John Rentoul points out in a typically sharp column in today’s Independent that Gordon Brown has benefited from the low expectation surrounding his arrival at Number 10. There had been so much said about Brown’s weaknesses that the commentariat had almost forgotten about his strengths and totally underestimated how adept Brown would prove at turning
Newsweek’s investigation into the hunt for bin Laden makes for excellent reading. It gives you a real sense of the trade-offs involving in trying to capture him while not losing large numbers of US troops or destabilising Pakistan. It is a surprise to find Don Rumsfeld who was so gung-ho in his Iraq war planning,
David Cameron will surely be relieved by the finding in today’s Guardian/ICM poll that Gordon Brown’s lead has narrowed already to five points. But the much more significant figures are the Tories’ leads on crime and health. Turn to this morning’s Daily Mail, where a survey conducted for Hillary Benn’s Environment Department shows that crime
The more you read about the murder of Rhys Jones, the more shocking it becomes. The combination of a BMX—a symbol of childhood fun—and a brutal shooting brings home just how brutalised our society has become. Jon Swain’s piece in The Sunday Times comparing Liverpool to the war zones he has reported from painfully details
In my Sunday Telegraph column today, I argue that statistics cannot reflect cultural sensibilities, especially in the wake of a horror such as Rhys Jones’s murder. But if crime statistics are to be brandished at such a time let them at least be accurate. The Sunday Times reports that – contrary to Jacqui Smith’s claim
Sir: Jeremy Clarke’s interpretation of J.S. Mill (‘Can working men’s clubs survive the smoking ban?’, 18 August) is, I fear, pretty ropey. His first point, that a non-smoker forced to breath in tobacco fumes is in effect under attack and legislation may be needed to defend him, is easily disposed of. Run of the Mill
V.S. Naipaul’s essay on Derek Walcott, the great St. Lucian poet, in today’s Guardian review is as eloquent and insightful as one would expect. What caught my eye is a point that Naipaul makes about the whole idea of the Caribbean as an island paradise. As he writes, that idea of the beauty of the islands
On Tuesday, Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, claimed that, in the case of Philip Lawrence’s murderer, Learco Chindamo, ‘we were misled by the system’. That is true: it is monstrous that the 26-year-old Chindamo, who stabbed the head teacher to death in December 1995, will now escape deportation to Italy, the country of his birth.
For any politician to allow someone full access to them so that they can write an ‘on the campaign trail with’ book is always a risk. It says something about Nicolas Sarkozy’s confidence then, that when the French playwright Yasmina Reza suggested doing this Sarkozy accepted without hesitation. Reza’s account is sympathetic to Sarkozy but
I spent part of this morning on a delightful walk down Brick Lane in east London with the artist and historian Rachel Lichtenstein, recording a piece for the Today programme next week. Rachel, who is a match for anyone in the field of psycho-geography, has a new book out entitled On Brick Lane, which is
When trying to understand the impact of events like the shooting of Rhys Jones, turn to the tabloids. Their readers are the ones who suffer from the “broken society” and are most at risk from the violent crime epidemic and think “it could be my son next”. The Sun is at its best today. It declares
Osama Hamdan is the supposeldy moderate face of Hamas. The organisation’s representative in Beirut, he has met with Michael Ancram and is viewed as the kind of man we can—and should—do business with. Alastair Crooke, formerly the EU’s fixer in the Middle East who now runs an influential think tank advocating engagement with groups like Hamas,
This morning, Coffee House heard that the government’s policy of freezing out the Muslim Council of Britain was over and that Hazel Blears had met with representatives of the Muslim Council of Britain at a roundtable on the 8th of August. In response to an inquiry from Coffee House, the Department of Communities and Local
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At first glance it seems bizarre that Bush invoked Vietnam in defence of his Iraq policy. After all, for years the Bush administration has argued that any parallel to Vietnam is nonsense. But there’s logic to what Bush is doing. By mentioning Vietnam and Iraq in the same breath, Bush has guaranteed that his speech is
This brief Time magazine article is as good a summation as any of the current situation in Iraq and how the US feels about it. Essentially, the surge has made military progress—something that an increasing number of Democrats are prepared to recognise—but the Maliki government has yet to take advantage of this window of opportunity, much
In his speech on youth crime today, David Cameron suggested that those who commit minor offences should have their driving licences delayed. This is a more sensible idea than marching yobs to cash-points and in theory one can see it being quite an effective deterrent against the kind of bad behaviour that can make life
David Davis’s op-ed in the Telegraph today on immigration makes an absolutely crucial point about the Learco Chindamo case. As Davis writes, “On the Today programme yesterday, Jack Straw blamed EU law. But the relevant 2004 EU directive was negotiated on his watch as foreign secretary.” Politicians have a habit of doing this. They sign
The Pandora column in today’s Independent report on just how much the Department of Health spent on transport last year, and the sums are quite staggering: £310,754 on taxis £463,723 on business-class plane fares £3.1 million on first-class train tickets As Pandora notes that’s, “£1,195 a working day on taxis and almost £12,000 a day
Perhaps, the most damning thing about the CIA Inspector General’s report into the Agency’s performance into the run up to 9/11 is that even after George Tent concluded that the United States was at war with terrorist organisations petty turf wars between the intelligence agencies continued. Take this dispute between the CIA and the National