The Spectator

A child’s needs Sir: I doubt the suggestion in your leading article (29 March) that clause 14(2)(b) of the government’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is a moral disgrace. The Bill breaks new ground in allowing two people of the same sex to be registered as the sole parents of a baby born through IVF. With female joint parents this raised the question of what was to be done about the provision in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 which requires that a woman shall not be provided with IVF treatment unless account is taken of the welfare of any resulting child. A parenthesis adds ‘(including the need of that child for a father)’.

Do check out the latest posts over at Americano: James suggests that Obama may be losing his credibility.  And someone's said that Obama "can't win" - but who was it?

Not black and white Sir: Marian L. Tupy deserves thanks for his excellent article (‘Mugabe is the Mobutu of our time’, 22 March), despite one seeming inaccuracy and an omission. Tupy says, ‘It was 1980 and Zimbabwe had just gained independence from Britain... the first ever multiracial election gave Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union a majority.’ To the contrary, a universal franchise election in 1978 brought a coalition of Ian Smith’s Rhodesian Front and Bishop Muzorewa’s Democrats into office. Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo had been invited to take part but refused.

Key question Sir: Debt, debt everywhere. Britain really is in trouble if — as Fraser Nelson suggests (Politics, 15 March) — the Conservative opposition is shying away from the ‘obvious strategy’ of proposing to freeze public spending or cut taxes. There is a sensible ‘bottom up’ approach for our leaders to take, namely to start budgeting from a base of zero expenditure. Then prioritise and add the spending that really must be made (schools, hospitals, defence and the like), while checking value for money at every step. The key question is, ‘What is essential for Britain?’ rather than, ‘What is in the current budget?’ or ‘What did Gordon promise on the Andrew Marr Show?

A downloadable podcast of last night's Spectator / Intelligence Squared debate - "The West is provoking a new Cold War with Russia" - is available here. Lloyd Evans' web exclusive report on the debate can also be accessed here.

The latest Spectator / Intelligence Squared debate - The West is provoking a new Cold War with Russia - starts at 18:45. Speaking for the motion are the journalist Anatole Kaletsky; the award-winning historian Norman Stone; and Alexei Pushkov, the anchor of the popular Russian TV programme Post Scriptum.  They will be opposed by the journalist Edward Lucas; Dr Lilia Shevtsova, Senior Associate of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and Ronald D. Asmus, Executive Director of the Transatlantic Center of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.  The debate will be chaired by Jonathan Freedland. For live audio click here.

Martial virtues Sir: In his article about his film of the Haditha killings (‘The burden of guilt at Haditha’, 8 March), Nick Broomfield subscribes to the tired cliché that, in war, ‘everyone is a victim’. This has been the prevailing assumption of film-makers since at least the 1970s, and I had hoped a Spectator article might take a less lazy view. Mr Broomfield’s article adds a new dimension to these prejudices only by suggesting that participation in the making of a motion picture helps to heal the scars of war. I do not wish to make light of the serious problems faced by veterans of combat, nor question the healing power of the Anglo-American film industry, but it is mischievous of Mr Broomfield to suggest that this is the whole story.

Here are some of the posts made over the past week: Nick Clegg asks CoffeeHousers for their questions. Peter Hoskin on why school-leavers shouldn’t have to swear allegiance. James Forsyth charts the bitter back-and-forth between Team Clinton and Team Obama. Matthew d’Ancona tells the Government to stop meddling with schools. Andrew Neil takes on Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling over their binge borrowing. Martin Vander Weyer gives his assessment of the Budget. And Fraser Nelson explains why the Conservatives are so keen to get family-friendly.