The Spectator

Friday

The Spectator

The ties that bind | 20 July 2007

In a piece keying off the Beckhams arrival in the States, Time magazine tries to explain what unites the English-speaking peoples and comes up with an interesting, distinctly non-Churchillian answer: Britain is now just about as open and classless a society as the U.S. (The Beckhams' habits are far more typical of modern Britain than the boarding-school japes of that other ubiquitous Brit, Harry Potter.) So why bother to settle in the U.S.? For the same reason that investment bankers from New Jersey like London--because the two nations have so much in common. Britain and the U.S. are the most messy, undeferential, schlocky societies on earth, places that like making a fast buck, that enjoy celebrity precisely because it is fleeting.

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A long summer ahead for David Cameron

The Tory result in Ealing Southall is a setback for David Cameron that ensures he will be on the back foot over the summer. To come a poor third after Cameron’s repeated visits to the seat is embarrassing and suggests that the Cameron message is not resonating as strongly as it should be. Recriminations on the Tory side will be particularly bitter because Central Office played such a key role in Tony Lit being selected only for it to turn out that he had been happily hobnobbing with Tony Blair at a Labour fundraiser just the month before. Many in the Westminster Village see the failure to properly vet Lit as typical of the slightly slapdash nature of Cameronian decision making.

Thursday

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The scoop on Harry Potter

Amidst all the talk about file-sharing sites having copies of the new Harry Potter book, it is somehow reassuring to find that the newspaper that has the first review (it’s here, but don’t read it unless you want to have a strong idea of how the story ends) got hold of their copy the old fashioned way: it walked into a bookshop and paid retail for it. Here at Coffee House we’ll be respecting the embargo, but we’ll have a review up first thing on Saturday morning.

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Drugs and the cabinet

So far we know from previous reports that Hazel Blears, Ruth Kelly, Yvette Cooper and Caroline Flint have admitted to taking drugs in the past. Jack Straw, the brothers Miliband, Peter Hain and, of course, Gordon Brown have said they have never taken them.

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An evening with Barbra Streisand

"Can you believe it?" Every time Barbra Streisand remembered how long it was since she had first sung a song, visited a town, tried a local delicacy - "1961!" - 23,000 adoring fans agreed that, no, it was quite unbelievable. Most of the audience at the 02 arena last night could not quite believe they were actually, at last, genuinely hearing their heroine, playing in London for the first time in 13 years. And the sense of event was as palpable as the crushed velvet of the legend's gown: veering effortlessly from the ditzy to the diva, she held a thousand dreams in the palm of her hand, and yet was not too grand to take questions from the crowd, too. Like Gordon, she was listening and learning, although it must be said that, in her case, the questions were not very tough.

Wednesday

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Getting the band back together

Today sees the launch of an intriguing new international group, The Elders. It is a collection of aging, diplomatic all-stars who will join forces to push issues up the international agenda. The cast is pretty stellar: Nelson Mandela and his wife, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter,  Muhammad Yunus et al. The whole idea makes sense--even if the current crew do rather run the risk of group think--as at the same time that people are living longer, political leaders are getting younger. It would be foolish to let their expertise and knowledge go to waste once they’ve left office. At the very least, this new club will give our recently departed PM something to aspire to in retirement.

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Not Reagan but Nixon

George W. Bush’s former speechwriter Michael Gerson takes a swing at Rudy Giuliani in today’s Washington Post saying that the Republican president Rudy resembles is not Reagan but Nixon. Gerson lays out how Giuliani is on the wrong side of Catholic teachings on everything from abortion to torture and claims that, “No one inspired by the social priorities of Pope John Paul II can be encouraged by the political views of Rudy Giuliani.” Do read the whole thing.

Tuesday

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How will British politics look on Friday morning?

Boris mania has, understandably, rather crowded out coverage of this Thursday’s Ealing Southall by-election. But the result will be key to the political mood over the summer. If the Tories get within 3 figures of Labour, it will ease the pressure on David Cameron that has built as Labour’s lead has widened. It will show that his more inclusive, less tribal politics appeals not only to commentators but voters. While if the Tory campaign belly flops, there’ll be much grassroots muttering about how on earth someone who’d been photographed beaming with Blair at a Labour fundraiser just last month got picked as a Tory candidate. The result, though, will have the most direct impact on Ming Campbell’s future, as Iain Dale argues.

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Another endorsement for Boris

Mike Read, the former Top of the Pops presenter who was touted as a possible Tory Mayoral candidate, has announced today that he’s backing Boris. If Coffee Housers see any other Boris endorsements send them along to us.

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What Putin is up to

If you want a handy primer on why so many people think we’re slipping into a new Cold War, read Fraser Nelson’s cover story on the Russian arms build up under Vladimir Putin. As Fraser points out, while we’ve been fixated on the Middle East, Putin has been preparing the ground for an aggressive restoration of Russia’s great power status.

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Boris has all the right opponents

It has been a blistering first 24 hours for The Candidate. But who would have thought that Day Two would begin with the passing of such a significant Non-Electoral Milestone - the condemnation of Boris by the Guardian's in-house funster and Coffee House's choice to write the next Bond novel, Polly Toynbee? In a column of intergalactic joylessness that would have had Malvolio saying "hey, lighten up a bit, Pol", she takes a hatchet to Boris, claiming that he is right-wing (wrong), a Europhobe (wrong) and a sociopath (about as wrong as you can be). All this is worth many votes for our man. Her opposition was essential to the Project and we thank her for it.

Monday

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Obama’s dollars

The key to Barack Obama’s phenomenal fund-raising success, $58.6 million raised so far, is that he is working both ends of the spectrum equally hard. He is playing the grassroots card for all its worth by registering anyone who buys so much as bumper sticker as a donor and has raised more in small donations than the rest of the Democratic field combined. But he is also tapping the banker class hard. If you look at the five firms from whose employees he’s raised the most money they’re all finance houses: Lehman Brothers, $160,760; Citadel Investment Group, $152,150; Goldman Sachs, $103,550; JP Morgan Chase, $101,950 and Citigroup $61,125.

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In praise of Boles

As Boris steps up to the plate, a word in praise of the man who is now advising him and would, barring an illness, be running as a first-class candidate for London Mayor himself. Nick Boles is one of the best and the brightest of the Cameron Conservative Party, very much in its in innermost counsels, and a thoroughly decent person to boot. It is absolutely typical of Nick that, even as he has been beginning treatment for early stage Hodgkins Lymphoma, he has also been helping Boris out and transferring the impressive resources he had marshalled over to his care. Not much is certain in politics, but, once he has recovered, I am certain that Nick will proceed to a good seat, enter Parliament, and become a prominent member of the next Tory Cabinet.