The Spectator

Saturday

The Spectator

NOTHING IS ‘SUSTAINABLE’

When it comes to doing his bit to save the planet, no one has a right to feel more smug this week than President Bush. No amount of power showers will lift his personal carbon consumption to the level of the 105 world leaders who, unlike him, will be blazing trails of noxious pollution through the lower stratosphere on their way to Johannesburg this week for the World Conference on Sustainable Development. Those who express disappointment at the American President's absence have a poor understanding of human nature. Who, save for the star-struck contestants in The Weakest Link, voluntarily turns up at a ritual designed to bring about his humiliation?

Saturday

The Spectator

Portrait of the Week – 24 August 2002

Mr John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, on being asked about British support for American action against Iraq, said: 'There is no serious division inside the Cabinet and there are debates inside the Cabinet.' A school caretaker, Ian Huntley, aged 28, was charged with the murder of two ten-year-old girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, whose bodies were found near Lakenheath, Suffolk, two weeks after their disappearance from their homes at Soham, Cambridgeshire. He was held at Rampton hospital and was unfit to appear before magistrates. Maxine Carr, aged 25, who lived with him, was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice. The government proposed a law against using mobile phones while driving.

The Spectator

A VILE PRESS

Hard cases make bad law, and cases do not come much harder than that of the two young girls recently abducted and murdered. The temptation must be considerable for the government to respond by doing something rather than nothing, to demonstrate that it is responsive to the will of the people and that it marches to the same drum as the Sun and the Daily Mail. Tragic as the case undoubtedly is, it is perfectly possible - likely even - that it ought to have no legislative consequences. At the very least, the government should wait until the furore has died down and wise counsel can prevail. Knee-jerk legislation is usually ill-considered, badly drafted and oppressive. Above all, it is unnecessary.

Saturday

The Spectator

Hard Labour | 10 February 2001

It is not untypical of the character of the Home Secretary that, having accused the Tories of 'playing the race card' over asylum-seekers, he should himself launch an assault upon refugees on the eve of a general-election campaign. Under Mr Straw's proposals, it would seem that people fleeing from foreign dictators may soon no longer be allowed to turn up on our shores uninvited; they will be obliged to apply for refugee status before they get here. Asylum-seekers who come from a list of 'safe' countries face having their applications rejected out of hand.