Clive Davis

NOTEBOOK

Every Fleet Street hack I know has, at one time or another, fantasised about working for a New York magazine. Getting that call from Tina Brown or Graydon Carter is the equivalent of the telegram Herman J. Mankiewicz sent Ben Hecht from Hollywood in 1925:

WILL YOU ACCEPT THREE HUNDRED PER WEEK TO WORK FOR PARAMOUNT PICTURES? ALL EXPENSES PAID. THE THREE HUNDRED IS PEANUTS. MILLIONS ARE TO BE GRABBED OUT HERE AND YOUR ONLY COMPETITION IS IDIOTS. DON’T LET IT GET AROUND.

Toby Young, How To Lose Friends & Alienate People.

THE GREAT DICTATOR(S)

Do we really need more Bush-and-the-Nazis metaphors? Diane McWhorter's essay in Slate makes a couple of reasonable points about the danger of conformism in wartime. As for the rest, talk about a lack of proportion:

The most literal shock of recognition was the repulsively callous arrogance of the term "shock and awe." (The Iraqi people were supposed to pause and be impressed by our bombs before being incinerated/liberated by them?) Airstrikes as propaganda had been the invention of the German Luftwaffe, whose signature work, the terror-bombing Blitz of England, did not awe the British people into submission, either.

She's forgetting that the principle of "shock and awe" was all about destroying Baathist infrastructure without aiming to kill or terrorize civilians. Yes, I'm aware that reality was very different and that civilians did perish, but it still remains the case that the US didn't trumpet its ability to cause mayhem among the innocent. I'm shocked that McWhorter doesn't even recognize that basic difference.

As Harry's Place observes, Tony Blair has been getting the Hitler treatment too.

WAVES

Al Jazeera's English channel has been surprisingly good so far. It's a bit like watching TV while standing on your head - all the usual priorities are reversed - but that's no doubt good for the circulation. Although did you know the output is rationed?

The problem with news channels is you really have to be 24 hours if you're going to cover the news properly. A little noted fact about the new Al Jazeera English channel is that it is only live for 12 hours a day (midday to midnight GMT) - the other 12 hours being recorded programmes. So when ... the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert made an historic speech saying he hopes to revive long-stalled peace efforts with the Palestinians, Al Jazeera were not live and viewers had to wait two hours to hear about it.

From next week the station will have more competition in the shape of France 24. A trailer here, via Iain Dale.

ON HIS TRAIL

As I mentioned at the weekend, Jackie Danicki, one of the sparkiest bloggers around, was assaulted on the Tube last Friday, but managed to take a photo of one of the culprits. She filed a report with the police, yet she's still waiting to hear from the investigating officer. The force's head of media and marketing has been in touch, though. Very reassuring...

DID THE ATLANTIC JUST GROW A FEW FEET WIDER?

Some more examples of continental drift...

The good news, according to NY Post columnist Ralph Peters, is that "Eurabia" won't happen. Why? Well, that's the bad news. The reason it won't happen is that the indigenous Euros, for all their addiction to "narcotic socialism" are much too skilled at genocide to tolerate uppity minorities:

I have no difficulty imagining a scenario in which U.S. Navy ships are at anchor and U.S. Marines have gone ashore at Brest, Bremerhaven or Bari to guarantee the safe evacuation of Europe's Muslims. After all, we were the only ones to do anything about the slaughter of Muslims in the Balkans.

Mark Steyn responds at Power Line.

The Times meanwhile runs a front-page lead on a State Department official's unusually candid remarks about the Anglo-American alliance:

Kendall Myers, a senior State Department analyst, disclosed that for all Britain’s attempts to influence US policy in recent years, "we typically ignore them and take no notice — it’s a sad business". He added that he felt "a little ashamed" at Mr Bush’s treatment of the Prime Minister, who had invested so much of his political capital in standing shoulder to shoulder with America after 9/11.

End of the special relationship? The Times leader writer disagrees:

The man who is the favourite to succeed Mr Bush — John McCain — is a committed Anglophile, much as Mr Blair’s near- certain replacement — Gordon Brown — is an Atlanticist to his core. The title of the seminar at which Dr Myers spoke was "How special is the US-UK relationship after Iraq?" The correct answer to the question remains "very special".

Personally, I have my doubts. Regardless of what the political leaders do or say, I think that events in Iraq will speed a broader cultural shift towards Europe. But I'll be happy to be proved wrong on that.

MR BEAN GOES TO FRANCE

My sons assure me he really is funny. I'll stick to Norman Wisdom, thank you. But if there are many Mr B fans out there, Cinematical invites you to take a look at the trailer for the new film, set across the Channel:

For those of you think this movie is a waste of time, keep in mind the last Bean flick (which didn't exactly impress, though I wound up watching it at least six or seven times for some odd reason -- damn you cable!) grossed $240 million worldwide.

MICHAEL CRICHTON STRIKES AGAIN

The following is a line from Next: "Dot.gks.org/98726767/9877676/490056—22K—Cached—Similar pages."  What’s interesting about it is not that Mr. Crichton may be the only pop novelist writing Google code, but that he can weave it into a plot.

The NY Times reviews one of the writer's "more un-put-downable novels". I guess that's what you'd describe as faint praise.

OBSTACLE

In Newsweek, a long profile of Iraq’s ruthless Shiite power-broker:

The story of the US confrontation with Moqtada al-Sadr is, in many ways, the story of American folly in Iraq. It's a story of ignorance and poor planning, missteps and confusion…. Even some educated Shiites dismissed Moqtada as a zatut, or ignorant child. Some called him "Mullah Atari," because he apparently enjoyed videogames as a kid.

There was a chance to cut him down to size two years ago, but it seems a general shortage of troops deterred Paul Bremer from acting. Now it looks like it’s too late:

The movement may now be more important than the man. Sadr "is faced with a common problem," says Toby Dodge of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. He can't control the use of his brand name, the use of his legitimacy." Some elder followers of Sadr's father have broken away, disillusioned with the son. And some young toughs seem to be freelancing where they can. Renegade factions could eventually threaten Sadr's power. If he were to fall, "you'll end up with 30 different movements," says Vali Nasr, a scholar and author who has briefed the Bush administration on Iraq. "There are 30 chieftains who have a tremendous amount of local power. If you remove him, there will be a scramble for who will inherit this movement ... It's a great danger doing that. You may actually make your life much more difficult."

PORTRAIT OF THE JAZZ SINGER AS AN OLD REBEL

No jolly zoot suit, no fedora. Yet he isn’t fading away just yet. David Sinclair’s photograph of George Melly captures the singer’s inextinguishable desire to keep the show on the road. (He’s playing at Ronnie Scott’s tonight, in fact.)   You can see more of David’s photos here.

Melly isn’t just a peerless entertainer. His series of memoirs – especially Owning Up – offer terrific sketches of British life down bohemian by-ways and behind the net curtains. The latest instalment, Slowing Down, is as touching a mediation on old age as John Mortimer’s The Summer of a Dormouse.

"LEGAL PLURALISM"

Troubling news about the spread of sharia law in Britain:

The BBC Radio 4 programme Law in Action produced evidence yesterday that it was being used by some Muslims as an alternative to English criminal law. Aydarus Yusuf, 29, a youth worker from Somalia, recalled a stabbing case that was decided by an unofficial Somali "court" sitting in Woolwich, south-east London.

... Faizul Aqtab Siddiqi, a barrister and principal of Hijaz College Islamic University, near Nuneaton said this type of court had advantages for Muslims. "It operates on a low budget, it operates on very small timescales and the process and the laws of evidence are far more lenient and it's less awesome an environment than the English courts."

More here:

Former judge Gerald Butler QC says that while courts such as the Jewish Beth Din can work properly, it's essential that all of the involved parties "freely and voluntarily agree to the jurisdiction... and that they conduct their proceedings fairly and properly". He adds: "What they mustn't do - and this must never happen - is to stray into the field of criminal matters. That simply would never be acceptable."

...Cassandra Balchin, a convert to Islam and spokeswoman for the group Women Living Under Muslim Laws, is concerned about the growth of these minority legal systems. "Very often traditional forms of mediation can disadvantage vulnerable groups, such as women, within a community."