Leading article

Saturday

The Spectator

Immoral and incompetent

So who to believe? Saif al-Gaddafi, son of the Libyan dictator, has said that the release of Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi was ‘on the table’ during trade talks with Britain. Lord Mandelson, who was holidaying with the young prince of Tripoli in Corfu a few weeks ago, says such a suggestion is not just wrong but ‘quite offensive’. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, insists it is a ‘slur’ even to suggest that the release of the only man convicted for the Lockerbie bombing would be raised. As this squalid story has unfolded in the last few weeks, it is becoming all too clear that Megrahi was indeed ‘on the table’. The Libyans were told that Gordon Brown personally wished that Megrahi should not die in a Scottish prison.

Saturday

The Spectator

RIP Senator

Senator Edward Kennedy lived in the shadow of Chappaquiddick, but his life deserves just as much celebration as it does censure. Like his brothers, he exemplified his clan’s customary mix of vice and virtue, he was irrepressible and impossible to predict. Though a Rabelaisian figure — a great playboy and drinker — he was disciplined and hard-working in the Senate. Though he was born to one of the wealthiest families in America and became a great celebrity, he nonetheless championed the poor and referred to health-care reform as ‘the cause of my life’. Despite being a devout and practising Catholic, he endorsed same-sex marriage and a woman’s right to abortion.

The Spectator

Patently right

In contrast to Gordon Brown’s dull and worthy holiday working as a volunteer on community projects in his constituency, there is something rather refreshing about Lord Mandelson’s taste for extravagant vacations on Corfu in the company of wealthy moguls. Moreover, his holidays are a godsend for deskbound journalists in London struggling for a good political story in the otherwise dead month of August. Three weeks ago the business secretary enjoyed a dinner with David Geffen, a wealthy Hollywood producer who along with others in the industry has campaigned against internet piracy. Upon his return to London, Lord Mandelson effected an about-turn on the government’s policy towards internet piracy.

Saturday

The Spectator

Cappuccino Culture

The Spectator on Culture — and our new team blog This week’s issue concludes our guide to 40 poems you should know, hot on the heels of The Spectator’s (controversial) choice of the best 50 films of all time. The response to both lists has been passionate and powerful: it comes as no surprise that the readers of this magazine care as deeply as they do about culture and excellence in the arts. Roger Ebert, one of the world’s greatest film critics, saluted our selection of movies on his blog — which in turn generated even more interest in the choices we had made and what we had left out. In the long history of this magazine — back to the days of Addison and Steele — culture has mattered as much as politics.

The Spectator

Reform the religion

A party striving to make the huge leap from opposition to office must speak with one voice, maintain scrupulous clarity and ensure iron discipline. It must reassure the voters relentlessly, persuading them at every available opportunity that it has changed and that it grasps why it has been defeated in prior general elections. Yet a party that aspires to save the country from economic crisis and to transform its public services must also be prepared to think the unthinkable, and to take deeply unpopular measures. This is the dilemma facing David Cameron, neatly encapsulated in the controversy over the NHS and the remarks made in America by the Tory MEP, Daniel Hannan, about the shortcomings of the British healthcare system.

Saturday

The Spectator

Farewell Freddie

Not since Ian Botham has a cricketer so captured the public imagination as Andrew Flintoff has these past few years. Flintoff’s appeal comes from the fact that he brings the game of the village green to the Test match arena. He plays the sport as all those of us who have put on whites would like to. He bats with uncomplicated power, bowls with pace and turns matches through the force of his personality. He has played as hard off the field as he has on it. But there is something very English about his excess: more booze than bling. Few other sportsmen could have charmed the nation by turning up to Downing Street visibly drunk as he did after England won the Ashes in 2005. If truth be told, Flintoff is not a great player.

The Spectator

Respectful uncertainty

The Spectator on the plight of Britain’s vulnerable children Families are the raw materials from which society is constructed. They constitute the foundations of our civilisation. And it follows that there are few more unnatural actions that the state can undertake than to invade the relationship between parent and child or even to sever it. And while there are occasions when it must interfere, the state has a profound moral duty to ensure that its intervention is both necessary and constructive.

Saturday

The Spectator

A quiet revolution

The success of the open primary held by the Tories in Totnes could mark a turning-point in British politics. A candidate is usually selected by party members, but in Totnes all constituents were allowed to vote and they achieved a remarkable result: a turnout of one in four. Also remarkable was the candidate they chose: a doctor with little political experience who defeated two candidates, both with a long history of involvement with the Conservative party. Would the doctor, Sarah Wollaston, have been elected under the traditional system? It’s very unlikely. Party members, who make up less than 2 per cent of the population, would have chosen someone who reflected their own view of politics.

The Spectator

Don’t bank on a bonus

There is no set of results a bank could have declared this week which would have pleased the general public. A bank which made losses was inevitably going to be accused of continuing incompetence, while one which made profits was sure to be condemned for its greed. As John Varley, chief executive of Barclays, hinted on the Today programme on Monday, the dastardliness of public opinion should not obscure the fact that profitable banks — his made £2.99 billion in the first half of 2009 — are preferable to unprofitable ones. Anyone with savings in Barclays — not to mention anyone with any shareholdings — ought to be pleased that bankers are managing to earn their keep again.

Saturday

The Spectator

Swearing through the ages

‘Twat’ is not a swear word. This may come as a surprise to those of us who have studiously avoided using it in front of our mothers-in-law and elderly relatives. But after David Cameron said it in a radio interview, Tory press officers were quick to point out that Ofcom does not consider it to be one. Oddly, in the same interview, Cameron felt the need to apologise immediately after saying that the public were ‘pissed off’; a phrase that one would have thought was far less offensive than ‘twat’. Indeed, Ofcom’s own research suggests that Cameron rather boobed. It records that focus groups considered ‘piss off’ to be a ‘common, everyday word, not really offensive’.

The Spectator

No exceptions

‘You’re going to feel some pressure,’ say dentists as they prepare to inflict pain. The more honest they are, the more tolerable the experience tends to be. So it is with political actions that have foresee-able adverse consequences: as much as voters dislike those consequences, they dislike being lied to even more. David Cameron’s interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr last weekend was another minor milestone on the road to Number 10.

Saturday

The Spectator

Onwards and upwards | 25 July 2009

Having your prospects in life determined at birth is the most pernicious and fundamental form of inequality. So the present political focus on improving social mobility is to be welcomed on principle. To think that all the advantages and disadvantages of background can be ironed out is delusional; short of a Spartan-style nationalisation of child-rearing, how could such a level playing field even be attempted? But this country could — and should — go a lot further towards broadening equality of opportunity: a 2005 report funded by the Sutton Trust found that Britain came joint last with the United States in this respect in a survey of 11 developed economies.

Saturday

The Spectator

The bear necessities

The world does not hold its breath during US-Russia summits as it did in the days of Kennedy and Khrushchev or Reagan and Gorbachev. But they are still important moments of (mostly choreographed) dialogue. Without Moscow’s co-operation, Barack Obama will find it far harder to make progress in Afghanistan or in his diplomatic strategy to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons programme. On top of this, Russia still has the capacity to create huge problems in Eastern Europe and Central Asia for the United States. It must be prevented from becoming a more chauvinist and aggressive power — otherwise Washington will be forced to choose between conflict and breaking its promises to the fledging democracies on Russia’s borders.

Saturday

The Spectator

Bad

As Mark Earls writes on page 16, the rush to mourn Michael Jackson has been matched only by the surge of instant jokes about the singer — many of them in catastrophically poor taste. Our very own Taki lets one or two out of the bag this week (see page 44). Some say these one-liners about a recently dead superstar are despicable. We beg to differ. They are a necessary corrective to the frequently silly and disproportionate wailing and rending of garments that follow the death of a global celebrity nowadays. It is sad that Michael Jackson is dead. But it is not, with respect to him and his family, a global catastrophe. We will all soldier on. Second, it is hard not to feel a measure of pride at the lead Britain took in producing these gags.

The Spectator

Calls from Balls

Tuesday was a busy day for Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families. Not only did he launch ‘Your Child, Your Schools, Our Future’, the government’s new White Paper on schools reform, a document which he claimed enshrined ‘a radical devolution of power to head teachers, backed up by stronger accountability, and an uncompromising approach to school improvement so every child succeeds’. He also found time to phone two Spectator journalists — in one case, repeatedly — to harangue them at length about a post on our Coffee House blog. The post in question, by our political editor, Fraser Nelson, took strong issue with Mr Balls over his performance on Tuesday’s BBC Today programme.

Saturday

The Spectator

Wall Street Journal – correction

The Spectator corrects a recent article Correction: In the version of Victoria Floethe's story that appeared in this week's magazine, we inadvertently referred at one point to the Wall Street Journal instead of the New York Post.  We accept that there is no basis for suggesting that the WSJ might have indulged in an act of gleeful revenge towards Michael Wolff.  We apologise for our mistake.

Saturday

Interconnect

Sir Ken Macdonald, QC

Our article entitled ‘Shall we tell the Prime Minister? His gang has scattered like rats’ (10 March) was not intended to suggest that Sir Ken Macdonald, QC, the Director of Public Prosecutions, had leaked information to officials at No. 10 or that he was pressurised by the Police to withdraw from making the decision about prosecutions in the cash-for-honours case for that reason. We accept that there would be no truth whatsoever in any such assertions. We further accept that Sir Ken has behaved properly and appropriately and we apologise to him for any embarrassment caused to him by our article.