Society

We Brits love a good anniversary – and a round number. This year we’re celebrating, among other things, the bicentenary of Charlotte Brontë’s birth and the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. It’s also been 350 years since the Great Fire of London, the devastating blaze which burned for four days and in the process wiped out more than 13,500 homes and 87 churches in the capital. Its destruction was such that it is credited with creating the modern property insurance industry and, in turn, the fire service. Thanks to the plethora of insurance plans on offer in the 21st century, we’re no longer reduced to burying cheese in the back garden in the

Instinctively I feel I ought not to feel sympathy for the 70,000 council house tenants earning more than £40,000 a year in London (£30,000 outside London) and who are going to be made to pay an average of an extra £1000 a year to stay in their subsidised council homes. They are better off than average and at a level of income at which they ought not to be reliant on the charity of the state. There was a time early on in my working life when I earned substantially less than the average earnings, and not for a minute would I have dreamed of applying for social housing. But

An almost worldwide survey on penis length — the sort of thing I always read with a sense of trepidation and inadequacy — suggested that the countries boasting the largest of these flawed and devious appendages are all located in Africa. Especially West Africa, from the DRC down to the humid and still pristine jungles of Gabon. This suggests to me one of two things — either that the old racist cliché is absolutely true, or that Africans tell bigger lies than anyone else on the planet. Either or both of these explanations are likely to get me into trouble, so I suppose I’d better stop digging. Thing is, I

An increasing number of women are entering into the institution of marriage with their dream partner: themselves. In her cover piece this week, Ariane Sherine investigates the women who have brought a new literalism to saying, ‘I do’. But is this just a quirky fad? Or are we witnessing a profound social change? Lara Prendergast speaks to Ariane and Spectator editor Fraser Nelson on this week’s Spectator podcast. Ariane tells Lara: ‘There are an increasing number of women who have decided, because they don’t have a man – or maybe some of them don’t want a man – that if they can’t find Mr Right, well, I’m going to embrace

‘I’m not loaded, I’m just ordinary,’ protested a wealthy friend of mine, when another chum teased him about his money. ‘Oh yes,’ his tormentor responded wryly, ‘you’re one of those ordinary millionaires, not one of the rich ones.’ It made me smile, and it also made me think. Many of us, like my well-cushioned chum, have a skewed notion of how well off we really are. Most of us probably think we are normal, typical, ordinary, average – but often have little idea what average actually is. When we see headlines about FTSE 100 chief executives earning millions, it makes those of us languishing well below that bracket feel a