Times Watch for October 31, 2003
Krugman
Unwillingly Embraces Improving Economy
As even the Times trumpets on Friday's front-page that
the U.S. economy is improving ("Economy Records Speediest Growth Since the
Mid-80's" is their surprisingly enthusiastic headline), columnist and resident
doomsayer Paul Krugman begrudgingly agrees, while adamantly refusing to credit
his arch-nemesis Bush: "Still, it's possible that we really have reached a
turning point. If so, does it validate the Bush economic program? Well, no."
For the rest of Krugman's muted reaction to the economy's recent growth,
click here.
Columnists |
Economy |
Paul Krugman
Thatcher
the Throwback
Alan Cowell's Friday dispatch from London, "Ex-Home Secretary Seeks to Lead
Britain's Conservatives," attacks from the left the bid by Michael Howard to
take the reins of Britain's Conservative Party, after party leader Iain Duncan
Smith's loss of a no-confidence vote Wednesday.
Cowell
writes that "Mr. Howard, a former barrister and the son of Romanian-born
immigrants, will be under pressure to win the support of moderate Tories who see
him as a throwback to the right-wing policies of Margaret Thatcher. As home
secretary, he was known to be tough on crime in the 1990's and who has been
virulently opposed to Britain adopting the European single currency, the euro.
He has also been depicted by his critics as somehow sinister and shady, dogged
by a remark by a onetime aide who said there was 'something of the night' about
him."
However,
as Cowell noted in a Thursday piece, the author of that remark, Ann Widdicombe,
supports Howard's bid.
For the rest of Alan Cowell's piece
on Tory infighting,
click here.
Britain |
Alan Cowell |
Margaret Thatcher |
Tories
U.S.
to Blame for Bulging British Bellies?
While her London colleague Alan Cowell talks of a
"throwback" to the days of Margaret Thatcher, reporter Lizette Alvarez's own
story for Friday ponders a return to the nanny state that Thatcher opposed. In
"U.S. Eating Habits, and Europeans, Are Spreading Visibly," Alvarez says the
U.S. is to blame for bulging Brits, and brings up the possibility of government
intervention to stop people eating so much.
"Krispy Kreme arrived in
Britain this month at the food section of Harrods, just a quick sashay away from
pricey bonbons and minitubs of pt," writes Alvarez. "It is another example of
how familiar American-style eating habits, and their bulging consequences, have
become in Britain and most other European countries. Sedentary lifestyles are
part of the reason, experts say. So is an environment where adults and children
alike are bombarded with commercials for yummy, sugary foods. But most of all,
Europeans are eating differently: they are eating more like Americans."
Is there anything the U.S.
isn't to blame for?
Alvarez adds, almost
regretfully: "But unlike smoking, eating is not outright harmful to health, so
it is more difficult to control by legislation.Doctors recently proposed adding
a 17.5 percent 'fat tax' on some fattening foods sold here, but the idea was
criticized as unjust to the poor, who consume more processed foods than
wealthier people. Ireland is already holding government hearings on the idea of
such a tax."
For all their vaunted
cosmopolitanism, Times reporters seem to have an outsized sense of America's
influence worldwide. Such signature British offerings as fish and chips are
hardly low-calorie, and it wasn't the U.S. that invented the
deep-fried Mars bar (a Scottish invention popular in London).
For the rest of Alvarez's story,
click here.
Lizette Alvarez |
Britain |
Diet |
Health |
Obesity