Society

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Laurence Fox: I don’t like foxes

Last night Brian May claimed that foxes are not vermin when he appeared on This Week to criticise government plans to repeal the ban on fox-hunting. The Queen guitarist argued that classing the furry creatures as ‘vermin’ was simply a ploy to justify killing them. However, vermin or not, Steerpike may have found an unlikely candidate to face off May on the issue. When Mr S caught up with Laurence Fox at the Spectator summer party, the Lewis actor – who used to go hunting in his youth when it was legal – had little time for his namesakes: ‘I love the Countryside Alliance. Anyone who has had chickens loves fox hunting. I mean I

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Free movement isn’t an inalienable right. Just look at Calais

The right to free movement of people and goods across the EU is, as we keep being told when the government proposes to trim benefits for Romanians, a fundamental and inalienable principle of the Treaty of Rome. Why then does the European Court of Justice show no interest in the French ferry workers whose strike has led to 30 miles of tailbacks either side of the Channel? There could scarcely be a more brazen example of free movement being thwarted, and yet there seems to be no sign of ferry workers, their union or the French government being taken to court, ordered to let the lorries through or subjected to any

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: A struggle in Bohemia

From ‘John Hus’, The Spectator, 3 July 1915: Here and there we have indications that this titanic struggle has not led the Czechs to renounce their hatred of all that is German. The misfortune of Bohemia has ever been her geographical position. As an outpost of the Slav races only the mountain ranges with which she is surrounded have saved her from being overrun by the conquering Teutons. But her strong, natural frontiers would have been ineffective against “peaceful penetration” had it not been for the intense race-consciousness of the country. For a thousand years the Teuton has struggled in different ways to dominate the land, to capture her Church,

Thursday

Raymond Keene

Magnus toppled

Last week, world champion Magnus Carlsen suffered a devastating defeat in the first round of the Stavanger super tournament when he lost on time to Topalov, in what had been a winning position for the champion. This contradictory outcome lent wings to the Bulgarian grandmaster, who then stormed to one of his greatest tournament triumphs.   The normally irrepressible Carlsen, clearly unnerved by this unfortunate accident, went on to lose a further three games from the remaining eight, with just two wins to his credit.   Inevitably this once again prompts questions about Carlsen’s actual strength. True, he has achieved the highest rating of any player in history but there

Raymond Keene

No. 369

White to play. This is from Anand–Hammer, Stavanger 2015. White is a pawn up with a good position and his next move put the game beyond all doubt. How did he continue? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 7 July or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk or by fax on 020 7681 3773. The winner will be the first correct answer out of a hat, and each week there is a prize of £20. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery.   Last week’s solution 1 Bh6+ Last week’s winner Jeremy Hart, Yatton, North Somerset

The Spectator

Letters | 2 July 2015

How to fix Detroit Sir: When I last flew over my native Detroit five years ago, vast tracts of it still resembled Machu Picchu. From the ground, it was little better; in what had been a prosperous Italian-American neighbourhood when I lived there in 1964, there were only five houses left standing. Stephen Bayley (Arts, 27 June) marvels that ‘You could buy an entire house for $10,000’ — but in truth the taxes needed to support Detroit’s notoriously corrupt governments are so high that you can’t give them away unless they are in one of the few islands colonised by the middle classes. Indeed, the city filed for bankruptcy in

The Spectator

Barometer | 2 July 2015

Bank job Should we buy shares in companies which print banknotes in expectation of one getting to print millions of drachma notes? — In May, according to the ECB, there were a total of 17.6bn euro notes in circulation. Given that Greece accounts for approximately 2.5% of the GDP of the eurozone, 441m of these were Greek, and might need replacing with drachma notes in the event the country leaves the euro. — However, there is already a good business in printing replacement euro notes. In May, 2.76bn notes were taken out of circulation and 2.88bn new ones were put into circulation. — Therefore, if Greece were to leave the

Taki

High life | 2 July 2015

Tempus sure fugit, and how. Twenty years ago, on Saturday 1 July 1995, monarchs from around the world descended on London for the wedding of Greek Crown Prince Pavlos to Marie-Chantal, daughter of the duty-free magnate Bob Miller. I remember it well, especially the hangover. Never have I seen so many royals under one roof. The Greeks had treated King Constantine, father of the groom, very badly, managing to convince the press, and in turn the people, that the first man to resist the military takeover and stage a countercoup against the colonels was in fact one of them. Leave it to the Hellenes to say black is white and

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 2 July 2015

Rachel Johnson, in last week’s Spectator diary, says that her husband says she only writes a book in order to have a launch party. Me too. My thoughts are too disordered to write a book from scratch, but now and then someone offers to publish a collection of these columns and I, fantasising about a party with all my pals there, agree to it. Times must have changed for the publishing industry since Short Books put out the last Low life collection and gave me a terrific launch party, because the publisher of this latest collection stated with finality (once the book was done and dusted) that publishers no longer

Melissa Kite

Real life | 2 July 2015

This much I know, I never want to live in an ‘executive home’, and neither do I want to live in a house that belongs to a ‘collection’ of homes that have been built to a ‘high specification’. And which feature bi-fold doors. Quite frankly, having been house-hunting in Surrey for the best part of two years looking for something I can afford, I don’t care if I never see another bi-fold door as long as I live. What’s wrong with a back door with a simple hinge, or a French window? When did we all get so lost up our own posteriors we needed the entire back wall to

Alexander Chancellor

Long life | 2 July 2015

The Eurostar train descended gently into the Channel Tunnel, went halfway along it, and then stopped. There it remained for what seemed a very long time, the silence broken only occasionally by mumbled announcements in French and English. The speaker was French, and his English was incomprehensible, his French only slightly less so. All that we could gather was that the train was being delayed by some sort of trouble in Calais. Only much later did we learn that migrants from a refugee camp had been swarming on to lorries heading for England and generally creating mayhem. They had even lit a fire on the railway track. Eventually it was

Susanna Gross

Bridge | 2 July 2015

I had no idea until last week that Burt Lancaster was a passionate bridge player. I found out after meeting an elderly man who told me that he once partnered the actor at rubber bridge. The man did something terrible in defence, at which point Lancaster reached across the table, grabbed him by the lapels and warned him never to play like that again. When I got home I googled Burt Lancaster and discovered that he did indeed take the game very seriously. I also came across a mention of his second wedding, to which he invited so many bridge players that they joked about holding an impromptu tournament. I

Mary Killen

Your problems solved | 2 July 2015

Q. The problem encountered by R.B. of Fareham (6 June) is similar to one I wish to avoid. I have organised an informal lunch for old boys of the grammar school we all joined in the 1950s, aged 11. There will be only a few there, not more than ten, and I know from previous reunions that most of them are married with children and grandchildren. The one exception is a man who used to be my best friend, whom I have recently tracked down after some 50 years when we were out of touch. This old friend informed me that he has been in a civil partnership with a

Toby Young Toby Young

Giving up alcohol is not as much fun as I’d hoped

Two months ago, I set myself the target of losing 11 pounds in time for the Spectator’s summer party on 1 July. To help achieve that, I swore off alcohol and, had I succeeded, my plan was to start drinking again at the party. I managed the weight loss, but didn’t make it to the party because it clashed with a board meeting of the educational charity I set up five years ago. The upshot is that I haven’t started drinking again and I’m debating whether to remain teetotal in perpetuity. Temperance has its advantages. I’ve experienced almost no headaches or stomach aches since I gave up the booze, although

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Diary – 2 July 2015

‘Hello. I’m lesbian threesome,’ the young lady tells Taki. ‘And I’m Mongolian rampage,’ says the young man beside her. We’re at Jeremy Clarke’s book launch in the Spectator’s back garden, to which he invited a dozen Low Life readers chosen for submitting the best stories of drunken debauchery. Some were summarised in Jeremy’s column last week, which made for a marvellous party. Throughout the evening, guests tried to match the face to the story. Which reader was kneecapped by a pimp in Amsterdam? Who was the academic who got into a drunken fight with a janitor over the affections of the chemistry teacher? My favourite exchange of the night: ‘Do

Dot Wordsworth

Due diligence

No doubt you, too, have had the feeling, upon glancing at an article in a paper picked up in a train or café, that it might mean something to someone, but it means nothing to you. I read this sentence in the Times the other day: ‘Not everyone builds an M&A machine on the back of stuff people throw away, such as till receipts and paper cups.’ A machine? On the back of stuff? And what are M&As — like M&Ms? But I persevered, and later in the piece a phrase appeared without which no indigestible article is complete: ‘Mr Roney’s due diligence on family firms is so painstaking that

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s notes | 2 July 2015

‘The Greek people,’ the Financial Times leading article said on Monday, ‘would be well advised to listen closely to the words of Ms Merkel. The plebiscite will be a vote for the euro or the drachma, no less.’ It is interesting how menacing powerful ‘moderate’ institutions can become when popular feeling challenges them. In the eurozone theology to which the FT subscribes, its statement above cannot be true. It is not possible (see last week’s Notes) for a member state to leave the euro, any more than it is for Wales to renounce sterling. Eurozone membership, once achieved, is a condition of EU membership. So the Greeks cannot vote to

The Spectator

Fracking Lancashire

That democracy is a superior form of government to any other goes without saying. But in order to function, it has to be conducted in such a way and on such a scale as to ensure that the people or their elected representatives are making decisions based on genuine alternatives. With this week’s decision by Lancashire County Council to reject a second application for fracking on a site near Blackpool, something has gone seriously wrong. An important national issue has been allowed to be settled according to purely local concerns. Warned by their lawyers that there were no environmental or safety grounds for rejecting the application, councillors instead voted to

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 2 July 2015

Home At least 30 British people were among 38 shot dead at a beach resort at Sousse in Tunisia by Seifeddine Rezgui, aged 23, a Tunisian acting for the Islamic State and said to have been trained in Libya. Soldiers, emergency services and 1,000 police took part in a two-day exercise in London simulating a terrorist attack. A statutory obligation became binding on public bodies, including schools, to prevent people being drawn towards terrorism. Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary, said that schools should look out for ‘homophobia’ as a symptom of Islamist jihadism. James Brokenshire, the Immigration Minister, said the National Barrier Asset (lengths of nine-foot fencing) would be deployed

Doc

2218: Fab!

The unclued lights (two of three words and two of two words) can be preceded by the same word and all are defined in Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.   Across 10    Terrorist regularly misses the mark (4) 12    Canons once disturbed harmony (10) 14    Distinctive doctrine of Paris Match (3) 15    Asks Neil about material for sporrans (8) 17    Got the ball rolling and built hurriedly (5, two words) 18    Company’s unorthodox belief almost is consistent (7) 22    Popular type backing lead-ins (6) 24    Embroidery knot, type cut with touches of orange and tangerine (5) 26    He’s in the