The Spectator

Wednesday

The Spectator

No smoke without ire

From our UK edition

In yesterday's Guardian, there was a literally smokin' hot piece lpiece by David Hockney (because our greatest living artist was pictured wreathed happily in cigarette smoke to accompany the piece) inveighing against the smoking ban. I read and enjoyed the article, and thought Hockney made a reasonable point, that smoking does not necessarily lead to certain death, can be very enjoyable, and more to the point in his case, is important for his mental health. Now, in the piece, Davod Hockney (whose book of portraits I had been looking at only the day before, fancy!) said he lived in California in such style and amplitude that the smoking ban on public places didn't really effect him one way or the other. Well, blow me down.

The Spectator

A flaw in project Cameron

From our UK edition

Broadly speaking, I’m impressed by the Cameroon project: Dave is right to face down his critics and stick with his strategy to “decontaminate the brand”. Yes, we in the Westminster village are already chewing our arms off in boredom, but it is at precisely such moments that you know a message might – just might – be getting through to people who do not spend all their time talking about politics. It is only two years since the Tories were hammered in a third successive general election. The local elections showed that Cameron is making impressive progress, but he and his colleagues are well-advised to persist with their reassurance, reassurance, reassurance strategy.

The Spectator

Have you earned pudding?

From our UK edition

For those counting calories, there’s a website just for you: www.walkit.com not only gives you written directions plus map on how to walk from A to B (central London only) but also tells you how many calories you have burned up in the process. So when you next walk to a restaurant you will be able to work out whether or not you have lost enough calories en route to eat that pudding.

The Spectator

A brainless policy

From our UK edition

There is something phenomenally depressing about the relish with which the Tories are burying grammar schools. Here are the most effective implements of social mobility this country has ever had—by 1969 they had pushed Oxford’s intake from the state sector up to 62 percent, far higher than today’s 55 percent which is achieved in party by positive discrimination—and the Tories want to run a million miles from them on the grounds of political expediency. David Willetts sounds far from convincing when he says, “We must break free from the belief that academic selection is any longer the way to transform the life chances of bright poor kids.” The gap in quality between grammars and the rest of the state sector is illustrated by the fact that 98.

Tuesday

The Spectator

Melissa Kite bites back

From our UK edition

Tory blogging is close to death, I can announce. It's been in intensive care for some time thanks to the meanderings of Iain Dale and the endless pronouncements of ConservativeHome but now the Cornerstone has launched a blog and, mind crushingly dull as it is, it can only be a matter of time before these sites start eating each other. Conservative blogs are already almost exclusively the preserve of right wing men of a certain age. www.Cornerstonegroup.wordpress.com is just overkill. To explain for those who actually have a life, Cornerstone is a group of Christian right wing MPs who follow Iain Duncan Smith - yes, that's right, some people still think this is a good idea. They believe in - altogether now - "traditional family values".

The Spectator

Smile, you’re on camera

From our UK edition

This titbit from The Sun is too good not to pass on: One of Jack Straw’s aides currently assigned to make Gordon Brown personable has come up with a rather novel way to make GB remember to smile more. He has stickered all of Brown’s notes, his briefcase and even his car with bright yellow “smileys” to jog his memory.

Monday

The Spectator

He’ll keep the Red Flag flying high

From our UK edition

Gordon Brown’s retro opponent will be John McDonnell as Michael Meacher has dropped out. So Gordon will get to spend the next few months explaining why Labour’s 1983 manifesto is not a platform for a fourth election victory. Seeing as McDonnell has always been against the war his candidacy will at least give us a window into how much of a deal breaker Iraq is for the Labour grassroots.  No word yet on whether Benn junior can scrape together the required 44 nominations to enter the deputy leadership contest.

The Spectator

Understanding the lives of others

From our UK edition

The New York Review of Books has a fantastic piece by Tim Garton Ash on the Stasi, pegged to The Lives of Others, which is one of the best explorations of Germany’s “paradoxical achievement” I have ever read.

The Spectator

Rudy’s rock

From our UK edition

If you want to understand Rudy Giuliani do read this gripping piece from New York magazine on his relationship with his third wife, Judith. Considering how much of a vulnerability his personal life is among socially conservative Republicans, it is bizarre how keen Giuliani is push her forward—volunteering that she’d be allowed to attend cabinet meetings and the like—when the best strategy for him would be to campaign on his competence, track record and tough-on-terror image. But as Lloyd Grove, one of the best gossip columnists in the business, explains, Giuliani is like a love-sick teen around her: his speaking contract even requires that she is sat next to him at any meal that he has to to attend.

Sunday

The Spectator

Breakfast with Brown

From our UK edition

On Sunday-AM this morning Helena Kennedy and I were the warm up act for Rufus Wainwright and Gordon Brown. Both men are on tour at the moment so it was interesting to compare their respective acts. Gordon mustered the best performance of his campaign so far, not least because he had a good story to tell: the promise of eco-towns  has the merit of addressing the housing shortage while also issuing a direct challenge to Cameron's greenery. The Chancellor was also good-humoured on the sofa afterwards during a classic skit by Rory Bremner - especially, it must be said, when Rory did Mandelson, and then Blair saying he had only promised to resign on June 27, but had not specified a year. Is the Brown ice beginning to thaw? We'll see.

Saturday

The Spectator

Letters to the Editor | 12 May 2007

Britain should come first Sir: Reading Clemency Burton-Hill’s ‘Cameron is taking on Brown — in Rwanda’ (5 May) I felt my blood boil. I have every sympathy with the people of Rwanda but surely Conservative MPs’ time would be much better spent grappling with the issues facing ordinary people in Britain? As Andrew Mitchell, Hugo Swire and David Mundell have some time on their hands this summer, perhaps they would like to help out at my daughter’s ‘bog-standard’ comprehensive where, while she works hard to achieve her ambition of studying Law, other pupils smoke cannabis in the toilets and routinely disrupt classes.

The Spectator

Harry Potter and the amazing royalties

From our UK edition

Simon Hoggart’s always excellent Saturday column in the Guardian has this great snippet about the publishing phenomenon that is Harry Potter:The other day a friend of mine signed up with a new literary agency, which also handles the author of Harry Potter. The chap who looks after him took him on a tour round the offices. At one point they looked into a room where eight busy people were sitting in front of computer screens, phones and directories to hand. He asked what they did and was told that they were all engaged, full time, in gathering JK Rowling's royalties from around the world.

The Spectator

Goodbye to all that

From our UK edition

It ends, as it began, with a political conjuring trick. The splicing together of Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness must, by any standards, rank as one of the most extraordinary achievements in recent politics, and reflects, among other things, the sleepless kinetic force that was Tony Blair’s greatest asset. It was the same force that pushed through the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, as Mr Blair promised to reconcile the irreconcilable, square the circle, plot the uncharted ‘Third Way’. In Ulster, he has been rewarded. But the method failed him more often than not. Even before he was elected, the Labour leader swore that he could pump money into Britain’s public services without raising taxes: more than 100 tax increases later, those words seem laughable.

Friday

The Spectator

‘I have nothing offer you except sweat, tax credits and child poverty targets’

From our UK edition

   I’ve never seen Gordon Brown smile for so long as he did throughout his speech today. Well-groomed, hair under control, red tip swapped for a blue one (shame about the media handling disaster) but he has raised his game. And here are his rules. There will be constitutional reform: a binding vote on going to war, a code of conduct for ministers and independent vetting of public appointments (no more Levys and Chris Evans). We heard again about the moral compass his parents gave him. A change of tack on foreign policy, emphasising economic development. Yes - same old, same old. In his Time interview, he warned he won’t dazzle us. But we’re in a new post-Blair era now. We’d better start getting used to it.

The Spectator

The devil has all the best tunes

From our UK edition

There’s an article in The Guardian today on Sir Simon Rattle, conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, that’s well worth reading. The thesis of the piece is:“What Rattle is attempting is a musical form of multiculturalism, in which the orchestra's brilliance lies not so much in their competence in one repertoire, but how the musicians can adapt to different styles of music.” As with all things multicultural, this is controversial. Rattle , though, seems unbothered by his critics; telling The Guardian, "Anyone who conducts this orchestra is going to be the antichrist to somebody. Maybe I'm just more successful at being the antichrist than some others.

The Spectator

Remembering Frank Johnson

From our UK edition

I spent the first half of today at Gordon Brown’s leadership launch and then Frank Johnson’s memorial service. One was a magnificent, vibrant showcasing of a man’s national reach, achievement, intellect and wide support, a glittering gathering. The other was a sombre assembly of the bereft, gloomy and sepulchral. But, then, such events never were Gordon’s strong point. How many journalists in the history of Fleet Street could have inspired such an occasion? The reading by the Leader of the Conservative Party; two splendid addresses by Sir Peregrine Worsthorne and Stephen Glover; and music – what music! – that included a Tchaikovsky aria sung by Sir Willard White.

The Spectator

Coffee House Debate: Round 3

From our UK edition

Matthew d'Ancona and Tim Montgomerie of Conservative Home debate what the Tories can--and should--learn from Blair.  Read Matt's opener here, Tim's response here and the second round. Tim The trouble with "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" is that it embodies the worst of Blair: the Vickie Pollard aspect of New Labour, which says "Yeah, but no, but yeah, but no", and ends up saying nothing. Nobody sensible would deny that there is a "conveyor belt to crime" or that rehabilitation is desirable. The trouble is that this is not a new thought at all.  Since Roy Jenkins and Reggie Maudling, the orthodox position of the liberal criminal justice industry - egged on by the Treasury!

Thursday

The Spectator

Coffee House Debate: Round Two

From our UK edition

Matthew d'Ancona and Tim Montgomerie of Conservative Home debate what the Tories can--and should--learn from Blair.  Read Matt's opener here. Tim Anarcho-syndicalism? Well, that’s what some of the wilder Tory rhetoric about dismantling the state resembles. But moving swiftly on….  On crime: hug-a-hoodie was a disaster. In my view, no party can be too tough on crime. It is the mods’ greatest error to believe that being cuddly about crime is a necessary part of the “decontamination” strategy. If anything, hug-a-hoodie put rocket boosters under Labour’s claim that the Tory Party is now in the hands of toffs with no concept of real life.