The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

Balls doesn’t get the the broken society agenda

One of the most infuriating things that Ed Balls does is try and claim that every mention of youth crime today is an attempt to demonise an entire generation of children. Take his response when Jackie Ashley asks him about the Tory talk of a broken society: “Most kids come out of school, walk home and do their homework, and most kids are probably a member of a club, or play in a sports team, or might do some volunteering. Every generation has always had kids that get into trouble. I got into trouble at school from time to time, like everybody did. There are always going to be some kids that get into more serious trouble with the law, but we shouldn't demonise young people.

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Tories and education

The Tories seem very close to adopting the idea that children shouldn’t be allowed to pass into secondary school until they have passed certain tests as party policy. In the Independent today, Michael Gove, Shadow Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, makes a passionate case for it. “Earlier this week, our party's policy group on education floated the idea that young people who are falling desperately behind at primary school be given intensive, remedial, help to master the basics. The usual suspects had a go at the idea, with the usual talk about stigma and self-esteem. I'm afraid I don't have much time for that sort of attitude.

Wednesday

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Bill Clinton can still turn a phrase

No one in modern politics is better at coming up with a pithy sound bite that sounds like a piece of home-spun wisdom than Bill Clinton. Just take this line of his from a TV interview when asked about the criticism of Hillary that says she is too much of an insider to change things:  “"They often use...Cheney and Rumsfeld and they say...well, 'if experience counted'...they say this to Democratic audiences...that's like saying because all malpractice is committed by doctors, next time you need surgery, you should go to an auto mechanic..." It is this ability to deflect an attack without sounding like he’s engaging in politics that makes Bill such a priceless asset for the Clinton campaign.

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Terror arrests in Germany

News is coming through that a huge terrorist attack on US interests in Germany has been foiled. Generally, the best place to follow these things is on The Blotter, a blog from the investigative team of ABC News.

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Bush’s attempts to coach the Iraqi PM

This account of how George W. Bush has tried to mentor Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi Prime Minister, is fascinating. Bush sees his role as giving Maliki the confidence to lead. He tries to gee the Iraqi PM up by both giving him support and through some frat-boy ribbing. The whole approach is summed up by this exchange between the two just before Bush announced his new Iraq strategy:  Then, challenging Maliki, the president said, "It's looking like al-Sadr's gonna run your country." Maliki grew solemn. "I swear to God," he vowed, "al-Sadr will not run this country." Bush took that in. "Well," he said, "I'll put my neck out if you put your neck out.

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The greatest living Englishman

Last night's GQ Men of the Year Awards were, as ever, a glittering occasion and a tribute to the talents of the magazine's editor, Dylan Jones (whose most recent Spectator Diary you can read here). Plenty of excellent choices for the 10th annual ceremony, including the editor of the year, Will Lewis, editor in chief of our stable mate Telegraph titles. I finally got to meet Michael Caine, who was given a Lifetime Achievement award and rewarded with a thunderous standing ovation at the Royal Opera House. He is almost certainly the Greatest Living Englishman. Why? Because, in the end, it is more fun to be Harry Palmer, a spy born in the sound of Bow Bells, than James Bond, endlessly fretting about the right brand of watch and the marque of your car.

Tuesday

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Ancram’s attack

I was just settling down to write something about Michael Ancram’s rather odd pamphlet knocking David Cameron for distancing himself from the party’s past, when I saw this on Comment Central which explains a lot. The more you read it does sound like Ancram just didn’t realise how the media would seize on this story. The other political question of the day is whether Gordon Brown and David Cameron should have a televised debate before the next election. I must admit to having mixed feeling on this subject. On the one hand, it would certainly pep up interest in politics and these debates are great theatre as the Sarkozy-Royal and Bush-Kerry encounters demonstrated. On the other, it would further undermine the primacy of Parliament.

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What Brown’s new politics is all about

Rachel Sylvester’s column in The Daily Telegraph today sums up brilliantly what Brown is up to with his call for a new politics. As Sylvester writes, “[Gordon Brown’s] aim is to crush David Cameron and the Conservative Party, not just when the country next goes to the polls but for ever. He shares Chairman Mao's view that "politics is war without bloodshed". His idea of consensus politics is a one-party state. Does anyone really believe that Mr Brown cares what Patrick Mercer, a man sacked by the Tory leader for what Labour MPs described as racist remarks, thinks about national security? Of course he doesn't.  The big clunking fist has not turned into an outstretched palm.

Monday

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John Howard heading for defeat down under

Nobody in Australia has every come back from poll numbers this bad, this close to an election. According to Newspoll, Labor now leads the government 59 to 41 with 48% of voters preferring Ooposition Leader Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister to 37% for John Howard. Opinion polls in Oz are a lot more accurate than they are here thanks to compulsory and preferential voting and Newspoll is historically the best of them. Unless there is a political earthquake between now and December, Howard is toast.

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What Britain owes southern Iraq

Given that Tony Blair misled Britain on the way into war in Iraq, Gordon Brown had better be very careful not to mislead us on the way out. Are Iraqi forces really able to take on the militias of the warring Sadr and Hakim families? That’s what we’re told, but look at these two quotes from a New York Times piece Hakim al-Mayahi, provisional council member in charge of security portfolio in Basra: “We have a huge defect in the equipment and the arming of our security forces. The tribes and locals have better weapons than our security forces, who weren’t provided with more than the usual Kalashnikovs and RPGs while the tribes even have mortars and heavy machine guns”. And this from Wael Saeed, a 34-year-old sportswear shop owner.

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A flying start for Boris

Boris is back: back Boris! Here at 22 Old Queen Street, the blond bombshell's Spectator support team are punching the air. It wasn’t that we let the nay-sayers get to us, or that we ever, for a moment, fell for all that guff about him not being serious – it's just that now we have the evidence to buttress our beliefs. His speech this morning was a corker. He was committed -- spoke of “when” not “if” he becomes mayor – and ticked all the right boxes: the need to make first homes cheaper, to investigate the congestion charge, to champion civility, tackle yobbery and replace the murderous bendy-bus with a “route-master for the 21st century”.

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New Brown much like old Cameron

Moments into Gordon Brown's speech about a new kind of government, it is already clear what the speech is about: copying David Cameron. Addressing a group of voluntary organisations, he has already talked about "top-down solutions" no longer working; the revolution he is announcing is precisely the revolution Cameron has been talking about for months. "Civic responsibiility"..."the empowerment of people"..."cultural and social change". Even more flagrantly, his announcement that "I don't want to carry on with politics as usual" with its "old tired political discourse" and "sloganising" is a direct hit at Cameron's campaign pledge calling for an end to the "Punch and Judy politics" of Westminster. Could this be the beginning of Mr Brown's election campaign?

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Gordon’s new friend

There is nothing new in Gordon Brown’s taste for citizens’ juries and new forms of consultation – the cornerstone of his speech on the “New Politics” today – although his plan to review the Speakers’ Conference will repay careful study as part of what will clearly amount, in the end, to a substantial package of parliamentary reforms. It had emerged overnight that John Bercow, previously expected to defect to Labour from the Tories, will be advising the Government on children with learning difficulties, and the appointment of the Lib Dem, Matthew Taylor, to advise ministers on land use scarcely quickens the pulse.

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Brown courts small ‘c’ conservatives

Gordon Brown’s interview in the Daily Telegraph sums up how Brown thinks he can appeal to small ‘c’ conservative voters. He talks, as he did on the Today Programme this morning, heavily about service; telling the Telegraph that, "The only purpose of being in politics is to serve your country. If you are not able to discharge that duty you should not be in that job." He is also trying to mend ties with the armed forces which he shamefully under funded as Chancellor. Later this year, he’ll be releasing a book on British military heroes. Brown emphasises his socially conservative upbringing which resonates with some right of the centre voters.

Sunday

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Bush’s shoulder to cry on

There is a must-read account of George W. Bush’s private mood in the New York Times this morning. Robert Draper, who has interviewed the president for a new book coming out next week, reveals that Bush is more introspective than he appears in public.  Bush tells Draper, “I’ve got God’s shoulder to cry on, and I cry a lot”. Emphasising the point, he says “I’ll bet I’ve shed more tears than you can count as president.” The final purpose of the Bush presidency is, Bush claims, "To get us in a position where the presidential candidates will be comfortable about sustaining a presence [in Iraq]”. Bush is optimistic that by late fall enough progress will be apparent for this to be the case.

Saturday

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Letters to the Editor | 1 September 2007

What would Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, the coolest of heads, have made of poor William Shawcross’s overwrought emotional plea that we must stay on in Iraq as a kind of act of faith (‘Britain must stay in Iraq’, 25 August)? A menace of our making Sir: What would Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, the coolest of heads, have made of poor William Shawcross’s overwrought emotional plea that we must stay on in Iraq as a kind of act of faith (‘Britain must stay in Iraq’, 25 August)? Well, the Duke once opined: ‘The real test of a general is to know when to retreat and dare to do it.’ Surely we have reached that point in Iraq, although a retreat needs to be well prepared and deliberate.

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Can McCain comeback?

This is the last weekend before the US presidential primaries kick into top gear. At the moment, Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton are comfortably leading their respective fields. But a subway series is far from certain. Hillary might find that the electorate develop an acute case of Clinton fatigue if tawdry scandals begin to dominate the headlines once again. Or, the charismatic Barack Obama could catch fire. While on the Republican side, Giuliani is a particularly vulnerable frontrunner as Matthew Continetti points out in this Weekly Standard piece. One of the things to watch this fall is if the onetime Republican frontrunner John McCain can fight his way back into the race. It is tempting to write off his chances.

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In real elections, little sign of the Brown bounce

The Populus data James mentions has been a major factor in soothing nerves within the Tory ranks. I had been told about these figures on two separate occasions by Shadow Cabinet members, but asked not to use it. The data is central to Operation Don't Panic, Cameron's main mission since returning from Brittany. Within some CCHQ quarters, there is concern that Populus data is luring the Cameroons into a false sense of security. But here's another factor to consider: there were 11 council by-elections in August and the Tory lead averaged 12.5% according to Press Association analysis. In these real elections, there is little sign of a Brown bounce. Anyway, if Brown wants to spoil my summer holiday by calling an election, he has about nine hours. I take off at 8.30pm.

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The right mission

Tony Blair — remember him? — was better at diagnosis than cure. ‘I think most people would say that in virtually every aspect of their life things are better than they were 30 or 40 years ago,’ he told the Sunday Telegraph in November 2005. Tony Blair — remember him? — was better at diagnosis than cure. ‘I think most people would say that in virtually every aspect of their life things are better than they were 30 or 40 years ago,’ he told the Sunday Telegraph in November 2005. ‘This whole question of respect and law and order, though, is the one area where you’d say we’re probably more fearful, and that is because we can’t deal with these types of new crime in the old ways.