Society

Thursday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Are satanic abuse cops 120 per cent gullible?

I got lost in the forest near my house while walking the dog the other week. The path I was on, and which I thought I knew, narrowed until it was scarcely a path at all. The trees closed in and brambles tore at my legs. Somewhere, high above, I could hear the importuning mew of a buzzard. And then I reached a small clearing where the tall grass and the broom had been flattened. There were signs that a fire had been lit in the centre, and there were the shadows of human footprints in the hard earth. I immediately felt sick inside — for I knew exactly and

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

Why we need to cancel the Oscars to save the Oscars

Oscar has a problem, and I say that as a fan. If I could, I’d take one of those famous statuettes by its tiny golden hand, and show it a happy life in the bars, restaurants and movie theatres of its native Hollywood. But, clearly, others don’t feel the same way. The number of people who tuned into the Academy Awards last year was the lowest it has been for eight years. Even the traditional box office boost for victorious movies isn’t necessarily worth as much as it used to be. Viewing figures and box office receipts are, however, only the visible tip of what is a deeper problem: the

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Tom Watson’s ‘dab’ dance at PMQs

Tom Watson and Jeremy Corbyn haven’t always been the best of pals but Mr S is pleased to see that Labour’s deputy leader was fully behind Corbyn at PMQs today. In fact, Watson seemed so supportive of his boss for a change that he applauded Corbyn’s questioning of the Prime Minister with a ‘dab’. The ‘dab’ – which involves hiding your face in the crook of your elbow, while stretching both arms out in a skyward salute – has been hailed as the latest ‘goal celebration craze‘ among football players, so it’s good to see Watson is in touch with popular culture. Labour’s deputy leader also joins the likes of failed presidential candidate Hillary

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The Supreme Court’s ruling on foreign spouses is shameful

Just when you were minded to think that Supreme Court judges were a bunch of diehard liberals whose fundamentalist belief in the application of human rights overrides common sense, they deliver a judgement which makes them look like the pathetic toadies of an authoritarian government. This morning the court upheld a rule that forbids British citizens bringing a foreign spouse into the country unless they (the British citizen, not the foreign spouse) is earning at least £18,600 a year (or £22,400 if they have one or more children). I am in favour of controls on immigration, but this is a rule which stinks of discrimination and injustice. It is hard

Pea Priestly

Why London Fashion Week needs to die

Twice a year, those fortunate enough to have climbed the emotionally hazardous fashion ladder descend upon London to participate in a circus of collection displays, parties and self-funded photo shoots. Festivities ended yesterday and though there are some troubling dynamics – real time bullying of interns, unpalatably thin models, the volume of waste derived from six-inch-thick paper invites – it’s an industry that brings £26bn a year to the UK economy while showing off some of our best talent. Yet, the trending conversation in all fashion circles is whether or not Fashion Week is relevant. For an industry that is built on turning ideas around quickly, it’s astonishing that this discussion has

Ruth Sunderland

The importance of financial independence: don’t rely on a man

‘Never give up your career for a man.’ These words of my mother’s rang in my ears throughout girlhood, adolescence and young womanhood, until, about a decade into my marriage, she finally accepted I wasn’t going to. The very opposite of an Austen-esque Mrs Bennet, desperate to engineer a good marriage for her daughter, my mother’s belief was that any woman in possession of a brain must be in want of a job. A room of one’s own? Certainly. And a bank account, a pension and some shares. Although I have on occasion mused about how lovely it must be to be supported by a doting husband, my mother, as

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Camilla Long’s 3* review of Moonlight doesn’t make her a racist

I have a bone to pick with Camilla Long – a colleague of mine at the Sunday Times, where she is the film reviewer. She gave five stars to a stop-motion animation film called Anomalisa a year or so back and I went to see it on her journalistic recommendation. Oh, and also cos it had Jennifer Jason Leigh voicing one part, the most underrated actress of the last thirty years. It was godawful; pretentious, badly scripted, shallow and dull. I thought about suing Camilla for liking a film I had not liked and thus making me endure two hours of misery. Or maybe outing her as a racist. Why?

Helen Nugent

Lloyds, investment, compensation and housing

Lloyds Banking Group has set aside a further £475 million for misconduct costs as the bank’s statutory profits more than doubled to £4.2 billion. The Times reports on results that Lloyds called a ‘good overall performance’. Its profits are the highest for a decade and shares in the bank rose by 4 per cent after the announcement. The bank, in which taxpayers own a stake of just under 5 per cent, also unveiled an 11 per cent rise in total dividends to £2.2 billion and the same percentage increase in staff bonuses to £393 million. Underlying profits fell from £8.1 billion to £7.9 billion. Investment After a sustained period of record

Simon Barnes

UK Sport’s brutal funding cuts show that winning is now all that matters

Is sport really so great? Or is it only winning that’s great? UK Sport says a loud yes to question two: and as a result, they won’t be funding half a dozen perfectly decent sports because they’re unlikely to win Olympics medals for Britain – or for Team GB, as they like to be called. Badminton goes from £5.7m a year to zero. Other sports suffering cutbacks are archery, fencing, table tennis, weightlifting, goalball and wheelchair rugby. Rod Carr, chair of UK Sport, said: ‘Would it be more brutal to come back from Tokyo (venue for the 2020 Olympics) with a heavily reduced medal haul because we took some softer

Tuesday

Ross Clark Ross Clark

British food and drink exporters defy the doom-mongers

Many farmers, asserted the Earl of Sandwich in a Lords debate last July, were now experiencing ‘regrexit’ – having voted to leave the EU they were now realising that the £3.2 billion worth of subsidies they had received from the EU in 2013 were now under threat. Or were they? Whether any farmers really did suffer from pangs of regret last July, they will since have grasped that whatever happens to agricultural subsidies post-Brexit they might actually do rather well – not from collecting handouts but by growing food and selling it. Today, the Food and Drink Federation published its latest statistics on food exports. In common with so many economic figures

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

In defence of Wayne Shaw’s pie-munching stunt

Uh oh, football’s puritans are riled up today. They think the sport might have been brought into disrepute during last night’s FA Cup tie between Sutton and Arsenal. Why? Because Sutton’s substitute goalkeeper, the gloriously fat Wayne Shaw, ate a pie on the subs bench during the match. Shaw’s stunt — which amused anybody with a sense of humour — may have broken the FA’s gambling laws, we are told, because Sun Bets, who had sponsored Sutton for the game, had offered 8-1 that Shaw would indeed be seen eating a pie during the match.  Shaw had heard of the bet before the game. Rather than take offence that people were laughing

Nick De Bois

No, legalising drugs won’t stop knife crime

On Sunday, Coffee House ran an article by Koos Couvee, a former Enfield Advertiser journalist and contemporary of mine. It argued that knife crime will only be reduced if we legalise drugs. Young people are killing each other in turf wars over the supply of drugs with an array of horrific knives and even machetes. Couvee suggests that the violence would be reduced if drugs were legalised. His argument is an economic one: joining a gang and dealing drugs is more lucrative than getting a job. So if you legalise drugs, the problem goes away. But if drugs are legalised, other equally nasty sources of revenue will kick in. What

Emma Lunn

Ban the rip-off ticket touts

Among the baby photos and moans about the weather cluttering up my timeline the other day, a Facebook post by my friend Elaine caught my eye. She’d been trying to buy tickets for a Jamiroquai gig at The Roundhouse in London on 31 March. Armed with one old-fashioned telephone and three devices, she’d been desperately dialling and refreshing web pages since the moment the tickets went on sale. But the tickets sold out in minutes and she wasn’t one of the lucky ones. My first thought was ‘why am I friends with people with such terrible taste in music?’ My second was ‘I bet the tickets are already for sale

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

The Church of England should be agnostic towards homosexuality

Let me state the obvious for a moment: the Church of England does not know what line to take on homosexuality. The traditional line, that it is contrary to God’s will, is opposed by most Anglicans. The clergy in General Synod showed their opposition last week by refusing to approve a report by the bishops that upheld the old line. But the minority that likes the traditional teaching is not for budging. Does the leadership have the stomach to pursue a reform that will create a schism? No. Is a compromise possible? In theory, the Church could drop the ban on gay clergy and the ban on the blessing of gay

Helen Nugent

Pensions, fuel, HSBC and pay gap

There’s some bad news for employees with generous company pensions following the publication of a government green paper on the future of Defined Benefit (DB) pensions. The Guardian reports that, under the proposals, firms could cut pension promises to 11 million people, dramatically reducing their income in retirement. The plans are likely to face fierce opposition from unions given they would permit companies to save £90 billion by providing annual increases in their retired employees’ pensions based on the consumer price index, rather than the retail price index. Analysis by Hargreaves Lansdown suggests that for every £1,000 in pension income in 1988, under RPI it had increased to £2,586 this year,

Monday

Hanushka Toni

The perils of leasehold property

You’ve traded in your beat-up turkey of a car. You’ve forked out on insurance, finance, the MOT, and what you think are tasteful new rims. Next thing you know, you’re being summoned to court. The tricked-out wheels were a step too far. The car-maker is suing you for messing with their product. The fluffy dice in the rear view are also a problem. If you lose in court, it’s goodbye to your gleaming saloon – dice and all. ‘Get off it mate. It’s your car. You paid for it. We don’t live in some preposterous ownership dystopia,’ I hear you say. After all, if this were true, there would be

Helen Nugent

Cuts, Bovis, housing and loans

The prospect of swingeing cuts to public services edged closer today despite plans by nearly every local authority in England to raise council tax in 2017. The BBC reports that rises of up to 4.99 per cent are expected across the country. Nevertheless, libraries, bin collections and other services will still face funding problems. The Local Government Association says the cost of care for increasing numbers of elderly people is forcing up bills. But a spokesman for the Department for Communities and Local Government insisted that local authorities had been given a ‘historic’ four-year settlement. Bovis Homes  Following widespread publicity of the alleged shoddy quality of new houses built by Bovis, The Guardian

Sunday

Tove Lifvendahl

Trump is right: Sweden’s refugee policy has led to problems it never imagined

(Fraser Nelson writes from Stockholm) During a rally in Florida yesterday, Donald Trump spoke about immigration. “You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden! Who would believe this. Sweden! They took in large numbers. They’re having problems like they never thought possible.” He then mentioned Brussels and Nice, both scenes of terrorist attack last year. But nothing had happened the previous night in Sweden: Trump later said he was referring to a Fox News feature on Swedish migration that he was watching the previous evening (clip above). So he misspoke, as he does. A lot. But the tragic fact is that, overall, he has a point.  Sweden has grown used

Koos Couvée

There’s one real way to stop gang crime: legalise drugs

I covered another stabbing the other day, a particularly nasty one this time. An 18-year-old was repeatedly knifed in the stomach and beaten over the head with a baseball bat. Witnesses told me he’d been outside his mum’s tower-block flat in Islington, north London, when he was rushed by a group of about ten or 15 boys. He suffered serious head injuries and multiple stab wounds and was soon in hospital in a medically induced coma. By some miracle, he survived. Who would have committed such a brutal and pointless crime? A source told me police believed the attackers to be from two London gangs: the Hoxton N1 gang, whose

Jason Mitchell

Britain under Corbyn? Just look at Venezuela

Twenty years ago Venezuela was one of the richest countries in the world. Now it is one of the poorest. Venezualans are starving. The farms that President Hugo Chavez expropriated, boasting about the great increase in production that would follow, have failed. Inexperienced management and corruption under both Chavez and the current president, Nicolas Maduro, mean that there is less of each crop each year. Across the country, supermarkets are empty and most ordinary people queue for hours every day just for flour. Many of the animals in Caracas zoo have starved to death, but even those who survive aren’t safe — Venezuelans have taken to raiding the cages to