Society

I can’t say I’m surprised by the departure of Harry Redknapp. Since I started supporting Queens Park Rangers in 2008 we’ve gone through seven managers — 13 if you count the caretakers. Indeed, it’s a miracle he’s lasted this long. The club was relegated during his first term in charge and we only returned to the Premier League thanks to a last-minute goal by Bobby Zamora in the play-off final against Derby at the end of last season. I was at that match and Derby were easily the better side. If Harry had been sensible, he would have announced his retirement after that game and gone out on a high.

Cairo’s Tahrir Square is turfed and tarmacked. Traffic police bustle about, watched at a distance by the soldiers in their tanks. There are few signs that this used to be more than just an intersection. But four years ago this week, it was at the heart of a revolution. After 18 days of mass protests, Egypt’s longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak resigned and the square exploded. The uprising was meant to signal a new era of freedoms and dignity for the country’s 90-million strong population. But instead, the revolution has soured. Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, managed only one divisive year in office before being overthrown by another strongman, Abdel Fattah al Sisi in July 2013. Now

As the last surviving member of Dad’s Army‘s main cast, Ian Lavender will be the only actor to appear in both the BBC series and the upcoming film adaptation. Although Mr S hears a whisper that Lavender failed to recognise his co-star Catherine Zeta-Jones on the set of the film, he does think that the movie could be onto something with its addition of female leads. ‘That collection of ladies, Sarah Lancashire, Annette Crosbie, Alison Steadman and Catherine Zeta-Jones, is wonderful,’ the 68-year-old actor tells Steerpike at the Oldie of the Year awards. ‘When you think of Dad’s Army, the lady parts are tiny parts and now you’ve got this terrific cast, perhaps we should have

The annual XBIZ Awards, which I attended as a journalist last month in Los Angeles, is regularly portrayed by its organisers as the Oscars of the porn industry. And it has many of the trappings of the Hollywood ceremony: a catalogue of nominations, gushing acceptance speeches, a jokey host. But the sheen of respectability cannot disguise the reality. The XBIZ Awards are about the ruthless exploitation of women for financial gain. The porn producers and distributors strutting around were just pimps in bow ties. Indeed, at times, the awards seemed like an amalgam of mafia convention, lap-dancing club and conference for insurance sales staff. There were the money men in black tie, their less wealthy

With Simpson’s-in-the-Strand’s days reportedly numbered now that its owner is seeking a new tenant for the venue after 187 years of business, the best oldies gathered at the restaurant for what could be its last hoorah as they celebrated Oldie of the Year. Hosted by the Oldie magazine and with a panel chaired by Gyles Brandreth, attendees raised a glass, or five, to the OAPs who have made the headlines over the past year. Previous winners have included Mary Berry, Sir David Attenborough and Prince Philip. This year’s awards were judged by Roger Lewis, Craig Brown, Jenny Eclair, and John Lloyd. Ken Dodd took home the biggest accolade Oldie of the Year, with other gongs going to Dad’s Army

From ‘Military Rifle Shooting’, The Spectator, 6 February 1915: THE most serious problem which confronts those who are engaged in training our New Armies is unquestionably that of shooting. Drill and marching are important; trench-digging is vitally important; but what shall these profit the soldier if, when he has reached his tactical point and dug himself in, he can only waste his ammunition? The admirable and scientific system of musketry instruction which has been in force in our Army since the Boer War was the pre-eminent factor in the amazing success of our troops in holding off the attack of vastly outnumbering, forces on the retreat from Mons. We need not