Society

Thursday

The Spectator

The lay of the land

From ‘Schoolboy labour’, The Spectator, 12 May 1917: Work on the land, even though the time be stolen from books, will have a distinct educative value, because Public School boys are less handy than boys of the same age in a poorer class. Take boys of 15 in an agricultural district who work regularly on the land… They have an aptitude and appearance of physical maturity, which are almost unknown in the well-to-do classes. Their physical strength is not greater than that of Public School boys, but it is applied more cunningly, and their general competence is remarkable. To have even a short experience of how labourers work on the

Gary Dexter

Found in translation

Buririggu deshita. Suraibi tōbu Wēbu de gairu to gimburu shite, Nante mimuji na borogōbu, Mōmu rassu autoguraibimashita ne. If this looks familiar, it’s not surprising. This is the first verse of ‘Jabberwocky’ by Lewis Carroll, translated into Japanese by Noriko Watanabe. Ms Watanabe is a translator of children’s books living in Sendai, in the north of Japan, and she is working on a new translation of the two Alice books. I met her in a bar called Come Here. Is translating Lewis Carroll, which is already nonsense, into another language, a near-impossible task? I asked her. ‘No, not at all,’ she said. ‘Actually it’s easy because Japanese is about 15

Roger Alton Roger Alton

Two hours down the track

Of the great sporting imponderables that have come into clearer view over the past few days — will The Archers’ Lily Pargetter ever score any runs for Ambridge and herald a bold new world for women’s cricket? Will we see the first sub-two-hour marathon? — only one can be answered with clarity. As for hapless Lily, heaven knows, but unquestionably we will soon find the holy grail of distance running. By soon, I mean I hope it will happen in my lifetime, and I am knocking on a bit. It came tantalisingly close last weekend in an extraordinary project bringing together the millions and the marketing whizz of Nike with

Jonathan Ray Jonathan Ray

Wine Club 13 May

I write this from my sick bed. Laid low with a vile lurgy, I feel far from well. And, sad to report, Mrs Ray is far from understanding. She says I should learn to be more stoical. I say she should learn to be more, well, sympathetic. It’s not my fault that I feel my ailments slightly more keenly than she does. Laura Taylor at Private Cellar was a darn sight more solicitous, I can tell you, and on hearing my plight when sending me a dozen bottles to taste for this offer, strongly commended the Réserve de Sours Sparkling Rosé Brut NV (1). I was dosed up to the

Mark Mason

Kaspar the Savoy cat

How to solve the problem of an unlucky 13 people at dinner? Developing a rational mind is the obvious answer, but let’s pretend to be superstitious for a moment, because there’s fun to be had. And indeed money: in 19th-century Paris men known as quatorzièmes sat around in full evening dress, waiting for last-minute gigs as the 14th guest at a meal. Some people say a pregnant woman counts as two guests, while a press story from several years ago claimed that when David Cameron and friends realised their party comprised 13, the restaurant owner fetched his Paddington Bear and sat it down with them. Cameron himself can’t remember this,

Damian Reilly Damian Reilly

Stand up for Arsène

I had 20 good years supporting Manchester United but now I follow Arsenal, and I find the treatment of the magnificent Arsène Wenger by large sections of my fellow fans mystifying and depressing. I supported Manchester United because when Rupert Murdoch bought top-tier English football in the early 1990s and started marketing it aggressively at the middle classes — who, like me, had previously had no interest in the sport — United were the only logical choice. They played pulsating, swaggering football and often scored thrilling wins from seemingly impossible situations. The young men who made up the spine of the team had grown up together in a boys’ own

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Why it’s obvious that morality precedes religion

At a beautiful church service recently I encountered again a Gospel parable that left me, again, torn between sympathy and doubt. You will recognise Matthew 25: 35-40, for its phrasing has entered the idiom: ‘I was hungry and you gave me food … sick and you visited me … in prison and you came to me … a stranger and you took me in … naked and you clothed me … ’ The story is of a king praising his subjects for these kindnesses to him. This puzzles them: ‘When did we see you hungry, and feed you … a stranger and take you in…’ (etc)? The king replies: ‘Inasmuch

Matt Ridley

More gas, less wind

The Global Wind Energy Council recently released its latest report, excitedly boasting that ‘the proliferation of wind energy into the global power market continues at a furious pace, after it was revealed that more than 54 gigawatts of clean renewable wind power was installed across the global market last year’. You may have got the impression from announcements like that, and from the obligatory pictures of wind turbines in any BBC story or airport advert about energy, that wind power is making a big contribution to world energy today. You would be wrong. Its contribution is still, after decades — nay centuries — of development, trivial to the point of

Lucy Vickery

Global mourning

In Competition No. 2997 you were invited to submit an obituary for planet Earth.   It was a smallish but varied and heartfelt entry. John Whitworth earns the bonus fiver and his fellow winners are rewarded with £25 apiece. Honourable mentions go to C.J. Gleed, D.A. Prince and Duncan Forbes.   In an obituary There’s no room for bitchery, So let’s say the earth Had some things of worth.   Angels and fairies, Cats and canaries, Camels and kiddyoes, Attenborough videos,   Woodlands for walking in, Teashops for talking in, Kitchens for cooking in, Mirrors for looking in.   Pity you blew it, But how did you do it? God

Wednesday

Steerpike Steerpike

The EdStone finds a new home

The original EdStone may have been broken up and discarded soon after Ed Miliband’s 2015 defeat, but its memory lives on. In fact, the Conservatives have even managed to spin a tidy profit from it — auctioning replica versions to party donors. So, last night at the Ivy Chelsea Garden’s champagne-fuelled summer party, Mr S was curious to stumble across an old friend. In the garden of the upmarket Chelsea eatery — owned by Richard Caring, the Tory donor — lies an EdStone: Still, given that Theresa May has been accused of having a touch of the Miliband about her thanks to her energy price cap proposal, Red Ed may still

Helen Nugent

Water, water everywhere: we spend £707 million a year fixing damage caused by our neighbours

As I watched the water creep across the kitchen floor, powerless to prevent a mini tsunami, I had an inkling of how it must feel to be the victim of flooding or burst pipes. By the third time the water invaded my kitchen, I was at the end of my tether. It later transpired that the base of my washing machine had broken in two (apparently not an uncommon occurrence) hence the folly of replacing the washers and hoping for the best. While this was a problem fixable with a mop, a packet of kitchen roll and a new appliance, it brought to mind the multitude of horror stories told

Tuesday

Polly Mackenzie

Can money buy happiness? The internet trolls think so

Aaron Lennon. Prince Harry. Jayne-Anne Gadhia, chief executive of Virgin Money. Each of these high profile people’s mental health has been in the spotlight in recent weeks and, thankfully, most of the public response has been sympathetic. But each has also faced a dark undercurrent of criticism that they’re not entitled to struggle with their mental health because they’re rich. The most prominent example was the coverage of footballer Aaron Lennon’s detention under the Mental Health Act. Some newspapers thought it fair to headline on his £55,000-a-week income, as if this ought to have made him immune to mental illness. But it wasn’t just the news media who told this

Steerpike Steerpike

A taste of Brexit Britain? New York Times offers $6,000 Brexit tour of… London

Ever since the referendum result, the New York Times has adopted a decidedly gloomy tone in its Brexit coverage. The American paper even suffered a sense of humour failure when hacks read the Times‘s parliamentary sketch of an Emmanuel Macron rally as a serious news report — interpreting it as a sign of British superiority to their European neighbours. But is this all about to change? Mr S only asks after the paper unveiled its ‘Brexit means Brexit’ UK tour, which will ‘examine the historic implications of a historic vote’. Attendees will look into the implications of Britain’s exit from the European Union ‘with the guidance of Steve Erlanger, the London bureau chief of

Monday

Martin Tilley

How to avoid being duped by investment scammers

For every hard-working individual who has built up a pension pot to fund their retirement, there is a criminal trying to scam their way into stealing some of it for themselves. Pension funds are often the second largest source of wealth behind home purchases and, as a result, are a tempting target. Sadly, scams are not new to pensions. These are two of the most common forms. Pension liberation The victim is under the minimum age at which benefits can be drawn legitimately (age 55) and is promised access to their funds early, albeit subject to hefty charges. Investment scam The unsuspecting target is persuaded that current, legitimate, regulated pensions

Steerpike Steerpike

Lib Dems’ Corbyn attack line backfires

After John McDonnell praised Karl Marx’s Das Kapital on Sunday, Jeremy Corbyn today doubled down and described the philosopher as a ‘great thinker’. This has led to some light mockery today, with the Liberal Democrats’ Tom Brake getting in on the fun — claiming the Labour leader deserves ‘full Marx’ for this latest gaffe. But the Lib Dems would do well to take heed from the old adage ‘people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones’. It turns out that Vince Cable — the Lib Dem stalwart who is trying to win back his seat in Twickenham — is also a fan of Marx. In an article for the Mail,

Helen Nugent

Do we trust politicians to solve our financial problems? Of course not

Do we trust politicians? Is that the same as asking if we trust estate agents, door-to-door salesmen or, er, journalists? According to new research by Comparethemarket.com, consumers overwhelmingly believe that the main political parties and their leaders do not understand the financial anxieties of ordinary people and that the next government will not have the ability to introduce measures to improve their financial situation. The research, based on a poll of more than 6,000 UK adults, found that more than a third of people feel worse off compared to the last election in May 2015. Almost nine in ten respondents believe that this is the fault of policies implemented by

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Britain’s loss of religious faith: how should we interpret shocking new statistics?

Just 30 per cent of Britons feel that their religion or faith is important to them, according to the 2017 Ipsos MORI survey of global trends. That puts us at the bottom of the international table: only Swedes (29 per cent), Belgians (27 per cent) and the Japanese (22 per cent) are more secular than we are, according to this poll. The global average, meanwhile, is 53 per cent. Muslim Indonesia heads the list with 93 per cent. Christian America is on 68 per cent, despite a recent slump in church attendance. (I’m always a bit suspicious of what Americans tell pollsters about their faith.) Even Australia – hardly a nation that flaunts its piety – is

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Stephen Fry will be delighted to be accused of blasphemy

Oh God. And I mean it. What was a well meaning Irish citizen doing, bringing a blasphemy complaint against Stephen Fry? I mean, if you wanted to make the big man’s day, to give him that delicious sense of being persecuted without actually being persecuted, well what could be better than being done for blasphemy? It’s the campaigning atheist’s wet dream. It could mean, if you’re really lucky, being prosecuted in Ireland for repeating your observations about the Deity – cruel, capricious, allowing bone cancer in children etc – and the very worst that can happen to you would be a fine, which you could then refuse to pay and

Steerpike Steerpike

Was it Chuka Umunna wot won it for Macron?

Ever since Emmanuel Macron emerged as a frontrunner in the French presidential race, UK politicians have been clamouring to shower praise on the centrist politician while flagging their (undoubtedly) close connections to the man. After Macron made it through the first round, George Osborne congratulated his ‘friend’ online, only for Ed Miliband to cast doubt on how close the pair really were. Following his win last night, Macron’s victory has been hailed as a triumph for the values of liberalism and internationalism. But did someone close to home play an integral role in Macron’s ascent to power? Mr S only asks after Chuka Umunna managed to throw in an impressive humble brag

Sunday

Toby Young Toby Young

You’re an editor now George Osborne… it’s time you made some enemies

Dear George Osborne, I thought it worth passing along some advice about your new job. I’ve never edited a news-paper, but I’ve been in the business for 32 years and I’ve seen a fair few come and go. I’ve also worked for the Evening Standard in various capacities. Indeed, my first job in journalism was doing shift work on Londoner’s Diary. That’s not a bad place to start on Fleet Street (your predecessor did) and you could do worse than sit at the desk for a few weeks. Liz Smith, the veteran American newspaper columnist, describes gossip as ‘news wearing a red dress and running ahead of the pack’ and