Society

Monday

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: A costly experiment

From The Spectator, 26 September 1914: On Thursday the Press Bureau issued a very striking descriptive account of the situation at the front, written by “an eyewitness present with General Headquarters.” It supplements the spirited narrative issued in the earlier part of the week, and shows that under pressure the War Office has discovered a very efficient military journalist among its combatant officers. “Todgers’s can do it when it likes.” It states that we are face to face with siege warfare, and that the Germans are in effect employing material which they had collected for the siege of Paris. The official war correspondent summarizes operations from September 18th to 20th by borrowing

Tarek S Arab

Stop blaming doctors for antibiotic abuse

According to the World Health Organisation’s latest report into antibiotic resistance we are facing a ‘problem so serious that it threatens the achievements of modern medicine… A post-antibiotic era, in which common infections and minor injuries can kill, far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st century.’ Bloody frightening stuff if you ask me. Naturally the prime suspects in this whodunnit are the much-maligned medical profession, guilty of giving out antibiotics like sweeties in a tuck shop while the human race barrels toward a future in which we are going to die of diseases at which–thanks to antibiotics–we barely bat an eyelid today. Are they truly

Sunday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ed Balls to freeze child benefit and dock ministerial pay

Ed Balls, so used to dodging elephant traps laid by George Osborne, is going to lay a few of his own tomorrow when he gives his speech to the Labour conference. The Shadow Chancellor, in an attempt to do something about Labour’s poll weakness on the economy, will announce that he would freeze child benefit and cut ministers’ pay by five per cent until Labour has balanced the books. He will say: ‘We will have to make other decisions which I know will not be popular with everyone… I want to see child benefit rising in line with inflation in the next parliament, but we will not spend money we

Susannah Hickling

Nine natural ways to keep your teeth white

Smile! There are ways you can help your teeth to remain dazzling and healthy without paying to have them whitened: Cut down on dark drinks. Avoid too much red wine, black tea, coffee, colas and dark fruit juices if you want your pearly whites to stay, well, white. A rule of thumb? If they’ll stain a white tablecloth, they’ll stain your teeth. Gravy is another culprit, as are dark fruits such as blueberries and blackberries. Rinse your teeth immediately after having dark-coloured food or drinks. Be wary of white wine. Don’t think it’s just red wine that turns your teeth yellow. One study found that white wine had the effect

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Letters from the front

From The Spectator, 19 September 1914: WE have no war correspondents present with the forces, to our great loss; and we are now in the quaintly topsy-turvy position of reading accounts of battles and of fighting in the letters sent home by individual officers and men—letters which might just as well have been written by the trained correspondents who have been forbidden to take the field. It is a contrary enough state of affairs; here we have hundreds of soldiers’ accounts of fights to choose from, and hundreds of wounded at home in our hospitals with their stories to tell their friends, and yet the men who could have made the

Lucy Vickery

Spectator competition: poets’ selfies (plus: liven up something mundane with a dose of magic realism)

The latest challenge, to compose a poet’s elegy for him or herself, took you down a path trod by poor Chidiock Tichborne. He wrote his own elegy, the poignant ‘Tichborne’s Elegy’, in 1586, on the night before his execution, aged 28, for his part in a conspiracy against Elizabeth I. Nicholas Stone’s entry, in which he channels the inventor of the clerihew, E.C. Bentley, is rather more upbeat: Edmund Clerihew Bentley Slept fairly contently; But at his life’s close He found total repose. And Mae Scanlan came up with neat twists on Christina Rossetti’s ‘When I am dead, my dearest’ and Rupert Brooke’s ‘The Soldier’. In fact, you were all

Friday

The Spectator

Podcast special: Alex Salmond’s resignation

Was Alex Salmond’s resignation a surprise? And what should the SNP do now that it has lost the referendum that it fought for over so many years? In a View from 22 Spectator podcast special, James Forsyth and Hamish Macdonell analyse the First Minister’s decision, and who might replace him. listen to ‘Hamish Macdonell and James Forsyth discuss Alex Salmond’s resignation’ on Audioboo

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Breaking: Alex Salmond resigns

In the past few minutes, Alex Salmond has told a press conference that he is resigning as leader of the SNP and will stand down as First Minister. listen to ‘Alex Salmond resigns’ on Audioboo Accusing David Cameron of already reneging on the timetable promised by Gordon Brown for the legislation enabling the transfer of powers from Westminster to Holyrood, Salmond said: ‘The Prime Minister said such a vote would be meaningless. I suspect that he can’t guarantee the support of his party and as we have already seen in the past hour, the common front between Labour and Tory, Tory and Labour, is starting to break.’ But he added

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Who can explain the dead rabbits I keep seeing everywhere?

Can anyone explain why there are so many dead rabbits lying around at the moment? I’ve found three in my garden, untouched by predators, and the lanes nearby are festooned with carcasses. Also, my dog twice nearly caught a rabbit, which was behaving in a very un-rabbit-like lethargic manner. I wondered if, at first, it was myxomatosis, as the virus has adapted to a slightly less lethal form of late; hence the sluggishness. But the rabbits I found in my garden had none of those horrible tell-tale symptoms of myxy; the swollen eyes etc. Perhaps they are all committing suicide having been disillusioned by the comprehensive victory for the ‘No’

Alex Massie Alex Massie

With malice toward none and with charity towards all, now the real work begins

Relief, actually. Not joy. A battle won is better than a battle lost but still an exhausting, bloody, business. There is no need to bayonet the wounded. It would, in any case, be grotesque to do so. Scotland voted and made, in my view, the right choice. The prudent choice. The bigger-hearted choice. But 45 per cent of my countrymen disagree. That’s something to be respected too. Moreover a good number of No voters did so reluctantly and not because they were necessarily persuaded by the case for Union but because they felt the Yes campaign had not proved its own argument beyond a reasonable doubt. That’s an important qualification. A reminder

The Spectator

The aftermath of Scotland’s ‘no’ vote

We’re drawing this live blog to a close, but we’ll keep you updated on the day’s events in fresh posts on Coffee House. 09:52 The Union is saved – but at what cost? James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson ask what’s coming next in a new Spectator special.   09:49 Paddy Ashdown, the former Lib Dem leader, has come out against a rushed devolution settlement for England: PM’s speech was good. But rushing England into the Scottish timetable makes no sense. We need a more deliberative approach, to get it right — Paddy Ashdown (@paddyashdown) September 19, 2014 09.30 Here’s James Forsyth on Ed Miliband’s speech in reaction to the referendum: Ed Miliband has just spoken to a Labour

Thursday

Mark Amory

Mark Amory’s diary: Confessions of a literary editor

Until recently I used to claim that I had been literary editor of The Spectator for over 25 years; now I say almost 30. The trouble is I am not quite sure and it is curiously difficult to find out. Dot Wordsworth arrived on the same day as me but she cannot remember either. Each of us assumed that the other was an established figure and so our superior. A similar imprecision may undermine other memories. In the early Eighties then, when Alexander Chancellor had reinvented the magazine after a bad patch, and it seemed daring, anarchic and slightly amateurish, I wrote theatre reviews and one late afternoon went round

The Spectator

Spectator letters: In defence of the EU, the Welsh and Mary Wakefield

Breaking the unions Sir: By the time this letter appears we shall know whether the land of my birth has separated from the land of my life. I hope not. But is there not an uncanny parallel between the rise of the Scottish desire to quit England and the English desire to quit Europe? The same arguments about control from a city outside the nation; about elites and technocrats dictating to and imposing upon a sturdy independent people; the belief that outside the union (with England, with European partners) a radiant future beckons; endless columns, pamphlets and books explaining why rule from London/Brussels must be overthrown; and a charismatic, one-liner

Taki

What is to be done about a world where everything is for sale?

Next time you read about an auctioneer’s gavel coming down on a $150 million painting bought by some flunkey representing the ruling family of Qatar, don’t ooh or aah, but think of those monsters in Iraq and Syria who have their children pose on video while holding up the severed heads of innocents. And no, it’s not a stretch — without Qatar’s gold Islamic State would not exist, not even in the movies. Let me put it another way: had Calvin Coolidge or Herbert Hoover given White House dinners for Al Capone, the outcry would have been heard all the way down to Patagonia. Yet, as reported in these here

Jeremy Clarke

A game of dominoes turns ugly

I’m round at Amy and Bill’s for Sunday afternoon tea. Amy and Bill are my in-laws, kind of. When I was courting their daughter, I used to spend most of my spare time sitting around Amy and Bill’s kitchen table. She was 15 when I started going round there, I was 26, and I suppose if I were an old TV entertainer or disc jockey, I should be tidying up my affairs before officers from Operation Yewtree beat a lively tattoo on my front door. But Amy and Bill welcomed me in to their family from the start. If they had an objection to my courting their daughter, it was

Melissa Kite

If the RSPCA can prosecute you, why shouldn’t it take Freedom of Information requests?

After a rush of blood to the head, I decided it might be a good idea to ask some awkward questions of the RSPCA. Oh no, I hear you cry. What fresh hell is this? Let me explain. I found out that the charity is pretty much closed to any kind of scrutiny. Unlike other powerful organisations, the police or government bodies, the RSPCA is immune to Freedom of Information requests. This would be fine if it were just handing out free veterinary care, but, as we know, it isn’t. The charity can investigate and prosecute a little old lady for failing to spot that her cat has a tumour,

Alexander Chancellor

Reasons for feeling Scottish

Sometimes I say I’m Scottish, a claim often greeted with understandable derision. I was born in England, in Hertfordshire, went to school and university in England and, apart from some spells abroad as a journalist, have always lived and worked in England. I don’t even have much Scottish blood. My mother was English, from the West Country, and three of my four grandparents were English too. I have no trace of a Scottish accent. I don’t even know Scotland very well. I have never had a home there and have never lived there. As far as Alex Salmond is concerned, I might as well be Lithuanian. And yet, Scotland is

Robin Oakley

When jockeys earn so little, temptation is not surprising

While Mrs Oakley was patrolling the aisles in Waitrose one day recently, I slipped off into my local betting shop. There, too, fresh from the pub, was Mr Knowall on the day that we learned that the former champion jockey Jamie Spencer, at only 34, intended to retire. ‘Effing retiring at 34,’ Mr Knowall told the Coral clientele. ‘It just goes to show these jockeys are all paid too much.’ There was no point in arguing with beer-fuelled ignorance, and of course Jamie Spencer won’t quit the saddle as a pauper. He has been in the elite band whose talents are so valued that rich owners fly them around the

Janet de Botton

Bridge | 18 September 2014

Many top bridge players are also keen poker fans, and when a poker star infiltrates their backyard there is a definite ripple of excitement. So it was at the hugely prestigious Euro Cavendish, held last week in Monaco, when Poker Champion Gus (the Great Dane) Hansen turned up to play. No one was more excited than my teammate Nick Sandqvist, who sat down to play him and asked for his autograph! ‘It’s for a boy I know at home,’ he explained unconvincingly. Gus, of course, obliged and they got down to play. Unfortunately, Gus was now in poker mode, and decided to bluff. He psyched a spade overcall with two,

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 18 September 2014

Home People living in Scotland voted in a referendum that asked: ‘Should Scotland be an independent country?’ A great deal of ill feeling had been generated as the referendum campaign went on. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, was told by backbench Conservative MPs that he faced a ‘bloodbath’ for joining the United Kingdom leaders of the Liberal Democrats and the Labour party in offering continued high levels of funding for Scotland. Two days before the vote, Inigo Mendez de Vigo, the European affairs minister of Spain (which faces demands from the region of Catalonia for independence), contradicted Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National