The Spectator's Notes

9 August 2008

Charles Moore's reflections on the week

Last month, the Lord-Lieutenant of our county, Phyllida Stewart-Roberts, qualified for her free television licence and therefore retired. Few people know exactly what Lord-Lieutenants do, because the office is lost in the mists of time. The chief duty is to represent the Queen in the county. Nowadays, this has come to mean spreading a general benevolence — publicising good charities, recommending worthy people for honours and worthy causes for awards, suggesting possible magistrates, turning up at occasions which assist the county’s pride or prosperity or (in floods, for example) comfort its distress. Unlike, possibly, most Lord-Lieutenants, Mrs Stewart-Roberts is very beautiful, so everyone enjoys seeing her go about her official duties; but even if she were not, she could still lay claim to an achievement which is denied to all those who hold political office — she has done nothing but good. I know the Lord-Lieutenancy is not at the cutting edge of social thought, but there is something to be learned, as we all fret about the ‘broken society’, from its spirit of unquenchable — and unpaid — goodwill.

We are in a ‘Dear Mary’ situation. A friend rang and asked me for our address to invite us to a party. The invitations went out (I know this from others), but ours never arrived. I am not offended if we have not been asked, but I fretted that the invitation was lost in the post and we looked rude for not answering it. So I emailed the friend. No reply, quite possibly because I guessed his email address from memory. Now I feel like Mr Pooter after trying unsuccessfully to get the Blackfriars Bi-weekly News to report that he and his wife went to the Lord Mayor’s Ball: ‘My time is far too valuable to bother with such trifles.’

One of David Cameron’s 38 summer reading recommendations for his MPs is a book called Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness, by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein. It is only the latest example of a genre of book which cleverly identifies something in the zeitgeist, contributes a ‘how to’ element to the problem, and discloses 90 per cent of its message in its title. Small Is Beautiful and Freakonomics are classic examples. After Nudge, I suggest a book called Yank: How to Spot a Trend in America, and Make Millions Worldwide.