Society

Saturday

Mary Killen

Dear Mary: Jesse Norman asks how to deal with defectors

From Jesse Norman MP Q. We’ve been having a little local difficulty at work with one or two colleagues who vigorously assert their loyalty to the organisation, but then go and join a would-be competitor. It’s not that this is bad for morale; on the contrary. But it confuses some of our customers. Your advice would be most welcome. A. Take the tip of a top industrialist who never tried to refuse a resignation: congratulate the deserter effusively on his decision and declare publicly that he and his new organisation will make an excellent fit and wish him well. Finish with the wise words of Sacha Guitry: ‘When a man

Mary Killen

Dear Mary: Jim Broadbent worries that he lacks ‘certainty’

From Jim Broadbent Q. As an immensely successful actor I am more than happy with my lot. However, I have recently developed a burning desire to make my mark in politics. I feel sure that I could make a favourable impression and that it could only enhance my already stratospheric public profile. My only problem is I lack ‘certainty’. I really don’t know what I think on any given subject. I don’t necessarily see this as an insurmountable problem since in my career to date I have given ample evidence that I can spout arrant nonsense convincingly, but I would like guidance as to which political party would most benefit

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Modern warfare

From The New German Artillery, The Spectator, 12 December 1914: We shall have to wait a long time, we surmise, till the merits or demerits of the various new weapons are proved.Perhaps before judgment is delivered other new weapons will be introduced. The data are still very imperfect. We cannot say yet, for instance, whether the old-fashioned grenade will enjoy a revival in future wars owing to the fact that the out- flanking of one huge conscript array by another similar army is in many circumstances impossible. and that therefore the trenches of the two armies approach within a few yards of one another on a parallel front. At this

Friday

Fleur Macdonald

Did Adnan Syed do it?

I doubt most people would have been familiar with the relatively unremarkable murder of a Baltimore high school student by her ex-boyfriend in 1999. Until Serial started a couple of months ago. Similarly, you might never have heard of Richard Hickock, Perry Smith or some murder in Kansas. Until Truman Capote. Just as he popularised true crime by making it as exciting as fiction, Sarah Koenig has done the genre a favour by making it a bit more listener-friendly. Now one and a half million are tuning in and Hae Min Lee and Adnan Syed are on BBC Radio 4 Extra. The story goes as follows. While Koenig was a journalist on

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Why Russell Brand isn’t wrong to fear entering Parliament

Oh look, Russell Brand doesn’t want to stand for Parliament even though he moans about it! You can watch the clip of the man who was introduced as a ‘comedian and campaigner’ on Question Time last night saying he would ‘be scared I’d become one of them’ here. Now, it’s easy to mock this ‘comedian and campaigner’ for not following through with his ‘campaigning’ and doing something about the issues he cares so deeply about by going into politics, or at least bothering to understand it (he also moaned about pictures of poor attendances in Parliament when MPs are talking about issues that people care about and high attendances when

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

The last days of the Cameron administration part 2: Failing Grayling

Of all the reasons to wish this government gone, Chris Grayling is the largest. He is shutting poor and much of the working and lower-middle class out of the justice system. In matters as fundamental to a good life as housing, employment protection and freedom from domestic violence, he has placed them beyond the rule of law. If they go to court, they have no one to plead their cause, while their landlord or employer or ex-husband can hire lawyers to outwit them. The legal system intimidates most potential claimants. They are too frightened and confused to think of representing themselves. I suspect many middle-class graduates are as nervous. Most

Steerpike Steerpike

Hacks turn out in droves to watch (sorry, report) porn protest

Mr S strolled to Westminster this lunchtime to see what all the fuss was about some porn protest. He wasn’t alone. Hacks significantly outnumbered the protestors, who were upset about the recent changes to UK pornography regulations. Despite the abundance of dictaphones, notepads and cameras, Mr S strongly suspects that many of the hacks were simply there to ogle – not that they’d ever admit it. Here are some of Mr S’s favourite snaps:  

Sebastian Payne

Watch: why doesn’t Russell Brand stand for Parliament?

In case you hadn’t heard, Russell Brand was on Question Time last night with Nigel Farage. It was explosive to say the least, with Brand and Farage clashing over pretty much everything. The most electrifying moment – see above – came when a member of the audience rightly pulled up Brand over his throwaway remark that Farage didn’t care about disabled people. The fellow pointed out that the Ukip leader had ‘never criticised the disabled’ and told Brand ‘if you’re going to campaign, then stand…you have the media profile for it, do it.’ Yet instead of his usual reasoning that parliamentary democracy is broken and not fit for purpose, Brand offered a mealy-mouthed pitiful excuse for his incessant shouting from

Thursday

Raymond Keene

London greats | 11 December 2014

The London Chess Classic, graced by two former world champions Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, as well as the world number two, Fabiano Caruana, is nearing its close. Full details can be found on www.londonchessclassic.com and there is still time for chess fans to visit the event at Olympia, since it runs to 14 December. The London Classic continues the great tradition of outstanding events and superlatively creative games which have been played in the capital. London has been the home to such outstanding champions of the game as Andre Philidor, Wilhelm Steinitz and Emanuel Lasker while Steinitz himself claimed that two of the supreme creative masterpieces of his time

Raymond Keene

Christmas chess puzzle

White to play. This position is from Anderssen-Kieseritzky, London 1851. It is a brilliant encounter that became known as the Immortal Game. White has already gambitted both rooks. How does he finish off?   Please note that this is not a prize competition. No need to send in answers!   Last week’s solution 1 Be3

Taki

Taki’s Christmas gift to readers: a masterclass in the art of seduction

Here is my Christmas gift to Spectator readers, one that applies mostly to unmarried males, but is also available to married ones who might wish to test if that old magic still works. (Female readers of the best magazine in the whole wide world might also pick up a few hints.) This is, of course, not to be confused with the amateurish, vulgar and embarrassing inventory of the American Julien Blanc on how to pick up women. His guidance is meant for tattooed beer drinkers trying to pull drunken slags in cheap bars. Mine is for gentlemen endeavouring to make an impression on ladies and well brought-up young women. Here

Jeremy Clarke

Forgive us our Christmases as we forgive those who Christmas against us

After lunch on Christmas Day my father always stood at the sink in his apron and yellow Marigolds and did the washing-up. Rolling up his shirtsleeves the gentleman’s way, as he claimed it was, with two turns maximum to just below the elbow, he couldn’t wait to get started. I can see him now, paper hat, suds up his arms. However, the underlying and perhaps most pressing reason for his doing the washing-up all afternoon was that he was a furtive drinker. When my father courted my mother, he led her to believe that he was a non-smoking, teetotalling Christian believer, when in truth he was the exact opposite of

Melissa Kite

Here’s what I’ve learned in 2014

The countryside is all very well so long as you know you can leave it. Funnily enough, exactly the same can be said for the town. I realise I have spent the entire year trying to decide whether to sell up and move from London to the wilds of Surrey. Or stay put in Balham. I’ve spent more evenings on Zoopla than can possibly be healthy. And now I think about it, I guess the reason I have struggled so hard to make a choice is that town and country are dependent on each other to produce their own special magic. I cannot enjoy the country unless I know I

Alexander Chancellor

Without Jesus and with less Santa, what does Christmas mostly consist of?

More than ever this year I find friends planning to go abroad for Christmas, some to countries such as India where the sun shines and Christmas is barely celebrated at all. I can see why. The goodwill and good cheer that the festival is intended to foster is all too often outweighed by the stress and anxiety it causes. This has been the case for years, but it gets worse with the passage of time. More couples divorce, more families break up, and Christmas tends not to heal such wounds but to aggravate them. The preparations for Christmas are more than joyless; they are soul-destroying. Try visiting Oxford Street at

Robin Oakley

Christmas reading for racing folk

‘Hang on a minute—he’s a bit wobbly,’ trainer Oliver Sherwood told photographers imploring him to stand with his winner when Many Clouds won this year’s Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury. Truth be told, Many Clouds’s popular trainer was wobbly too, understandably emotional after a victory which reminded many that a trainer whose string of Cheltenham Festival victories were a year or two back can still produce big race winners when he has the horse. The after-race moments were a reminder, too, of the warmth and generosity of the jumping scene. As I was shaking the tearful Oliver’s hand in congratulation, he was hugged vigorously by Sarah Hobbs, wife of Philip

Janet de Botton

Bridge | 11 December 2014

Pierre Zimmermann, captain of the hugely successful Monaco team, plays with Franck Multon and they are probably the best sponsor/professional partnership in the world. Franck occasionally partners a somewhat less gifted lady who, after he opened a minor, bid 3NT. He put dummy down and left the table. When he returned, she had gone one down and he informed her that her bidding was totally wrong and that if she ever bid 3NT over his suit opening again he would leave and not return! Sometime later she was playing with another world-class partner who, when she opened 1♦, immediately jumped to 3NT. ‘You should NEVER make that bid,’ she admonished

Mary Killen

Dear Mary solves problems for Jim Broadbent, N.M. Gwynne, Jesse Norman and others

Once again Mary has invited some of her favourite figures in the public eye to submit personal queries for her attention. From Jesse Norman MP Q. We’ve been having a little local difficulty at work with one or two colleagues who vigorously assert their loyalty to the organisation, but then go and join a would-be competitor. It’s not that this is bad for morale; on the contrary. But it confuses some of our customers. Your advice would be most welcome. A. Take the tip of a top industrialist who never tried to refuse a resignation: congratulate the deserter effusively on his decision and declare publicly that he and his new

Tanya Gold Tanya Gold

The most preposterous restaurant to have opened in London this year

Somerset House, a handsome Georgian palace on the Thames, was once the office of the Inland Revenue, and the courtyard was a car park, but that particular hell is over. Instead there is Skate at Somerset House with Fortnum & Mason, which is a purple-lit skating rink next to a ‘pop-up’ shop or ‘Christmas arcade’. This, because all PR copywriters think they write for Jennifer’s Diary in 1952, is apparently ‘the most chic and complete Christmas experience in London this season’. I doubt it. There is, for instance, no sign of Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, Father Christmas, or rogue elves, although there is a ‘twinkling 40ft Christmas tree hand-picked from the

Toby Young Toby Young

What will it take to live up to my father’s Great Life?

I received a phone call the other day that I wasn’t expecting. It was a BBC producer calling about a Radio 4 series called Great Lives, presented by Matthew Parris. Each week, a distinguished guest is asked to nominate someone they believe is truly deserving of the title ‘Great Life’ and then they come on the radio to discuss that person, along with an ‘expert’. I got rather excited as she was explaining this. Had someone really nominated me? When she told me the name of the guest I was even more thrilled — Brian Eno, the founder of Roxy Music. ‘The rock legend?’ I said. ‘That’s awfully flattering.’ ‘Yes,

William Cook

Fortune tellers, pound shops and Orville: why I love Blackpool

‘Jesus is the light of the world,’ reads the sign outside Blackpool’s Central Methodist Church, but all along the promenade the lights are going out. I’d returned to my favourite seaside resort to catch the end of the Illuminations, an annual attraction that brings several million visitors here every year. Since 1879, this vast canopy of fairy lights has stretched Blackpool’s summer season into autumn, flooding the seafront with ‘artificial sunshine’. But even Blackpool, with all its razzamatazz, can’t turn winter into summertime. From the Central Pier to the South Pier, the Illuminations are now all dormant. Only a modest cluster remains, between the Tower and the North Pier. It