James Forsyth

Reading New York Magazine’s profile of Tony Blair, I was struck by this quote from Blair: “Actually,” he says, “what’s interesting is I’ve spoken to several European leaders—I won’t name them—who I didn’t really think were religious at all, and was rather surprised. They know I’ve started this foundation. And they’ll say, ‘That’s really interesting, because you know,’”—and here he lowers his voice a bit—“‘I am actually a practicing Christian.’” Turner adds that prominent business executives have told him the same thing.

Vanity Fair has a long series of interviews looking back on the Bush presidency. A lot of the ground covered is familiar—9/11, torture, Iraq and Katrina—but this comment from Mark McKinnon, Bush’s chief adman during his presidential campaigns, touches on an aspect of Bush’s election victories that people don’t think about enough: “The interesting thing about both Bush campaigns is that they strategically defied conventional wisdom and turned it on its head.

Ever since the end of apartheid it was clear that the ANC would win every election it contested until it split, its role in the liberation struggle determined that. But this one party dominance was always going to be a bad thing for South Africa; a fully functioning democracy requires competition between political parties—a party that knows it will win at the ballot box whatever it does becomes detached from the peoples’ concerns and corrupt. I hadn’t paid much attention to the recent split in the ANC as the numbers of defectors seemed too small to make much of a difference. But Donald G. McNeil Jr., who was the New York Times’ South Africa correspondent, argues that it could be more important than people have realised depending on who it could attract to join it.

Charles Krauthammer has an important piece in the Weekly Standard joining those calling for an increase in the gas tax in the US compensated for by an equivalent reduction in the payroll tax. Here’s what he is proposing: “A net-zero gas tax. Not a freestanding gas tax but a swap that couples the tax with an equal payroll tax reduction. A two-part solution that yields the government no net increase in revenue and, more importantly—that is why this proposal is different from others--immediately renders the average gasoline consumer financially whole. Here is how it works. The simultaneous enactment of two measures: A $1 increase in the federal gasoline tax--together with an immediate $14 a week reduction of the FICA tax.

Ben Brogan has an important update to the story about the shadow Cabinet and their outside interests: “what seems to have happened is fairly straightforward: Dave and George Osborne wanted to call time on part-timers, but when the idea got out there was a backlash behind the scenes. I'm told that three members of the Shadow Cabinet would have quit rather than give up their extra-curricular earnings, led by Mr Hague, whose outside interests brought him £230,000 this year.” This really does call into question their commitment to the cause. One begins to wonder which job they actually regard as their first priority. I suspect that most people who have followed this story are fairly confident that they know who the other two members who threatened to resign are.

The latest estimate for the cost of the stimulus package that Obama will ask Congress to approve is $850 billion. That is, as Playbook points out keying off a Washington Post story: “ more than the inflation-adjusted cost of the Vietnam War ($698 billion), the Iraq war ($597 billion), the Korean War ($454 billion), the initial 42,700 miles of the Interstate highway system ($425 billion), the race to the moon ($237 billion), the savings-and-loan crisis of the 1980s ($153 billion), the Louisiana Purchase ($217 billion), the Marshall Plan ($115.3 billion) or the Works Project Administration of 1939 ($100 billion).” Now, obviously the US economy is now far lager—making the stimulus a smaller percentage of GDP.

One would imagine that a prerequisite of heading the Met’s counter-terrorism branch would be having good judgement. This is something that Bob Quick, who signed off on the Damian Green arrest, seems to lack. This morning a story in the Mail on Sunday reported that his wife runs a wedding car hire service from their home. Quick responded by accusing the Tories of smearing him because of the Damian Green arrest. The bizarre statement alleged that, “The Tory machinery and their press friends are mobilised against this investigation in a wholly corrupt way, and I feel very disappointed in the country I am living in." The Tories replied with a simple denial.

I said the other day that Obama’s national security appointments were as good as a hawk could hope for. Well his pick for US Trade Representative is much better than what free traders expected. The former Mayor of Dallas Ron Kirk (pictured with Obama) is on the right side of the issue which considering Obama’s protectionist demagoguery during the primaries and the general is a pleasant and most welcome surprise. Given the protectionist nature of the Democratic Congress it is unlikely that much progress will be made on liberalising trade over the next few years. But the nomination of Kirk suggests that Obama is, thankfully, not prepared to give the unions all that they want on trade.