Society

Thursday

Tim Stanley

Brighton has become an object lesson in why it is a disaster to vote Green

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_16_Oct_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”Tim Stanley and Jason Kitcat discuss Brighton” startat=1510] Listen Such is their incompetence that the Greens often hurt the very causes they push [/audioplayer]I have just moved back to Brighton, and I am happy to report that it remains as shambolic as ever. The estate agent said before opening the door to a prospective flat, ‘I’m obliged by law to tell you that the previous tenant was an alcoholic and died here.’ I replied, ‘I am not surprised and that is not a problem.’ No one who knows Brighton expects puritanism. Unfortunately, we have grown to expect dreadful politics. Since 2010, both the MP and the council have

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Reading the comments on my Ukip columns, I finally understand the Nazis

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_16_Oct_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”Lord Pearson and Damian Green discuss Ukip and the Tories” startat=81] Listen [/audioplayer]Like many, I’ve always been a bit baffled by the story of the rise of Nazism. The Germans I’ve met have appeared to be human beings like any other: in no signal way a different breed from my own countrymen. Yet these are the great-grandchildren, grandchildren and children of a generation that was taken in by Adolf Hitler; or, worse, carried him forward; who supported (many of them) the Nazis; who knew or guessed what was happening to Jews, homosexuals and other minorities; who must either have turned a blind eye or positively encouraged what was

The Spectator

From the archives | 16 October 2014

From ‘War and wild life’, The Spectator, 17 October 1914: The siege of Antwerp has been a minor tragedy in a quarter to which few probably gave a thought. The authorities of the Antwerp Zoological Gardens, before the bombardment began, felt compelled to destroy all the dangerous animals in their cages. They could not contemplate the possibility of beasts of prey loose in the streets; a stray shell would break the bars of the strongest enclosure, and the Zoological Gardens are situated near one of the important railway stations, which would naturally attract the fire of cannon. The idea of protecting the cages with sheets of steel seems to have

Lucy Vickery

Spooner verse

In Competition No. 2869 you were invited to submit a poem on any theme as it might have been written by the diminutive, myopic warden of New College, Oxford Revd W.A. Spooner, whose gift for mangling words bequeathed us such comic gems as ‘The Lord is a shoving leopard’. Not everyone was laughing, though. ‘Am I the only one who finds this exercise extraordinarily difficult?’ wailed Brian Murdoch. He’s got a point. Judging the entries was a brain-addling process, so goodness knows what torture it must have been to write them. The winners take a well deserved £25 each. Sylvia Fairley snaffles £30.   Send my abandoned tart to hell

Liam Halligan

Europe will reconcile with Russia, and soon. It can’t afford not to

After months of escalating tensions over Ukraine and talk of a new cold war, Russia and the West could soon reach a surprising rapprochement. The eurozone economy is suffering badly and sanctions against Russia are partly to blame. Winter is also upon us, and that reminds every-one Vladimir Putin still holds the cards when it comes to supplying gas. The clincher, though, is that Ukraine is heading towards financial meltdown. Unless an extremely large bailout is delivered soon, there will be a default, sending shockwaves through the global economy. That’s a risk nobody wants to take — least of all Washington, London or Berlin. Sanctions against Russia were always going to

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Storm warning: the world economy’s October troubles aren’t over yet

October is always a turbulent month, and I’m feeling uneasy about this one. The FTSE100 index, which looked set to break through 7,000 in September, has lost more than 500 points since then — and would have lost more but for manoeuvres in the mining sector. Pessimism stalks the bond markets, and even a falling oil price is read more as a harbinger of faltering growth than a stimulus for further recovery. Ebola is the new volcanic ash cloud, and attention is focused on the apparently incorrigible weakness of the eurozone — where the biggest problem is what was long seen as the most potent solution, namely the German economy.

Jonathan Ray Jonathan Ray

October Wine Vaults

It’s back to basics this week and pretty darn delicious basics at that. Corney & Barrow’s house selection has an almost fanatical following among Spectator readers and it’s a real pleasure to offer the core of the range here at extremely generous rates. In fact, if one takes advantage of the fabled Brett-Smith indulgence (£6 off per case when buying two dozen bottles or more) there is a double discount on offer. This makes the wines very accessible indeed and ideal for stockpiling in time for Christmas. The Corney & Barrow House White (1) is a deliciously drinkable and refreshing Gascon blend of Colombard and Ugni Blanc drawn from the

Marcus Berkmann

Why everyone wants what Nora Ephron was having

I have come late to Nora Ephron — a little too late for her, anyway, as she died in 2012. Indeed, it was just after she breathed her last that I read her only novel, Heartburn, a copy of which had been pressed on me by a writer friend with a mad glint in her eye. It is that sort of book, and I now press copies on other friends with the same mad glint. A brutal dissection of Ephron’s disastrous marriage to the Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein, it’s also a brilliantly sustained piece of comic writing, as good as anything you’ll find outside Wodehouse. Nigella Lawson loves it, as

Wednesday

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Cardinal Kasper: You can’t talk to Africans about homosexuality. Whoops!

Say what you like about H.E. Walter Card. Kasper, he speaks his mind. Normally this suits liberal Catholics. Today they’re wishing he had maintained a prudential silence. In an interview with Edward Pentin of ZENIT published just as the fathers of the Carry On Synod on the Family thought things were calming down, the retired German cardinal held forth on Africans and how they don’t get it on the subject of homosexuality and really there’s no point in talking to them because they’re such bigots. I paraphrase. Here is the exchange: Kasper: The problem, as well, is that there are different problems of different continents and different cultures. Africa is totally different from the

The Spectator

The Spectator’s portrait of the week

Home Checks began at British airports for passengers who might have come from west Africa with Ebola fever (even though there are no direct flights from the countries most affected). People who rang 111 with suspicious symptoms were to be asked whether they’d come from a high-risk country. Police arrested three men and three women from Portsmouth, Farnborough and Greenwich as part of an anti-terrorism operation. Of five men arrested the week before, two were released. The trial began before a jury at the Old Bailey of Erol Incedal on charges of preparing for acts of terrorism; parts of it will be held in secret. Ofsted said that ‘very little

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Lord Freud offers ‘full and unreserved apology’ for disability comments

Lord Freud has apologised for suggesting that disabled people were not ‘worth’ the minimum wage. He said: ‘I would like to offer a full and unreserved apology. I was foolish to accept the premise of the question. To be clear, all disabled people should be paid at least the minimum wage, without exception, and I accept that it is offensive to suggest anything else. I care passionately about disabled people. I am proud to have played a full part in a government that is fully committed to helping disabled people overcome the many barriers they face in finding employment. That is why through Universal Credit – which I referred to

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Can Lord Freud survive row over disability comments?

Labour clearly scent blood with Lord Freud’s comments about disabled people not being ‘worth’ the full minimum wage. They knew their first PMQs back would be difficult after their own poor conference, but when Freud made his comments, they must have been thrilled that they could bank something for this session. And it worked. You can listen to the recording here, and here is the full quote: ‘You make a really good point about the disabled. Now I had not thought through, and we have not got a system for, you know, kind of going below the minimum wage… ’There is a small…there is a group, and I know exactly

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Miliband takes on Cameron over Freud; Ukip gets a dig on recall

When Ed Miliband started speaking at PMQs today you could tell straight away that he had a foul sore throat. Combine that with the promising unemployment figures out today and Miliband forgetting two key chunks of his conference speech, and there was clear potential for the session to get very tricky for him. But Miliband had come to the Chamber armed with a series of hard questions for Cameron to answer about what Lord Freud, one of his welfare ministers had set at a fringe meeting at Tory conference. Freud apparently said that disabled people were not worth the minimum wage and that if they wanted to work for £2

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Browne to stand down as an MP

Jeremy Browne, the Lib Dem former Home Office minister, has just announced that he is to stand down as an MP at the general election: This may be because Taunton Deane would have been difficult to hold, though I understand the MP’s own private polling had told him that he was on course to win. A lot of people are saying this is a great loss to the Liberal Democrats. In a long-term sense it is because this MP had a sincere long-term vision for a liberal Liberal Democrat party that made a big pitch to voters beyond simply offering to modify the other main parties. But Browne had been

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: The companionship of the pen

From The Spectator, 17 September 1914: THE long periods of darkness and absence of all direct news which add to the gloom of this war are illuminated by the flashlights of soldiers’ letters. Letters of the deepest interest have, as we all know, enthralled public attention; but these are of course picked letters. The letters and postcards which come from the mass of soldiers tell nothing of general interest, nothing which could enable any one to picture any corner of the great war, or to share any of the emotions which must possess the souls of those firing and under fire. No hint of patriotic purpose finds expression in them;

Anne Jolis

Stop ‘Stoptober’: seven health benefits associated with smoking

James Delingpole’s latest Spectator column laments the pernicious portmanteau afflicting this fine month: Stoptober. Geddit? That’s ‘-ober’, as in the second half of ‘October’, with the word ‘Stop’ cunningly positioned where the ‘Oct’ would normally be. And what marketing genius was responsible for this rebranding? Why, someone from an Orwellian body which you’d probably much prefer didn’t exist, let alone to have to fund with your taxes. Public Health England. James closes with his own call to action: ‘Let’s start by reclaiming October.’ In that spirit, and on the conviction that public tediousness is a greater hazard than the odd puff, here are seven non-catastrophic health-related outcomes observed in association with smoking. 1. Revenge

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

I vow to thee, my Scotland, a small number of earthly things

Politics is a funny old game. I could have sworn the Yes campaign lost the Battle for Scotland in pretty decisive fashion last month. Scotland voted to remain a part of the United Kingdom. It did not vote for something that might be reckoned some kind of Independence Within the United Kingdom for the very good reason that was not the question asked. The country may not have rejected independence – and endorsed the Union – overwhelmingly but it did do so decisively. But to hear SNP and Yes supporters speak these days you’d think nothing of the sort had happened at all. They lost the war but think they have a

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

George Clooney’s wife heads to Greece to prove he hasn’t lost his Marbles battle

It was never clear why George Clooney became so attached to the Elgin Marbles. He didn’t even seem to know where they were from when he delivered his plea to the British Museum earlier this year: ‘They’ve had a very nice stay here, certainly. London’s gotten crowded. There’s plenty of room back there in Greece. England can take the lead on this kind of thing – letting art go back where it came from. The Greeks are nothing but generous. They would loan it back once in a while.’ ‘Even in England, the polling is in favour of returning the marbles to the Pantheon [sic]. The Vatican returned parts of

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

This Catholic ‘earthquake’ on homosexuality is splitting the Church

This tweet about the Vatican Synod on the Family has appeared in my timeline and it speaks volumes about the chaos the debates are generating: Cardinal Wilfred Napier, Archbishop of Durban, is a participant at the Synod and sometimes spoken of as the first black Pope. His quote refers not just to the media talk of an ‘earthquake’ in Catholic attitudes towards homosexuality but also to yesterday’s document that produced it. To quote Prof James Hitchcock, writing in the National Catholic Register, ‘there are internal tensions at the Synod that have become public, despite efforts to keep them confidential. Some bishops seem to be working to achieve diverse goals, often in opposition

Camilla Swift Camilla Swift

David Cameron shoots himself in the foot on the rural vote

Police this week were granted the authority to carry out random, unannounced checks at the home of anyone who has a gun licence. Why? They claim that shooters may be ‘vulnerable to criminal or terrorist groups’ and this is the way to tackle the ‘problem’. The new Home Office guidance assures us this won’t occur ‘at an unsocial hour unless there is a justified and specific requirement to do so.’ Some get-out clause. Crimestoppers have also launched a dedicated phone line to encourage people to report any ‘concerns’ they might have about behavioural changes in fellow shooters. Acpo’s national policing spokesman for firearms and explosives licensing added this would help