White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by C.W.M. Feist, Hampshire Magazine, 1884. Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 12 August. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1…Rxh4+! 2 gxh4 Be5+ 3 Kh1 Qh3+ 4 Kg1 Qg2 mate Last week’s winner Simon Foale, Farnham, Surrey
Home A week of riots, with violence against the police, threats to Muslims, burning of vehicles and looting (Greggs, Shoezone, Sainsbury’s Local) broke out in Liverpool, Sunderland, London, Hartlepool, Manchester, Hull, Aldershot, Stoke-on-Trent, Bristol, Bolton, Tamworth, Portsmouth, Weymouth, Leeds, Rotherham, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Blackpool, Plymouth and Belfast. The Northern Ireland Assembly was recalled. Rioters attacked hotels where asylum-seekers were living. They threw fencing, beer kegs, glass bottles and furniture at police, wounding scores. Activity was coordinated on social media. The anger of most rioters was directed against Muslims in general and hotels housing asylum-seekers. ‘Save our children’ was one of the chants. This in part followed a misapprehension about the person
In Competition 3361 you were invited to submit a passage or poem whose meaning was affected by some missing, substituted or surplus letters. I should have said ‘corrupted’ as, perhaps predictably, many of the mistakes were rude and puerile (not a complaint). Ideally the correct version could be glimpsed, giving things an alternative–universe quality. Shout-outs to Max Ross (‘Autumn makes me think of Teats’), Ralph Goldswain (‘I ask you to eject me with a lardslide’) and Janine Beacham (‘I ponder the toad not taken, the beauty of the red, red nose, and what hips my hips have missed. Ah, the powder of worms!’). The winners receive £25. To understand the
I’m a hopeless technophobe. I dislike the stylish laptop I’m using and its subdued pad pad pad. I still long for the clatter and ting of my old typewriter. It was a sturdy soul, utterly obedient, only needing a new ribbon occasionally. It lived for 40 years before being interred in a quiet corner of my attic. I’ve had several computers since and they have all been tricksy. I often fantasise about tracking down another ancient typewriter that could be coaxed back into service. There are still several writers determinedly tapping away. The American novelist Danielle Steel has achieved a billion sales by working on a 1946 typewriter. Jilly Cooper
Unclued lights (one hyphened, two of two words) have something in common. Ignore one accent. Across 1 I hand round a mostly poor-quality coarse fibre (8) 6 Urge to chase round and round behind lobby (6) 12 Appear unhappy about choppy sea tending to wrinkle (6) 14 Very healthy backing by old sports fan (6) 17 Get sick in lung (not heart): in turn, it’s to do with brain tissue (5) 18 Keystone, one of five around circle (5) 20 More like Heep, not fat? That is right (7) 21 Address to composer by director excelled (7) 24 Forage to bring back European meat product (5) 25 Quite quiet, always (5)
The five unclued pairs were of the form ‘[as] X as Y’, 8/2 SAFE/HOUSES, 22/14 KEEN/MUSTARD, 35/20 BROAD/LONG, 41/33 NEAR/DAMMIT and 26/23 HARD/NAILS. First prize Sharon Harris, Hadlow, Tonbridge, Kent Runners-up Paul Davies, Reading, Berkshire; Amanda Gay, London NW11
Riotous summers seem to occur in Britain with about the same frequency as sunny ones: roughly every decade. Sometimes it’s Afro-Caribbeans protesting (Brixton in 1981), sometimes Asians (Oldham in 2001). The white working classes rioted over the poll tax in 1990 and in Southport this year. The riot in Harehills, Leeds, last month was precipitated by social services removing children from a Roma couple. Whatever sparks the unrest, what all riots have in common is that they involve mindless destruction. Rioters smash and burn their own communities and opportunists descend, trying to exploit the situation for political ends. Fake news and misinformation abound. So it is with the current round
We’re told these riots are about immigration, racism, angry Islam, elite blindness and identity politics – and, to a point, that’s all true. But the disorder in British cities is also about the internet – and online videos in particular. People just can’t stop sharing ‘riot porn’, whether it be savage beatings, vicious clashes between rioters and the police, or buildings and cars being set on fire. Violence, like sex, goes viral because it is so addictive to watch. Unlike with pornography, however, there’s no stigma attached to the circulation of such footage, especially if the person on the receiving end of the brutality seems to be a villain. It’s
The Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, Rotherham, is opposite an RSPB nature reserve. For months, its 130 rooms have been fully booked, rented by the Home Office to house migrants. Last weekend, the hotel was surrounded by a mob who broke in and tried to burn it down. Most of the ground-floor windows are now covered with chipboard. The migrants, I was told, have been moved to another hotel. ‘Violent disorder isn’t right, but people from down south don’t know what it’s like up here’ ‘It used to be migrant families that were housed here,’ says a woman in the Aldi carpark next door. ‘Now it’s just young men.’ The
On a summer’s evening in 1978 I was standing on the platform at Redcar Central station, wondering if I had just missed my train. So I approached the only other person on the platform and asked him: ‘Excuse me, do you know what time the next train is due?’ He replied ‘What if it is?’ and punched me hard in the mouth. I hurried away. He was big, probably in his thirties, morbidly obese and pissed. With any luck he should be dead by now. I don’t quite buy the argument that these ‘far-right’ riots are an example of the dispossessed, effectively disenfranchised, urban working class articulating their many real
Deal or no deal Have public sector workers had a worse deal in recent years than private sector ones? – Between 2007 and last year mean public sector pay declined by 0.9% in real terms, while mean private sector pay rose by 4%. However, for most of that time public sector workers were ahead of private sector ones. It was only after high inflation took hold in 2022 that public sector workers fell behind. – Public sector workers at the lower end of the pay scale have done relatively much better. Those at the 25th income percentile have seen incomes increase by 16% in real terms since 2007. Those at
It’s hard to keep track of Elon Musk. The X/Twitter boss has been busy taunting ‘TwoTierKeir’ Starmer over his handling of the UK riots, asking ‘What the hell is going on?’ in Britain. Musk has also launched legal action against a group of advertisers and major companies – including food giants Unilever and Mars – accusing them of unlawfully agreeing to ‘boycott’ X. ‘It is war,’ Musk said. Musk’s bomb throwing delights his fans, but this legal action is a mistake Although Musk’s bomb throwing delights his fans, this legal action seems like a mistake. The billionaire is a passionate advocate for free speech and must know that, even if
Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper have set out a blunt message to rioters that they will end up in prison – but the policing response needs to step up in parallel with this robust rhetoric. It is incredible that after the outrageous threats against mosques and attacks on hotels, and other assaults, this disorder has still not been brought under control. There are fears of further violence today. This week’s riots constitute the worst public order challenge since the London riots of 2011, or perhaps even since the Miners’ strike of 1984-5. It’s time to restore order to Britain’s streets. The willingness to believe lies is a symptom of decaying
A bout of global stock-market turmoil and an outbreak of UK street violence as adjacent news items gave an apocalyptic feel to the start of the week. But as rioting continued, markets appeared to steady, led by Tokyo with a 10 per cent Tuesday rebound. We know the ugly sentiments that animate the thugs – but do we understand the sudden nerviness of investors? Once media clamour about 1,000-point falls subsided, two strands emerged, both American. First, fear – driven by bad employment figures – that the US economy is weaker than previously thought, fuelling a conviction that the Federal Reserve should have cut interest rates at its late-July meeting
Splitting the difference Sir: Hannah Moore’s article ‘Split personalities’ (27 July) is brutal. ‘There’s no such thing as a kind divorce,’ she writes. Ms Moore cites Amicable, the company I co-founded after my own long, painful divorce, as promoting the impossible idea of a ‘successful divorce’. Unless you have been divorced, it is hard to understand the pain and soul-searching that ending a marriage entails. Emotionally, psychologically and financially, it tears you apart. Divorce can reduce unhappiness and remove unbearable pressure from families. In broken relationships, the only thing worse than breaking up can be staying together, especially for the children. Do you really want to role-model ‘put up or
I’m autistic, I teach autistic children and I care for autistic adults, but I never kid myself that we are better than other people. When I asked a fellow autistic man if he could name any famous autistic people, he replied: ‘Hitler and Einstein.’ I love his answer because it punctures the romanticism around autism. There are evil autistic people, as well as geniuses. Was Hitler autistic? We’ll never know for sure, but he showed several symptoms. People who met him found that once he started talking, he would not stop. He was also nocturnal, had an addictive personality and developed lifelong obsessions (in his case, racial purity). Around half
British riots are not a new phenomenon. They were regular occurrences throughout history and usually the spark that lit the tinder was a sense of grievance that the authorities were refusing to deal with. In our century, governments have better technological means to stay attuned to public opinion. But the recent outbreaks of violent protest have taken government and parliament by surprise, and the rioting and looting may not have reached its peak. Far-right political militants have undoubtedly helped to instigate the troubles on our streets, and the question arises: are they employing a model of far-left activism that led to the Bolshevik seizure of power Russia in October 1917?
Balaclavas were once the preserve of bank robbers and members of the IRA, but this week they were worn by thugs who clashed with police. During riots across England, protestors concealed their faces as they threw projectiles and smashed up shops. Balaclavas were also worn during anti-immigration protests against a proposed asylum site in Coolock, Dublin, last month. The sight of criminals wearing face coverings is a terrifying one – and Ireland has responded with a proposal to ban balaclavas at protests. It’s a shame it took so long. Balaclavas were worn during anti-immigration protests in Dublin Ireland’s embattled justice minister, Helen McEntee, is weighing up draft legislation which ‘intends
Few will, or should, feel sympathy for Thames Water being fined 9 per cent of its annual turnover for fouling rivers through sewage discharges. Water regulator Ofwat found numerous failings with maintenance and a lack of investment, which resulted in sewage discharges becoming a routine event rather than an emergency response to heavy rainfall. The volume of water which has to be handled by the storm drains is increasing Thames Water has been under-investing for years, preferring to spend its profits on dividends for its private equity shareholders. What has happened with the rivers is an advert neither for Thames Water’s business ethics nor for privatisation of the water industry. What
There were ugly scenes in Birmingham last night after hundreds of men, some wearing masks, gathered in the Alum Rock and Bordesley Green areas of the city, following false reports that far-right protesters planned to march there. Rumours of a far-right gathering had been circulating all day and were the subject of discussions in a Telegram group linked to the initial violence in Southport after three girls were stabbed last week. In the event, the far-right protest failed to materialise, but West Midlands police are investigating reports of assault, criminal damage, and a man in possession of an offensive weapon. Scores of demonstrators had gathered to ‘protect property’ and ‘defend