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Dominic Lawson: Labour's thirst for power led to this confusion over drugs

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:01 GMT

Alan Johnson has taken a sledgehammer to crack a Nutt. The Home Secretary could easily have ignored remarks by the UK's chief drugs adviser questioning the reclassification of cannabis as a "class B" drug. Instead, he sacked Professor David Nutt, thus guaranteeing a monumental public row. Perhaps that is exactly what Mr Johnson wanted. It creates the impression that the Government is "tough on drugs", one of the three headlines that New Labour has craved above all (the others are "Labour gets tough on crime" and "Labour gets tough on terror").

Dominic Lawson: Jimmy Carr and the pomposity of those professing outrage

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:01 GMT

There really should be a single word to describe people who are volubly outraged on behalf of someone they have never met. There is, I suppose, the term "busybodies", but that doesn't quite capture the noise they make.

Dominic Lawson: Only prison will deter the thugs that roam our estates

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

It was just over 40 years ago that the English judicial system finally learned how to deal with violent intimidation against the post-war wave of new Commonwealth immigrants. By the late 1950s areas such as Notting Hill Gate in London had become the hunting ground of young thugs whose idea of a good night out was to terrify the local black population. The judiciary had seemed either uninterested or insufficiently motivated to stamp this out. Then one judge – and family pride motivates me to record that he was a maternal cousin – broke with the head-in-the-sand consensus: this was Mr Justice Cyril Salmon.

Dominic Lawson: Here's another phoney war: the one on climate change

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The phrase "publishing sensation" is standard hyperbole from marketing men anxious to push book sales. Sometimes, however, a book comes along which justifies the term. One such is Freakonomics, which since its publication in 2005 has sold well over 3 million copies. This would be a remarkable figure for a popular fiction writer; but the author of this non-fiction work was a university economist called Steven Levitt, aided and abetted by the New York Times journalist Stephen Dubner.

Dominic Lawson: Tracey gets her taxes in a twist

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:00:01 GMT

If you want to make politicians look foolish, ask questions about culture. Most of them are philistines who will pretend to have an interest that they have never possessed; or, more embarrassingly still, they will try to say something that makes them appear "cool", not realising that bright young voters can spot such insincere posturing from several miles away.

Dominic Lawson: Let's not forget what Polanski did

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 23:00:01 GMT

A man who drugged and sodomised a 13-year old girl would not usually receive the uncritical support of the political and literary establishments. On the other hand, Roman Polanski is not your common-or-garden paedophile: he is possibly the world's most admired film director.

Dominic Lawson: Public-interest game shows? Rubbish

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:00:01 GMT

There is discord throughout every home in the land; and it's all the fault of the BBC. That, at least, is the claim of ITV, outraged by the BBC's decision to move the timing of Strictly Come Dancing so that it clashes head-on with X Factor.

Dominic Lawson: Alan Clark was not 'wonderful'. He was sleazy and cruel

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Oh dear, not Alan Clark again. Ten years after the death of the so-called "Samuel Pepys of the 20th century" out comes the official biography. On the BBC Today programme yesterday the book's author, Ion Trewin, described how "wonderful" Clark was. This is the popular view, reinforced by the way in which that marvellous actor John Hurt portrayed Clark's own account of himself to a mass audience, in the BBC dramatisation of his diaries.

Dominic Lawson: Seventy years on, we are still appeasing dictators

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:00:01 GMT

In this, the week of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War, British newspapers have published entire supplements, setting out once again how the policy of appeasing dictators showed a complete failure to understand the gangster psychology of totalitarian regimes.

Dominic Lawson: Seventy years on, we are still appeasing dictators

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Dominic Lawson: If the Megrahi deal is justice, then we're all bananas

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 23:00:01 GMT

On the magnificent vaulted ceilings of the Old Bailey, Britain's central criminal court, one inscription stands out. It reads "Fiat Justitia, Ruat Caelum": in colloquial English, let justice be done, whatever the consequences. It is not a motto in which the New Labour Government believes.

Dominic Lawson: The Prime Minister's silence over Lockerbie is eloquent

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 23:00:01 GMT

In recent months Gordon Brown has revealed to us his opinions about the deaths of Jade Goody ("saddened ... she was a courageous woman both in life and death"), Michael Jackson ("very sad news ... thoughts are with Michael Jackson's family at this time") and on the emotional well-being of the Britain's Got Talent star Susan Boyle ("I spoke to Simon Cowell and to Piers Morgan and wanted to be sure she was OK").

Dominic Lawson: It's not Oxbridge's fault if state school pupils don't apply

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:00:01 GMT

I think it's called cognitive dissonance. The front page story of this weekend's Sunday Times was headlined: "Mandelson to favour poorer pupils". It revealed that the First Secretary of State was considering plans to request universities to set preferential lower entry standards for the least well-off; but the photograph accompanying this scoop was of Lord Mandelson strolling through the Corfu sand with his holiday host, Lord Rothschild. The two peers were later joined by the billionaire music mogul, David Geffen, whose super-yacht Rising Sun had moored just offshore the magnificent Rothschild family villa.

Dominic Lawson: Boorish and chauvinist: the new breed of England cricket fan

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 23:00:01 GMT

I know the exact moment when a most unexpected feeling overcame me – the desire that Australia should not lose against England in a vital Test match. It was when the captain of the Australian cricket team, Ricky Ponting, came out to bat in the second innings of the Edgbaston Test on Sunday afternoon – and was booed by a large contingent of the Birmingham crowd. Here was one of the greatest batsmen of this or any era coming to the crease, a time when applause, if not respectful silence, would be expected of the home spectators – and instead we got a cacophony of churlishness from people who had not the faintest conception of how privileged they were to be present.

Dominic Lawson: It's no longer 'Yes, Minister' but 'Not Now, Minister'

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The BBC's Yes, Minister was perhaps the greatest of British television sitcoms, deserving of all the awards bestowed on it; but it was guilty of establishing in the public's mind the myth that civil servants do not welcome strong ministers – or indeed, a strong prime minister.

Dominic Lawson: The West's aid to Africa does nothing but ease its conscience

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

It is often said that being the leader of her majesty's opposition is to have the worst job in politics. It has its compensations, however: you can, like the White Queen in Alice Through the Looking-Glass, believe six impossible things before breakfast.

Dominic Lawson: Death, dignity and the darker side of family dynamics

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Whenever I hear or read the phrase "loved one", I shudder. Perhaps it comes of having read, at an impressionable age, Evelyn Waugh's satirical novel The Loved One. On a visit to the west coast of America, Waugh had been both repelled and fascinated by the Los Angeles necropolis known as Forest Lawn. It re-emerged in his novel as Whispering Glades; its faintly sinister staff would always talk about "your loved one", when dealing with enquiries from the public. The unvisited mausoleums of Whispering Glades contained nothing but "loved ones".

Dominic Lawson: What's wrong with MPs having jobs outside Parliament?

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

The Labour MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath appears to disapprove of Parliamentarians who do not devote themselves entirely and exclusively to the service of their constituents. He has instigated a rule, coming into force tomorrow, which requires MPs to reveal how much time they spend on "second jobs" and how much they are paid for this additional work. As a result, all of David Cameron's shadow cabinet are now relinquishing their other jobs, rather than allow themselves to be seen as "part-time MPs".

Dominic Lawson: A rage to succeed, not talent, is the mark of sporting greatness

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:00:26 GMT

Today Andy Murray walks on to Wimbledon's Centre Court to open his bid to become the first Briton to win the Gentlemen's Singles at the All England Club championships since Fred Perry in 1936. The difference between Murray and all the previous British contenders over the past 73 years is that his foreign rivals regard him as a truly terrifying opponent, one they would dearly wish to avoid in the draw.

Dominic Lawson: Our system of justice is not just rotten – it is lethal

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Here's a question for you. What proportion of those charged with murder are men under the supervision of the probation service? The answer, as released over the weekend by the Shadow Justice Secretary, Dominic Grieve, is: one in seven. Mr Grieve argues that this figure, based on the past three years' statistics, demolishes Jack Straw's claim that the horrifying murder of two French students by a highly dangerous probationer, Dano Sonnex, was a "one-off case".

Dominic Lawson: Stop bleating about the need for change and hold an election

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

When a man is suffering from terminal cancer, he is liable to be persuaded that his best chance is to switch to a diet of broccoli juice, as recommended by his wife, who once saw something amazing about it on the internet. Friends shake their heads privately but decide to humour him. Why not, if it raises his hopes, if only for a few months?

Dominic Lawson: Politics should be more like a gentlemen's club, not less

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:00:01 GMT

I wonder what Americans must now be thinking of the Palace of Westminster, on the (admittedly far-fetched) assumption that they are following our Prime Minister's running commentary on the Parliamentary Allowances scandal.

Dominic Lawson: The Good Lord preserve us from the popular will

Mon, 25 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Throughout the Palace of Westminster there is no more acerbic critic of "celebrities" challenging the established political order than Lord Hattersley. The former deputy leader of the Labour Party observed that Martin Bell demonstrates his contempt for the egomania and publicity-lust of politicians by always wearing a white suit "rather as Lawrence of Arabia, according to Alan Bennett, remained inconspicuous by walking the streets of London in the flowing robes of an Arab prince".

Dominic Lawson: When liberals advocate torture

Mon, 18 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Barack Obama's amazing sense of balance on the moral high-wire of American politics has been tested over the past few days. Last week he reversed his decision to accept a court order to release photographs depicting the abuse of US-held prisoners in Iraq during the Presidency of George W Bush. Many of his supporters on the left expressed their sense of betrayal at this volte-face.

Dominic Lawson: It is not the corruption that galls – it is the sheer pettiness

Mon, 11 May 2009 23:00:01 GMT

Mrs Mranil Patel, a 41-year- old mother of three, faces the possibility of a year's imprisonment. She is the first person in Britain to have been charged with "school application fraud". Mrs Patel gave her mother's address as her own, when submitting an application for her five year old son to enter Pinner Park First School. Her mother's house was in the catchment areas for this popular school, whereas her own family home was three miles outside.