Friday forecasts?
Hmmm well, have a go in the comments. We're all over the place here; lots and lots of big news stories and no real steer from Harry's Place either. My guess is:
Cohen, Sunday: Yorkshire jihadi videos and how they show it isn't Blair's fault. Perhaps a few swipes at the BBC for getting back on the front foot post-Gilligan?
Aaro, Tuesday: New Orleans, for sure. Theme: "the vulnerability, the fallibility".
Cohen, Tuesday: I am beginning to give up hope that "reach out to the left week" will ever be upon us, but I will nevertheless bet on this one. Sideline; amusing reflections on what it would be like if the levee were to break in Islington.
But the field is wide open. I'm assuming that Aaro will be back from Brunei. Guess early, guess often.
Update: Thinking about it, the Tuesday Cohen col wasn't in the Standard this week; I suspect they dropped him because the Peter Oborne column was held over from the Bank Holiday. This would suggest it will be back this week but you never know.
Cohen, Sunday: Yorkshire jihadi videos and how they show it isn't Blair's fault. Perhaps a few swipes at the BBC for getting back on the front foot post-Gilligan?
Aaro, Tuesday: New Orleans, for sure. Theme: "the vulnerability, the fallibility".
Cohen, Tuesday: I am beginning to give up hope that "reach out to the left week" will ever be upon us, but I will nevertheless bet on this one. Sideline; amusing reflections on what it would be like if the levee were to break in Islington.
But the field is wide open. I'm assuming that Aaro will be back from Brunei. Guess early, guess often.
Update: Thinking about it, the Tuesday Cohen col wasn't in the Standard this week; I suspect they dropped him because the Peter Oborne column was held over from the Bank Holiday. This would suggest it will be back this week but you never know.
posted by The Rioja Kid at 9/02/2005 06:54:00 AM
10 Comments:
I'll have a punt on Cohen on parenting orders, with a side order of victim court statements.
[Sorry, guys: I'm still working on an appropriate 'nom de comment-poster']
It's a definite contest whether you get your "reach out to the left" post before I get my, "Intellectual honesty requires me to move to the Daily Mail". Thinking about it the Standard is a clearly a perfect stepping-stone, even looks much the same, would be notice?
I think this Sunday Cohen will go one of two ways. If he writes it before attending his Friday dinner party he'll reach out to the left, and blame the half-hearted rescue mission in New Orleans on most of its inhabitants being poor and not white. Then however he'll note the Iraq stampede disaster of poor, non-white people was caused by terrorists, and there the left have nothing to say. He'll conclude that George Bush is the only one fighting both evils.
If he's already been to the dinner party, however, he'll just note both disasters "probably brought a wry smile to those around the dinner-tables of Notting Hill and Islington" as they both are something with which "to bash America", and he'll conclude softly that we can never have a decent-left.
perhaps we should have a vote on whether we should change the name of this blog to "cohen watch (incorporating aaronovitch watch)" as cohen is both more productive and more fun to watch. On second thoughts don't listen to me, I'm just getting Aaro withdrawal symptoms.
Mind you, if I made my inital prediction above for DA as well, does that count as an each-way bet?
yes, and such bets are not only accepted but encouraged. You might in principle lose points for lack of specificity but to be honest genuine wins in this contest are so few and far between that I say go for it.
How about "Fun with Nick and Dave" as an alternative title?
I'm not sure which way Nick's going to jump this Sunday. Sometimes I get a funny feeling that he's rethinking his conversion to decency and that it sometimes occurs to him, in the wee small hours, that the Muslimonazi Panzer divisions aren't poised to roll over N1.
Hmm, all the favourites seem to have been taken, so a couple of outside bets:
(i) The Left's softness on China - insatiable demand for oil, threatening Taiwan, sponsors of Burmese junta and tolerators of North Korean tyranny, Why Oh Why is The Left silent, etc. Nothing very topical other than the sky-high price of oil in part because of Chinese demand, but that might be enough. He could give a nod to New Orleans at the start.
(ii) Why Tony Blair is right on anti-social behaviour (And Why Is The Left Silent?). This might be preparation for his conversion to the cause of ID cards, which he and his readers aren't quite ready for yet.
But yeah, most likely it'll be New Orleans or Mohammed Sadique Khan.
(My copy of the Economist hasn't arrived yet, so bearing in mind the consequences of my timidity last week I reserve the right to make a supplementary prediction when it turns up tomorrow morning)
It's The Foreign Office and Yusuf al-Qaradawi this week, but he has secreted away a 'Silence Of The Left' moment:
"The FO doesn't want to know because it is desperate to have authoritative Muslim voices condemn the slaughter in Iraq. That would indeed be nice. So too would be the odd denunciation from the Western left."
Why the British govt is far to soft on Ismaic extremists (with the usual dig at the left) he won't touch the hurricane far to difficult to put the boot into hos real enemies.
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