Society

The man in the pub’s solution to the ongoing panic about legal highs is to ban them. ‘Ban ‘em all! S’obvious, innit? I can’t believe politicians haven’t thought of it already. Yeah, go on, I’ll have another…’ Here’s the thing. It is obvious and politicians have thought of it already. The reason that it never went from the idea stage to the planning stage is that it isn’t as simple as that. Previous home secretaries such as David Blunkett and Charles Clarke didn’t baulk at the idea because they were lily-livered pussy cats with libertarian tendencies. They rejected it because it’s a bad idea, not just illiberal but also unworkable.

Ian Austin has come under fire this afternoon for tweeting his rage about today’s black cab strike, which saw cabbies obstruct roads as they called for tougher rules on minicabs: Many users on Twitter were quick to ridicule Austin for using a cab for the journey, especially given that in his bio on the site he references his love of cycling. However, it turns out that he was in fact driving his own car: While that’s cleared that up, there’s currently no further word on whether Austin still thinks it’s right to support Uber – who have been accused of having ‘unfair’ tax practices – instead of black cabbies exercising their right to protest. Surely an off-brand position

From ‘News of the Week‘, The Spectator, 29 May 1915: The past fortnight, partly perhaps owing to the uncertainty of the political situation, has been marked by a great deal of anxiety and pessimism of a very unworthy kind. Yet there is no real cause for grumblings and lamentings, but strong cause for the reverse. We have been optimistic throughout the war, but we admit that at periods like that of the last days of October ours was optimism based on faith, faith in the invincible courage and great-heartedness of the British people. Now, however, our optimism is based upon facts. Provided that we hold on and do not flinch

Last week James Rhodes won a legal battle to publish his memoir Instrumental: A Memoir of Madness, Medication and Music. This judgement came after his ex-wife took out an injunction through a court appeal to prevent the book from being published over concerns that the pianist’s account of the sexual abuse he experienced as a child could harm their son. With the ban lifted, Rhodes appeared at Hay Festival on Saturday night to launch the book during a talk with his friend Stephen Fry. The pair are such good friends, that as well as Fry helping to conduct Rhodes’ second wedding, he revealed that he also became named in his friend’s legal battle. The incident occurred after Fry tweeted a link

Ireland, for so long the most overtly Catholic state in Western Europe, has voted for gay marriage by a stupendous margin – 62 per cent. Never before has a country legalised the practice by popular vote. It would be naive to ask: how could this happen? Hatred of the Church is one of the central features of modern Ireland, thanks not only to the paedophile scandals but also to the joyless quasi-Jansenist character of the Irish Church, which was handed complete control of education in the Free State after partition in 1922. (Many of its priests were outstandingly holy and charitable, but you’ll get your head bitten off if you suggest that in today’s

Why is it that whenever anyone proposes a tax on the wealthy all hell breaks loose, but when someone proposes a tax on the poor there is no more than a faint whimper of protest? Yesterday, life sciences minister George Freeman, speaking at the Hay Festival, floated the idea of a sugar tax. In contrast to Labour’s mansion tax or the removal of tax privileges for non-doms, my email inbox was not immediately jammed with statements from upmarket estate agents, accountants and others representing the interests of the rich warning of how it would ruin the economy. It is fairly obvious who will pay the sugar tax: it would be