We have heard surprisingly little about the climate change jamboree currently underway in Cancun. Before last year’s Copenhagen summit, there was much hullaballoo. Gordon Brown told us that we had ‘fewer than 50 days to set the course of the next 50 years’. Yet he and 100 of his political counterparts could not stop the
If William Beveridge were commissioned to write another report into Britain’s social ills, he would find that two of his ‘giant evils’ — ignorance and idleness — still stalk and shame Britain. If William Beveridge were commissioned to write another report into Britain’s social ills, he would find that two of his ‘giant evils’ —
The royal family has a gift for laying on a wedding just when the nation’s spirits most need lifting. The Queen’s marriage to the Duke of Edinburgh in 1947 helped to rejuvenate a nation exhausted by war and demoralised by rationing. The wedding of Princess Anne to Mark Phillips in 1973 aroused extraordinary excitement in
Various political attempts to institute a national British day have failed, perhaps because Britain already has one. It is Armistice Day, and it is marked not by the waving of flags, or by the recitation of a national creed, but by keeping a silence in memory of those who sacrificed their lives for our country.
While it may be a little dangerous to speak so soon, a remarkable gulf is growing between the responses of the British and the French public to their governments’ attempts to balance the books. While it may be a little dangerous to speak so soon, a remarkable gulf is growing between the responses of the
It has been a remarkable week for the bright young Tories who worked for John Major in the 1992 election campaign. At the time, David Cameron, Steve Hilton and their friends were young praetorians who, after the Conservatives were returned to office, credited themselves with snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. They nearly did
While we mourn the comic actor Sir Norman Wisdom, who died on Monday aged 95, we should also celebrate the incurable optimism of his most famous character — Norman Pitkin. Remembered principally for his trademark stumbles, flailing limbs, and saying ‘Mr Grimsdale!’, Pitkin, played by Wisdom in numerous films during the 1950s and 1960s, was
Liam Fox has certainly given the Tories something to talk about as they gather for the party conference this weekend. Liam Fox has certainly given the Tories something to talk about as they gather for the party conference this weekend. Everything that he wrote in his leaked letter to David Cameron is true: the Conservatives
India has given a good impression of a country that views the Commonwealth as an embarrassment. It should be an honour to host the commonwealth Games. We hoped that India would use the event to show the world that it is not just an emerging superpower with nuclear weapons and a space programme, but a
But, if the protestors know where Benedict XVI stands on issues of sexual morality, they have a very shaky grasp of his precise relationship to these issues. The arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in Britain has provoked protests that, in the intesity of their anger, far exceed those that greet the state visits of blood-drenched
You may notice that your Spectator looks a little different this week. We have updated its design, but cautiously, taking the best ideas from past magazines, and refreshing the rest. Even the tidiest house needs a little spring-cleaning from time to time. Many read the Spectator back to front, so our peerless books and arts
One subject about which we hope pupils will always be taught is the Blitz, which began in London 70 years ago this week. The ‘spirit of the Blitz’ may have been over-romanticised, but it is right that the brave determination with which Britons faced the aerial assault remains a source of national pride. But British
Perhaps the most surprising part of Tony Blair’s memoirs is the passage in which he reveals one of his deepest regrets: it’s not Iraq, but the fox-hunting ban. Blair now says that the 2005 reform was ‘a fatal mistake’ and even admits to having been swayed by a metropolitan bias against country dwellers. ‘I started
What is it about international organisations that makes them so impervious to criticism? If the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were a British ministry or quango, it is inconceivable that its chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, would still be in his post. The IPCC’s reports, which have been accepted by governments around the world as a
He’s ‘too archetypically conservative’. He’s too much of a ‘King Catholic’. He views the world through a ‘narrow ideological prism’. He’ll ‘split the party’. He’s ‘unelectable as prime minister’. Under his leadership, the centre-right Liberal party will become ‘a down-market protest party of angry old men and the outer suburbs’. As these barbs indicate, Tony
What could David Cameron wish for his new daughter? All fathers want their children to grow up in a better world. The Prime Minister is in the position to forge one. He has a good chance of his youngest daughter celebrating her next nine birthdays at Chequers, and there is much he can do in
One of the least remarked-upon scandals of recent years is the mis-selling of Higher Education. Pupils are now told, from a very early age, that university should be the great goal in schooling; that there is some kind of binary distinction between those with initials after their name and the also-rans. David Willetts, the Universities
It was refreshing of Lord Pearson to admit, as he resigned as leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party on Tuesday, that he is ‘not much good at party politics’. If only other party heads were so candid. Most politicians are too scared of making a gaffe to say anything so interesting. They would rather
Nick Clegg’s triumphant performance in the first televised leaders’ debate has already faded in the public imagination. Back then, Lib Dems spoke breathlessly about overtaking Labour as the nation’s second largest party. But a general election in which they lost more seats than they gained has dampened that optimism, and recent opinion polls have all
For anyone still clinging to the idea that we have brought democracy and human rights to Afghanistan, the latest news from the country should come as a shock. The Taleban seem to be growing in confidence and influence. First there was the shooting of aid workers in Badakhshan; now a widow accused of becoming pregnant