Society

Adam Marshall, the head of the British Chambers of Commerce, has told the BBC’s Today programme that the ‘business as usual’ approach adopted by many companies since the Brexit vote has helped keep economic growth buoyant. But he warns that it will not last. The organisation predicts that GDP will grow by 2.1 per cent this year, up from the 1.8 per cent it forecast just three months ago. But, according to Marshall, uncertainty over the UK’s relationship with the European Union and higher inflation will ‘dampen medium term growth’. It expects the UK’s economy to grow by 1.1 per cent next year, and by 1.4 per cent in 2018. Energy The

‘Are you Charles Moore of The Spectator?’ I answered to that description. ‘Well,’ said my questioner, ‘I am worried that you’re becoming very right-wing.’ We were sitting by the fire in a charming, smoky hut with no electric light and lots to eat and drink. It was a shooting lunch, the sort of occasion where one is seldom held to account for anything. I could have tried to laugh the question off, but my interrogator exhibited high intelligence and class confidence, so I sensed she wouldn’t let me get away with that. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to answer her. I am not offended by being called right-wing, because I don’t agree

When we redesigned The Spectator six years ago, we spent months working on the launch issue and there was one name we wanted on the cover more than anyone else’s: AA Gill. These six letters could make you smile all on their own. They were a guarantee of wonderfully entertaining writing, gorgeous, unusual turns of phrase and, always, originality and spark. He was rather expensive; we couldn’t afford him very often. But always worth the money, when we had it. It surprised me, at first, to see that he’d phone in his copy, and dictate it. He had written it down, he’d tell me, but it would make no sense

In yesterday’s Guardian Giles Fraser dismisses Louise Casey’s report on social division. Its desire to ‘integrate’ communities is serving liberal capitalist ‘hegemony’. And he dismisses Sajid Javid’s call for all Britons to affirm ‘the shared values that make Britain great.’ This, says Fraser, ‘is actually another way of saying that all must be obliged to pay homage to the real god: the economy.’ Thank goodness there are communities that dissent from ‘the dominant model of middle-of-the-road liberal secular capitalism’. He concludes that Muslims should be thanked for maintaining ‘their religious convictions and way of life. They refuse all that nonsense about religion being a private matter. They stand strong against the