Do read this excellent essay in the IHT about why India and Pakistan’s fortunes have diverged so much since partition. While the 60th anniversary of Indian independence, is as good an excuse as any to re-read Nehru’s wonderful “tryst with destiny” speech.
The BBC’s coverage of the Redwood report has come in for much criticism, notably from The Sun and Iain Dale. Helen Boaden, the director of BBC News, has now responded, conceding that the BBC’s use of footage of Redwood failing to sing the Welsh national anthem was inappropriate but defending the substance of the reporting. Boaden lists the intros to each of the BBC’s news bulletins in the Corporation’s defence. Some of them do give the audience a good sense of the story but others do seem to put the cart before the horse, especially this one from Five Live at 11 am: “Labour has condemned the latest review of policy carried
Tensions between Tehran and Washington will reach new levels with the news that the US intends to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation. This allows the US to disrupt the organisation’s funding and take steps against those companies that do business with it. The Revolutionary Guard is the first governmental entity that the US has attempted to confront using these tactics. Considering the Guard’s role in key sectors of the Iranian economy, the moves challenges foreign firms who do business with Iran to decide between continuing to work there or falling foul of the US government.
Ah, August. Season of twits and sillyness. How else would the papers ever be filled? Even so, I confess to being mildly startled to discover that a story headlined “‘Chav Chasing’ public schoolboys criticised” concerned my own dear old alma mater. But yes, as this video demonstrates, it seems some public spirited members of the college community been spending their time clearing vermin from the woods (home of many a fondly remembered smoking den back in the day). This will appeal most to the decent working class and the smugger elements of the state-educated middle classes who can have the pleasure of scoffing at the toffs and chavs alike… (Clive?
Sigh. I know we don’t expect much from Polly Toynbee. But perhaps she should read some Irving Kristol before she starts referring to John Redwood as a neocon throwback to the Thatcher era. If she added some other books to her reading list she might remember that the Thatcherites were, to some extent at least, inspired by FA Hayek – a man not generally considered a neoconservative luminary. It’s too delicious, of course, that in terms of policy towards work and families and other social matters La Toynbee deeply cares about, she has rather more in common with neoconservatives than she seems to understand. They, after all, are the proponents
Elsewhere in today’s Guardian, George Monbiot admits that it’s awful that he’s profting from the unfortunate fact that newspapers continue to run advertisements paid for by awful car companies and airlines who are – as you know – hellbent on destroying the planet. Happily he has an ingenious solution: But some lines seem clear. Why could the newspapers not ban ads for cars which produce more than 150g of CO2 per kilometre? Why could they not drop all direct advertisements for flights? The reason is that newspapers derive around three quarters of their income from advertising, and most of them are struggling. The media companies will not volunteer to lower
I must say I haven’t enjoyed a hatchet job as much as this one in, well, far too long. It is deliciously, extravagantly spiteful. I have no idea – and frankly care not – if Matthew Scully’s hilarious assault on the reputation, person and character of Bush speechwriter Mike Gerson is at all accurate. It doesn’t matter a jot. The piece, published by The Atlantic (who seem to be on a roll right now), is so unexpectedly and refreshingly vindictive that I’m almost surprised it was published. A taster: Without fear of contradiction—because it’s all in the presidential records—I can report here that Michael Gerson never wrote a single speech
Norm alerts me to the concept of the googlenope (similar to the googlewhack, just less common). So I’m delighted that (until now I suppose), the phrase “Happiness in Galashiels” has been beyond google’s reach. This will come as no surprise to residents of Selkirk, Hawick, Melrose, Kelso, Jedburgh… etc ad infinitum.
Americans or, for that matter, anyone unfortunate enough to know little about – and worse, care nothing – for cricket may be advised to pass by this post. You’ve had your warning. As a kid I used to spend rather more time playing imaginary games of cricket than might have been considered wholly healthy. Actually, to say I was playing is inaccurate. I was selecting teams that would do battle for hours on end in my own modified – and more complicated – version of Dice Cricket (modified in part to take account of different ground conditions: thus a test at Headingley would take place with a grid more thinly
A by-god-he’s-right post from Julian Sanchez: A little while back, I heard a band that introduced me to a new and particularly tragic category of artistic badness: They were exactly good enough to suck… Read on, dear friends, read on…
Cheney makes the anti-war case rather convincingly (in the light of recent events). Of course he’s speaking in 1994, explaining why the first Bush administration declined to press for regime change in Iraq after the liberation of Kuwait (or, rather, after restoring Kuwait to its own less than liberal regime): Now, sure, this clip is doubtless amusing many people. But perhaps Cheney was wrong twice? Wrong not to have pressed on to Baghdad in 1991 and wrong to have supported doing so in 2003. Perhaps all he predicts in this exchange would have come to pass. On the other hand, perhaps the George HW Bush administration would have managed any
Alice Miles argues in her Times column on the climate change protests at Heathrow that, “Pretty much anyone without shares in BAA would not wish another runway on that particular part of England (if, indeed, upon any of it).” I really don’t think this is true, even if some people won’t admit to wanting another runway in green company. I’d wager that the vast majority of those who have been delayed taking off or landing at that airport would welcome something that would cut down on these delays. While everyone I know who flies out of there regualrly is positively clamouring for it. The idea that somehow this third runway at Heathrow
Why do photos of world leaders on holiday hold such fascination for us? The shots of Vladimir Putin fishing seem to be everywhere today, I’ve spared you the one of him topless, while the New York Times has an entire collection of vacationing politicians snaps up on its site. Anne Applebaum has an entertaining column in today’s Washington Post attempting to explain why we care so much about where these folk go for the summer. Her theory is that as we now all have so many more vacation choices than before, we take far more notice of where leaders go than we would have previously. Indeed, I think an element
The BBC website is currently running a piece fretting that we all get too many emails. The story opens with the line: “Today’s e-mail glut is a constant worry for many office workers, with a third saying they get stressed by the volume of messages, according to a report.” But guess which story is currently the most emailed on BBC News?
No one is more crucial to the future of the Coalition effort in Iraq than David Petraeus, the US commander there. Petraeus is seen by hawks as this war’s Ulysses S. Grant, the man who can turn around the mistakes of his predecessors and forge a victory from unpromising beginnings. This New York Times profile gives you a good taste of the pressures on him and the nature of the man. Petraeus’s testimony on Capitol Hill in September on the state of the war will be crucial in determining if Congress continues to fund the war. Interestingly, it seems that Petraeus will concentrate on the consequences of withdrawal as much
Sorry: mini and arguably unnecessary blog-holiday. Back to regular posting this week.
The case for Heathrow getting a third runway is overwhelming. It is mad that the world’s third busiest airport in terms of passenger numbers only has two runways while Amsterdam’s Schipol airport, 12th on the list, has five and Charles De Gaulle in Paris, seventh, and Barajas in Madrid, 13th, have four each. On the green front, surely the fact that planes wouldn’t have to circle London for an age before landing due a the lack of landing slots would off-set much of the increase in emissions that would come from there being more flights in and out of the airport?
Karl Rove, the architect of President Bush’s two election victories, is resigning from the White House at the end of the month. Rove was convinced that he could re-align US politics and create a permanent Republican governing majority. But, partly through his own missteps, Rove has blown that chance. In many ways, he has never recovered from the toll that the inquiry in to the leaking of Valerie Plame’s name, where he was repeatedly questioned, took on his effectiveness. PS Do read this Josh Green piece on why Rove failed.
The songs did not go, ‘Keep right on to the road’s end’ or ‘The railroad runs through the house’s middle’, but there is now a vogue for using the inflected genitive with inanimate objects. The songs did not go, ‘Keep right on to the road’s end’ or ‘The railroad runs through the house’s middle’, but there is now a vogue for using the inflected genitive with inanimate objects. Ordinarily you may speak of Dr Foster’s middle but not the night’s middle, or England’s middle or even my nose’s middle. It is not the end of the world (or the world’s end), and numberless counter-examples may be cited, some from long
‘I saw Eternity the other night,’ wrote the 17th-century religious poet Henry Vaughan, arrestingly combining the numinous and the mundane. ‘I saw Eternity the other night,’ wrote the 17th-century religious poet Henry Vaughan, arrestingly combining the numinous and the mundane. ‘I drove a Facel Vega the other day’ may not be quite as evocative, but in automotive terms it’s not much less likely. Around 3,000 of them were built during the decade 1954–64. They were boulevard supercars, bought by royalty, tycoons, Grand Prix drivers (including Stirling Moss) and glitterati such as Ava Gardner, Ringo Starr and Tony Curtis. It’s sometimes wrongly said that Picasso had one; he owned a Mercedes