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Today's your last day for submitting questions to Francis Maude. Just write your questions for him in the comments section to the relevant post. We'll put some of them to the Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office this evening. Also today, the recently-launched, online Spectator Book Club will be hosting a live chat with the Booker-nominated author Philip Hensher. You can take part from 19:30 tonight. Click here for more information.
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Sam Leith Richard Price’s meaty and fabulously enjoyable police procedural, Lush Life (Bloomsbury, £12.99), is a book I have pressed on a lot of friends. The new Robert B. Parker, Rough Weather (Quercus, £16.99), is bliss, too, because it has Spenser, Hawk and the Gray Man in it. Short stories from Kurt Vonnegut (Armageddon in Retrospect, Cape, £16.99), and Annie Proulx (Fine Just The Way It Is, 4th Estate, £14.99) were moving, funny and wise. In politics, Robert Kagan’s The Return of History and the End of Dreams (Atlantic, £12.
From our UK edition
Some of the posts made over the weekend on Spectator.co.uk: Matthew d'Ancona watches two films which deal with recent history. Fraser Nelson suggests that David Cameron shouldn't repeat John McCain's tax error. James Forsyth reports on the latest Tory poll lead, and claims we can have a British Obama. Peter Hoskin marks Remembrance Sunday, and wonders who will win the tax war. And Clive Davis highlights two special voices.
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The MoD’s failure of duty Sir: Charles Moore berates Oxford deputy coroner Andrew Walker for upbraiding officialdom in the matter of the death of Para Corporal Mark Wright, deeming such criticism of the military establishment to be ‘outrageous’ (The Spectator’s Notes, 25 October). The fact is that Tony Blair launched our armed forces into five wars in six years. Of the two ongoing conflicts, Iraq has lasted longer than the second world war and Afghanistan is more ferocious than Korea. When any government does this it takes on a very serious duty of care. That duty involves an absolute obligation that the men sent out to fight will have equipment sufficient in both quality and quantity to enable them to do the job and stay alive if possible.
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One of Robert F. Kennedy’s favourite passages of poetry was drawn from Tennyson’s ‘Ulysses’: ‘Come, my friends,/ ’Tis not too late to seek a newer world./ Push off, and sitting well in order smite/ The sounding furrows… strong in will/ To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.’ On 4 November, the American people decided unambiguously to embrace that spirit of hope. Like Ulysses in the poem, John McCain embodied the doughty virtues of the veteran warrior. But it was the chance to ‘seek a newer world’ — the mesmeric promise of ‘change’ — that America voted for in its overwhelming endorsement of Senator Barack Obama.
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Here are some of the posts made over the past week on Spectator.co.uk: James Forsyth reports from the US on the culmination of the presidential election. He outlines Barack Obama's achievement here. And takes a moment to praise John McCain here. Toby Young argues that Obama isn't black. Matthew d'Ancona reports on the fight to be Obama's friend. Fraser Nelson responds to the 1.5 percent cut in interest rates, and gives reasons to have faith in Osborne and Cameron. Peter Hoskin looks at how the Tories are taking on the BBC, and reports on the aftermath to Labour's victory in the Glenrothes byelection. Daniel Korski analyses how Europe should deal with Russia over natural gas. Stephen Pollard reveals an e-mail from Simon Heffer.
From our UK edition
Earlier this week, we launched the online Spectator Book Club. You can access it by clicking here; clicking on the Book Club tab at the top of any Spectator.co.uk page; or by entering new.spectator.co.uk/books into your address bar. Once there, you'll find a host of content to satisfy even the most ardent booklover - from a discussion board and Book of the Month choices, to live chats with authors and a directory of local booksellers. This month's Book of the Month is Richard Holmes's 'The Age of Wonder', while the Live Chat will be with the Booker-nominated Phillip Hensher. Click here and here for more information. Spectator Book Club is also hosting a monthly competition, by which you can get your writing in the print edition of The Spectator.
From our UK edition
Here are some of the posts made over the weekend on Spectator.co.uk: James Forsyth reports from the US on the latest developments in the Presidential race. He identifies what's wrong with John McCain's message here. And provides an election night viewing guide here. Fraser Nelson says the government are losing the war on drugs, and claims that Barclays took the right path. Peter Hoskin marks the return of the New Labour Old Crowd, and writes on the government's failure to properly equip the armed forces. Daniel Korski outlines the situation in the Congo. And Clive Davis decodes the Presidential election.
From our UK edition
We now have October's monthly traffic figures for Spectator.co.uk - and they show our highest-ever "unique user" and "page impression" statistics. In October, unique users soared to 338,053 - an increase of 39 percent on September. And 2,147,545 page impressions were recorded - an increase of 15 percent. Following on from the revamp of the online Spectator Wine Club, today will see the launch of the new Spectator Book Club. Both Coffee House and Americano will count down the final days to the US Presidential election. And, as ever, Melanie Phillips, Stephen Pollard and Clive Davis will continue to provide their unique takes on the latest political and cultural issues.
From our UK edition
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.
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Poorer each day Sir: Patrick Macaskie (‘The market needs short-sellers’, 25 October) is indeed correct in suggesting that the problems caused by excessive borrowing could be solved by a round of inflation; in the same way the problem of a building having caught fire can be solved by allowing it to burn down. As Macaskie points out inflation transfers value from saver to borrower. In the aggressive inflation of the Seventies people who had borrowed money and had employers who were able to provide inflation-linked pay rises did very well as they were able to pay off their liabilities quickly with devalued money. This course may appeal to government, since both parties at times have presided over currency devaluations which have a similar effect on the national debt.
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It is one of the peculiarities of a recession that it cannot officially be acknowledged until, often, it is already history. This week, we learned that the economy shrunk 0.5 per cent in the third quarter of 2008. It will not be until January, however, when two quarters of negative growth have been recorded, that Gordon Brown will finally reach his statistical Stalingrad, and we will officially be in recession. It is futile for anyone to talk now about ‘avoiding’ recession. We can no more avoid recession than we can avoid the Beijing Olympics, or anything else which started last summer. Yet that hasn’t stopped the Prime Minister this week trying to convince us that he can somehow avoid the statistically inevitable.
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Matthew d'Ancona congratulates Marcus du Sautoy on his appointment to the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science. Mary Wakefield asks the Debbie Purdy question. The Skimmer attacks the BBC over BrandRossgate. Fraser Nelson says George Osborne needs to recast his policy for the new era, and marks the moment Alistair Darling read the last rites over the fiscal rules. James Forsyth highlights the Japanese experience of pump-priming, and questions what public service Russell Brand's radio show performed. Peter Hoskin asks: Labour sharpens its attack, but to what end?, and defends David Cameron's performance in PMQs. Daniel Korski asks: What next in Afghanistan? Stephen Pollard experiences the banking industry's problems in microcosm.
From our UK edition
Brown v.
From our UK edition
We've just uploaded Lloyd Evan's Web Exclusive report on the latest Spectator / Intelligence Squared debate - "We were wrong to recognise Kosovo's declaration of independence". You can read it here.
From our UK edition
Here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: James Forsyth notes the BBC's odd sense of priorities, and lambasts Gordon Brown's role in the current economic downturn. Peter Hoskin tracks the latest developments in 'Yachtgate'. Stephen Pollard celebrates truffles. Melanie Phillips observes the bus to Planet Hedonism. Clive Davis reports on the US Presidential race. And Americano identifies the main reason why McCain is losing.
Both their houses Sir: In your leading article of 11 October (‘A necessary evil’) you state that ‘Many of those senators who opposed the bail-out initially but changed their minds when it was voted on a second time last week have turned out to be less than principled in their concerns for the taxpayers.’ The US Senate only voted once on the matter and in the affirmative, while the House of Representatives voted twice before accepting. Peter Schéle Gothenburg, Sweden Sneers before bedtime Sir: I was dismayed that The Spectator gave a platform to sneer-master general A.A. Gill (India Travel, 18 October) in the guise of a travel piece about Calcutta.
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In December 1998, as Peter Mandelson resigned from the Cabinet for the first time, he and Tony Blair spelt out a modern doctrine for responsible political conduct. ‘We came to power promising to uphold the highest possible standards in public life,’ Mandelson wrote to Blair. ‘We have not just to do so, but we must be seen to do so’ (italics added). The then Prime Minister replied: ‘As you said to me “we can’t be like the last lot”.’ This, rather than any technical breach of the rules, was why Mr Mandelson had to go ten years ago, when his secret £373,000 home loan from Geoffrey Robinson was disclosed.
From our UK edition
The final full week of nominations for The Spectator’s Readers’ Representative Award has brought forth nominations for two female MPs on opposite sides of the abortion debate, Diane Abbott and Nadine Dorries. Kate Smurthwaite applauds Abbott for tabling an amendment to the Human Fertilisation Embryology Bill which would allow women in Northern Ireland to have abortions. Smurthwaite says, ‘This would end the situation where 6,000 women a year are forced to save, borrow or steal £600 to £2,000 to travel to England to gain access to abortion services. It takes the bold view that a woman’s right to choose is just that — her right, and proposes that it apply uniformly to all women in the UK, ending 40 years of injustice.
From our UK edition
Here are some of the posts made during the past week on Spectator.co.uk: Matthew d'Ancona outlines the warning that 'Yachtgate' has delivered to the Tories. Fraser Nelson lauds the true defenders of liberty, and reveals how Gordon Brown has fiddled the debt figures. James Forsyth says the worst seems to have passed for Osborne in the 'Yachtgate' scandal, and suggests that the Tories need an enforcer who can protect the shadow cabinet from themselves. Peter Hoskin makes the case for an austerity Olympics, and reports on the latest crime statistics. Stephen Pollard regrets a trip to the theatre. Melanie Phillips gives her take on 'Yachtgate'. Clive Davis highlights why a recession could be good for publishing.