Society

Thursday

Simon Barnes

Olympic Notebook

How strange it is to be watching the Olympic Games on television. No wonder people have such rum ideas of what the whole thing is about. This is the first time I’ve watched the Games on telly since 1984; the next seven times I was in the city of choice, working for a newspaper. My first Games was Seoul in 1988 and it was there I became a sporting Galileo. I realised that Great Britain was not, after all, the centre of the Olympic universe, around which everything else revolved. No, we were just one satellite among 200 or so. Perhaps I should have been excommunicated. The man from Mars

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

Heads in the cloud

The Spectator podcast: Listen to Isabel Hardman, Lara Prendergast, Charlotte Jee, Editor of Techworld, and Professor Martin Conway, head of psychology at City University discuss the memory gap. Ask me what I had for lunch yesterday and I couldn’t tell you. Names disappear as swiftly as smoke. Birthdays, capital cities, phone numbers — the types of facts that used to come so readily — are no longer forthcoming. I’m 26, yet I feel I have the memory of a 70-year-old. My brain is a port through which details pass, but don’t stay. I’m not alone. Many young people feel our memories have been shot to pieces. It’s the embarrassing secret of my

Christopher Caldwell

Trump holds the aces

Last week, the New York Times ran the page one headline ‘Pence Supports Ryan, Showing GOP Turmoil.’ There was turmoil in the Republican party because Mike Pence, its vice-presidential nominee, had endorsed the candidacy of Paul Ryan, its most powerful congressman. One wonders what the Times would have called it had the two men actually disagreed about something. The Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had waited days before endorsing Ryan, a signal that he had not forgotten Ryan’s slowness to back him in the spring. And the whole press is now in a frenzy of negative reporting about the Trump campaign. These have been ‘weeks of self-inflicted controversies and plummeting

Mark Mason

Straight talking | 11 August 2016

Thirty years ago this week, Queen performed what would turn out to be their last gig, at Knebworth. Their penultimate concert, at Wembley, was shown on Channel 4. I recorded it, and became obsessed. Time after time I watched-Freddie Mercury prance on to the stage sporting a moustache you could have swept a factory floor with. I watched him simulate the act of self-love with his famous sawn-off mic stand. I watched him preen, pout and posture, shaking his backside at the crowd, reappearing at the end dressed as the Queen. The previous year I’d watched him at Live Aid wearing a skimpy white vest and a leather armband studded

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Why not use RBS as an experiment in narrowing the top-to-bottom pay gap?

Theresa May sent a strong message to the corporate world when she criticised the ‘irrational, unhealthy and growing gap’ between the pay of top executives and average workers. Yet what should be a vigorous debate on this topic — about the balance between fairness and the right incentives for optimum performance — never quite takes off. More evidence came to hand this week from the ‘independent non-party’ High Pay Centre: it reports that average pay for a FTSE 100 chief executive last year was £5.5 million, up by 10 per cent on 2014 and a third since 2010, and that the ratio between chiefs’ average total pay and that of

Jonathan Ray Jonathan Ray

Wine Club 13 August

A tasty selection this week courtesy of FromVineyardsDirect.com, the masters at snuffling out tucked-away treasures for bargain prices. FVD’s founders, Esme Johnstone and David Campbell, have impeccable contacts and seem to know everyone who matters in the regions that matter. As a result, they nab tiny parcels of this and that from both well-established and up-and-coming producers and we, dear reader, are the-beneficiaries. First, the 2015 Esterházy Estoras Grüner Veltliner (1) from Burgenland in Austria. I once spent a lot of time in Austria and have always loved its signature grape. When in the right hands, as here, GV somehow manages to combine the lusciousness of Pinot Gris, the bouquet of

Wednesday

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Want to cut top pay, Mrs May? Start with the bank you own

Theresa May sent a strong message to the corporate world when she criticised the ‘irrational, unhealthy and growing gap’ between the pay of top executives and average workers. Yet what should be a vigorous debate on this topic — about the balance between fairness and the right incentives for optimum performance — never quite takes off. More evidence came to hand this week from the ‘independent non-party’ High Pay Centre: it reports that average pay for a FTSE 100 chief executive last year was £5.5 million, up by 10 per cent on 2014 and a third since 2010, and that the ratio between chiefs’ average total pay and that of

Ross Clark Ross Clark

How the HIV-prevention drug could break the NHS

If NHS England ever comes to be dismantled it won’t be because a heartless Tory government has decided that, for reasons of neoliberal ideology, it ought to be replaced by private insurance schemes. It will be because the unreasonable and limitless demands placed on it by those who claim to be its friends have inflated its budget to a level that public funds can simply no longer sustain. That moment was brought a little closer last week by a victory in the High Court for the National Aids Trust (NAT). The trust had argued that the NHS should fund, at £400 per month a time, a group of drugs known as PrEP, or

Helen Nugent

Tempted to turn on the heating? Think twice before reaching for the thermostat

A post from a friend pops up on my Facebook page. ‘It’s August 9th and the winter tights are on.’ I feel her pain. Last weekend I bought logs and smokeless fuel, and I don’t mean for the barbecue. Yesterday I went shopping wearing a cardigan, a coat and armed with an umbrella. For the love of god, where is our summer? I appreciate that living in the North of England means I’m less likely to spend June and July slathered in sun cream in the back garden but come on! This is getting beyond a joke. Thankfully, it seems that my pal and I are not the only ones reaching

Helen Nugent

First-time buyers, Brexit, savers and motor insurance

First-time buyer lending was up 25 per cent in June compared to a year ago, the Council of Mortgage Lenders said this morning. According to the industry trade body, first-time buyers borrowed £5.5 billion, up 28 per cent on May. This equated to 34,300 loans. Overall, homeowners borrowed £12.3 billion for house purchases in June, up 29 per cent month-on-month and 12 per cent year-on-year. They took out 68,200 loans. Paul Smee, director general of the CML, said: ‘These figures reveal growth in house purchase activity and in particular for first-time buyers. As ever, there is uncertainty and it will take more time and patience to understand how the market will evolve in

Tuesday

Joshi Herrmann

Was Britain banking on a Chris Christie presidency?

A fun game for football fans involves trying to recall players who were earmarked as future Premier League stars and fell hilariously short. There was a balletic Manchester City midfielder – I can’t remember his name – who was slated as a future England captain, only to be photographed by fans eating a takeaway a few years later, bloated and out of work. You can play the same game with this year’s presidential election. Diplomats posted to the US make it their business to work out which big beasts of American politics are most likely to become president years in the future, like football pundits predicting England teams but with slightly more riding

Steerpike Steerpike

Momentum take the struggle to… Britain’s poshest music festival

It’s tough being a Trot nowadays. As well as having Tom Watson peddle ‘baseless conspiracy theories‘ about your political motives, you have to take your message to the masses in order to win power. Perhaps that’s why Momentum top dog James Schneider spent the weekend sunning himself at an ancient royal hunting ground owned by Baron Rotherwick, the Tory peer. The venue for this year’s Wilderness festival — aka Britain’s poshest music festival —  Cornbury Park is a favourite of David Cameron and his wife Samantha. In return for the £177 entry fee — not including the optional five course banquets on offer — punters were rewarded with performances from the Flaming

Rebecca O'Connor

Rising rental payments could precipitate another financial crisis

The country is divided in many ways. High up on this list of divisions, perhaps even in the top five, is the one between people who have bought the property they live in, and those who rent it. This gap is wider and growing at a faster rate than you would guess. The average deposit saved to buy a house is now £33,000, according to Halifax, compared with just under £18,000 nine years ago. ONS figures put average rent rises at around 2.5 per cent a year. Mortgage repayments, thanks to lower interest rates, are low and heading down – especially if you are an equity-rich, older homeowner. The average

Helen Nugent

Banking overhaul, housing fears and consumer spending

It’s been two years in the making but the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has finally published its investigation into the retail banking sector. The watchdog announced this morning that Britain’s High Street banks must launch a technological ‘revolution’ in an effort to promote better competition. The CMA concluded that new phone-based apps should be brought in by early 2018. This will enable customers to share their data with banks and websites. The CMA also ordered further measures to encourage people to switch accounts. And banks will have to cap their monthly charges for unarranged overdrafts. ‘The reforms we have announced today will shake up retail banking for years to come, and ensure that both personal

Toby Young Toby Young

New grammars won’t do more for social mobility than comprehensives. But there is a third way

One of David Cameron’s last acts as Prime Minister was to approve an application by Ashlawn School in Rugby to set up a new free school in the city. It’s not surprising that Ashlawn’s application was approved. Not only has it been ranked ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted, but last year 74 per cent of its pupils got five GCSEs at grade C or above, including English and maths (a metric known as ‘5A*–CEM’). Even more impressive, 65 per cent of its pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds met that same target. However, before Ashlawn can open its new school in 2017 it has to overcome an obstacle. Ashlawn is one of England’s three

Monday

Helen Nugent

Cost of living pressures continue to squeeze the over-60s

When I was a cub reporter, writing for the paper of record at a time when the economy was booming and weekly personal finance pages numbered more than two dozen, the phrase ‘hardy perennial’ was bandied about on a regular basis. Like the plants which reappear year after year, in this context ‘hardy perennial’ referred to the type of money article sure to appeal to readers, focusing on a topic which never went out of fashion. So, pieces on the challenges facing first-time buyers, guides to buying an annuity, that sort of thing. It’s more than 15 years since I last heard that expression. Nevertheless, it’s as relevant today as

Helen Nugent

Pensions, credit cards, spending and air fares

Following the BHS scandal which put the retirement savings of 20,000 people at risk, the Pensions Regulator is facing the prospect of an overhaul as MPs investigate its role, The Times reports. The work and pensions committee will examine whether the regulator should be given new powers to block takeovers if pension schemes are not adequately funded. The committee will also look at whether the regulator is fit for purpose as part of a wider investigation into Britain’s pensions framework. Frank Field, chairman of the committee, said that he favoured recommending a cooling-off period for acquisitions where the security of pension schemes could be examined if the regulator ‘doesn’t already have

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Is Theresa May’s Scots Brexit charm offensive working?

Theresa May has made wooing Scotland over Brexit one of her key missions. Her first trip as Prime Minister was up to Edinburgh to meet Nicola Sturgeon in order to reassure her that she was willing to listen to ‘all options’ following the referendum. It was an attempt to put out the fire started by Sturgeon in the hours after the June 23rd vote, when the Scottish First Minister said that Scotland did not vote for Brexit (despite two-in-five Scots having done exactly that). So far, May has been using the carrot rather than the stick to deal with Scottish dissent over the Brexit vote. And that strategy has continued today with the Scottish Secretary

Steerpike Steerpike

Chris Grayling gets off to a bad start with Southern commuters

Oh dear. Less than a month into his tenure as transport secretary, and Chris Grayling already has a crisis on his hands. As commuters on Southern Rail face a week of rail chaos across London and the South East thanks to strikes, there is a growing anger that Grayling is yet to take charge of the situation — despite describing it as his ‘top priority’. As a result, the Brighton Argus have taken the unusual step of devoting a full blank page to Grayling: It doesn’t make for an inspiring read, with the paper explaining they had originally reserved the page so Grayling could ‘give the tens of thousands of rail users details

Sunday

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Lagoons: the new technology better than Hinkley Point

Let’s turn our attention to ‘tidal lagoons’: you may have heard that phrase in discussion of alternatives to Hinkley Point and wondered what it means. It refers to a £1 billion project, awaiting ministerial approval, to build a walled lagoon in Swansea Bay that would generate (through largely British-built turbines) electricity on the ebb and flood of every tide, 14 hours a day for a project lifetime of 120 years. It could be brought into operation within five years — but to make that happen it requires subsidy at levels comparable to offshore wind or new nuclear generation; it also requires millions of tonnes of concrete and aggregates from quarries