Society

Thursday

Stephen Robinson

The return of the fountain pen

Every working day before I start pounding the keyboard of my ridiculously flashy 27-inch iMac, I perform a little ritual. I straighten the fountain pens I keep on my desk, and make sure they are fully inked. Though I always have an eye for my next acquisition, I currently have just six pens, which are fuelled by four bottles of ink I keep next to them — Waterman black and serenity blue, Pelikan turquoise and Parker red. Three of the pens are Parkers, and my clear favourite is the greatest mass-produced pen of all time, the sleek Parker 51, with the distinctive hooded nib which first appeared in 1941, yet looks

Philip Delves-Broughton

That’s not a ‘sharing economy’: that’s an invitation to sell your whole life

Technology businesses have a genius for inflicting indignities on us and spinning them as virtues. When they don’t want to respect copyright, they talk about the ‘democratisation of content’. When they want to truffle through our contact lists and browsing histories, they talk about ‘openness’ and ‘personalisation’. A hundred years ago, when a widow had to take in lodgers to pay the bills, it was called misfortune. Today, when an underemployed photographer has to rent out a room in his house or turn his car into a taxi, it’s called the ‘sharing economy’. First Google took his job. Now Airbnb wants his house. Next they’ll be after his pets. In

James Delingpole James Delingpole

From teapots to rare meat, my Britain is becoming a lost country

There was a letter to the Daily Telegraph last weekend which depressed me more than anything I’ve read in ages. It reported the visit by a social worker to an elderly woman who made her a cup of tea. The young social worker was shocked by what she saw. Not only did this bewildered old woman insist on using leaves rather than a bag but she first poured some hot water into the pot, swirled it round, then wasted it by putting it straight down the sink. Here, clearly, was evidence that grandma was incapable of looking after herself and should be put into care immediately. This put me in

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

So the FTSE100 has finally broken its record – it’s still not doing nearly as well as executive pay

The FTSE100 index has at last breached 7,000, surpassing its peak of 30 December 1999 and provoking moderate celebration among investors who have enjoyed such poor returns all these years. A thousand pounds invested in FTSE100 stocks on Millennium Eve, with dividends reinvested, was worth £1,670 by last month, an annual return of 3.4 per cent compared to inflation over the period of around 2.9 per cent. The same sum invested in a London house would have been worth £3,200, nearly twice the return on shares if we ignore running costs and the leverage effect of mortgage borrowing; invested on the rollercoaster of gold bullion, it would have been worth

Wednesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The BBC was right to sack Jeremy Clarkson

There’s no cause so disreputable it cannot find adherents. And, failing that, apologists. Take, for instance, the apparently simple case of a powerful man – powerful in status more than physique – who assaults one of his junior helpers. In ordinary circumstances –  that is, if this assault took place in a cheese factory or on a farm or in an insurance brokerage – everything would be pretty bloody simple. It’s not really OK for senior folk – even if they are the talent – to start lamping their subordinates. Said lamper would ordinarily – and quite properly – risk their job by hitting their junior colleagues. I guess my view

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

The real reason Jeremy Clarkson’s gone? The BBC loathed his politics

I still don’t know which way John Humphrys votes and I’ve been a friend of the chap for more than a quarter of a century. Hell, we’ve been on holiday together, twice. I have very few friends in mediaville, but John is certainly one, and the oldest friend within that milieu, at that. But I still couldn’t tell you what way he votes. That fact alone might well signal to you that he tends to the Right; liberals are so unstintingly forthcoming about their fatuous opinions, so ready to declaim and shriek and disparage anyone who might dare gainsay them. But even then I wouldn’t be too sure. It’s probably

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Cardinal Nichols attempts to silence faithful priests. This will backfire

[Update: On looking more closely at the list of priests, I’m astonished by some of the names I see there – clergy I wouldn’t have described as conservatives, let alone traditionalists. It reinforces my sense that vast numbers of priests, however much they admire Pope Francis, are worried about the direction of this pontificate – or, rather, its lack of direction.] Cardinal Vincent Nichols has slapped down nearly 500 priests who signed a letter to the Catholic Herald expressing concern about the Synod on the Family this October, which is to debate sensitive questions of sexual morality. This is a significant blunder by the Cardinal that exposes both the inflexibility of his

Camilla Swift Camilla Swift

We need to remember that lynx aren’t simply the big pussycats that they appear to be

As our Barometer column reminded us this week, a campaign is underway  to reintroduce the Eurasian lynx – which became extinct in the UK around 1,300 years ago – to the British countryside. But is bringing back lynx to the wilds of the UK really a good idea? Well, for starters there are many farmers and livestock owners who certainly won’t be very pleased to see them. Lynx UK – who are behind the plans – have claimed that they are willing to subsidise farmers for any loss of livestock that the lynx are responsible for. But that probably won’t put farmers’ minds at rest – especially hill farmers, whose animals would

Steerpike Steerpike

Is Rupert Murdoch eyeing up Jeremy Clarkson now the ‘stupid’ BBC has fired him?

Last week Mr S reported how Jeremy Clarkson took to the stage at a charity event and called the BBC a bunch of ‘f—ing b—–ds’. He may well be uttering those words again today after Lord Hall released a statement saying that the BBC will not be requiring the Top Gear host’s services any more following Clarkson’s ‘fracas’ with one of the show producers. The BBC Director-General says that it is ‘with great regret’  that the corporation will not be keeping Clarkson on as a Top Gear host: ‘It is with great regret that I have told Jeremy Clarkson today that the BBC will not be renewing his contract. It is not a

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Counting the cost

From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 27 March 1915: The controversy as to what should be our future military policy in the west still goes on, and calculations are made on the basis of the inquiry — If it cost us so many thousand men to advance two miles on a front of four, how many men will it cost the Allies to advance a hundred miles on a front of two hundred? No doubt the losses would be very heavy if we made such an advance, but we must point out that all these arithmetical calculations are quite valueless. If a general advance were ordered, the problem would

Tuesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Isis-gate: Why dogs are out at Downton

It’s been a bad month for dogs, first there were reports of the fatal poisoning of a prize-winning Crufts dog, and now there will be no canine lead in the new series of Downton Abbey. Downton fans were left outraged last year after the Grantham family’s beloved Labrador Isis was killed off during the fifth series of the period drama. Conspiracy theories soon developed claiming that the poor dog was the latest victim of the Islamic State, suggesting that the dog had been axed as a result of the unfortunate name similarity between her and the terrorist group. However, Hugh Bonneville, who plays Lord Grantham, says that anyone who believes that this is the reason Isis was killed

Sean Mcglynn

Why are people venerating Richard III? He was a murderous tyrant

Imagine if the body of a notorious child killer was exhumed and that, during the week of its reinterment, 35,000 people thronged the streets of a major UK city to respectfully watch the passing of the specially designed coffin and, with hopeful hurls, bedeck that coffin with white roses. The funeral procession itself is led by two knights in full medieval armour. Then people queue for four hours to file pass the coffin in a cathedral while the prayers of the highest ecclesiastics of the land who officiate over the solemn, ceremonial proceedings are communicated across the country. Not very likely, is it? Well, that’s what has been happening this

Sebastian Payne

Podcast special: David Cameron’s accidental pre-resignation

What to make of David Cameron’s announcement that this will be the last time he leads the Tories into battle? Cock-up or conspiracy? In this View from 22 podcast special, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and I discuss the Prime Minister’s interview with the BBC – and whether this represents the first gaffe of the 2015 campaign. How significant are Cameron’s comments and were they prearranged? (James suspects so.) Will his pre-resignation become an issue throughout the campaign or one that excites folks in Westminster and the media? How do his named successors feel? And what does it say about Cameron’s character? You can subscribe to the View from 22 through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer or iPhone

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

What cost of living crisis? CPI inflation falls to zero for first time on record

So much for Ed Miliband’s ‘cost of living crisis’. UK inflation, as measured by the CPI index, has just fallen to zero (pdf). Even this figure masks better news: food prices are actually falling, by 3.4 per cent over the last 12 months. The cost of motor fuel is down by 17 per cent, mainly thanks to collapsing oil prices. Crucially the price of such essentials should keep falling – as the below forecast from Citi (pdf) shows:- Now, should we worry about ‘deflation’? There are some economists who say this is a real problem because if things get cheaper than punters put off purchases. There is zero evidence of this happening in the UK. Indeed, according to Citi (pdf) …the opposite

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: The ordinary and the extraordinary

From ‘The Industrial Situation’, The Spectator, 27 March 1915: The present industrial situation shows how completely what we may call the economic pacificists misjudged the probable effects of a great European war. Instead of our industries being brought to a standstill, they are in a condition of abnormal activity. The trouble is not to find work but to find workers. To a certain extent this fact is doubtless due to the favoured position occupied by Great Britain as an island defended by an overwhelmingly powerful Navy. But it must be admitted that, so far as evidence can be obtained, our enemies, in spite of the destruction of their maritime commerce,

Monday

Robert Wargas

How new technology is spreading superbugs

Normally I’m allergic to health scaremongering of any sort, especially if it uses government-funded studies to bolster its dire predictions. But here in America the subject of superbugs – microbes that have developed resistance to the drugs once effective in killing them – has resurfaced with a disturbing and ironic twist. Superbugs already kill 700,000 people a year around the world. Now they are apparently being spread by a surgical camera used to help treat cancer. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on March 12 that it will convene a panel on the spread of superbugs. The panel is to meet in mid-May. This announcement follows deaths in Los Angeles and North Carolina from carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae, or

Sunday

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Edward Stourton just can’t stop bashing the bishop

I’ll keep this brief, but can the BBC please replace Ed Stourton as presenter of Radio 4’s Sunday programme? He is an old Amplefordian from one of the great recusant families who, like many elderly Catholic toffs, holds ‘progressive’ views on faith and morals (though not education – he sent his sons to Eton). Fair enough, but he might at least go through the motions of hiding his bias when addressing Catholic issues on his dreary programme. Stourton has a particular downer on Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth, one of only two non-Magic Circle bishops who slipped through Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor’s net (the other is Mark Davies of Shrewsbury). Ed is a friend

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Temperance movement

From ‘The Racing Problem’, The Spectator, 20 March 1915: We are not temperance fanatics. We do not suggest the prohibition of the public sate of intoxicants in order to penalize any one or to punish people for having sold alcohol in the past. We do not regard either the sale or the consumption of alcohol as a crime. A moderate consumption of alcohol does no more harm either morally or physically than a moderate indulgence in other unnecessary luxuries like smoking. We know, too, that a permanent temperance, a temperance worth having, can only come by a change in national habits—through freedom, not through interference with liberty. What we are

Saturday

Mark Gettleson

100% Pork Constituency Guide to the 2015 Budget

Hendon has a special place in my heart. No really. My parents met there. I mourned when my favourite childhood adventure playground, Kidstop, was burnt to the ground. We even took a primary school trip to its RAF museum and wondered at the marvels of the Battle of Britain. So I felt somewhat nostalgic at the Chancellor’s announcement of £2.5 million to secure the museum’s future. The RAF Museum does, of course, lie in a constituency with a Conservative majority of just 106 votes, where former Labour MP and now local GLA member Andrew Dismore seems one of his party’s most likely candidates in the country to take a seat

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Freedom of the seas

From ‘How We Are Blockading Germany’, The Spectator, 20 March 1915: We are, indeed, fighting against a thoroughly unscrupulous enemy, and we have to consider how we can bring the war to an end in the shortest possible time. If we shorten the war, we shall save life—the lives of the non-combatants at sea who are threatened by Germany’s diabolical engines—and shall redeliver to the world the seas free and open to traffic. We shall sustain Liberty against despotic dictation, and vindicate the sanctity of national pledges. Beside such objects temporary commercial inconveniences are really small matters. We cannot help feeling strongly that we shall make a great mistake if