Society

It has become customary in the great grammar school debate to declare where you went to school. I attended the boys’ grammar school in Canterbury, which was mentioned by Ysenda Maxtone Graham in her piece in this week’s magazine. Ysenda chose not to make such a declaration herself, so I will do it for her: she attended the King’s School, the poshest of the three public schools in Canterbury, which inhabits the precincts of the cathedral. I wouldn’t normally make an issue of someone’s schooling, but it is rather relevant in this case because Ysenda appears to be disturbed by what she sees as the social apartheid between Kent’s grammar

We’ve come a long way since the BSE scandal of the 1990s and the ban on British beef. In fact, the British culinary landscape has changed beyond recognition since the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001, with its spectral images of millions of slaughtered livestock. These, along with other more minor contaminations of the food supply, such as the recent horse meat debacle, have raised permanent questions in consumers’ minds about provenance and health, and the agriculture behind what lands on our plates. As for London, in 2005 it may have been a bustling metropolis with great ethnic cuisine, but it was far from being recognised as a major player

I have been wondering these last few weeks whether it would be cheaper to excavate a basement and buy a Geiger counter and iodine tablets, or emigrate to New Zealand. Call me frit, but I don’t like the way things are heading. Probably the second option is easier: Armageddon outta here, etc. I can re-enact Nevil Shute’s On the Beach from some rocky cove near Dunedin, waiting for the fallout to arrive. I was sentient only during the latter stages of the Cold War but from what I can remember, the two sides, them and us, behaved for the most part with a degree of rationality and common sense. (I

In the apartment block next to mine in Paris there are two Muslim families. One I see often: the dad dresses in jeans and a t-shirt, and when the weather is good he’s in the park playing with his kids. So, too, the mum: a stylish woman who matches her headscarves to whatever else she wears with the effortless chic of a Parisian. I see less of the other family: the husband dresses in the white robes of a Salafist and never goes to the park with his child. I’ve seen his wife only once. The two families are emblematic of the fight France faces to defeat Islamic extremism. It will be

The polls are in for next month’s big event in the USA and Magnus Carlsen has emerged the clear favourite in his world title defence against Sergey Karjakin. Indeed, the Norwegian world champion leads by five wins to one in the classical format used in New York. The match is organised by Agon and the prize fund is ‘at least one million euros’. See worldchess.com/nyc2016 for details of new technology to follow the games online, as well as New York travel packages. This week, extracts of play from previous bouts between the pair.   Karjakin-Carlsen; Norway Chess, Stavanger 2013 (see diagram 1)   White had stood well but Carlsen coordinated his