World

Friday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Department of Peevish Pedantry

A small series: 1. I was annoyed but not surprised when Barack Obama referred to Westminster as “The Mother of Parliaments” on Wednesday. This was not a surprising error for a foreigner even if his speechwriter should have been expected to know and do better. It is England that is the Mother of Parliaments, not Westminster. (Though the Icelanders have a legitimate grievance about this.) If Obama, being a poor foreigner, can be forgiven this what is Amanda Foreman’s excuse? I’d have thought an “historian” would know better but there she was on the BBC’s This Week making the same ignorant blunder. Not good enough. 2. Canute. A long-standing peeve. Canute

Thursday

Daniel Korski

A joyous day in the Balkans

The day started out looking bad for the Balkans, with the Serbian president boycotting a meeting with Barack Obama in Poland because the Kosovo president was attending. But things look rather better now. After a decade-long man-hunt, Serbian police arrested Ratko Mladic in northern Serbia. He was living under the name Milorad Komadic and had grown a beard like his former boss, Radovan Karadzic. A plane carrying Mladic is said to have left for The Hague, where he will soon be arraigned before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Foreign Secretary William Hague has rightly called the arrest a “historic moment” for the western Balkans. General Mladic is

Alex Massie Alex Massie

HMQ & BHO

A lovely picture of Her Majesty with the Obamas. Captions please! (Also, what joke is Prince Philip keeping to himself?) Meanwhile, I’ve a piece on Obamamania at the Daily Beast and a grumpy take on the “Special Relationship” at Foreign Policy.

Daniel Korski

Yemen implodes

Sometimes you wait and wait for an event, and nothing ever happens. Pakistan is always said to be teetering on the brink of collapse but never quite edges over the precipice. The same used to be the case with Yemen. In fact, Coffee House predicted that Yemen would implode last year, but Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh managed to hold the country together in the face of terrorism, irredentist movements, insurgency and, recently, pro-democracy protesters demanding his resignation.   Now, however, the wily leader may finally have run out of road. Heavy clashes have erupted in the capital Sanaa, a day after Saleh again refused to sign a Gulf-brokered power-transition.

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Two Kingdoms Divided by a Common Ignorance

I’m indebted to the gallant Peat Worrier for reminding me of some of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous reflections on this Kingdom. To wit, what with the seperate legal systems being much in the news lately: [I]n all countries; perhaps in all, men are most ignorant of the foreigners at home. John Bull is ignorant of the States; he is probably ignorant of India; but considering his opportunities, he is far more ignorant of countries nearer his own door. There is one country, for instance – its frontier not so far from London, its people closely akin, its language the same in all essentials with the English – of which I

Daniel Korski

The X Factor

They say power is shifting from the United States, but I’m standing outside of Westminster Abbey having joined an enthusiastic surge of people keen to see the US president. People of all ages have snuck out of their offices to catch  a glipse of Barack Obama. And here he comes: 30-odd cars, with his big-windowed limousine in front, zip pass the Speccie offices and we get a wave from the President and the First Lady. I never see the Chinese president getting this kind of rock star treatment. In fact, I don’t see many people getting kind of reception, except the Queen and maybe Justin Bieber. This matters. The US

David Blackburn

An especially businesslike relationship

The ash cloud nearly claimed its first victim last night: Barack Obama had to leave Ireland early in order to fly to Britain. The Palace’s insistence on protocol has been upset and the President’s entourage has been advised not to risk the tap water; other than that, all is well. However, the visit has set sceptical tongues wagging. Some diplomats wonder why the President is here. Afghanistan, the Middle East, joint national security and the world economy are on the agenda, but there is no unifying theme to discussions. Some ideologues fear that the eternal bond between Britain and America is relaxing into a union of convenience. On the other

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Tomlinson Officer Faces Manslaughter Trial

On the other hand, there’s some good news today. The policeman who hit Ian Tomnlinson during the G20 protests two years ago is to stand trial for manslaughter. As I wrote at the time: [M]istakes happen. But the police are, rightly, supposed to be held to a higher standard. Yes, they have a difficult job. That’s why we expect them to do it well. The assault on Ian Tomlinson can’t be excused simply because the police were fed up. I can imagine that people in other countries might wonder what the fuss is. I mean, Tomlinson was hit with a baton once and then shoved, albeit violently, to the ground.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Another Taser Death

Given that British police are being armed with these weapons too, it’s only a matter of time before something like this happens in this country too: San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputies yesterday punished an “uncooperative” motorist by Tasing him to death. After 43-year-old Allen Kephart was pulled over for allegedly running a stop sign, he got out of his car and failed to show sufficient deference to at least two deputies. He was subdued with a Taser, passed out, and died. Granted, British police may be more prudent or restrained than their American counterparts but, sure as eggs is eggs, they’ll kill someone with these things sooner rather than later.

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Hemming divulges

‘Mr Speaker, With about 75,000 people having named Ryan Giggs on Twitter it is impractical to imprison them all and with reports that Giles Coren is facing imprisonment’ This was as far as John Hemming got in his question to the attorney general before the Speaker interrupted him to warn that he should be talking about the principles involved in super-injunctions not the people. But now that it has been said in parliament it can be reported by the press, although I do not believe any newspaper is allowed say which super injunction he has taken out or whether those naming Giggs on Twitter are correct. There were gasps in

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Prospects for fiscal sanity in Washington take a hit as Mitch Daniels decides not to run for president

Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana and the Republican establishment’s pick to take on Barack Obama, has announced that he won’t run for president. It appears that Daniels’ wife concerns about a run have prevented him from running. Explaining his decision, he said, “On matters affecting us all, our family constitution gives a veto to the women’s caucus, and there is no override provision”. It is thought that Daniels’ wife was worried that a presidential run would lead to a lot of media attention to the fact that she left him and the children and moved to California for four years during the 1990s before returning and remarrying Daniels. But

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Footballer is Named

But you’ll have to come to Scotland and purchase a copy of the (struggling) Sunday Herald to discover the identity of the “athlete” or “footballer” said to have been having an affair with some TV person of whom I had never previously heard. Careless of CTB’s lawyers to forget to apply for an interdict at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. All Scottish papers have therefore been free to publish these details. If they haven’t it’s because they also sell (a few) copies south of the border. One trusts, then, that the Sunday Herald’s circulation manager has insisted no stray copies have been sent to Berwick or Longtown or Cornhill-on-Tweed.

Saturday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How the US presidential campaign will change American foreign policy

Whoever wins the Republican nomination and takes on Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election is going to campaign hard on the issue of the US national debt and the idea that constantly running deficits is dragging the nation into decline. This is going to have a serious impact on the foreign policy debate in the US. It is striking that John Huntsman (pictured with Barack Obama), the former US ambassador to China who was governor of Utah and is running as a middle of the road Republican, has chosen to introduce himself to voters in New Hampshire with criticisms of the cost of the Libya mission. He said, ‘I

Mary Kenny

IRELAND NOTEBOOK

You could not mistake the atmosphere in Dublin this week: the state visit of the Queen and Prince Philip has had the full panoply of a historic occasion. It was obvious that the Irish state was wholeheartedly committed to its success, with the most formal protocols in place. Both David Cameron and William Hague have accompanied the Queen for part of the trip, which is highly unusual. The Queen agreed to visit locations associated with those who rose against the Crown — the Garden of Remembrance in Parnell Square — and showed a graceful sense of respect. It has been impressive and even moving. Yet it was also sad —

Friday

Jonathan Jones

From the archives: The Good Friday Agreement

On Sunday, it will be thirteen years to the day since the people of Northern Ireland voted in a referendum on the Good Friday Agreement. The result was one of overwhelming support: 71 per cent to 29. Here is Bruce Anderson’s take on the Agreement from his Politics column at the time:   Mr Blair was rough on Mr Ahern (and while Unionists were there), Bruce Anderson, The Spectator, 18 April 1998   Occasionally, one is glad to be wrong. In this column last week, I wrote about the imminent collapse of the Ulster peace process. It seemed then as if everything was unravelling; the gaps between the various sides

Alex Massie Alex Massie

No, Obama Did Not Throw Israel “Under the Bus”

President Obama’s speech yesterday confirmed that the main thrust of American foreign policy in the middle east may now fairly be characterised as Obama men and Bush measures. In large part it could have been written by David Frum. Admittedly, as Frum says there’s a difference between broad statements of principle and the actual, more difficult, policy decisions that might put flesh on those bones. Despite this, the conservative reaction to the speech appears utterly unhinged. As any member of the sanity-based community could appreciate, there was little in the address that significantly departed from long-standing American policy. Indeed, I think Jeffrey Goldberg is right to argue that the speech:

Matt Oakley

No rights without responsibility

The most recent official statistics show that 5.4 million adults and 1.9 million children live in the UK’s 3.9 million workless households. Through the Universal Credit, the coalition is taking a radical approach to tackle this, but it won’t be enough. The government’s own analysis estimates that it will move 300,000 households into work. But this will leave 3.6 million households behind, dependent on benefits and likely to pass worklessness onto the next generation. There are also timing worries. Unemployment and, in particular, youth unemployment are high on the political agenda (new statistics on NEETs will come out next week), but the Universal Credit will not be fully implemented for

Thursday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Lonesome for a Lone Star Man

Hands-up if you, or anyone you know whom you’d consider even vaguely sensible, is happy with the declared field for the 2012 Republican Presidential Nomination Stakes? Quite. The case against each candidate – Romney, Pawlenty et al – is vastly stronger than the strongest case you can make for their prospects. It is not a race over-cluttered with star quality. Those that can win the nomination are unattractive; those that can’t scarcely worth considering no matter how fine they may be in other respects. So it’s not surprising that eyes turn to late entrants who could add some class to what is currently a pretty drab or shabby field. Mitch

Wednesday

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Rape and the French elite

Bernard-Henri Levy begins his polemic on the alleged rape of a hotel chambermaid by Dominique Strauss-Kahn, with a priceless example of what a better French philosopher called “bad faith”. ‘I do not know what actually happened Saturday, the day before yesterday, in the room of the now famous Hotel Sofitel in New York. I do not know — no one knows, because there have been no leaks regarding the declarations of the man in question — if Dominique Strauss-Kahn was guilty of the acts he is accused of committing there, or if, at the time, as was stated, he was having lunch with his daughter.’ If a writer does not