Politics

Britain’s place in the world is under increasing scrutiny.  There’s the continuing debate over the Lisbon Treaty; mutterings that the “special relationship” may break down; and questions about the viability of Brownite free trade.  And now – in a comment piece for the Independent – Mary Dejevsky notes the lack of major British players on the diplomatic stage: “It is hard to date the beginning, or the end, of our retreat, but the return of Mark Malloch Brown, then Deputy Secretary General, from the United Nations to join Gordon Brown’s “government of all the talents” might be seen as a moment when we pulled up one of the last drawbridges linking us to the outside

The Brown re-launch, or strategic readjustment as I expect the Prime Minister would prefer us to call it, is the subject of Steve Richards’s column today. Richards notes how Brown is trying to counter Cameron’s commitment to a fairer society and a smaller state by talking about the kind of enabling government that is needed to ensure that British people can compete in an age of globalisation. He points out that Brown has combined this clearer message with a more effective style of delivery; putting him in a decent political position for the first time since his honeymoon. It does seem that Brown feels that he has hit upon the

I meet with Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner to the UK and former High Commissioner to Norway, Abdul Basit. Debonair and sophisticated, he’s a career diplomat from the Foreign Service.  He ponders likely election outcomes. “Most likely it’s going to be a coalition after February 18th  … a hung parliament, no single party will win. It’s a guessing game as to how it will turn out … things are looking very difficult for Hussain (the President of the PMLQ, the party supporting President Musharraf). The party majority will be reduced substantially. It will be hard for him to retain his numbers. Outgoing governments…those parties traditionally do not do well.” Abdul Basit

It is quite incredible that the British Olympic Association has decided to ban British athletes from making any criticism of the Chinese regime before or during this summer’s Olympics; effectively turning every British Olympian into a propaganda tool for Beijing. The Sunday Telegraph reports that any of them who do so will either be banned from travelling to the games or, if they are already there, sent home. We can debate whether or not a human rights abusing dictatorship should be allowed to host the Olympics or not, but it is surely wrong for British athletes to be prevented from speaking their minds. One can only hope that all Britain’s

The most shocking story in today’s papers is a Sunday Telegraph scoop by Melissa Kite (also a Spectator columnist). How was an illegal immigrant able to work at the House of Commons using a fake identity pass? Elaine Chaves Aparecida, a Brazilian cleaner, was arrested at the Palace of Westminster ten days ago in possession of someone else’s pass. It emerged that she had fled immigration officials at Heathrow four years ago. It is also clear that the Home Office was keen to cover the whole disgraceful episode up. Extraordinary stuff: is anyone actually running the country?

In the Sunday Telegraph today, I argue that the Archbishop’s speech is a sort of liberal book-end to Enoch Powell’s infamous ‘Rivers of Blood’ outburst 40 years ago. Let us call Dr Williams’s lecture ‘Rivers of Blather’. One comic aspect of an otherwise deadly serious row has been the extent to which it has started to assume all the characteristics of a political controversy. So: the embattled principal (in this case, an Archbishop rather than a Cabinet Minister) makes a speech of huge complexity, but – fatally – previews it in a BBC interview. He says things that cause outrage even before he has begun the lecture itself. By the