The Spectator

Saturday

The Spectator

Christmas Survey: What will happen in 2011?

From our UK edition

Some notable friends of ‘The Spectator’ share their hopes, fears and predictions for the year ahead Dame Eileen Atkins I hope we start getting education right. Michael Gove is correct when he says we should go back to an emphasis on five basic subjects: English, maths, geography, history and a foreign language. These should not be purely the province of the naturally academic. I grew up on a council estate. It was not expected that anyone from my area would go to university. My honorary degree was one of my proudest moments. There is no use making education easy and then celebrating success if young people leave school unable to write or add up.

The Spectator

Portrait of the year

From our UK edition

January Britain crept out of recession, with 0.1 per cent growth in the previous three months. Full-body scanners were to be introduced at British airports after a man tried to blow up a plane with explosives hidden in his underpants. Snow swept the land with the temperature falling to minus 22.3°C. An earthquake killed tens of thousands in Haiti and perhaps 1.5 million were made homeless. Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, was released from prison in Turkey. Ali Hassan al-Majid, ‘Chemical Ali’, was hanged in Iraq. A British citizen was executed in China for smuggling 9lb of heroin. China said it had become the world’s biggest exporter. February Labour unveiled the slogan ‘A future fair for all’.

Friday

The Spectator

The week that was | 17 December 2010

From our UK edition

Here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the past week Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth talk to George Osborne. Fraser Nelson delves into the government’s deregulation drive, and asks for your books of the year. James Forsyth wonders how best the coalition can keep its troops happy, and considers David Cameron’s efforts to abolish IPSA. Peter Hoskin watches Eric Pickles kick-start the blame game, and argues that Bob Ainsworth has a point on the war on drugs. David Blackburn examines the clot at the heart of the MoD, and asks what Ed Miliband will want out of the Oldham East by-election. Daniel Korski remembers Richard Holbrooke.

Monday

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 13 December – 19 December

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 - providing 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.

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 13 December 2010

From our UK edition

…here some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. Fraser Nelson urges Cameron to head for the centre ground. James Forsyth analyses the Liberal Democrat insurgency, and examines the coalition’s current strength and weakness. Peter Hoskin notes that Clegg has fallen from hero to zero, and charts the submerged tensions in the Tory party. Daniel Korski says it’s time for jaw-jaw. And Nick Cohen observes the death of gentlemanly government.

Saturday

The Spectator

Letters | 11 December 2010

From our UK edition

Assange’s intentions Sir: Your leading article (‘In praise of secrecy’, 4 December) notes that the latest round of WikiLeaks disclosures has ‘sent a worrying chill through diplomatic circles’, and made it more difficult for nations to co-operate. Quite so. But this is, as computer programmers sometimes say, a feature, not a bug. WikiLeaks’s founder Julian Assange is the author of a paper entitled ‘State and Terrorist Conspiracies’, in which he identifies such easy informal communications, behind the backs of democratic electorates, as a key means through which authoritarian policies can be enacted.

The Spectator

Barometer | 11 December 2010

From our UK edition

Model towns Celebration, the town in Florida founded by Disney in the 1990s, has suffered its first murder and a suicide. Model towns have had mixed fortunes. —New Lanark, near Glasgow, was built by industrialist and social reformer Robert Owen as a model for utopian socialism. It narrowly escaped demolition in the 1960s and is now a World Heritage Site. —Chandigargh, India, was instituted by Nehru after partition as the modern face of India. It now has the highest per capita income of any Indian city, but it also has rising crime, recording 19 murders in 2007. —Brasilia, built in the isolated centre of Brazil between 1957 and 1960, survived criticism to remain the country’s capital.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 11 December 2010

From our UK edition

Home Katia Zatuliveter, 25, a Russian working for Mike Hancock, a Liberal Democrat MP who sits on the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, was arrested. She appealed against a deportation order, made after an investigation by MI5, and denied alleged links to Russian intelligence services. John Varley, the chief executive of Barclays, told a seminar: ‘It is possible that free-if-in-credit banking is a structure that has outlived its time.’ After a 17-month investigation, the Financial Services Authority found that the Royal Bank of Scotland and its former chief executive Sir Fred Goodwin were not guilty of fraud, dishonesty or failure of governance before the government bought a 70 per cent stake to prevent its collapse.

The Spectator

The Brown version

From our UK edition

For children who have been naughty this year, Simon & Schuster have just produced the perfect punitive Christmas present: a new book from Gordon Brown, Beyond the Crash. It would be a mistake to write off our former prime minister’s musings on the financial crisis as an irrelevance, to be read only by Tories with a taste for schadenfreude. It provides a compendium of the dangerous thinking which brought such economic calamity to Britain, and threatens us still. Brown claims, preposterously, that the crash would have been much less severe if only senior bankers had paid themselves 10 per cent less. He speaks darkly of ‘unchecked greed’, when the root problem lay with unchecked incompetence at the Treasury.

Friday

The Spectator

The week that was | 10 December 2010

From our UK edition

Here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the past week: Fraser Nelson explains why we must remember the lessons of the Anglo-Scottish Enlightenment, and says that the student protesters may have a point. James Forsyth tracks how far our schools have fallen, and reports on a day of gaffes. Peter Hoskin watches Labour stumble into the tuition fees vote, and outlines the coming battle over mainstream Conservatism. Ed Howker reveals the great Olympics cash-in. Daniel Korski says it's time for an Afghan inquiry. Nick Cohen takes on the Illiberal Democrats. Rod Liddle see little sense in Ken Clarke's prisons plans. Alex Massie sets out to define authentic Conservatism. Melanie Phillips reports on the latest UN shocker.

Monday

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers Wall, 6 December – 12 December

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 - providing 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.

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 6 December 2010

From our UK edition

...here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: Fraser Nelson charts the Passion of Nick Clegg. James Forsyth wonders what the Lib Dems will say at the next election, and watches Alan Johnson making Ed Miliband's life more difficult. Peter Hoskin check on the OBR's growth forecasts, and tracks the latest confusions in the Lib Dem tuition fee saga. Nick Cohen reports on how Islamism is being indulged in East London. Alex Massie gives his take on an abysmal Australia side. Melanie Phillips highlights a video that says it all. The Spectator Arts Blog celebrates the enduring appeal of Mastermind. And the Spectator Book Blog congregates for Larkin Hour.

Saturday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 4 December 2010

From our UK edition

Home The Office for Budget Responsibility said it thought economic growth for 2010 would be 1.8 per cent, not 1.2 per cent as it had previously predicted. It expected 330,000 public sector workers to lose their jobs over the next four years, not the 490,000 it forecast in June; 1.1 million jobs would be created in the private sector. ‘The bulk of this revision results from the action we have taken to cut welfare bills rather than cut public services,’ George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, told the Commons. A lower 10 per cent rate of corporation tax would be levied from April 2013 on the profits of hi-tech firms from newly commercialised patents. Tax on beers stronger than 7.5 per cent is to increase from the autumn of 2011.

The Spectator

Barometer | 4 December 2010

From our UK edition

Happy talk David Cameron wants to measure our happiness alongside GDP. The first measure of happiness — the Gross National Happiness index — was instigated by the former king of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in 1972. — Heavily influenced by Buddhist teachings, it contained questions which might not strike many Britons as being important to their happiness. One asked:  ‘Do you know the names of species and plants and animals in the local area?’ Another asked:  ‘How would you rate your knowledge of the mask and other dances performed during national/local tshechu?

The Spectator

Letters | 4 December 2010

From our UK edition

Pecksniffian bureaucrats Sir: I bought your 27 November issue purely on the promising cover illustration and was not disappointed. Josie Appleton’s masterly article (‘A common sense revolution’) held up to deserved ridicule the Criminal Records Bureau, a classic example of a very worthwhile idea hijacked by as big a bunch of Pecksniffian bureaucrats as ever wrung their hands. Of the many howling idiocies dragged whining and wailing into light, the crowning example was that of the cathedral flower guild who might have ‘paedophiles infiltrating’ their group because of a toilet-sharing arrangement with choirboys.

The Spectator

Leader: Less heat, more light

From our UK edition

We have heard surprisingly little about the climate change jamboree currently underway in Cancun. Before last year’s Copenhagen summit, there was much hullaballoo. Gordon Brown told us that we had ‘fewer than 50 days to set the course of the next 50 years’. Yet he and 100 of his political counterparts could not stop the conference from collapsing under the weight of its contradictions. This year, only two dozen world leaders are likely to make the carbon-consuming trek to the Mexican coast. David Cameron, to his credit, will not be one of them. He will not miss much. One paper prepared for the Cancun summit, by Prof Kevin Anderson of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, proposes halting economic growth in the developed world for the next 20 years.

The Spectator

The Spectator’s Notes | 4 December 2010

From our UK edition

Part of the pleasure of the WikiLeaks revelations is that they confirm the view now universally reviled as ‘neocon’. Part of the pleasure of the WikiLeaks revelations is that they confirm the view now universally reviled as ‘neocon’. It emerges that whereas the public pronouncements of the Arab world all concentrate on Israel as the villain of everything, what really worries the Arabs is Iran. The Arab regimes share Israel’s view that Iran is an ‘existential threat’. They also turn instinctively to America to sort out the problem. While President Obama has tried unsuccessfully to pursue a doveish policy, real, live Muslims want Ahmedinejad’s nuclear ambitions stopped, if necessary by violence.

Friday

The Spectator

The week that was | 3 December 2010

From our UK edition

Here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the past week: Fraser Nelson argues that David Cameron can be proud of his World Cup bid, and reveals Sweden's recession remedy. James Forsyth says that England's defeated World Cup bid was a national embarrassment, and says that the Lib Dems need to get their act together over tuition fees. Peter Hoskin digs out a leaked embassy memo about Margaret Thatcher, and observes a grim turning point for Ed Miliband. David Blackburn outlines what the statist left thinks of the liberal right, and watches the government take the fight to students. Daniel Korski highlights the Guardians Wiki-spin. Martin Bright reveals the ultimate Jewish conspiracy theory.

Monday

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 29 November – 5 December

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 - providing 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.

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 29 November 2010

From our UK edition

...here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. James Forsyth introduces the ANTIs, and explains what we learn from Wikileaks. David Blackburn finds some more statistical support for IDS' welfare reform, and notes that Ed Miliband's latest relaunch went the same way as the last. Daniel Korski wonders if Europe is about to become more German, and argues that tuition fees work and are fair. And Jerry Hayes reviews The Real PM?