The Spectator

Monday

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 20 December – Boxing Day

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… | 20 December 2010

...here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: Fraser Nelson previews the coming war between the coalition and the councils. James Forsyth highlights the 'end of men' debate, and says that princes and politics don't mix. Peter Hoskin reports on some less than encouraging polls for Ed Miliband, and observes Vince Cable taking it to the banks. David Blackburn says that the localism bill will empower communities, not councillors, and dissects Operation Coulson. Daniel Korski battles the snow at Gatwick airport. Martin Bright wonders whether Ed Miliband is getting any advice on foreign affairs. Nick Cohen notes the differences between US and Cuban healthcare reforms. Susan Hill celebrates board games.

Saturday

The Spectator

Leader: How to keep a promise

So much has happened since the general election that it is hard to press events into a meaningful pattern. The first coalition since the second world war, the deepest cuts since the 1970s, our military’s budget slashed, and the extraordinary (if predictable) crisis in the eurozone. The coalition has begun with remarkable energy and purpose. But where is the government going right? And where wrong? The end of the year is a good time to take stock. The coalition’s success so far has lain in its ability to marry Conservative economic liberalism with Lib Dem democratic radicalism. Its agenda, the coalition agreement, was inspired as much by the vision of Tory localists, such as Douglas Carswell and Daniel Hannan, as by the Lib Dems’ Orange Book.

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Letters | 18 December 2010

Too stern a test Sir: I commend Oliver Lewis for his well-made points about the lack of rigour in British examinations in comparison to those of the Chinese (‘The Gaokao challenge’, 11 December). We need to up our game. The Gaokao exam is not beyond rebuke, however. The extremely high level of academic standards in China puts terrible pressure on the nine million students who take the exam. This year, three suicides were reported on the first day of the Gaokao. The fact that such reports emerge every year suggests a balance needs to be struck between improving our academic standards and pushing the students too far.

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Barometer | 18 December 2010

Their year — 2010 was the International Year of Biodiversity and the Nurse (both according to the UN); and the Year of the Seafarer (International Maritime Organisation), the Lung (Forum of International Respiratory Societies) and the Tiger (China). — 2011 will be the International Year of Forests (UN) and Chemistry (UNESCO), the European Year of the Volunteer (European Commission) and the Year of the Bat (United Nations Environmental Programme), the Bible (Methodist Church), the Zinnia (National Gardens Bureau) and the Rabbit (China). — The UN International Year of Youth began in August 2010, and will continue until July 2011.

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Christmas Survey: What will happen in 2011?

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.

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Portrait of the year

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

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

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

…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

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.

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Barometer | 11 December 2010

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.

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Portrait of the week | 11 December 2010

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.

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The Brown version

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

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The week that was | 10 December 2010

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

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

...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

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.

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Barometer | 4 December 2010

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?

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Letters | 4 December 2010

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.