The Spectator's Notes

2 May 2009

Charles Moore's reflections on the week

Boris has been more forward than Oppidan Dave in condemning the 50 per cent income tax rate on incomes over £150,000 announced in the Budget. This confirms my view that the subject is one on which successful journalists feel particularly strongly. They are precisely in Mr Darling’s target range, being well-paid enough to be hit by the tax, but not mobile or rich enough to find brilliant international ways of avoiding it. The key moment when Tony Blair won over Fleet Street in time for the 1997 election was when he promised that he would not put up the top rate. Suddenly, editors and columnists miraculously saw their way clear to encouraging their readers to vote Labour. Mr Darling’s increase will have precisely the opposite effect.

A reader from South Africa emails to inform me of two recent cases in that country. In one, someone was fined 1,000 rand for not having a television licence. In another, the accused was ordered to pay 500 rand bail when charged with murder. My correspondent points out the moral: ‘If you do not have a TV licence and the inspector comes round, kill him! You’ll save 500 rand.’

In her recently serialised memoir of her life as Hitler’s typist, Christa Schroeder brings out how the Fuhrer was way ahead of his time in relation to smoking. He hit on the idea of passive smoking, complaining to her that ‘smokers lacked consideration for others, forcing them to breathe polluted air’, and he told her that he had ‘toyed with the idea’ of outlawing smoking in Germany: ‘The campaign would begin by having a death’s head printed on every cigarette pack.’ In our society, these ideas have come to fruition. Linked to Hitler’s hatred of smoking were his vegetarianism and his distaste for drinking and for hunting (which he banned). Like a great many of the nastiest people, he was obsessed with health, and with what he saw as cruelty to animals. What is the link between these views and totalitarianism? Is it something to do with a hatred of human beings?

Round us in Sussex, there have been many reports of illness among badgers. Young males, in particular, have been seen wandering around in a daze, and large numbers of corpses have been found. The cause is not yet known, but what is certainly true is that there are far too many badgers nowadays, and animal overpopulation leads to the spread of disease. The reason for overpopulation, of course, is that the law has decided that it is cruel to kill badgers.

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David Short

April 30th, 2009 2:18pm Report this comment

Don't kill the SA TV licence inspector. It's too costly. Simply give him R100 to forget about you (this works with the traffic cops), then you'll save R900.

But you must remember that when it comes to buying a new TV, you will need a licence. You have to show it in the TV shop.

Bill Corr

April 30th, 2009 2:56pm Report this comment

There is some dreadful confusion here, Charles. Goering was a hunter and made a big fuss about it, being the Chief Huntsman of the Reich; if there was ever an actual hunting ban in the Third Reich period, it was very patchily enforced. In any case, hunters / shooters / fishers are active conservationists who love and protect the countryside. Many hangars, spinneys, copses and coverts owe their continued existence to local Hunts.

These dazed young badgers may have been smoking skunk or drinking White Lightning. Oh, tempera O mores!