There's a new face in the national security team at the White House. Peter Feaver was known in his last role at Duke University as a political scientist with an odd speciality—public opinion and war. Feaver has been building models on what it takes to keep the American public supporting a war. The decisive factor seems to be whether people believe that their leaders are convinced that they can, and will, win. Feaver also reckons the public need to hear about regular "benchmarks," like the January elections. So expect to hear about numbers of Iraqi troops trained, schools and hospitals opened and so on. Just one benchmark is banned. Never use the term "body count."
Frivolous Sunday Telegraph
While the rest of the world was distracted by the Barclay brothers' sacking of Sunday Telegraph editor Dominic Lawson, the newspaper was getting itself into a stew about replacing its excellent theatre critic, John Gross. Gross, like his predecessors, the playwright Frank Marcus and the novelist Francis King, has always been committed to, and serious about, the theatre, but since his retirement the paper has taken a rather frivolous approach to finding someone new. It started by auditioning different critics in print on an almost week-by-week basis, then briefly appointed its diarist Tim Walker, aka "Mandrake." Walker was the only critic to praise The Countess, a production which lasted only slightly longer than his tenure as critic; after three weeks, the paper was rumoured to be offering the job to AN Wilson—who apparently turned it down. The latest "brilliant new theatre critic" as they are billing her, is Rebecca Tyrrell, but how long will she last? The outcome of the theatre critic saga could be an early test of whether the charming Sarah Sands, new Sunday Telegraph editor, is about to unleash the "dumbing down" dogs on to the paper in an attempt to stop the circulation slide.
Ignatieff to rule Canada?
Michael Ignatieff—essayist, novelist, broadcaster, human rights superstar and Prospect contributor—may be on the verge of a grand homecoming. The Canadian press is convinced that Ignatieff, born and bred in Toronto, is about to announce his intention to run for parliament in the next election—likely to be held early next year—and some suspect he has his eyes on a bigger prize: the premiership. Ignatieff delivered the main address at the governing Liberal party's policy convention in March, a speech described by one paper as "bare-nakedly political." The Liberal prime minister, Paul Martin, has run what is widely considered to be a lacklustre government since late 2003, and lost the Liberal majority in last year's election. Some commentators see Ignatieff as heir to Pierre Trudeau, the giant of Canadian politics in the 1970s and early 1980s, famous for wearing sandals in parliament. Friends of Ignatieff do not deny his interest in a political career in Canada. But he will, as a glamorous outsider, face plenty of hostility, and he may suffer for his "liberal interventionist" pro-Iraq war stance. There is also the small matter of finding a vacant seat—90 per cent of sitting Liberal MPs have already been renominated for the next election.
Twigg
Stephen Twigg, best known for his telegenic defeat of Michael Portillo in 1997, is returning to the think-tank world after losing his seat in May. He will head the Foreign Policy Centre (FPC), the pro-government foreign policy think tank launched in 1998. Twigg was running the Fabian Society before he went into parliament. Meanwhile the Social Market Foundation is on the point of announcing its new director: the smart money is on acting head Ann Rossiter.
Moscow
A last-minute attempt is being mounted to help save the Moscow School of Political Studies—one of the few centres of liberalism in Russia's increasingly cold political climate. The school, run by Lena Nemirovskaya, has just lost its main grant from the EU, having lost a smaller "knowhow" British grant a few years ago. The school specialises in bringing young Russian leaders from the regions to debate with national and international experts.
Schama bankrupts the Beeb
Simon Schama has just completed the third of ten one-hour television essays on individual painters, which will together form a history of art epic to be broadcast next year. Our spies tell us that the programmes look impressive but Schama himself is acting up a bit. He is said to be demanding fees so high that the show's producers are left with almost nothing to make the programmes with. Still, with the big pay rises just pocketed by BBC executives, who can blame him?
