Can Mr Brown reverse the dynamics? He has been offered no shortage of advice from his party. Turn left, say those who never much cared for the New in New Labour, and in his weakness see a chance to ditch it. Smile more, say others—though when Mr Brown tries to speak human he seems less convincing than when he sticks to macroeconomics. There are a few who, despite the risk of looking chaotically undemocratic, simply enjoin him to go: over half the Labour supporters in a Populus poll for the Times want him out.
Mr Brown can scarcely complain about disloyalty, for he helped to inculcate a taste for plots and mutinies during his long march to Downing Street. But would his removal improve things? From the Labour Party’s point of view, there are too many flimsy contenders to replace him and scarcely any serious ones. The struggle to get rid of a leader causes lasting damage—as the Tories, who only recently recovered from the civil war unleashed by the ouster of Lady Thatcher, know well. Besides, the Tories need a huge swing to form a government at the next election, probably in 2010. They are still planning for a hung parliament. Scandal, or an eruption of atavistic, Conservatism may yet weaken Mr Cameron. The new mayor of London, Boris Johnson, now an icon of Tory resurgence, may embarrass his party.
If you read nothing else today, then read this NYT column by Frank Rich.
He begins with the obsessive attention the US media have paid to Barack Obama’s now-terminated devotion to a screwball black preacher named Jeremiah Wright. Then he draws our attention to this:
i.e. a white (note colour) screwball preacher comparing the Catholic church (the “Whore of Babylon”) to Hitler.
What’s interesting about this? Well,
Mr. Hagee is not a fringe kook but the pastor of a Texas megachurch. On Feb. 27, he stood with John McCain and endorsed him over the religious conservatives’ favorite, Mike Huckabee, who was then still in the race.
Are we really to believe that neither Mr. McCain nor his camp knew anything then about Mr. Hagee’s views? This particular YouTube video — far from the only one — was posted on Jan. 1, nearly two months before the Hagee-McCain press conference. Mr. Hagee appears on multiple religious networks, including twice daily on the largest, Trinity Broadcasting, which reaches 75 million homes. Any 12-year-old with a laptop could have vetted this preacher in 30 seconds, tops.
It seems that McCain has been shocked to learn that his clerical ally has made many other outrageous statements.
Mr. Hagee, it’s true, did not blame the American government for concocting AIDS. But he did say that God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its sins, particularly a scheduled “homosexual parade there on the Monday that Katrina came.”
Mr. Hagee didn’t make that claim in obscure circumstances, either. He broadcast it on one of America’s most widely heard radio programs, “Fresh Air” on NPR, back in September 2006. He reaffirmed it in a radio interview less than two weeks ago. Only after a reporter asked Mr. McCain about this Katrina homily on April 24 did the candidate brand it as “nonsense” and the preacher retract it.
Now, here’s the funny bit. Whereas Obama’s ‘Wright problem’ has been endlessly retailed in the US media, we’ve heard awfully little about McCain’s Hagee Problem.
“Aw well”, you say, “Unlike Wright, Hagee didn’t say that America had brought 9/11 upon itself”, and that’s true. But perhaps Wright was a bit slow off the mark there. After all, two days after the attack, the NYT reported that
The Rev. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson set off a minor explosion of their own when they asserted on television on Thursday that an angry God had allowed the terrorists to succeed in their deadly mission because the United States had become a nation of abortion, homosexuality, secular schools and courts, and the American Civil Liberties Union.
What’s interesting about that? Well,
Had that video re-emerged in the frenzied cable-news rotation, Mr. McCain might have been asked to explain why he no longer calls these preachers “agents of intolerance” and chose to cozy up to Mr. Falwell by speaking at his Liberty University in 2006.
So, here’s the situation. A (black) pastor spouting nonsense is apparently a big problem for a (black) presidential candidate. But white evangelists spouting nonsense are not seen by the US media as posing any kind of problem for a white Republican candidate.
And here’s another interesting fact that is apparently of no interest to the fearless US media. The Republican party “does not have a single African-American among its collective 247 senators and representatives in Washington”.
This particular column is one of the best things I’ve read in ages, not least because its savage indignation never spills over into incoherence. It’s beautifully controlled from start to finish.
The guy who founded monster.com has had another idea — an online obituary site. He’s noticed that the baby-boomer generation is heading for what a Telegraph marketing consultant once described as “biological leakage”. Lots of ad opportunities too — for example for undertakers. I am reminded of the advice in that admirable book, Die Broke: the last cheque you write should be to the undertaker — and it should bounce!
We’ve been wondering where Samsung’s 9.5mm 500GB SpinPoint M6 laptop drive has been hiding, and it turns out that it’s just been vacationing in France. No word on when these might make it Stateside, but if you’re desperate (or French), your lappy can unbuckle that belt another notch or two for just €197 ($306).
SAN FRANCISCO — Grand Theft Auto IV, the latest iteration of the hit video game franchise, racked up first-week sales of $500 million, Take-Two Interactive, the game’s publisher, plans to announce on Wednesday. The report exceeded the sales expectations of analysts.
The company is expected to report it sold six million copies of the graphically violent game, 3.6 million of them on the first day.
The sales exceed projections of industry analysts who were estimating that some five million consumers would purchase the game in the first two weeks….
Rather puts the movie business in perspective, don’t you think?
Bertie Ahern, the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister to you), tendered his resignation to the President at 6.10pm yesterday. Today Brian Cowen, his multi-chinned successor as leader of Fianna Fail, will be elected Taoiseach when the Dail (Parliament) meets.
Interesting Fact #1: Fianna Fail is the political wing of the Irish construction industry.
Interesting Fact #2: Cowen’s last three predecessors as Fianna Fail leader have had to resign because of, er, difficulties over money. Charlie Haughey went because evidence of his deep-seated corruption became too widespread to be ignored. His successor Albert Reynolds went because a public inquiry into subsidies to beef exporters had unearthed unsavoury details about his time as Minister of Commerce. And Bertie Ahearn walked because the evidence to the Moriarty Tribunal about his astonishing personal finances was making the normal business of government impossible.
It will be interesting to see if Mr Cowen can break this impressive mould.
Martin Weller has a thoughtful post about the technophobic argument that Twitter/FaceBook/CloudComputing/Web2.0/Blogging (delete as appropriate) is just a passing fad. (I hear this all the time from people who seem to hold me personally responsible for whatever technological craze is currently annoying them.)
Martin writes:
Even if it doesn’t turn out as some enthusiasts predict there is one key point that the detractors always miss – it will never go back to how it was. After wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, iTunes, etc the idea that consumers of newspapers, books, music, television, and yes, education, will realise it was all just a silly mistake and go back to how it was may be what the industry leaders dream of, but is unlikely, to say the least.
Which brings me on to my even if we’re wrong, we’re right argument. Sure things won’t be the utopian vision of free services, open education and democratisation that some talk of, but whatever comes after the current trends will build on top of them. Just as web 2.0 built on what had happened in the first wave of web development. And the people who got it, the founders and the visionaries weren’t people who had dismissed the web and insisted it would go away. They were people who engaged with it, and could see how to take it forward. So, whatever comes after web 2.0 (don’t say web 3.0), the people best placed to understand it and adapt to it will be those who have immersed themselves in the current technological climate, and not those who have sat waiting for it to fail so they can say ‘told you so.’
In my experience, by the way, a good way of discomfiting people who decry the Web is to ask whether they use RyanAir or EasyJet. The majority have, and these are so-called ‘ticketless’ airlines. The point being, of course, that even those who regard the Web as a passing fad are totally reliant on it for cheap air travel!
Hooray! Nick Davies is coming to Cambridge to talk about his book. Lovers of the British tabloids form an orderly queue. May 19 at 8pm. Venue: Wolfson College. All welcome!
