Society

Sunday

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Why isn’t Shami Chakrabarti campaigning for Lord Shinkwin’s Abortion Bill?

Lord Shinkwin’s Abortion (Disability Equality) Bill has its second reading in the Lord next Friday. I hadn’t heard of it either, and the campaign behind it, ‘We’re All Equal’, had passed me by, until a friend with an interest in disability issues told me about it. The gist is that it would remove the following bits of the 1967 Abortion Act – section 1 (1) (d) and section 5 (2)(d). Which means what? Why, that the most egregious piece of discrimination in law against disabled people would be done away with, viz, that there’s one cutoff point for normal foetuses to be aborted, none at all for disabled ones. Right

Saturday

Lucy Vickery

Spectator competition winners: Autumn poems

The seasonal challenge to submit a poem about autumn in the style of the poet of your choice was predictably popular and brought in a stellar entry: high fives all round. There were a couple of nifty twists on Philip Larkin; G.M. Southgate’s autumnal take on his poem ‘The Trees’, for example, which begins: The trees are falling out of leaf Like something almost being lost They’re waiting for the autumn frost The summer has been all too brief And here’s a taste of Basil Ransome-Davies’s clever reworking of ‘This Be the Verse: They let you down, the leaves on trees That get the accolades in spring, But five months

Friday

Douglas Murray

Louis Smith’s ‘show trial’ on Loose Women is emblematic of our dimwit-run times

Both Brendan and I have written about the strange martyrdom of Louis Smith.  But here is an ugly coda. As readers may recall, the Olympic athlete got drunk at a friend’s wedding and, along with a friend, ended up doing a joke version of the Muslim call to prayer. Something to do with Aladdin apparently. Anyhow, before they knew it the phone-video had made its way onto social media and from there to The Sun. Soon sinister Muslim spokespeople were reminding everyone that their religion was to be ‘respected’ and never to be ‘mocked’. Smith has apparently been getting death threats since then. All of which tells us nothing new

Ed West Ed West

The Normans were the original liberal metropolitan elite ‘Remainers’

Today is the most important date in our history, the day on which in 1066 thousands of men fought outside Hastings and England was changed forever. By the end of the day, 950 years ago, thousands were dead, among them England’s king, Harold II, and most of the country’s leaders. As historian Elizabeth van Houts put it, ‘No other event in western European history of the central Middle Ages can be compared for its shocking effects: the carnage on the battlefield, the loss of life and the consequent political upheaval.’ In our minds the Normans have become sort of pre-eminent Hollywood upper-class English villains, blamed for long-standing class divisions in

Helen Nugent

Britons are a nation of tea-drinkers, and we’re willing to pay top price for the perfect cuppa

If you believe the national stereotypes, there are certain things us Brits can’t live without, among them fish and chips, a local pub and a proper brew. That last one is certainly top of my list. Since I gave up coffee, a cup of builder’s tea at least once a day is essential. And, when at home, I insist on Yorkshire Gold teabags. Ah, those little pockets of delight, the heady combination of leaves from Assam, Kenya and Rwanda. Just writing this makes me want to put the kettle on. When it comes to cuppas, I’ve done my homework. Lancashire tea is too floral, PG Tips too pungent, and don’t get me started on

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: BBC runs video of a gorilla whilst trailing Nicola Sturgeon interview

Oh dear. Spare a thought for the brains over at BBC Breakfast today. As the presenters told viewers that they would be speaking to Nicola Sturgeon, video footage of a psycho gorilla flashed up on the screen. This meant Auntie had to issue a hasty apology — clarifying that they were not suggesting Sturgeon was the agressive gorilla that escaped from London zoo: That awkward moment when BBC Breakfast runs a video of a gorilla whilst trailing Nicola Sturgeon's interview pic.twitter.com/X4owv0Wi7u — Andrew Bloch (@AndrewBloch) October 14, 2016 Perhaps the Nats were onto something after all with regards to BBC bias…

Helen Nugent

Pensions, gender pay gap, sterling and mortgages

Some people who were mis-sold pension annuities will have to be compensated to restore £120-£240 a year, the Financial Conduct Authority has said. In a review of annuity sales practices, the financial watchdog said that a small number of firms failed to tell customers that they could shop around or could get enhanced annuities because of being ill. In total, 90,000 people could have been affected by the annuities mis-selling, though the FCA said this was not systemic nor an industry-wide failure. In other pensions news, the Daily Mail reports that workers could be allowed to retire at 60 if they accept a smaller state pension in retirement. A review is considering

Jonathan Ray Jonathan Ray

Eradus Wines Special Offer

We had such a fine Spectator Winemaker Lunch with Michiel Eradus of boutique New Zealand winery, Eradus Wines, the other day and the wines were so darned good and so well-priced that I insisted that Corney & Barrow allow us offer them to readers through The Spectator. Founded in the Awatere river valley in Marlborough in 2002 by Dutch émigrés, Har and Sophie Eradus, Eradus Wines is now run by the couple’s son, Michiel, who has won countless awards and plaudits for his pure and expressive yet modestly-priced wines. Michiel gave an excellent master-class on New Zealand wines in general and Eradus Wines in particular and all of us round

Thursday

Raymond Keene

Gamesters of Triskelion

I first encountered the Triskelion, the traditional coat of arms of the Isle of Man, when I saw Laurence Oliver’s film of Shakepeare’s Richard III. At the crucial Battle of Bosworth, Lord Stanley, the Earl of Derby and feudal lord of the Isle of Man switches sides and betrays Richard. His three-legged triskelion banners are seen hurtling down on King Richard’s forces just before the immortal lines, ‘A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!’   The only knights in action on the Isle of Man in the past weeks have been those on the chessboard. Congratulations are due to the organisers and sponsors for attracting a hugely powerful field

Raymond Keene

No. 430

White to play. This position is from Mamedyarov-Kramnik, Moscow 2016. White’s next concluded the game. What was it? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 18 October or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery.   Last week’s solution 1 Qxh8 Last week’s winner Richard Hazell, Tickhill, South Yorkshire

Taki

High life | 13 October 2016

New York   This is a good time to be in Manhattan, the weather’s perfect, the park and foliage still green, and daylight savings time keeps the days long. New York used to be able to build these beautiful cities within a city, like the Rockefeller Center, but that’s all in the past. The developers have got to the politicians and now have free rein. The city had an opportunity after 9/11 to make a 21st century Rockefeller Center downtown, but a shark by the name of Silverstein preferred profit to architectural achievement, as did another horror, Aby Rosen, who is busy turning uptown ugly. I’ve been walking up and

Robin Oakley

The master of Ballydoyle

The only downside about going racing is irritation born of encountering pig ignorant people who talk through their pockets. Beside me at a Newmarket betting counter on Saturday shortly after Aidan O’Brien had once more dominated the big event of the day, not only winning the Dewhurst Stakes with his Derby prospect Churchill but taking second place as well with his 66-1 pacemaker Lancaster Bomber, was a disgruntled punter who told his companion sourly: ‘One day they’ll find out what he’s giving them.’ I was tempted to remind him of boxer George Foreman’s response when someone asked him if a fight had been fixed. ‘Of course it was fixed,’ he

Janet de Botton

Bridge | 13 October 2016

The Hubert Phillips is one of the EBU’s quirkier knockout tournaments. Firstly every team must contain (and play) at least one male and one female, changing partners after each 10 board stanza. And secondly the scoring is by total aggregate, honours counting, meaning a big swing can easily wipe out all the other results in the match. And so it was in our match against Chris(tine) Duckworth’s team last week. They won the first two sets and we went into the last one 1,300 points down and hoping for a big swing. We got it! This was the bidding in the closed room. My teammate Nick Sandqvist was sitting South,

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 13 October 2016

Six months ago Sally was living in a third floor flat in Glasgow. Then she was thrown into the back of a car, drugged, and driven down to Provence. Since then I had watched with interest how she has adapted herself from life in a Scottish city to the heat, light and alien smells of deepest Provence. Sally is a small to medium sized chocolate brown mongrel with the grey hairs of old age showing on her muzzle. Her brown eyes are calm and intelligent. What she is comprised of is hard to say. Her head, jaw and teeth are from some sort of terrier; her deep chest suggests that

Melissa Kite

Real life | 13 October 2016

Against all odds, I almost got through an entire Brexit dinner with dignity, and without opening the valve in my head which allows hot steam to escape. Almost. Our little Leave Means Leave campaign soiree at a restaurant in Birmingham was going swimmingly until a TV journalist drew up a chair and within seconds started berating one of the guests, a government minister, for not giving a cast iron assurance now that every foreigner living in Britain can stay once we leave the EU. ‘Oh go on! Can’t you just let everyone stay?’ he pleaded with the minister, who was trying to eat his sea bass. ‘I mean, these are

Alexander Chancellor

Long life | 13 October 2016

Monty Don, the television gardening presenter, always comes across on screen as irrepressibly cheerful and enthusiastic, but this is a misleading impression. In fact, he gets black moods. ‘It’s no secret that for many years I’ve suffered from depression,’ he said last week at the Cheltenham Literary Festival. He had tried Prozac and cognitive behavioural therapy, but the only treatment that had worked for him was provided by his dog. ‘If you are unwell, physically or mentally, a dog is a huge comfort,’ he said. ‘Dogs heal. There is plenty of evidence to show that.’ I was glad to hear this praise at a time when the word dog is

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 13 October 2016

Home The pound fell against the dollar and the euro, weakening by 19 per cent against the dollar from its level at the time of the EU referendum to lows last seen in 1985. The FTSE 100 index almost beat its highest-ever closing level. There was much unrooted talk about what votes Parliament should have on the Brexit process and when. A spokesman for Theresa May, the Prime Minister, said: ‘Parliament is of course going to debate and scrutinise that process as it goes on’ and would then perhaps vote on the ‘final deal’. Cuadrilla was given permission by the government to drill four shale-gas wells in Lancashire that would

Prue Leith

Diary – 13 October 2016

To Edinburgh to get married, but first my toyboy groom John Playfair (he’s a mere 69) shows me the city of his birth, which is peppered with his kinsman William Playfair’s neoclassical buildings. Outside the Chambers Museum there is a new, magnificent statue of him by Stoddard. We climb Calton Hill to admire the monument to another Playfair, this time the mathematician and astronomer John, and also his observatory, both built by W.H. Playfair. I’m now a bit daunted at joining the Playfair clan. Next day at sunset we drive as high as we can along Salisbury Crags and up Arthur’s Seat. It seems feeble not to climb the last

Toby Young Toby Young

Sorry, Shami, but you’re wasting your money

I’ve been thinking about poor Shami Chakrabarti and the drubbing she’s suffered since it was revealed she’s sending her son to Dulwich College. She joins a long line of Labour hypocrites who are opposed to grammar schools but choose to send their own children to selective schools. The list includes Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Tony Crosland, Polly Toynbee, Diane Abbott, Harriet Harman and Seumus Milne. My issue with these Labour grandees is not so much the double standards, although that does stick in the craw, obviously, but the stupidity. Why risk their political credibility and, for those that go private, beggar themselves, when there’s little reason to suppose that their

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 13 October 2016

Given all the outrageous things that Donald Trump has done and said already, why has he got into so much worse trouble for dirty remarks about women taped more than ten years ago? He gets away with dog whistle politics but not, seemingly, with wolf whistle ones. Some might say this is because of political correctness; or because his evangelical supporters, while not necessarily offended by his violent views, disapprove of his lewdness; or both. But my theory about sex scandals in politics is that they are not, strictly speaking, about morality. They are tests of how the accused man (or, much more rarely, woman) behaves when attacked. Does he