale—who is a real must read, he broke the Coulson story the other day—has the scoop on just how cynical the whole thing was. One of the ‘passengers’ quoted in a news story about Brown’s trip is actually chair

The Spectator

Channel 4’s crass sensationalism

My first job was working for Index on Censorship, so I instinctively recoil from prior restraint of the media. Nonetheless, there is a difference between censorship and humane editing, and the defence of free speech ultimately depends upon society understanding the distinction. I can see absolutely no merit in Channel 4 broadcasting the photographs of the crash scene in tonight’s documentary about the death of Diana. True, the programme-makers are not showing the infamous paparazzi pictures of the dying princess herself. But – in exercising this minimal discretion  – they are seeking to have their sensationalist cake and eat it. I imagine that they are privately thrilled by the row,

Sarah Standing

True Brits don’t need a designated Britain day

I understand Labour wants to introduce another Bank Holiday: British Day. Having spent the last decade systematically destroying all that was distinctively British and replacing treasured traditions with new-fangled politically-correct, all-embracing, multi-cultural and downright petty rituals under the guise of taking this country forward into the 21st century we are now left with a legacy of a fractured society. We used to celebrate being British just because we were proud of our heritage. We didn’t require a designated day to wave flags and put up banners. We were just proud of the many institutions that made Britain great: our regiments, our naval capabilities, our parliament, our legal system, our fox-hunting,

Tuesday

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

How high is your inflation rate?

In his Economics Made Easy column in the magazine last week, Allister Heath pointed out that the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the debased European measure of inflation which Gordon Brown insists on using – stands at 2.8 per cent, while the more realistic Retail Price Index (RPI) is at 4.5 per cent and Allister’s personal rate – according to the calculator thoughtfully provided on the Office for National Statistics website – is at around 6.6 per cent. The difference behind these figures is that the CPI is based on the prices of a basket of goods which includes fast food, supermarket clothing lines, and consumer electronic goods (all of which remain relatively cheap

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Name the date

So, we’re going to get another, much-needed Bank Holiday to celebrate Britishness. Personally, I’d nominate the anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar on the 21st of October. It would break up that long stretch from the last August Bank Holiday to Christmas and celebrates the victory that ensured Britain retained dominance of the seas and thus her independence. What do you think?

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Obama and Clinton level for the first time

This poll, if it is accurate, is big news: Barack Obama has drawn level with Hillary Clinton in national polls. If the numbers are to be believed, he’s up by seven points in the last month while she’s dropped by nine. Before we all get too excited, though, it is worth noting that this poll is out of sync the other national which still have Hillary ahead by a comfortable margin.

The Spectator

Song of the Dove

A new opera is a major undertaking for any company and one of the challenges is that staff responsible for raising money, enticing audiences and selling tickets can’t know exactly what they’re dealing with in advance. No handy recording to listen to, no DVD of a previous production to slip into their laptops. The problem is pretty much solved when a composer is as obliging, skilled and entertaining as Jonathan Dove. Yesterday afternoon in Leeds he treated key members of the Opera North team to a bravura one-man show, playing and singing through the entire score of his new opera Pinocchio (with a brilliantly lucid and witty text by Alasdair

The Spectator

Sierra Leone’s tragedy

I was depressed to learn yesterday that nineteen people died on a Paramount-operated helicopter in Sierra Leone on Sunday night. They had been travelling to Lunghi airport from Freetown after a football game. Unlike in Europe, where it is usually rich businessmen and football club chairmen who travel back after matches on helicopters, in Sierra Leone everyone has to do it. Lunghi is situated just over the bay from Freetown, so your options are: a car, which can take over six hours on appalling roads; a ferry, which can take longer, with few lifejackets or lifeboats; or the helicopter, which should take about seven minutes. (If Tony Blair had felt

Sarah Standing

Not so glorious food

I’ve just returned from the much-anticipated opening of the Wholefoods emporium on Kensington High Street feeling strangely deflated and disappointed. Having shopped extensively at Wholefoods in America,  (developing an almost unhealthy obsession with the food and exciting ethos contained within the vast stores) , I fully expected to become an immediate convert. Shopping at Wholefoods USA is like attending a mass orgy. It’s culinary porn: addictive, exciting and leaves one with an insatiable appetite for more. Last nights inaugural bash was about as inspiring as attending a party to celebrate the opening of an ( eco-friendly, bio-degradable, ethically-sourced) envelope. Half the shelves were devoid of food – just empty boxes

Monday

The Spectator

Some mothers do ‘ave ’em

You would have thought that Lindsey Lohan’s mum would be a little suspicious of the whole showbiz tread mill what with her daughter checking into rehab for a month. But no, she’s in talks to put her two younger children—aged 11 and 14—on a reality show in which she’ll try and turn them into tabloid fodder, or depending on your point of view young starlets with a great future ahead of them. Also in celebrity land, one has to love the fact that the LAPD mug shot of Paris Hilton looks like a typical modelling shot. For the next 23 days, the outside world will be a Hilton-free-zone. Enjoy this

The Spectator

No go with the logo

I am a big fan of the London Olympics but I am not a fan of their new logo. It looks like one of the puzzles from the Krypton Factor c.1977 or a very bad local authority advert for a Festival of Fitness. Apparently it is meant to appeal to the “Google Generation”. Dear me, no.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How long do we have to stay in Iraq?

This New York Times report on the progress of the surge is sobering reading. Despite the current push, two-thirds of Baghdad’s neighbourhoods remain outside of the control of US forces. But contrary to the way that these stories feed into the political process, this is not actually an argument for leaving. Indeed, until things improve you can’t contemplate withdrawing unless you’re prepared to accept genocidal violence. Recently the director of the Iraq Study Group reversed his position on whether the US and Britain could withdraw in 2008 and now argues that you’ve got to be in Iraq at roughly current levels for at least five years. Here’s what he told CBS

Sunday

The Spectator

Name that job

Following the Coffee House debate a few days back on the lunacy of referring to “gangs” as “groups”, I was delighted by the revelation in today’s Mail on Sunday that an Islington primary school has decided that the headmaster should now be called the “lead learner”. What would Thomas Arnold have made of that redesignation, I wonder? And why stop there? Let’s call surgeons “health helpers” and psychiatrists “brain buddies”. Prison warders should be “incarceration facilitators”, while police officers might feel more comfortable re-titled “liaison workers with the criminal community”. And Stephen Hawking would surely be less forbidding if he were called an “atomic aide”, just there to help out

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Gordon and the mandarins

This piece by the investigative journalist Tom Bower on Gordon Brown’s relationship with the civil service is well worth a click. According to Bower’s assessment of Brown’s record at the Treasury, there’s little chance that Brown will restore spin-free government.

Saturday

Mary Killen

Dear Mary… | 2 June 2007

Q. I have had a boyfriend, of whom I am very fond, for some time now. There is, however, one slight problem. On special occasions when he comes to visit my family, he always dons his best pair of shoes of which he is extremely proud. Unfortunately these are not of the gentlemanly variety. They are of a particularly common style and colour and would perhaps better appeal to a Sicilian waiter out on a Sunday jaunt. I thought this would be a matter of little impediment but my boyfriend only has to enter the room for the eyes of all my family to become inexorably transfixed on his shoes.

Taki

Mea culpa

The mother of my children rang me from Deauville and for probably the first time in her life asked me to retract something I had written. It was about Pal Sarkozy’s wife, Christine de Ganay, whom I described last week as the worst of a bad bunch. Well, Alexandra does have a point. I mixed up the cad’s wives. The poor de Ganey woman was left penniless with two young children by our pal Pal — and he is still very much with us as I saw a picture of him when his son was crowned at the Elysée. I simply mixed up his various wives and women and chose

The Spectator

Letters to the Editor | 2 June 2007

Major achievements Sir: I enjoyed and applauded Matthew Parris’s piece (Another voice, 26 May). It is indeed time that Sir John Major’s legacy was recognised and that he be remembered for those two acts that will leave what I hope will be an indelible mark on our daily life. Having been involved with cultural institutions that have been wholly renewed with Lottery money, I can only hope that its introduction will be remembered as his great contribution to this country. Let us fervently hope that this administration’s raid for the Olympics is resisted with maximum force by the current trustees to allow it to continue its remarkable work. Also let

Tamzin Lightwater

Diary of a Notting Hill nobody | 2 June 2007

MONDAY Jed away for three weeks on horseback safari in Botswana and nobody knows who’s in charge. Nigel says it’s The Three Georges, Poppy reckons it’s Mr Maude, Wonky Tom says we ought to ring Sam — she’s bound to know what to do (‘All right, my darlin’, getcha notebook out…’). We will have to muddle on. Tom and I are doing a Grammar Schools Rebels stock-take — we estimate it’s 98 per cent of MPs and peers, including all of front bench, plus entire voluntary party. Personally, I feel this is going to make it difficult to draw a line under things by sacking Mr Brady. Last thing Jed

Bryan Forbes

Diary – 2 June 2007

I don’t keep a diary any more, having decided that my past efforts contained too much that was either libellous or trite. However, leafing through a collection of oldies this week I noted one pertinent item, namely that when the National Insurance scheme was launched in July 1948, Bevan’s vision was greeted with mixed feelings by doctors and sections of the public, especially those he had designated as vermin. A sum of 4s 11d was docked from wage packets, of which only 81/2d went to the Health Service. In nine months, costs had already spiralled an extra £50 million from the original estimate of £176 million, prompting the BMA to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A tricky initial

We all know a friend with an embarrassing second initial but Barack Obama’s H is particularly problematic. Hussein isn’t the pollster approved middle name for a US presidential candidate but amazingly 57% of the electorate think that this will be a problem for him in the campaign, that’s 13% percentage points more than the number who fret about the quasi-dynastic nature of a Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton succession. This and many other fascinating polling numbers here, thanks to the Politico.