The Spectator's Notes

4 April 2009

Charles Moore's reflections on the week

At our local Catholic church, a document called ‘52 Weeks for Peace’ was on the pews at the beginning of the year. It is from Pax Christi, the left-wing Catholic organisation. It sets out a theme of prayer for each week of the year. This week, the theme is ‘Pray for members of the (new) Scottish Parliament that it will promote justice and peace in the country. Remember that Faslane is the home of the Trident nuclear submarine, a weapon of mass destruction.’ This juxtaposition brought me up sharp. Until now, I have always been pleased to think of Trident slipping in and out of the waters of Gare Loch, and have given thanks to God that she helps protect us all, but if Pax Christi is right in its implication that the members of the Scottish Parliament might somehow get their hands on her, a rethink is called for. When the cry goes up, ‘It’s Scotland’s nuke!’, I shall join CND.

Spectator readers can be pleased that the BBC Trust, which reported on Tuesday, has found in our favour. It says, too mildly, but clearly, that the tone of TV Licensing’s reminder letters is ‘too harsh’ and that households without television sets (there are half a million of us) deserve ‘non-accusatory’ language. I notice from the report that complaints about all of this have risen from roughly 10,000 in 2001-02 to 35,000 this year. This is because the letters from TV Licensing have become more libellous, more frequent, and often impervious to reply. The Trust acknowledges that people feel threatened by letters which imply guilt on the envelope: ‘not appropriate’, it says. And it has spotted — which I had not — that the 084 numbers which you have to use when you ring TV Licensing ‘generate revenue’ for some of the BBC’s crony organisations. It says this should cease. So we are getting somewhere. But the report does not upbraid the BBC for pretending, by using the name TV Licensing, that it somehow has nothing to do with the nasty business of licence fee collection, and that its ‘enforcement officers’ have powers. It should force the BBC to state that it cannot make you tell it whether you have a licence or demand the right to enter your house or even to question you. You can — and should — defy it with impunity.

The City pages of newspapers are made more enjoyable by headlines which do not consider the amazing images the natural and ordinary meaning of their words conjures up. ‘Aluminium giant slumps to loss’, says one poetically. Oil majors eye lingerie arms; bears lash Darling as hedges hit bottoms. Anything can happen. Sometimes what happens is truly unimaginable: ‘Sainsbury’s boosted by red noses and offal’, I read last week.

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manuel escott

April 6th, 2009 10:41pm Report this comment

The last time I looked, Gare Loch as Charles Moore writes is in fact spelled Gareloch. Or maybe it has been changed since I was growing up in Scotland.

Chris MacLeod

April 7th, 2009 6:52pm Report this comment

The Scottish Government would prefer not to have Trident in Scotland, so it's very unlikely that Charles Moore will hear any cries of "It's Scotland's nuke" any time soon.

Sherlock

April 14th, 2009 11:50am Report this comment

I don't know quite what it must say about myself, but I thought that Jacqui Smith's husband's watching the porn was obviously going to be said to be a consequence of his lonely nights. What no one has said, in the opposite, is what she might have been watching. Those are great headlines from the city pages. I'm glad you wrote of them in your Notes.