Society Archives

Thursday

12 May 2016

Columba

2260: B & B

One clue lacks a definition part; its answer is a film title. One unclued light (three words) is the title of a song in the film, and one unclued light (two words) is the name of its singer. The first word of the song’s title defines three unclued lights, and its third word defines three unclued lights. Ignore an accent in one unclued light. Across 9 State answer in sorrow, not right (4) 11 Appeal to follow dull guru working for footballer (10, two words) 14 Give respectful title to gods, loud in song (6) 17 Social event in place I like (5) 18

Columba

2257: A spree | 12 May 2016

SHAKESPEARE — indicating the action required to create 9, 11, 32, 18 plus 24, and the puzzle’s title — is the name of Matthew Arnold’s poem from which the perimeter quotation is taken. First prize Peter Wilson, Kettering, Northants Runners-up Miriam Moran, Pangbourne, Berks; John Light, Addlestone, Surrey

Isabel Hardman

Should we care that young men aren’t going to university?

When politicians and tutors talk about underrepresented groups at universities, few expect men to feature on the list. Yet as a report from the Higher Education Policy Institute today shows, men are now an endangered species at university, with women being 35 per cent more likely to go to university than men. Men are also more likely to drop out, or get a lower degree mark. The report worries that this is a trend that could get worse – and argues that instead of being a victory to celebrate in a battle of the sexes, that men falling behind in education is something that policymakers should take seriously. And besides,

Laura Whitcombe

Don’t annoy your loved ones when you die: plan your funeral and make a will

As your mourners assemble at the churchyard to say their final farewells, you want them to be thinking of you fondly – don’t you? The last thing you need is them cursing under their breath because they’ve forked out for the funeral or arguing about how to split your art collection because you failed to include it in your will. But it seems the vast majority of us are making life troublesome for our family and friends at the time of our departure. Only a quarter of the population has bothered to speak to their nearest and dearest about what they actually want from their funeral. Burial or cremation? A bamboo coffin or

Jacob Heilbrunn

Lumped with Trump

Washington, DC A few weeks ago, I attended the 40th gala dinner of a Washington think tank called the Ethics and Public Policy Center at the St Regis Hotel, just down the street from the White House. William Kristol, editor of the neoconservative Weekly Standard and unrepentant champion of the Iraq War, was the MC and Paul Ryan, -Speaker of the House, the star guest. Kristol began by noting that Donald Trump had referred to him in various tweets as ‘dopey’, the editor of a ‘slightly failing magazine’ and ‘very embarrassed to walk down the street’ because of his failure to endorse Trump. Kristol joked: ‘It’s been a tough two

Jonathan Ray

Wine Club 14 May

I reckon Robert Boutflower of Tanners has the measure of The Spectator. He knows exactly what tickles our fancy. He put up a dozen wines for our tasting, any one of which I’d be delighted to recommend to readers. Price was ultimately the deciding factor, though, and — hooray! — we nailed the mixed case for a cheering, knockdown £108. Yes, yes, I know there’s no longer an R in the month and we’re not to eat oysters until September, but I’m still jolly well going to recommend the 2014 Domaine Fief de la Brie Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie (1). Its classic partner is, of course, that fabulous bivalve mollusc, but

Brendan O’Neill

The internet’s war on free speech

The dream of internet freedom has died. What a dream it was. Twenty years ago, nerdy libertarians hailed the web as the freest public sphere that mankind had ever created. The Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, written in 1996 by John Perry Barlow, warned the ‘governments of the industrial world’, those ‘weary giants of flesh and steel’, that they had ‘no sovereignty where we gather’. The ‘virus of liberty’ was spreading, it said. Now it seems that the virus has been wiped out. We live our online lives in a dystopian nightmare of Twittermobs, ‘safety councils’, official procedures for ‘forgetting’ inconvenient facts, and the arrest of people for being

Roger Alton

The Foxes have little to teach us

A few years ago a motivational speaker brought out a smart little book called Legacy: What The All Blacks Can Teach Us About the Business of Life. Everyone wanted to know how a tiny country miles from anywhere could dominate the world’s hardest team sport for so long. A lot of it, the book said, boiled down to humility, believing in the collective, going the extra yard, and, crucially, ‘no dickheads’. Better people make better All Blacks, was the message. Now the world is trying to learn from the Leicester City playbook. The key factors in the Foxes’ triumph were a strong, well-balanced squad; a tough but charming manager; a

The Spectator

Churchill’s return

From ‘Colonel Winston Churchill’, The Spectator, 13 May 1916: The return of Colonel Churchill to the House of Commons, which we are told is to be permanent, has set going a number of rumours as to the future of the most audacious and brilliant figure in our public life. Colonel Churchill, it is alleged, is to come back into the Cabinet, and to come back as Irish Secretary… What is wanted in the Ministry just now is a man who can he trusted. But who dare say that Colonel Churchill has the quality of political trustworthiness? Be his political genius what it may, he is above all things a mauvais coucheur.

Matthew Parris

RIP Gussie, my plainspoken llama

Gussie is the name of a grumpy and ill-natured llama, her coat largely white and somewhat unkempt, and much given to aggressive expectoration. When there’s corn in a bucket, it has been her habit greedily to spit other llamas away, not because she wants corn but to stop them getting any. And Gussie is also the name of an entirely imaginary creature — another llama, but who can make phone calls, surf the internet, and send emails and texts. This Gussie has been a keen if censorious student of human nature, a particular student of the faults and foibles of my partner, Julian, and me. The fictional Gussie grew from

Simon Courtauld

Bullfighting

Looking at the programme for the feria of San Isidro in Madrid this month (bullfights are being held on 31 consecutive days), it may be hard to believe that there is any threat to the future of the spectacle — it is not a sport — of what in Spain is called la corrida (the running of the bulls). But its popularity has undeniably been declining in recent years, due to two factors: growing opposition, in the sometimes spurious name of animal welfare, and Spain’s economic crisis. The decision taken in 2010 to ban bullfighting in Catalonia had considerably less to do with the welfare of bulls than with the

Mark Mason

Guilty displeasures

Strawberries. Ella Fitzgerald. Lying on the beach. They’re three of my ‘guilty displeasures’. You haven’t heard of the guilty displeasure? That’s because the concept hasn’t been invented yet. But it needs to be — and quick. The phrase ‘guilty pleasure’ is widely known. It was coined by the DJ Sean Rowley, who, not content with being the man on the cover of What’s the Story Morning Glory? by Oasis, applied a label to the songs we love despite them being uncool. The idea expanded, and now anything naff can be a guilty pleasure: chocolate spread, knitting, Countdown, you name it. But what about the opposite phenomenon, the supposedly cool things

Lucy Vickery

Olden but golden

In Competition No. 2947 you were asked to submit a poem in praise of old age. Old age gets a bad rap. Only the other week, in these pages, Stewart Dakers questioned our obsession with chasing longevity given the decrepitude and indignities of that final furlong. Here was your chance to put the case for the defence. The competition certainly struck a chord, if the size of the postbag — from veterans and newbies alike — is anything to go by. It was a lively and cheering entry, infused with the spirit of the purple-wearing heroine of Jenny Joseph’s poem ‘Warning’ (‘When I am an old woman I shall wear

Wednesday

11 May 2016

Melanie McDonagh

What was the Queen meant to say about the Chinese officials?

A retired diplomat I know had no doubt about where the blame lay for the Queen’s Very Rude episode. ‘Sounds as though the officials let her down badly – twice – in filming private conversations and then not vetting them,’ he observed acidly. And certainly it does seem as though the broadcasters’ cameraman at large – representing the BBC, ITV et al – may have to have his right-to-roam licence revoked for any social gathering involving HM. The reason, I’d have thought, why he was let loose at cocktail and garden parties was that the Palace thought he, or rather his bosses, could be trusted with the content. More fool

Ross Clark

England couldn’t cope with a nuclear accident at Hinkley Point

An EDF board meeting today could spell the end of the wretched Hinkley Point C nuclear power station and its hugely over-priced electricity, for which electricity distribution companies would be obliged to pay double the current wholesale electricity price for 35 years. EDF’s finance director Thomas Piquemal resigned in March claiming that the project could put the entire future of the company at risk. The UN’s Economic and Social Council has put its own boot into the project, saying that the UK has failed to consult with neighbouring countries over the risk of a nuclear accident. But never mind neighbouring countries, the government has failed to take into account the

Helen Nugent

Generation doomerang: moving back in with mum and dad

Am I a ‘doomeranger’? If a new survey is to be believed then, yes, that’s exactly what I am. In a twist on the phrase ‘boomerang generation’ – used to describe young people who, not long after leaving home, move back in with their parents – some PR whizz has coined ‘doomeranger’ to mean adults who return to the nest years after moving out. These so-called doomerangers (who make up 14 per cent of the population) often have families of their own and have been forced back in with mum and dad after a bad break-up or financial problems. Thankfully I didn’t fit into either of those categories when, five

Steerpike

The Guardian gives Emma Watson’s offshore company a miss

Steerpike’s revelation yesterday that Emma Watson has been named in the latest Panama Papers leak has been followed up across the world — even inspiring a new genre of Harry Potter fan-fiction. While the Telegraph, the Independent, the Sun and the Times all followed up Mr S’s story in the UK, across the pond USA Today, New York Post and Fox News have also picked up on it. However, there’s one paper that doesn’t appear to think the story is worth a mention. Step forward the Guardian. The paper was one of 107 media organisations to be given secret access to the 11.5 million stolen documents ahead of the initial Panama Papers leak. At the

Tuesday

10 May 2016

Brendan O’Neill

The internet’s war on free speech | 10 May 2016

The dream of internet freedom has died. What a dream it was. Twenty years ago, nerdy libertarians hailed the web as the freest public sphere that mankind had ever created. The Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace, written in 1996 by John Perry Barlow, warned the ‘governments of the industrial world’, those ‘weary giants of flesh and steel’, that they had ‘no sovereignty where we gather’. The ‘virus of liberty’ was spreading, it said. Now it seems that the virus has been wiped out. We live our online lives in a dystopian nightmare of Twittermobs, ‘safety councils’, official procedures for ‘forgetting’ inconvenient facts, and the arrest of people for being

Nick Hilton

West Ham fans, don’t despair! A club isn’t defined by its stadium

The Boleyn Ground, commonly known as Upton Park, has been home to West Ham United since 1904. It stands on Green Street, a road in London that bisects the parishes of East and West Ham. With its slightly tacky fortress-inspired design, it has become a symbol of East London’s resilience against the tide of gentrification and development. Until this summer, that is. West Ham will today play their final match at the Boleyn Ground, because the stadium is due to be bulldozed in order to make way for a trendy block of flats. Developers are busy drawing up plans for the property, which they purchased in February 2014. Their original designs – which

Dominic Laurie

Mortgages that will never be repaid. Is this a return to the bad old days?

When I was first getting on the housing ladder in the late nineties, the idea of taking out a mortgage you never intended to pay back was pretty normal. Interest-only mortgages were widely available to first-time buyers like me. It was a good way to get us onto their books. Over time, as I did, we’d convert to a repayment version, and everyone’s happy. In the post-financial crisis world, though, borrowing or lending debt never intended to be repaid is frowned upon. The self righteously prudent (or just plain rich) are dying to crow to those left stranded with a decreasing choice of interest-only mortgages that ‘it’s people like you