Society

This morning there has been much outrage following the National Trust’s decision to drop the word Easter from the name of their egg hunts (previously called ‘Easter Egg Trails’), in association with Cadbury. The Prime Minister has branded the decision ‘absolutely ridiculous’ as Easter is ‘a very important festival for the Christian faith for millions across the world’. Happily Theresa May is flying the flag for Easter egg hunts. Steerpike understands that she will be hosting an ‘Easter egg hunt’ in the Downing Street garden later this month. Mr S recommends the National Trust take note.

In 2002, I befriended an old Frenchman called Andre. He had been a resistant, one of the first, and when the SAS parachuted into the wooded, rolling countryside of the Morvan in central France, he was there to greet them. For three months in the summer of 1944, the SAS and the Resistance waged a guerrilla war. It was a brutal campaign. Andre took me to the church tower from where the Germans had hurled the village priest, and he showed me the forest clearing where his Resistance group had shot a 15-year-old boy for betraying one of their number to the Nazis. Andre also told me about his acquaintanceship with François

Paul Collier is right to say that the refugee crisis will not be solved with tents and food alone. But context is everything, and aid remains vital. In middle-income countries such as Jordan and Lebanon, getting refugees into jobs is essential. Businesses are part of the jigsaw. So is government legislation to ensure, for example, that refugees get work permits or can register as self-employed. So too are labour market interventions that generate incentives to get refugees working. However, in fragile and impoverished states that lack functioning markets and governments, different forms of aid are required. Collier rightly highlights the principles of autonomy and integration, but job creation or community

The comedian Jimmy Carr is not necessarily a guy you would trust on much, but he was spot on the other day when he said that the Hillsborough disaster was something you would never joke about. Of course not, but it seems you can’t have even a sliver of a divergent view. Now, thanks to the timorousness of one of the world’s major football clubs, and the pusillanimity of the Premier League, a bitter little drama is being played out that could have savage implications for freedom of the press. Early in February this year Liverpool FC announced that the Sun would be banned from all home facilities, Anfield and

Another day, another slew of house price data. But with Article 50 now triggered, recent Bank of England data showing record levels of household debt, and the prospect of an interest rate rise later this year thanks to rising inflation, property statistics are throwing up a few surprises. Lowest growth in two years There’s further evidence of a slowdown in the UK housing market this morning. According to Nationwide, house prices are increasing at their lowest pace in nearly two years. Britain’s biggest building society says that the average price of a home fell 0.3 per cent to £207,308 following a 0.6 per cent rise in prices in February. It

Whatever else you may say about it, the USSR certainly created the greatest national chess-playing machine the world has ever seen or is likely to see. The Soviet Union perceived itself to be regarded as a pariah by the international community. One way to counter this was by winning the World Chess Championship, as it would establish the state’s intellectual credentials.   In 1967 a great tournament was held to celebrate the first 50 years of the revolution. The USSR failed to survive the next half century, but the anniversary of that tournament, won by Leonid Stein ahead of such luminaries as Vassily Smyslov, Mikhail Tal, Boris Spassky and the