Society

Thursday

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Inflation creeps back like the forgotten whiff of cigarette smoke

From supermarkets to superyacht builders, sales figures are remarkably buoyant: consumer debt may be rising too, but no one can say the New Year economic mood is markedly downbeat. This column feels obliged to find something on the horizon to worry about, however, and my telescope is focused on inflation. If deflation was a real threat to developed economies in recent years, the pendulum is now swinging the other way. UK inflation is expected to hit 3 per cent by late 2017, what with higher import costs generally thanks to the weak pound, fuel-price rises as a result of Opec’s effort to restrict oil production, the pass-through to consumers of

Simon Barnes

A stroke of genius

The picture had been chosen for its utterly gratuitous depiction of female beauty. It showed Justine Henin, the Belgian tennis player who won seven grand-slam singles titles between 2003 and 2007. She was fully dressed for tennis. The gratuitous beauty came from the shot she was playing. It was a single-handed backhand. Henin was five foot six and so slim she had to run round and round in the shower to get wet. She didn’t look capable of hitting the top off a dandelion. But that backhand regularly devastated opponents, fizzing down the line with astonishing power — where did that come from? — or howling across court at a

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

The trouble with Francis

On 2 January, the Vatican published a letter from Pope Francis to the world’s bishops in which he reminded them that they must show ‘zero tolerance’ towards child abuse. The next day, the American Week magazine published an article that told the story of ‘Don Mercedes’ — Fr Mauro Inzoli, an Italian priest with a passion for expensive cars and underage boys. In 2012, Pope Benedict stripped Inzoli of his priestly faculties, effectively defrocking him. In 2014, however, they were restored to him — by Pope Francis, who warned him to stay away from minors. Then, finally, the Italian civil authorities caught up with this serial groper of teenagers in

The Spectator

Bonds of friendship

From ‘The Rome conference and bonds of alliance’, The Spectator, 13 January 1917: There may be the greatest possible good, nay, even salvation, in partnership or alliance; but the fact that partnerships and alliances do involve loss of free will, and that a man cannot when he is in partnership be wholly master in his own house or office, must never be forgotten. Yet, strangely enough, this is a fact which is constantly ignored even by our experts in foreign affairs, with results which are often not only exceedingly unfair to the British nation as a whole, but grossly unfair to individuals.  

Lucy Vickery

Comic effect

In Competition No. 2980 you were invited to submit an extract from a politician’s speech ghostwritten by a well-known comedian.   At the 1990 Tory party conference in Bournemouth, Margaret Thatcher famously appropriated Monty Python’s Dead Parrot sketch to mock the Liberal Democrats’ new flying bird logo. But although Mrs T. gamely went along with her speechwriters’ suggestion to include the gag, it has since been revealed that a) she hadn’t actually heard of Monty Python and b) she didn’t entirely get the joke. ‘This Monty Python,’ she asked. ‘Are you sure he’s one of us?’   The most popular ghostwriter–comedian by a long way was Frankie Howerd (the lone

Wednesday

Katy Balls Katy Balls

NHS chief puts up a fight as No 10 row goes public

With the NHS in the midst of a ‘humanitarian crisis’ according to the Red Cross, No 10 appeared to try to pass some of the blame onto NHS chief Simon Stevens this morning, with reports that Theresa May’s senior aides think he is ‘insufficiently enthusiastic and responsive’ when it comes to reducing spending. So, it was bad-timing — or perhaps a case of Downing Street wanting to strike the first blow — that Stevens was hauled before the Public Accounts Committee this afternoon to discuss the problems facing the NHS. Setting the tone for a feisty testimony, Stevens began by contradicting the Prime Minister’s claim that the NHS was given more funding than he

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Will more people start paying to see a GP?

One of the many groups getting stick for the current pressure on NHS emergency wards are GPs, criticised for their long waiting lists and inflexible hours which lead to people pitching up at A&E with sore shoulders and the flu. The GP contract, which allowed primary care physicians to opt out of out-of-hours cover, is the popular scapegoat for this, but there’s also the question of whether there are enough GPs in the system at the moment to serve the number of patients who need them. Some patients are giving up on the free NHS primary care system. The doctor can see you now, in your living room, via webcam, using

Emma Lunn

New Year, New You: cut the cost of getting fit

Ah, January. The month when the nation’s gyms are full of red-faced newbies looking confused on the cross-trainer or baffled by the battle ropes. According to new research by American Express, the most popular New Year’s resolution for 2017 is to achieve a healthier lifestyle, with a third (33 per cent) of Britons planning to exercise more and a further 30 per cent hoping to eat healthier. This commitment to physical wellbeing ranks ahead of saving money which 28 per cent of respondents cited as their New Year resolution. The two rarely go hand in hand – if you splash out on membership of a big fancy gym, losing lbs

Helen Nugent

Supermarkets, tax, housing and income

Supermarkets continue to reap the benefits from our Christmas spending with two major retailers reporting record sales today. Sainsbury’s said it witnessed Christmas sales of more than £1 billion across the group, adding that like-for-like sales increased 0.1 per cent in the 15 weeks to January 7. According to the BBC, this surpassed analyst expectations. It also emerged that Sainsbury’s Bank plans to start selling mortgages by early 2018. Meanwhile, Lidl said it saw record sales over the Christmas period. In a sign that shoppers are visiting budget supermarkets to buy luxury items, Lidl said that lobsters were one of the best-sellers. The German chain said group sales increased 10 per

Nick Hilton Nick Hilton

Fifa’s decision to expand the World Cup is a disaster for football fans

Disastrous decisions by Fifa are nothing new. But yesterday’s announcement by football’s governing body that it will expand the World Cup from 32 to 48 teams in 2026 marks another depressing low. The logic is that more teams will now get an opportunity to play on football’s biggest stage. A noble sentiment, perhaps, but this is a half-baked plan that should worry football fans. The huge imbalance in the quality of football on display at the tournament is one of the main troubles with expanding the World Cup. England fans are accustomed to watching their team play our dismal 3-0 victories against the likes of San Marino and Malta at the qualifying

Daniel McCarthy

Obama fell for his own myth

Barack Obama’s farewell address was not one for the ages. Like his presidency, it was full of hope yet ultimately disappointing. When Obama rode into office eight years ago, he had two mandates from the public: to right the economy after the Great Recession and to end the wars that George W. Bush had started but couldn’t finish. Beyond that, yes, his voters hoped this first black president would usher America into a post-racial future. Even many Americans who had voted against him wished him well. He was enormously popular, and he had majorities in Congress to prove it. He was in a position to make good on his promises.

Tuesday

Liam Stokes

Is factual accuracy too much to ask from BBC presenters like Chris Packham?

On Sunday evening, the BBC presenter Chris Packham took to social media to tell the world that they should support his anti-shooting campaign because declining populations of lapwings are ‘still being shot’. Unfortunately for him, this is utter tosh. No one is shooting lapwings, as Packham acknowledged five hours later in an apology on Twitter. 12 hours after that, a similar retraction appeared on his Facebook page. Yet even now, almost 48 hours on, neither of the original posts have been deleted. This fixation with the passing of mere hours may sound petty, but in the context of social media 48 hours is a lifetime. Packham has 48,608 followers on

Tom Pocock

Clare Hollingworth, 1911 – 2017: the bravest of us all

Clare Hollingworth, the veteran British war correspondent who broke the news that World War Two had started, has died at the age of 105. In 1991, Tom Pocock recalled the nerve of his colleague in The Spectator: It’s odd to think that Clare Hollingworth turned 80 last week. She is for ever briskly middle-aged in the incarnation. I first met her in Algiers one day in February 1962, where she strode the blood-streaked streets like a county lady determined that the vicarage fete shall succeed despite the arrival of Hell’s Angels. We were reporting the end of French rule and the three-cornered war between the French government, the Algerian liberation movement

Sam Leith Sam Leith

Is there a war on the old?

What’s it like being old? Rotten, says Professor John Sutherland in his latest book The War On The Old — and it’s made worse by what he sees as a systematic and malevolent conspiracy to airbrush the elderly and their problems out of public life. He’s not just complaining about the NHS’s niggardly rationing of Viagra. While millennial pundits moan smugly about the triple-lock pension and free TV licenses, he argues, their grandparents are waiting years for routine operations, being ignored by the political classes and dying of neglect in privatised old folks’ homes. The picture he paints is of something close to a programme of extermination. In this week’s

Steerpike Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn takes inspiration from Venezuela

Today Jeremy Corbyn 2.0 has taken to the airwaves to bring home his newly-revamped populist message. Of his new policies, the one that has caught the most attention is his call for a maximum wage cap. This would involve a maximum wage for the UK’s highest earners — in order to prevent the UK post-Brexit becoming a ‘grossly unequal, bargain basement economy’. However, this being Corbyn he failed to offer any specific figures when he announced the idea on the Today programme. And just where could he have got this idea from? Well there are only two countries which have a maximum wage cap: socialist paradises’ Cuba and Venezuela. While Cuba

Jeff Prestridge

We no longer have a pensions system, just a mess caused by the Treasury

Back in the 1980s, when I was embarking on a lifetime of sweat, toil and tears in order to bring home the bacon, I lived in a pensions desert. I couldn’t see, feel or feed one (a pension, that is) for miles around. During this decade, against a backdrop of privatisations, a rampant Prime Minister (Margaret Thatcher), Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Madonna’s virgins, I was privileged to work for four employers. A major chartered accountancy practice, a big and little publisher and a now defunct building society. Not one offered me the opportunity to save into a company pension. At the time I wasn’t bothered – life was for living, a

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Jeremy Hunt has a point about A&E

One of the supposed rules of modern politics is that you shouldn’t tell the voters they are wrong. So, Jeremy Hunt saying that a large part of the problem at A&E is people turning up who shouldn’t, is going to come in for some criticism. One can almost hear Labour readying its denunciation of the Health Secretary for trying to blame patients for the NHS crisis that Tory cuts have caused. But Hunt is right about people turning up to hospital too readily. He cites NHS England’s numbers which show that up to 30 per cent of those attending A&E don’t need to be there. It should be noted, though,

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

There’s one day left to help defend press freedom

Think of the scandals of the last two decades; think of who exposed them. That’s why we need to protect press freedom and why, if you haven’t already done so, you should email to register your objection to the notorious Section 40 of the Crime & Courts Act. The consultation ends at 5pm tomorrow. If activated, it would mean that publications who refuse to bend the knee to a state-sponsored regulator would pay the legal costs of anyone who sues them – right or wrong. When Tim Yeo was exposed by the Sunday Times, he sued – even though every word of their exposé was correct. The newspaper fought him

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The ‘shared society’ seems to be a gloomier version of the ‘big society’

Is Theresa May’s ‘shared society’ speech just a rather empty rebranding exercise, or something serious that will shift social policy in this country? The Prime Minister today set out more of her thinking on domestic reform and defined what her ‘shared society’ will look like. It’s something we have only caught glimpses of up until now, because of the truncated leadership contest and the focus on Brexit. She painted a very gloomy picture of life in Britain today, focusing on all the things that are going very badly wrong for many people: ‘We live in a country where if you’re born poor, you will die on average 9 years earlier than

The Spectator

Full text: Theresa May’s ‘shared society’ speech

Thank you for inviting me to be here this morning to deliver the prestigious Charity Commission Annual Lecture. I am delighted to have this opportunity to express my appreciation for all those who work in our charity sector and for those who freely give their time, money and expertise in the service of others. We are a country built on the bonds of family, community and citizenship and there is no greater example of the strength of those bonds than our great movement of charities and social enterprises. But the strength of that civil society – which I believe we should treasure deeply – does not just depend on the