All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
“I’ve never had boundaries. They’re not interesting. I don’t need anyone to tell me this is art, this is architecture. This is it. Do you like it? Enjoy it? Suffer from it? Does it excite you?” Israeli-born Ron Arad, famous as much for his adjustable Bookworm shelf and Rover Chair (1981) as for his architecturally
It’s strange to think that Nicolas Sarkozy was once regarded as a Eurosceptic. At the end of France’s tenure as EU President in December 2008, Sarkozy told MEPs that “it would be a mistake to want to build Europe against the nation states”, adding that he was opposed to “European fundamentalism”. How times have changed.
Has the sheen come off BoJo? The question is echoing around some virtual corridors in Westminster this weekend. The Mayor of London was caught off guard by the recent riots and his initial decision to remain en vacances made him look aloof and remote, a sense that grew during his disastrous walkabout in Clapham. Then
The decisions of Crispin Blunt, the prisons’ minister, are hard to fathom. One wonders why-as the Daily Mail reports today — he allowed a man convicted of killing five people to give an unapologetic interview to a magazine. Blunt’s defence is that it wouldn’t have been right for him to stop it. That may be
This is perhaps the biggest weekend yet in the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. The candidates clashed on Thursday night in their third televised debate, and will contest the traditionally important Ames Straw Poll in Iowa today. In truth, as Alex says, neither the debate nor the straw poll will have that big
Internationally renowned policeman Bill Bratton has agreed to advise the government on how to defeat gang culture. Bratton’s role is not official, but he will arrive for duty in the autumn nonetheless. The former LA police chief has already offered a diagnosis of Britain’s problems. In an interview with the Telegraph, he says that hoodlums
CoffeeHousers have been generous in their response to my post on the need for an inquiry. I thought I’d respond in a post, rather than the comments. 1) Why rush to think that poverty is the problem? Rhoda Klapp raises this very good point. In 1996, American academics looked at various riots round the world
Today we learnt that David Cameron is looking at the experience of Los Angeles’ recovery from the 1992 riots. The first lesson he should learn is the value of an inquiry, as Ed Miliband suggests. Californian policymakers held an inquiry, and it taught them plenty about the nature of modern poverty, urban unrest — and
Theodore Dalrymple has an article in this week’s issue of magazine (non-subscribers can buy the Spectator from just £1 an issue), on the nihilism of the young. Roy Kerridge came to very similar conclusions during the Brixton riots of 1981. Here’s what he made of them: A day in Brixton, Roy Kerridge, The Spectator, 18
Here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the last week. James Forsyth says that this is a conservative moment that Cameron must exploit, and responds to Cameron’s Commons’ statement. Peter Hoskin watches Cameron get tough, and exposes Osborne’s debt dilemma. David Blackburn notes that the Eurozone is still trying to maintain the status
A 75-year-old man has been banned from driving for three years after falling off his mobility scooter on the way home from a pub in Elgin. The ban does not cover use of the mobility scooter, which can be driven without a licence. (Press and Journal, Aberdeen) A boy of nine has returned home from
Being a dreadful sucker for these things I stayed up to watch the Republican presidential debate in Iowa last night. As Jonathan Bernstein notes the stramash, hosted by Fox News, did not really matter very much and nor, of course, does (or should) the preposterous Ames straw poll this weekend. Nevertheless, it was unusually entertaining
Perhaps the best example I’ve yet seen in a well-stocked genre: Awkward Ed Miliband Photos. Captions, please… [Thanks to Harry Cole and Ian Leslie.]
The facts of life are Conservative, as the old phrase has it. The events of the past few days have shown the urgent need for Tory social policies. The case for reforms to the police, welfare and education has been amply demonstrated. Some in the government appear to get this. But there is also an
Theresa May has banned an EDL march in Telford tomorrow, although the organisation will be allowed into the town to conduct a static demonstration. May has been a hive of hyperactivity since she returned from holiday, and this is yet another example of the government making a decisive gesture to amend for its perceived earlier
You have to hand it to the Eurocracy: it is nothing if not determined. The recent horrors on the stock market have concentrated minds in Brussels and across continental capitals. The headline news is that France, Italy, Spain and Belgium have placed a temporary ban on short-selling, but that’s just one counter-measure that has been
“Busy?” I asked a friend who’s training as a criminal barrister. “You could say that.” Magistrates’ courts have sat through a second straight night. “I finished at five,” said my friend. “Back in court at 8.” The courts are determined to deliver what David Cameron described as “the full force of the law.” These are
The Old Batsman – one of my favourite cricket bloggers – had a typically lovely post yesterday noting that August 11th is the anniversary of Geoffrey Boycott’s one hundredth first class hundred. Few players will ever reach that landmark again; none will do so in a Test match. This is cricket’s loss. The Old Batsman
I had a call from a researcher on the Jeremy Vine show this week to ask me to go on and talk about the riots. Would I be prepared to say that shopkeepers should not be closing their shutters early and that we should all be reclaiming the streets. I had a vision of being
Many aspects of British life have been on display this week but, amidst them all, Tariq Jahan’s response to the death of his son, killed in Birmingham, deserves to be remembered too. The qualities on display here are scarcely unique to this island but there is a dignity and fortitude of a kind that we
This afternoon’s parliamentary debate touched on the sociological issues that may have inspired the recent looting. Naturally, there are plenty of competing views on the subject, but I bring your attention to Harriet Sergeant’s, which she has expressed in the latest issue of the Spectator. Sergeant has conducted extensive investigations into the teenage gangs in London,
To the surprise of no-one the public is more concerned by crime this week than it was a week ago. Fancy that! and, equally, to the surprise of no-one, parliament was prepared to indulge any number of kneejerk nonsenses today. Hence the foolishness* about shutting down “social networking communications” during “times of unrest”. Parliament may
The police received a savaging in parliament earlier. I lost count of the number of MPs who relayed their constituents’ anger about riot police who stood by as buildings burned. Cameron’s defence – that the police response had been inadequate to adapt to a new threat posed by crime facilitated by social networking – did not allay the
Britain is in no immediate financial threat, said George Osborne in his speech to the House. It was a firm restatement of the position he established in an article for the Telegraph earlier this week. Most importantly he said, the markets look favourably on Britain’s recovering public finances and the liquidity of British banks.
I understand that the government’s view is that social housing tenants whose children live with them and are convicted of looting should be evicted from their homes. The law already allows for this, although only if the criminal act occurred within the borough in which the family lives, and the Department for Communities and Local
David Cameron’s statement to the House of Commons was clear about the circumstances that led to these riots. ‘This is not about poverty, it’s about culture. A culture that glorifies violence, shows disrespect to authority, and says everything about rights but nothing about responsibilities.’ Later in the session, he said ‘you don’t hit moral failure
I suspect that the idea that opportunistic looting can be explained by organised gangs is, no matter what the Prime Minister said this morning, a questionable premise. Nevertheless, it was interesting and encouraging to see him reference the work done by the Violence Reduction Unit at Strathclyde Police. Interesting because their approach to gang-related violence
The great traditions of journalistic hyperbole justify this magazine’s cover image this week (Subscribe!) but that doesn’t mean we must take it literally. “Britain” is not “ablaze” even if the riots we’ve seen in London, Birmingham and Manchester might make it seem as though the entire country is on fire. So a little perspective might
The recall of parliament today offers David Cameron the chance to take command of the current situation. The police might have horribly mishandled the situation on the first few nights of the riots and Cameron’s government might have been caught flat-footed by them. But he now has the opportunity to build on the successful policing
David Cameron’s convictions are best expressed in anger. Cameron exuded an air of the patrician yesterday with his righteous moral certainty. This may have made some observers squirm, but others would have seen this seething performance as the essence of leadership in crisis. Cameron is likely to sustain this tone in parliament today. He will
Meanwhile, mercifully, there’s a Test match taking place in Birmingham. The contrast between this England and that other England in the headlines these past few days is total, complete and reassuring. Which brings me to this lovely piece by Peter White on how a blind man may adore – and imagine – cricket: […] I
Storms have gathered over Angela Merkel’s summer. The FT reports that she faces a revolt in the Bundestag over the recent Greek debt deal. Some members of the Christian Democrats, her own party, and the Free Democrats, the junior partner in her governing coalition, will oppose the proposed expansion of the EFSF. Disparate political dissent has solidified
Judging by today’s YouGov polls, the riots have pushed crime sharply up the national agenda: it now ranks second, behind only the economy. In all, almost half of Brits think crime is one of the top three issues facing the country, more than double the number who said so a fortnight ago. The effect has,
For those emerging from Chalk Farm Tube station on Tuesday night, the scene was set. It’s unsettling seeing a place you know well boarded up, locked down and steeling itself for attack. Few businesses were taking risks, and their defences leant the area a taut, eerie atmosphere, like a place awaiting demolition. One elderly resident
