Peter Hoskin

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

Are we heading towards the point of no return?

From our UK edition

The Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has a comment piece in today's FT in which he defends his decision to recognise the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by drawing parallels with the West's recognition of an independent Kosovo.  But whatever the rights and wrongs on that front, it's hard to read Russia's defiance of the West on this as little more than an act of agression.  Accordingly, then, there's a growing sense that the jaw-jaw just isn't working.  The rhetoric has already stepped up a notch, with Medvedev claiming that "We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a new cold war".  And accusations have already started flying around that the Americans are trying to deliver weapons to Georgia.

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

Russia makes yet another aggressive move

From our UK edition

Russia's formal recognition of the "independence" of South Ossetia and Abkhazia is one of the most aggressive moves it could have made in the geopolitical chess game it's playing with Georgia and the West.  For starters, it increases the likelihood of future military conflict.  The worry now is that any Georgian involvement in the breakaway regions will be used by Moscow as an excuse to mobilise its forces once again, all in the name of protecting South Ossetian and/or Abkhazian independence.  But it also effectively denies the West a democratic solution to the problem.

Peter Hoskin

Number crunching | 26 August 2008

From our UK edition

The number of times that the Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili has spoken with world leaders during the recent crisis in the region... George Bush: 9 times Nicolas Sarkozy: 20 times Angela Merkel: "several" times And... Gordon Brown: once As the Telegraph story reporting this puts it, "The revelation is likely to reinforce the image of Mr Brown as a brooding loner with little interest in foreign affairs.

Peter Hoskin

Blaming Brown

From our UK edition

A poll in today's FT finds that the public are - by and large - blaming Brown and his government for the current state of the economy.  Over three-quarters of respondents thought that the government "bore at least some of the blame" for the current downturn, whilst 56 percent thought that ministers had "a lot, or complete, responsibility". Of course, the finding's a blow for Brown, ahead of the launch of his economic recovery plan.  But it could also add a dash of extra piquancy to the Tory spending cuts debate.  The more the public turn against Brown and his tax ' n spend economics, the less risk there is attached to Cameron & Co. offering an alternative approach.

Peter Hoskin

CoffeeHousers’ Wall 26th-31st August

From our UK edition

Welcome to the latest CoffeeHousers' Wall.  For those who haven't come across the Wall before, it's a post we put up each Monday, on which – provided your writing isn’t libellous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency – you’ll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no topic, so there’s no need to stay ‘on topic’ – which means you’ll be able to debate with each other more freely and extensively. There’s also no constraint on the length of what you write – so, in effect, you can become Coffee House bloggers. Anything’s fair game – from political stories in your local paper, to chat about the latest football results.

Monday

Peter Hoskin

As the economic storm clouds darken, the call for cuts gets louder

From our UK edition

Last week, the ONS revealed that the UK economy is most likely in recession.  And today Charles Bean, the new deputy governor of the Bank of England, warns that that downturn could "drag on for some considerable time".  Every scrap of gloom adds weight to the argument - resurrected over the weekend - that the Tories can no longer stand by their "sharing the proceeds of growth" formula, and that they should think seriously about pledging to cut spending.  Following Lord Forsyth and John Redwood, Trevor Kavanagh gives his support to that argument in today's Sun.  Here's the key passage: Their incoherent promise to “share the proceeds of growth” looks even more ridiculous with no growth to share.

Sunday

Peter Hoskin

One of the strangest things you’ll ever hear a British PM say…

From our UK edition

Iain Dale - among others - has already picked up one particular passage from Gordon Brown's interview with the Mail on Sunday today.  It contains such a bizarre quote from our PM that it deserves repetition here: "The growing pressure on him appeared to show during an interview with The Mail on Sunday, in which he refused to answer questions about his hopes of survival. 'I’m happy to talk to you because you are here,' he snapped. 'I have given you special time. That is very good of me. You are very fortunate. I am not going to do an all-round interview about everything that is happening in politics.'" Quite what this says about how Brown's dealing with the pressure of his role, I'll leave for CoffeeHousers to decide.

Peter Hoskin

The hares and tortoises set to do battle once again

From our UK edition

After the news that the UK economy is most likely already in recession, the hare and tortoise debate of a few months ago looks set to return to Tory politics with a vengeance.  In today's Telegraph, Lord Forsyth and John Redwood say that the Tories need to think about an alternative to "sharing the proceeds of growth", and that that alternative should be based around spending cuts.  Here are the relevant passages: "Lord Forsyth of Drumlean and John Redwood, who chaired Mr Cameron's policy commissions on the economy, suggested it was no longer adequate for the party to promise to 'share the proceeds of growth' between public services and tax cuts now that the economy is at a standstill.

Saturday

Peter Hoskin

What’s the Tories’ economic plan?

From our UK edition

With a protracted recession on the cards, and with the Tories storming into larger and larger poll leads, one question is increasingly important: what would a Tory government do to fix the economy?  So far, their grand plan has been to "share the proceeds of growth".  It's always been a nebulous concept, but now  - as Iain Martin points out in an excellent post over at Three Line Whip - it's probably also a redundant one.  After all, when there's no growth, there's nothing to share. So what's the Tory Plan B?  Whilst it doesn't offer any direct answers, George Osborne's interview in today's Telegraph does hint that they're starting to think differently.

Friday

Peter Hoskin

The fingers-in-ears school of government

From our UK edition

The subhead to this Telegraph story sums it up: "Gordon Brown has defied expert forecasts, the Bank of England and even his own Treasury to predict privately that the economy will start recovering within the next few months.

Peter Hoskin

The government of all the talents starts to break up

From our UK edition

So, Sir Digby Jones - the trade minister, and the first non-politician to be appointed to Brown's 'government of all the talents' - has told the BBC that he's going to quit his role before the end of this year.  It's hardly surprising news - he was alleged to have confirmed the same to a private meeting of business leaders back in April, although he played down those reports.  But it's still bad news for our Prime Minister.  After all, the public will surely see it as further evidence that HMS Brown is sinking, and that the crew would rather jump overboard than stick by the captain.

Peter Hoskin

Learning the lessons of history

From our UK edition

I popped along to the History Channel debate '50 Things You Need to Know About British History' last night. 'Twas an excellent event - more than capably chaired by Iain Dale, and with an engaging panel consisting of Diane Abbot, Douglas Murray, Dominic Sandbrook and Polly Toynbee.  The catalyst for discussion was the list I've included at the bottom of this post, and which will form the basis of a forthcoming TV series.  But things swiftly moved onto the topic of how history should be taught in schools - whether issues are more important than personalities, and whether pupils have a good enough all-round knowledge of British history. The exchange on the last of these points struck me as particularly politically relevant.

Peter Hoskin

Put your questions to Dominic Grieve

From our UK edition

Dominic Grieve has kindly agreed to a Q&A session with Coffee House.  So, post your questions for him in the comments section below.  And, in a week-or-so's time, we'll pick out the best ten and put them to the shadow home secretary.  He'll get back to us all a few days later.  And the commenters whose questions are chosen will all win Coffee House t-shirts and copies of the special 180th Anniversary issue of The Spectator.

Peter Hoskin

Growth no more

From our UK edition

The latest economic growth statistics - which show that growth in the second quarter of 2008 stood at a less-than-impressive 0 percent - deny Brown one of his proudest boasts; that the UK economy's enjoyed "63 quarters of successive growth".  Annual growth remains positive at 1.4 percent, though, so I expect he'll replace it with something like "Year-on-year, this country's enjoyed continuous growth under New Labour."  That is if he's still using the New Labour epithet. But quite aside from constraining our Prime Minister at the dispatch box, the figures are worrying in themselves.  Now a recession is looking near-certain, and it seems as though it's coming sooner rather than later.  Indeed, the industrial economy is already in recession.

Peter Hoskin

Fit for purpose?

From our UK edition

Another day, another data loss scandal.  The culprit this time?  The Home Office - or rather the private consultancy firm entrusted by the Home Office with the details of over 100,000 criminals, and which subsequently misplaced the memory stick they were contained on.  Not that that absolves Jacqui Smith - or others in her department - of any blame.  You'd have thought that a department formerly described as "not fit for purpose" would have introduced watertight data security procedures by now. Smith can count herself extremely lucky that Parliament's not sitting at the moment.  But this is still far from ideal news for the Government, in the run-up to Brown's autumn relaunch.

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

What the West should do now

From our UK edition

There are two things that the West should now do in relation to Georgia. The first is to help preserve the fragile truce that now exists between Georgia and Russia. That means that Western policymakers have to be involved, encouraging and prominent. They should not shy away from using the carrot and the stick, in the form of incentives and sanctions. And they should consider deploying a peacekeeping force in the region, and what its role would be. So far, the French have lead by example. Hopefully, that example will be followed by other nations – including Britain – at an emergency meeting of EU nations later today. The second is to help find, as Gordon Brown put it, a “permanent solution” to the disputed territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

Your questions for Eric Pickles

From our UK edition

It's been a week since we asked CoffeeHousers to put forward their questions for Eric Pickles.  We've since picked out the best five, which have now been put to the shadow communities secretary.  He'll get back to us in a couple of days. The CoffeeHousers whose questions were chosen can e-mail me on phoskin @ spectator.co.uk to claim their t-shirt and 180th Anniversary issue of the magazine. Anyway, here are the questions: Victoria Street "Devolving power downwards from Westminster doesn't mean that the blame can always be devolved downwards. Are you prepared for the inevitable slew of critical media that is an inevitable result of letting go the reins? Can you resist the temptation to intervene?

Peter Hoskin

The Sunday Essay: a reminder to send in your submissions | 12 August 2008

From our UK edition

We've introduced a new feature to Coffee House - the Sunday Essay.   Each Sunday, we'll post an essay by one of our readers, on any political, cultural or sporting topic.  The first of these essays appeared a couple of days ago - you can read it here. If you'd like your writing to be considered, just e-mail an article of between 500 and 1500 words to me at phoskin @ spectator.co.uk  - the Coffee House team will pick out the best submission each week, and post it on the website the following Sunday.  It doesn't matter whether you're an MP, a member of the policy wonk world, or have nothing to do with politics whatsoever - all submissions will be read and evaluated. So, get writing.  And remember to look out for this weekend's Sunday Essay.

Peter Hoskin

Where on earth is David Miliband?

From our UK edition

A great post by Mary Dejevsky over at Open House, questioning just what David Miliband has been doing during the conflict between Russia and Georgia.  Yes, our Foreign Secretary has issued a statement on the issue, but some of his colleagues - such as Des Browne and Jim Murphy - have been far more prominent on the airwaves.  And Miliband's French counterpart has even gone over to Georgia, to witness the situation first-hand. I've been assured that Brown and Miliband have been in "direct discussion" over the Georgia crisis.  But, still, it's hard not to conclude that the Labour leadership struggle lies behind our Foreign Secretary's no-show.  Maybe he's been blocked by the Brownites.