The Spectator

We've just put up two articles by Ian Mulheirn, the Chief Economist at Social Market Foundation. The first is on mortgages, and can be found here. The second, on green taxation, is here.

Education revolution Sir: Fraser Nelson (‘Made in Sweden’, 1 March) is right to highlight the importance of Sweden’s independent state schools for the debate on school choice and diversity. The successful Swedish experience strongly influenced New Labour reformers as we sought to introduce independent state-funded schools into England. However, it doesn’t need the Conservatives to ‘bring the Swedish education revolution to Britain’. The revolution has arrived already in the shape of the academies programme, which enables schools to be set up and managed on an independent basis by promoters outside the local authority system.

Rip up Blairism by the roots Sir: Michael Gove (Politics, 23 February) gives a eulogy to Tony Blair, ‘I admired Tony Blair. I knew Tony Blair’. I had hoped that David Cameron’s claim to be ‘the heir to Blair’ was just a silly mistake springing from inexperience. It is more worrying to find that Blair worship is now the doctrine of modern compassionate Conservatism. No wonder 40 per cent of electors are unwilling to vote; nor that, when asked which party could best meet any challenge facing Britain, those saying ‘neither’ regularly exceed those naming either party.

Be sure to check out some of the posts made over the weekend: Fraser Nelson sets out the Coffee House ethos, and also charts Britain’s spiraling drugs problem. Peter Hoskin suggests that Gordon Brown should shift into “short-term mode” in order to regain credibility. James Forsyth reflects on how the Tories can seize the political initiative. And, over at Americano, James also writes on how Barack Obama can shake the charge of being too “liberal”.

This turbulent priest Sir: Seeing that it was I who wrote the article in The Spectator five and a half years ago advancing the case for choosing Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury the week before he was actually shortlisted for the job, I have something of an obligation to ask myself whether I got it right (‘Just a posh version of Prescott’, 16 February). The answer, I think, is yes. Let’s remember, amid all the kerfuffle, that Jesus himself also prevaricated on the tricky issues of the day, included the excluded and overrode doctrine. How enraging it all was to the righteous, to those fearful for their identity and their own moral fences!

Pause for tort Sir: Reading Sir David Tang’s diary last week, in which he recounts the story of me ‘Googling’ him on a train, made me reflect on how recollections of events can differ between honest witnesses. My own diary for that day read as follows: ‘Am sitting on the train trying to work when a businessman in a tweed jacket arrives with a substantial retinue. This man is clearly important. He sits opposite me and discusses the day’s pheasant shooting with his companions. It sounds extraordinarily productive (unless you are a pheasant). I gather that he has slept in Lord Lambton’s bed (minus Lord Lambton, it becomes clear). His plane has broken down. He lives in Hong Kong.