Society

Thursday

Dumpynose

2190: Petra

‘1D/19’ (six words in total) is a work by 18/13. Remaining unclued lights form two pairs suggested by 13.   Across   1    Rhubarb hems in humungous hen house (5) 10    Sweeteners in course lass sprinkled (10) 11    I tease one who’s arrived clasping book (6) 14    Engaging earl retired Russian spots (5) 15    Seconds served with the Spanish wine (5) 16    Old fruit trees housing yellow songbird (6) 22    Pacific route carrying navy quarterly (8) 23    Abnormal growth spoiling Andromeda doctor removed (7) 24    No English song (Breton possibly) (3) 25    Crow’s greeting baby owl let out (3) 27    Hero stimulated woeful bishop (7) 29    Steamy ball, a thousand

Kit Wilson

What’s going wrong in Bristol?

When a man is tired of London, he just needs to relocate to Bristol — or so the stream of westbound émigrés would suggest. Each year, hundreds up sticks and flee the capital in search of its laid-back lifestyle. Bristol prides itself on being the chilled-out alternative to the big smoke — a bit like Brighton, but further west and therefore cooler. Here they swap the ruthless capitalism of their blowhard cousins in London for giant water slides, balloon festivals and radical street art. But the city is still chippy about London’s cultural dominance. Bristol has been nicknamed ‘the graveyard of ambition’, a label adopted with pride by the locals

Dumpynose

To 2187: River and islands

The theme word is PHOENIX (38A). 6A, 12A and 26A are legendary birds; 15A, 28A and 4D are state capitals; 16A, 30D and 37D are the ‘Southern Birds’ constellations. The title was suggested by River Phoenix and the Phoenix Islands. First prize Gordon Hobbs, Woodford Green, Essex Runners-up Paul Elliott, London W12; Steve Reszetniak, Enfield, Middlesex

Ed West Ed West

Despite its problems, the United States of America is still the best. Thing. Ever

There are not that many things I find more irritating than Europeans getting on their high horses about America and the subject of race, violence and inequality. Everyone seems to have an opinion about the shooting of Michael Brown, most of which contradict what the actual witnesses and forensic evidence showed in the grand jury hearing; among these are a French government minister, who felt able to distract herself from her own country’s miseries, and Paris’s increasing resemblance to a toilet at a third division football ground. It’s partly America’s fault that it has told its own narrative to the world so well, including its racial struggle, and that this

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Will the Smith Commission proposals help or destroy the UK?

The phrase ‘Britain will never be the same again’ is overused. But today its use is justified. The Smith Commission proposals on further devolution for Scotland are a huge step towards a federal United Kingdom. All income tax, with the exception of the personal allowance, will be devolved to Scotland—so north of the border there could be different bands and rates. With more devolution to Scotland, the West Lothian question becomes more acute. So, David Cameron has been quick to stress this morning that he will bring forward his proposals on English votes for English laws before Christmas. The fundamental question is whether this move to federalism will save or

Susannah Hickling

Want to stay warm this winter? Then get naked, wear mittens and tuck into a curry

Brrr, getting chilly out there, isn’t it? Here are some proven – and perhaps surprising – ways to keep warm and cosy in cold weather: Sip a hot drink There’s actually not much evidence to back this up, but, let’s face it, cupping your hands round a steaming mug of cocoa and feeling the hot liquid go down is a very comforting thing. Cuddle up naked One way of warming someone with hypothermia is to remove clothes and lie naked against the unclothed victim. It will work just as well on a cold night in bed with your partner. Eat well Food is a crucial source of energy, which will warm

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Tristram Hunt is right: private schools do need to do more for the state sector

Please can we give Tristram Hunt a break? I’m right behind him when it comes to getting private schools to share their largesse with the state sector, and I mean, properly share. My children go to a little Catholic state school in West London just down the road from a terrifically expensive girls school, let’s call it St Peter’s. Well, over the last year, St Peter’s burnished its credentials on the social outreach front by sending in some of its sixth form girls to teach Latin. My son was in that Latin club, and I can tell you just what happened. The wretched sixth formers gave the children strawberry Haribos

Sebastian Payne

Podcast: Geeks vs spooks, a three-way Tory split and Theresa May’s manoeuvrings

Are the nerds of Silicon Valley responsible for harbouring terrorists? On this week’s View from 22 podcast, Hugo Rifkind and James Forsyth debate their articles on the battle between the geeks and spooks. Has the government forgotten that online media should have the same rights as print outlets? Or are the technology companies acting irresponsibly over battling terrorism? Damian Green MP and Isabel Hardman also discuss the Tory battles already being fought over the EU. If the Conservatives are victorious at the next election, is the party on track to split three ways: the inners, outers and reformers? Does this growing split show that the Cameroon modernisation project has failed? And what is

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Preachers of sedition

From The Spectator, 28 November 1914: If the press is to be muzzled, why do not the muzzling laws hold good in Ireland? It is against all common-sense to place Ireland in a privileged position — to give roving licences to any Irishmen who care to kill recruiting. Men have been arrested in England for spreading foolish false reports, which were not very much worse than the gossip of idiots. Why have the deliberate, callous preachers of sedition been allowed for so long to go untouched in Ireland?

Andrew Neil

A cure for Christmas stress in Sweden

We’ve all been there, I’m sure. You work your pan off to get everything done in time. You count down the days until you can break out of the madhouse of pre-Christmas London. Then you’re brought down by the dreaded lurgy. I was all for cancelling our travel plans and spending Christmas under the duvet. But the Swedish Engineer was having none of it: she’d been promised Christmas in her homeland and it was a promise I was going to keep, even if I had to be med-evaced there. I don’t really remember arriving in Stockholm. Too much Lemsip, Jameson’s and nasal spray can cloud the memory. But our fellow

Lucy Vickery

Verse Viagra

In Competition No. 2875 you were invited to submit a poem about an unlikely aphrodisiac. Thanks are due to that legend of the comping world Stanley J. Sharpless, whose ‘In Praise of Cocoa — Cupid’s Nightcap’ gave me the idea for this challenge. How confessional your entries were, who can say, but I liked Adrienne Parker’s account of an erotic encounter with a washing machine. The winners take £25 each. The bonus fiver belongs to John Whitworth, who points out that, unlikely as it might seem, we have it on Shakespeare’s authority that the potato is an aphrodisiac.   Casanova loves potato. Chips are what he gives his chick. Though

Ian Thomson

Bob Marley: from reggae icon to Marlboro Man of marijuana

A kind of political correctness dictates that one should not be too hard on Bob Marley, who died of cancer in 1981 aged 36. His loping, mid-tempo reggae sounds slightly vapid to my ears, but for many non-Jamaicans, Bob Marley is reggae; he remains an international Rasta celebrity, honoured with a waxwork at Madame Tussaud’s as well as a Jamaican Order of Merit (the third-highest honour in the Jamaican honours system). Last week, the Bob Marley estate announced that a special ‘Marley Natural’ marijuana blend was to go on sale legally in the United States next year. A private equity group based in Seattle, Privateer Holdings, has teamed up with

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The technology giants are breathtakingly irresponsible about terrorism

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_27_Nov_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Hugo Rifkind debate the clash between geeks and spooks” startat=37] Listen [/audioplayer]The arrogance and intransigence of some of the technology companies in the fight against terrorism has become extraordinary. We learned this week that one of Fusilier Lee Rigby’s murderers, Michael Adebowale, had Facebook accounts closed. Apparently, this was because it was feared he was using them for terrorist activities. No one told the authorities. Even now, our security services — which have helped prevent 40 attacks since 2005 — have not been given full details of what Adebowale was doing online. What makes the foot-dragging of tech companies inexcusable is that we know they could

Hugo Rifkind Hugo Rifkind

Google vs governments – let the new battle for free speech begin

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_27_Nov_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”Hugo Rifkind and James Forsyth debate the clash between geeks and spooks” startat=37] Listen [/audioplayer]Imagine there was one newspaper that landed all the scoops. Literally all of them. Big news, silly news, the lot. When those girlfriendless, finger-wagging freaks in Syria and Iraq opted to behead another aid worker, it would be reported here first. Likewise when nude photographs of a Hollywood actress were stolen by a different bunch of girlfriendless freaks. Hell of a newspaper, this one. Imagine it. After a while, imagine that western governments began to realise that this newspaper had sources that their own security services just couldn’t rival. So imagine that the editors

Roger Alton Roger Alton

What football can tell you about Jim Murphy (and what Jim Murphy can tell you about football)

The author of a rather brilliant little book about football could just hold the key to Labour’s otherwise negligible prospects in next year’s election. Jim Murphy is the last of the devout Blairites left on the scene, following the fratricidal killing of David Miliband, the departure of James Purnell to big bucks at the BBC, and the decision of the head of the church himself to spend more time with his mansions. After 2010, the Ed Miliband team reshuffled him out to international development. Murphy is direct, angry, utterly undeferential and passionate about everything he does. Remember him doggedly campaigning to keep the Union during the Scottish referendum, lugging his

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Matthew Parris: the barbarism of the Twitter mob

Are we heading for a new barbarism? Is this the return of the 18th-century mob? Here are more questions than answers. I ask because when all the fuss about Emily Thornberry and her photo tweet from Rochester has died down, we shall be left with something more disturbing than whatever sin she may or may not have committed. We’ve just seen demonstrated the speed, the destructiveness, the sheer violence of the modern tempest that information technology can create. In the world of opinion, climate change has arrived already. As a workaday columnist, I reflect that I could equally easily write a spirited defence of Ms Thornberry; or a spirited attack;

The Spectator

From the archives | 27 November 2014

From ‘Sedition in Ireland’, The Spectator, 28 November 1914: If the press is to be muzzled, why do not the muzzling laws hold good in Ireland? It is against all common-sense to place Ireland in a privileged position — to give roving licences to any Irishmen who care to kill recruiting. Men have been arrested in England for spreading foolish false reports, which were not very much worse than the gossip of idiots. Why have the deliberate, callous preachers of sedition been allowed for so long to go untouched in Ireland?

Misti Traya

Pacific-sized love

Grandpa turns purple in the sun. He says it is because we are Filipino, but my skin never colours that way. I watch him mystified as he calls to the pigeons. His whistles are strong and long and loud. They are all of his breaths pushed out, part Kools, part Budweiser, part Mentholyptus Halls. The wind scoops them up and makes them hers, using their smoky song to amplify her sound. Pigeons come flying home and Grandpa Melvin smiles. Some of them go straight to the coop and rest their tired wings. Air is thick in Hawaii, sticky sweet like mangoes, orchids and coconut milk. Other pigeons feast on the

Joshi Herrmann

The hidden price of more overseas students at British public schools

Just a decade or so ago, most public‑school-educated parents felt obliged to give their children the same start in life they themselves were given — selling off heirlooms to send their Jacks and Henriettas off to Eton, Stowe, Cheltenham Ladies or St Paul’s. These days the price is just too high, says Andrew Halls, head of King’s College School in Wimbledon, and he’s been honest enough to name the cause: the hordes of prospective parents from other countries, oligarchs and oil men, all jostling for places for their progeny. They push the price of an elite ‘British’ education up beyond the reach of any ordinary Brit. He’s brave to raise the