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The Spectator’s notes

Charles Moore

Wednesday, 5th December 2007

Charles Moore's thoughts on the week

It is not proving helpful to Gordon Brown that he is the ‘son of the manse’. The transition from Scottish Presbyterian minister in one generation to Prime Minister in the next was never likely to appeal to the majority. And now that scandal has engulfed Mr Brown, his holy background becomes the object of satire. An additional difficulty, I suspect, is that very few people in England know what a ‘manse’ is. In his dictionary, Dr Johnson defines it as ‘1. Farm and land. 2. A parsonage house.’ But if you did not know that, how, from recent coverage, might you guess? As well as Mr Brown, his henchman, Douglas Alexander and Douglas’s sister Wendy, the Scottish Labour leader who appears knowingly to have taken a forbidden donation from a man in Jersey, are also children of the manse. Will people conclude that the phrase means something like the word ‘godfather’ in the novels of Mario Puzo? As Chairman of the flourishing Rectory Society, I should like to take this opportunity to say that our work is not confined to England, Wales and Ireland. We welcome those with an interest in Scottish clerical property, former or current (membership@rectorysociety.org.uk), and we promise that, even for the most prodigal sons, we shall kill the fatted calf. Our annual general meeting, by the way, is at St George’s, Hanover Square at 7 p.m. on Tuesday 29 January, where Lady Mary Keen will speak on parsonage gardens; free to members, non-members £10. Prime ministers may donate to the society pseudonymously.

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bruce

December 29th, 2007 8:14pm

the oxford english dictionary (2nd ed.) confirms both terms as per the johnson dictionary definition

Philip T

January 5th, 2008 12:54am

Who was the extreme anti-semite hosted by Ahmed? Doesn't anti-semitism constitute racism and is therefore an offence?
Also, what did these two do to deserve peerages; I'd certainly never heard of them before they became peers.

A child of our time

From the economic and psychological bedlam of the global downturn has emerged a particularly dangerous false dichotomy: namely, that there is somehow a choice for ministers over the next few years between economic reconstruction and the repair of Britain’s broken society, and that the government (whether Labour or Conservative) must prioritise the former at the expense of the latter.

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Anne Robinson

The daughter and I spent the last few days before the American election in Arizona.

Politics

Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

The Spectator's Notes

Charles Moore

‘A money-financed tax cut is essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman’s famous “helicopter drop” of money.’ So said Ben Bernanke, now the chairman of the Fed, in a speech about how to ward off the ‘extremely small’ chance of deflation, which he delivered in 2002.