Society

Sunday

Andrew O'Keefe

Right to reply — Dear Qanta Ahmed: What ambush? Where?

Dear Qanta, Our names are Andrew O’Keefe and Monique Wright, and we were the hosts who interviewed you on Weekend Sunrise. We were also partially behind the decision to invite you on to our show, having read about and admired your work for some time. It is with great sadness, and some surprise, that we now read your article “A Muslim’s Ambush: How I was stitched up by Australian breakfast TV“. We both recall very fondly that you took the time, on the day, to remark upon the very pleasing content and conduct of the interview in question. As you said in the interview itself, it was “refreshing”. And indeed,

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Supportive opposition

From ‘Lord Curzon’s Speech’, The Spectator, 9 January 1915: We are glad to record, though in no way surprised to find, that Lord Curzon takes a very serious and very clearly defined view of the duties of the Opposition during a period of national crisis. He recognized that part of these duties in war time can never, as in peace, be the effort to substitute one set of politicians for another in the work of government. On the contrary, in war the support of the King’s Government in all the measures which they may think necessary for ensuring the safety of the country becomes the essential duty of the Opposition. But

Saturday

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Belgian jobs for Belgian workers

From News of the Week, The Spectator, 9 January 1915: A Commission, under the chairmanship of Sir Ernest Hatch, has been appointed by the Government to advise and help local Refugee Committees in establishing workshops for Belgian refugees. In the recent Report of the Belgian Refugees Committee it was pointed out that the refugees were divided into three groups: (1) Those trained in industries in which there happens to be a shortage of British labour, such as the armament, woollen, agricultural, and motor industries. (2) Those trained in industries in which there is no shortage: tailors, dressmakers, printers, ironmongers, fancy goods makers, and carpenters. (3) Those who have had a

Friday

Camilla Swift Camilla Swift

Norway hasn’t given in to Islamophobia – but it has reacted

Under the headline ‘Norway didn’t give into Islamophobia, nor should France’, Owen Jones writes on the Guardian’s Comment is free website that Norway’s response to the Anders Breivik massacre in 2011 ‘was not retribution, revenge, clampdowns’, and that ‘the backlash [Breivik] surely craved never came’. Norway, he writes, ‘stood strong’. But did it really? I’m half Norwegian. I adore the country, and I would – and do – fight its corner any day of the week (even against our Swede-loving editor). Norway certainly hasn’t given in to Islamophobia, but it has reacted. No matter what Owen Jones says, there have been some changes in the Norwegian public’s general attitudes. In

Andrew Haldenby

Private companies can deliver exactly what the NHS needs

The end of the private management of Hinchingbrooke Hospital is not a dagger in the heart of NHS competition and reform. It does not mean, as the BBC’s business editor wrote today, that a private business cannot run an acute hospital (which is an extraordinary statement given that such businesses routinely do so in other countries). Competition is at the heart of the NHS England Five Year Forward View (5YFV), which all major political parties have supported. The degree of successful private sector delivery in and around health is often underestimated. The much-used figure is that 6 per cent of the NHS budget is spent on private providers (i.e. just

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Charlie Hebdo’s journalists were murdered for doing. Now people are being attacked simply for being

After Wednesday’s attack on Charlie Hebdo, an argument doing the rounds was that it would have been better not to publish cartoons that were deliberately provocative when the magazines had already suffered violent attacks. Why should the journalists put themselves and others, including Muslim policeman Ahmed Merabet, at risk of death? Now two people are dead in a kosher grocers in eastern Paris, perhaps those who thought that it unwise to publish aggressive cartoons can have a think again. Five or six people are believed to be being held hostage in the shop. The shop sells kosher food. Jews buy kosher food. The attackers appear to be killing people not

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Circle’s exit from Hinchingbrooke is a serious blow to competition in the NHS

This morning’s announcement by Circle that it will be leaving the contract to run Hinchingbrooke Hospital makes it even more difficult politically for anyone who believes in greater competition in the NHS to make their case. Opponents of private sector involvement in healthcare provision will say – with good reason – that this shows you cannot trust anyone other than the public sector to stick with a hospital in the tough times. Proponents will point out that ultimately providers leaving is better than entrenched failure. But in a way Circle needed to perform in a way that was atypical of the market: I had to succeed and it had to

Tarek S Arab

When the NHS is treated like a religion, is it any wonder whistleblowers are considered pariahs?

I will start by publicly apologising to Professor Meirion Thomas; in a moment of folly, I erroneously signed a petition decrying his alleged ‘disrespect’ of colleagues, in the wake of one of his articles in the Daily Mail. In my defence, my newborn was crying at the time and I was sleep deprived. Now, however, I believe that the undignified manner – see the abuse and attacks against him, as detailed in last week’s Spectator – in which members of his own profession reacted to his views speaks ill of the medical profession and says a lot about how public discourse has deteriorated. I have read Professor Thomas’ articles. I

Susannah Hickling

8 reasons why dry January could be bad for your health

Have you renounced alcohol for the first month of the year after a festive binge? Maybe you’re doing it for charity or for the sake of your liver. But is it worth the sacrifice? Bear in mind: 1. You’ll probably drink more at the end of it. Doctors agree that there’s no point in going on the wagon for a month just to hit the bottle with a vengeance on 1 February and keep boozing for the rest of the year. But, feeling all virtuous and cleansed after your dry month, that’s exactly what you’re likely to do. 2. There’s no proof it does you any good. While not drinking

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Keep cool and be British

From News of the Week, The Spectator, 9 January 1914: It is with deep regret that we record the loss of this battleship, which was sunk in the Channel by a submarine on the morning of Friday week. The ‘Formidable’ was a vessel of 15,000 tons, and was completed in 1901. She carried a company of between seven hundred and eight hundred officers and men. The disaster happened in very heavy weather, and only two hundred and one lives were saved. The ship was struck about two o’clock, and remained afloat till after three o’clock. Four boats were launched under terribly difficult conditions, due not only to the heavy seas,

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters: The silencing of Meirion Thomas; finding the Cross of St George in Tuscany; and healthy scepticism about NHS privatisation

This turbulent surgeon Sir: I have taken Meirion Thomas to task before in your letters pages, saying that since one third of NHS professional staff are immigrants, it would seem churlish to deny health visitors access to the very doctors we have poached from them. Meirion Thomas is not a whistle-blower (‘Bitter medicine’, 3 January) — he has not told us anything that our own prejudices haven’t already informed us of. And quite rightly he is being encouraged by his colleagues to zip it. Is there any business, let alone political party, that would tolerate such pointless, if not divisive, mudslinging from within? Dr Tom Roberts Derby Medical cover-ups Sir: Freddy

Taki

The missed New Year opportunities I would have rowed the Atlantic for

 Gstaad The very end of 2014 laid an egg, and an expensive one at that. I missed David Tang’s bash in London because I thought it too much to fly over for a cocktail party, but my restraint cost me quite a lot. It would have been worth rowing across to see Tony Blair schmoozing my old proprietor Lord Black. Two more wrong choices followed: I skipped Jemima Goldsmith’s party as well as her brother Ben’s wedding for a shindig of my own —one that turned out to be a bust. None of my gels turned up, but a lot of strangers did, and, to add insult to hurt feelings,

Jeremy Clarke

The joys of home and hearth and hot lemon

Over Christmas and New Year I was rotten with flu and didn’t go out once. I stayed soberly at home beside the fire with the family and enjoyed every minute. The first time I ventured out, still feeling ropy, was on Saturday morning for a look around the shops. As I came out of Superdrug, I met Sasha. She was wrapped up warmly against the cold, except for her bosoms, which were recklessly exposed and showcased by a black, lacy push ’em up and point ’em out bra. We hadn’t seen each other for months and we warmly embraced. ‘Drink?’ I said. ‘Ship?’ Sasha had lost her purse again, she

Melissa Kite

Rule number one for horse-owners: every accident that happens to a horse is a freak accident

Every accident that happens to a horse is a freak accident. Rule number one. Once you grasp that as a horse-owner you are on your way to understanding the nature of the bind you are in. When Gracie went suddenly lame on a routine hack a few years ago, you may remember, it turned out she had trodden on a piece of old animal bone, which pierced the soft part of her foot. The bone fragment travelled upwards, turned right and sliced into her flexor tendon. The head surgeon at Liphook equine hospital emerged from his operating theatre that night to declare that the chance of an injury like that

Alexander Chancellor

Here I am on Twelfth Night with nothing but benevolence to look back on

For the past two and a half years my brother John has been living next door to me in the Northamptonshire countryside. We have both been most of the time alone in our separate houses, 25 yards apart, and, whenever I’ve been there, I have shared at least one meal a day with him. It was a very cosy and mutually supportive set-up. Then, on New Year’s Eve, he suddenly died. His death wasn’t exactly premature — he was 87 and increasingly debilitated by Parkinson’s disease — but it came as a shock nevertheless. On the two last evenings of his life he had come over to my house to

Robin Oakley

Venetia Williams: an enigmatic woman who trains winners

Welsh Grand National day at Chepstow could not have had a better climax than the big race. After slogging three miles four furlongs on heavy, clinging ground, three horses came to the last with a chance: leading was the Irish-trained Glenquest ridden by Peter Buchanan, in second was Benvolio ridden for Paul Nicholls by Sam Twiston-Davies and third, at that point, his chance seemingly gone when the other two had passed him two out, was Emperor’s Choice ridden for Venetia Williams by Aidan Coleman. The crowd were on tiptoe roaring all three home as first Benvolio battled past a tiring Glenquest and then Coleman somehow galvanised Emperor’s Choice into one

Janet de Botton

Bridge | 8 January 2015

The last tournament of the year is the hugely popular one-day Swiss Teams in the EBU’s Year End Congress in London. I normally play all four days (two pairs events preceding the teams) but this year I limply decided to take a longer Christmas break and was raring to go for the Teams. The first person I bumped into was my co-columnist Susanna, playing with the great Sally Brock, Frank To and Barry Myers. Seven matches were played in total and Susanna’s team won the first six to find themselves lying third with one match to go. The top five teams were very close going into the last match but

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 8 January 2015

Home The electorate was bombarded with contrary claims by parties beginning campaigns for the election in May. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that only electing the Conservative party could ‘save Britain’s economic recovery’. His party issued a dossier with figures compiled by Treasury civil servants, which sought to show that Labour’s spending plans did not account for where £21 billion was to come from. Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, said that a vote for the Conservatives would mean that after five years ‘the NHS as we know it just won’t be there’. Labour unveiled a poster that said: ‘The Tories want to cut spending on public services back to

The Spectator

Revealed: five British royals who definitely slept with underage girls

Teen queens The Duke of York denied allegations in court papers that he had had sexual relations with a girl in Florida aged 17, below the age of consent there. Some of his ancestors who might now be in trouble: — King John, who married Isabella of Angoulême in 1200 when she was 12. — Henry VI, who married Margaret of Anjou in 1445 when she was 15. — James I, who married Anne of Denmark in 1589 when she was 14. — Charles I, who married Henrietta Maria of France in 1624 when she was 15. — William III, who married his cousin Mary in 1677 when she was

Toby Young Toby Young

The misguided bid to turn Alan Turing into an Asperger’s martyr

When I first heard the story of Alan Turing in my late teens I made what must be quite a common mistake. I concluded that his conviction in 1952 for committing a homosexual act was indefensible in light of his immense contribution to the war effort. The fact that he was forced to undergo a course of hormonal ‘therapy’ which led to his suicide two years later underlined just how badly he was treated. The British authorities should have been erecting statues to him, not hounding him to his death because he was attracted to other men. The reason this was a mistake is because I’d made a connection between