Society

Thursday

The Spectator

Barometer | 14 September 2017

Selfie-worth The animal rights charity Peta dropped a case claiming that a macaque which took its own photo was entitled to the royalties, rather than the camera owner (but only after the photographer agreed to donate a quarter of the royalties to animal charities). — The idea of animal property rights was advanced by Australian philosopher John Hadley in the Journal of Social Philosophy in 2005. He suggested animals be granted rights over territories and human guardians appointed to represent them in court. — There are issues still to be reconciled, however: what of non-territorial animals, and those which dispute each other’s territories? Would cats be expected to resolve differences

Taki

High life | 14 September 2017

I’m in Venice for the film festival that just ended and, as an American humorist once wired his paper: ‘Streets full of water, stop. Send funds, stop.’ What is there to say about Venice that hasn’t already been said or written by better men or women — Thomas Mann and Jan Morris to mention just two? Yes, Venice evokes higher thoughts, but not this time. I was thinking of Byron as I chugged past the Palazzo Mocenigo where he lived, when I spotted a gondola with five Chinese women on board, all fiercely concentrating on their mobiles. ‘Stop that and look at the buildings, girls,’ I yelled at them. They

Robin Oakley

The turf | 14 September 2017

Racing moves off the back pages only when its opponents have bad news to gloat over. Two examples lately have been the disciplining of Irish jump jockey Davy Russell for striking a wayward horse, and the death of the Flat-racer Permian, trained in Yorkshire by Mark Johnston, after he broke a leg as he crossed the finishing line at Arlington Park in Illinois. The Russell saga reminded me of the morality tale of the frozen bird in a Russian forest that falls from the sky exhausted. A kindly hunter places the tiny creature inside his fur jacket, where it thaws. Anxious to carry on his shooting, the hunter spots a

Janet de Botton

Bridge | 14 September 2017

This summer was the longest I have gone without playing bridge since I began about 20 years ago. Not one single game, unless you count Bridge Baron, the computer programme that generates billions of deals to hone one’s skills and fend off withdrawal symptoms. Since my return I’ve hardly had time to unpack: both TGR’s and Young Chelsea’s autumn leagues have started, the EBU’s Premier League kicked off last weekend and we will be playing the Vilnius Cup when you (I hope) read this.   The Premier League is the contest that decides who will play for England in the Camrose Trophy (the home nations championships). There are now three

Melissa Kite

Real life | 14 September 2017

Stefano and his boys got to work with gusto and within a few days the upstairs of my house started looking like the upstairs of a house. ‘I’ve got walls!’ I exclaimed, after one day. The next day: ‘I’ve got doors!’ The day after that I had a wardrobe. ‘Oh, you are wonderful!’ I told Stefano, and he looked at me with his usual expression, a bemused grin. ‘Getting… there…’ he said, in between the screeching of his boys putting electric saws through sheets of plasterboard. ‘There’s just one thing,’ I said. ‘What are these?’ A bag of pink doorknobs lay on a table. ‘You don’t like?’ he said. ‘They

Toby Young Toby Young

Do what they do, not what they say

Last month, two law professors named Amy Wax and Larry Alexander published a piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer praising ‘bourgeois’ values. They argued that many of the social problems afflicting the American working class, such as the opioid epidemic, are partly due to the decline of these values and that reviving them might go some way to help. They summarised them as follows: ‘Get married before you have children and strive to stay married for their sake. Get the education you need for gainful employment, work hard, and avoid idleness. Go the extra mile for your employer or client. Be a patriot, ready to serve the country. Be neighbourly, civic-minded,

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 14 September 2017

Home The European Union (Withdrawal) Bill was given a second reading by 326 votes to 290, with seven Labour MPs rebelling against the whip. Tony Blair, the former Labour prime minister, said it would be quite all right for Britain to stay in the European Union after all, with agreed adjustments to the free movement of people. Jeremy Corbyn, the current Labour leader, said that it was ‘open for discussion’ whether Britain remained in the EU single market, though Labour’s policy is for Britain to stay in the single market after March 2019 for a temporary period. Sir Peter Hall, the founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a former director

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 14 September 2017

Q. My partner and I recently had two close friends — one a Peer, the other a former Member of the Scottish Parliament — over for lunch. During the course of an otherwise splendid meal, our friend from the House of Lords took a ten-minute call from a former prime minister, remaining at the table for the duration of the somewhat banal exchange. Should we be honoured to mix in such lofty circles, or should we be offended by such a breach of etiquette? — C.W.H., East Lothian A. This was undoubtedly a breach of etiquette, made worse by the Peer’s assumption that others present would be flattered by being privy

Tanya Gold Tanya Gold

In silent misremembrance

Foxlow is near Golden Square in west Soho, where drunken hacks used to take long drunken lunches before having stupid drunken ideas. My favourite stupid drunken idea was from a Guardian hack and it involved renting an ice-cream van and asking Nick Cohen and A.A. Gill to drive around in it, selling ice creams, bickering and hopefully breaking down, before writing up the experience for a Silly Season special. But drunken hacks no longer take long drunken lunches in Soho. They get drunk at home, if there is one, or drink in the queue at Eat, if they can afford to eat. The piece was not commissioned, the years passed, and

Sebastian Faulks

Diary – 14 September 2017

I never expected to visit Iceland, let alone play cricket there. But the Iceland national team was off to play in the Pepsi Cup in Prague last week, against Hungary and Poland among others, and needed some easy meat to practise on. So the Authors XI found themselves in a vast indoor stadium in Reykjavik with artificial grass and a yellow ball, playing three 20-over games. The floodlights were dim and the ball swung prodigiously. When it bounced, it either stood up, stopped or hurried through low. The best word to describe batting conditions would be ‘difficult’. Our opening bowler, the novelist Nicholas Hogg, took four for seven in four

Dot Wordsworth

Gorblimey trousers

Piles of black plastic rubbish sacks lie in the streets of Birmingham because, since the end of June, the dustmen have been on strike. That is not quite what the BBC tells us. On its website the corporation says that ‘refuse workers have resumed strike action’. I complained here a year ago that dustcarts were disappearing in favour of bin lorries, and now the very dustmen are returning to the dust — dust and ashes. ‘Memento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris,’ the priest says, ‘Remember thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return,’ as he marks a cross of ashes on our foreheads on Ash Wednesday.

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s notes | 14 September 2017

Apologies for my absence from this column. My editors kindly let me get on with the final volume of my Thatcher biography. In my one week of actual holiday — in northern England and in Scotland — I had cause to reflect on what makes a good conversation. The problem with so many social conversations (lunch, dinner, parties) is that talk is compulsory. This can be a helpful thing, but it penalises those who are interesting but shy against those who are more assertive than interesting. Conversations among people engaged in an outdoor pursuit are quite different. They can start, stop and resume without any embarrassment, and they rest on

Columba

2327: Exhibition

Five unclued lights are titles of works by a person whose name is formed by two unclued lights. Three clues are definitions only; their answers exhibit all the unchecked letters of the titles. One unclued light consists of three words, and one consists of two words.   Across 1    Action in public at an end (8) 9    Fan-shaped tag left among lot (10) 16    Tawdry stuff in petition for monument? (6) 17    Lines in essence ignoring pressure causing poverty (5) 18    Expert, as admitted, is shrewd (5) 20    Doctor, florid, missing old country (7) 22    Dodgy dealer receiving money for stone (7) 25

Douglas Murray

The age of the unicorn question

I’ve been in Los Angeles for the last week, and it takes a special set of occurrences for someone to return to the UK from LA and think that Britain is getting a bit weird. Yet we appear to have managed it. While I was away there was the row about Jacob Rees-Mogg expressing his adherence to the Catholic church’s views on social issues (over which he has no legislative control). Then there was a row about whether it is bigoted to see any differences between boys and girls, and whether children can or should ‘choose’ which gender they are. And there was also a row on morning television in

Nick Hilton Nick Hilton

The Spectator Podcast: Playing the race card

On this week’s episode, we ask whether Theresa May is jumping on a bandwagon by playing the so-called ‘race card’. We also look at the coalitions within our political parties which are being stretched to breaking point, and consider whether doping is the real lifeblood of professional sport. First up: Next month, Theresa May is expected to release the results of a race audit, which has investigated racial disparities in public services. Following hot on the heels of David Lammy’s review into the criminal justice system’s relationship with race, whispers are already abounding that it is being lined up by the Tories as a ‘game-changer’ in terms of their outreach to BAME

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

The African bush took me back to my boyhood

Entering the Bulawayo Club, you step out of the blinding African sunshine on that safe and friendly city’s wide streets, and into the cool of a generous, mahogany-lined reception hall, its glorious art-deco doorways and fittings taking you back to another age: the early 1930s when the Club, already about 40 years old, rebuilt the clubhouse in the grand style of a confident colonial southern Rhodesia. Facing you are two large portraits. One is of Cecil John Rhodes in tunic and wing collar. This you would expect, though the finest representation of that capable, restless, vainglorious, morally ambiguous and sometimes duplicitous achiever hangs in the Lobengula room: a light and

Roger Alton Roger Alton

Why did you do it, Roy?

Poor old Roy Hodgson, why did he take on Crystal Palace? He was having lunch at a Côte in a salubrious suburb of south-west London the other day, indistinguishable in his blazer and slacks from all the other old boys there enjoying a leisurely retirement and looking forward to a postprandial nap. Roy is a charming man, and one of a vanishing number of football managers to have hinted at a non-footballing cultural hinterland, entirely suited to a life of leisure. Yet now he is willingly going once more unto the god-awful breach that is Premier League management.   Imagine: wet afternoons at Selhurst Park trying to lift a struggling team

Jonathan Ray Jonathan Ray

Wine Club 16 September

Our partners Yapp Bros have just scooped the coveted Wine List of the Year gong at the recent Inter-national Wine Challenge, along with Languedoc Merchant of the Year and Loire Merchant of the Year. In their commendation, the judges said: ‘The Yapp Bros list is concise, beautifully illustrated with great writing and offers much more than a simple list of wines.’ I think it’s fair to say that Jason Yapp is feeling rather chipper. So much so, in fact, that not only did Jason put up a particularly fine selection for me to whittle down on your behalf, he also lopped a quid off every bottle and promised to put