Commentariat

Independent Editorial

An old Jesuit maxim allegedly ran, “give me a child at seven and he will be mine for life”. Food and drinks companies appear to have embraced the same philosophy, prompting the Children’s Food Campaign to sound an alarm over the way manufacturers are supplying schools with teaching packs full of coded and not-so-coded adverts for their products.

Beware a weak and unprincipled government, facing an election that it is likely to lose. There is a whiff of political opportunism about Israel’s decision to subject Gaza to massive, deadly air raids which have killed hundreds of Palestinians.

More than 30 years ago, the American political philosopher Michael Walzer wrote: “First oppression is made into an excuse for terrorism, and then terrorism is made into an excuse for oppression.” It was a good description of the Israel-Palestine problem then, and a good description of the dynamic that would make it worse over the following three decades.

For years now the sin of sins in educational and management orthodoxy has been humiliation. Low self-esteem was seen as the root of all evil. Teachers, managers and others in positions of authority were instructed on no account to do anything that would make those who already felt bad about themselves feel worse. Enter Phil Brown, successful manager of Hull City, who played away yesterday at Manchester City.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) is an organisation that does a generally laudable and necessary job. It has none the less acquired a bad name. This is a case where both aspects of its reputation are valid.

Pakistan’s calendar is replete with difficult commemorations. But the first anniversary of Benazir Bhutto’s death must be accounted among the most perilous of recent years. Always a divisive figure, Ms Bhutto still inspires sharply conflicting passions. With tens of thousands of people converging on the Bhutto family home today to pay their respects, elaborate security precautions will be tested to the full.

At a traditional time of goodwill, this year’s seasonal utterances from pulpit and throne reflected a sombre and often pessimistic mood, punctuated with flashes of anger and recrimination towards those who had, or might, exploit others’ woes for their own advantage.

Harold Pinter, for so long lauded as Britain’s greatest living playwright, has died, his place in the pantheon of British playwrights assured. And it is hard not to imagine this master of the telling moment thoroughly relishing the many ironies attending his departure.

Despite the chill wind of recession it has been, for most of us, a Christmas of the usual festivities. Some families, for whom the increase in the unemployment figures towards the three million mark is more than a statistic, have had to make severe economies. But for the majority, even if our celebrations have been a touch more modest than in previous years, this is still a time of profusion and plenty.

Had you spent the past 18 months trend-spotting, you might have noted the fashion for national leaders – the male of the species, that is – to bare their chests for the benefit of the cameras. The latest to display his muscles for our benefit is the next President of the United States, who was snapped bestriding a Hawaiian beach in his swimming trunks. Time was when such exhibitionism was restricted, in this country at least, to young ladies seeking to distinguish themselves on the third page of certain publications.

In one particularly regrettable respect, this Christmas will be no different from the last one or the one the year before that. If you are planning to go somewhere and hope to use public transport of any kind, you will have to have reached your destination by mid-evening at the latest. Otherwise, you will not be going anywhere, except by private car or taxi. By late evening, pretty much the whole of Britain’s transport network will have shut down.

Tonight, Christians around the planet will celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ. But long before Jesus was born in a Bethlehem stable, these days in December were given over by human societies to midwinter feasting; the depths of the gloomiest and most barren season has always been an occasion for celebration. Today, most of us mix the two traditions. Religious observance dovetails with secular carousing.

Where would our imaginative lives be without boars? Hercules hunted the Erymanthian beast during his 12 labours; Odysseus was mauled by one when out hunting. In Celtic folklore, Finn McCool lured a rival to his death on a boar hunt. And, of course, fans of Asterix the Gaul know the stories would not be the same without Obelix’s inexhaustible appetite for the roast variety.

There is a distinct sense of déjà vu about panda diplomacy. Beijing, it might be said, is up to its old tricks, trading one of these outwardly winsome animals for another country’s goodwill. Here we have an example of “soft power”, as it might be said in today’s social sciences jargon, at its most calculating and crudest.

Something is plainly rotten at Scotland Yard. The Metropolitan Police force has been responsible for a catalogue of blunders in recent years, from the mistaken killing of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005 to the clumsy arrest of the Conservative immigration spokesman Damian Green last month.

They say the darkest hour is just before the dawn. But to suggest that now we have got the longest night of the year out of the way, things can (as a famous song once put it) only get better would, sadly, be stretching it a bit.

The latest appointments to Barack Obama’s administration are significant for a host of reasons. But perhaps most significant is what they tell us about the environmental priorities of the incoming American President: Mr Obama is deadly serious about facing up to the challenge of climate change.

Bad news from the job market continues to flood in. There will be a surge in unemployment in the new year, when the likes of MFI and Woolworths close their doors. And, as we report today, this is likely to be accompanied by a glut of lay-offs in the public sector. Predictions that unemployment will reach 3 million by this time next year are beginning to look increasingly plausible. The Government certainly seems to be expecting a dramatic deterioration in the jobless figures. Today, we carry a warning from a Cabinet minister that a jobs “bloodbath” looms in 2009.

Everything that we thought we knew was turned upside down in 2008. Gordon Brown was finished. Inflation was a bit of a worry. Unfunded tax cuts were the kind of nonsense that lost votes. America would never elect a black president. Simon Cowell had had his day.

It is the time of year when convention dictates that families must come back together, sometimes with explosive consequences. So there is something wonderfully seasonal about the outcome of yesterday’s draw for the knockout stages of the Champions League football tournament.

It was the worst air disaster in British history. Pam Am Flight 103 broke apart at 31,000ft above Scotland, just one hour into its voyage from London Heathrow to New York’s JFK airport on 21 December 1988. Scattering wreckage over a 10-mile area, the burning jet finally crashed into the small town of Lockerbie, destroying houses, a petrol station, and setting fires that reached 300ft into the sky. Eleven residents together with all 259 passengers and crew lost their lives that night.

The usual pre-Christmas shopping surge and the religious contemplation traditionally associated with this time of year have always rubbed up rather awkwardly together. But this year, with Britain in recession and the Government desperately trying to stimulate our economy, the two phenomena are chaffing even more uncomfortably than usual.

We might be looking at things differently in the years to come; at least when sitting on the couch. Yesterday Sky unveiled its new 3D television technology. And impressive it sounds too. The special glasses that viewers need to wear might not exactly be the height of fashion, but, by all accounts, the visual effect is quite stimulating.

Robert Napper’s guilty plea to manslaughter yesterday at the Old Bailey should have been an occasion for grim satisfaction. A triple killer and serial rapist has been convicted, and he will be detailed indefinitely at Broadmoor hospital. But the primary emotion this outcome inspires is not satisfaction but revulsion at the incompetence and carelessness of police.

With job losses mounting, the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, has confirmed that the Government is considering a request for state help from the car company Jaguar Land Rover. Any assistance, it is being emphasised, would not be a bailout as such, rather a two-year bridging loan to the tune of £1bn – sufficient to tide the firm over difficult credit conditions. Such caveats, though, do not make the decision any easier or less sensitive.