Society

Thursday

David Shipley

What our prisons get wrong

‘Purposeful activity’ is a phrase often heard in discussions about our prisons. It describes work, training, therapeutic courses and other meaningful activities which improve prisoners’ mental health and make them less likely to behave antisocially in prison or offend after release. In theory our prisons should make sure that most prisoners are spending a significant amount of time out of their cells participating in this purposeful activity. Unfortunately, a report published last Friday by His Majesty’s Inspector of Prisons reveals that the reality falls far short of that. Of 32 closed prisons inspected in 2023-24, 30 of them were rated ‘poor or not sufficiently good’. In practice this means that

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

In defence of Rosie Duffield

Rosie Duffield’s magnificently rancorous resignation of the Labour whip has reduced the number of MPs on the government side who are able accurately to identify what a ‘woman’ is by about 30 per cent. This is, then, a grave loss to Sir Keir Starmer, who could have wheeled Rosie out every time he was asked the tricky question and told his interlocutors: ‘Ask her, she seems to know. I haven’t a clue. I have been shown diagrams, of course, many of them in full colour. But a proper definition still eludes me because, for me and the vast majority of my colleagues on the left, such things as diagrams and

Toby Young Toby Young

Did Michael Gove mean what he said?

I thought the Spectator dinner for Michael Gove hosted by Fraser Nelson would be cancelled. To be clear, this wasn’t a dinner where the Ming vase would be passed from one custodian to another, witnessed by the magazine’s general staff. Rather, this was a dinner to celebrate Michael’s legacy as education secretary organised weeks earlier by Rachel Wolf, founder of the New Schools Network, and which Fraser had kindly agreed to host. But – talk about bad timing! – at 1.30 p.m. on the day it was due to take place it was announced that Michael would be succeeding Fraser as editor. That was a bit like Theresa May having agreed

Philip Womack

Bring back the stiffy!

The other day, clearing out boxes, I stumbled on a sheaf of invitations from childhood. Decorated with trains and fairies, they are very similar to those my children still (just about) receive today, except there’s usually a Thelwell pony instead of Elsa from Frozen. The handwritten addresses, the names of the houses and streets (Bluebell Cottage, Leeward Road) plunged me back to 1980s Sussex, sunlit gardens and pass the parcel (where only the winner got a prize, unlike now, when a Haribo lurks in every layer). It was a ritual. There was the pleasure of choosing the invitations (‘Darling, we had spaceships last year’), the thrill of doling them out

Olivia Potts Olivia Potts

The joy of tarte Tatin

When it comes to traditional recipes, there are few things we love more than an unlikely origin story, ideally one born out of clumsiness or forgetfulness. The bigger the kitchen pratfall, the more delicious the product. Setting pancakes on fire? Accidental crêpe Suzette! Nothing in the restaurant apart from lettuce and some pantry ingredients? The Caesar salad is born! Muck up a cake you’ve made hundreds of times and end up with a squidgy mess? The St Louis gooey butter cake is even more popular than the original recipe! There are few bungling origin stories neater than that of the tarte Tatin But there are few bungling origin stories neater

Roger Alton Roger Alton

Sorry, but you’ve got to love the Springboks

There may still be some poor benighted souls who regard the Springboks as the bane of rugby union. If you meet one, get ready to dispense a proper mauling. South Africa, for so long the Millwall of rugby, are playing an all-round game that is so breathtakingly attractive you have to love them. It may be hard for you, but tough. It would take a brave man to bet against them for the 2027 World Cup in Australia The scrum has always been irresistible, of course; relays of vast men who can shred opponents to bits: here’s hooker Malcolm Marx, accumulator of tries and the size of a terraced house

Mary Killen

Dear Mary: How can I handle boredom during a play?

Q. I am at a dinner and the man on my right won’t turn and I am staring ahead feeling ultra self-conscious and victimy. The table is too wide for the people opposite to help out. What to do? – L.P., London W11 A. Twenty years ago the answer to this question would have been: ‘Place your hand on to the offender’s thigh.’ Today you will need to get the attention of your host at the head of the table and give a subtle signal that a disruption is called for. An experienced host will break the spell by clinking a glass and making a pleasant announcement of some kind and

Tanya Gold Tanya Gold

An inedible catastrophe: Julie’s Restaurant reviewed

At Julie’s at the fag end of Saturday lunchtime, Notting Hill beauties are defiantly not eating, and the table is covered with crumbs. Restaurant Ozymandias, I think to myself. This is no longer a district for the perennially wracked, or unrich. The Black Cross – Martin Amis’s ideal pub in London Fields – is now a sushi joint. Of course it is. The omelette is bright yellow and tough, like a hi-viz croissant Julie’s, which is named for its first owner, the interior designer Julie Hodgess, mattered in the 1980s. I don’t trust restaurant myth-making – let longevity be the judge, and this is the third Julie’s on the site

Catriona Olding

Move over, Mrs Bennet – I’ve seen two daughters married in less than a month

Provence A few days before my middle daughter’s Oxfordshire wedding this summer, my youngest announced that she and her fiancé, who’ve been together for years, were getting married within weeks. They’re moving abroad and bringing their wedding forward would help, she said. Two daughters married in less than a month. Mrs Bennet would be proud or envious. On hearing the news I panic-booked an easyJet flight to Edinburgh for the day before the youngest’s wedding, only to realise it got in at midnight, just 12 hours before the ceremony, and had to abandon that and rebook for the previous day. Usually the journey to Nice airport takes an hour and

Dot Wordsworth

What does Yvette Cooper mean by ‘hubs’?

‘Did she mean youth clubs?’ asked my husband when I said how annoying I found the promise made by Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, to provide ‘new youth hubs to steer young people away from violence’. No, she definitely said ‘hubs’. Everyone has to have a hub now. Sophy Ridge has one on television at seven o’clock every evening. A hub was an almost magical thing when Gordon Brown as prime minister introduced one to Downing Street. It was credited with being inspired by one at the Daily Telegraph. ‘Mr Brown has decided to spend some of his time working in Downing Street surrounded by his closest aides,’ reported Rosa Prince

Melissa Kite

Why is it so hard to hire a car?

My passport and driving licence sat on the counter but the girl stared back at me, repeating her demand. ‘I need your DVLA check code,’ she said. I told her I didn’t have the slightest idea what she was on about. ‘I need your DVLA check code,’ she said again, doing her best ‘computer says no’ stare. The Sixt rental office was in the atrium of the Hilton Hotel Gatwick, which for some reason had been heated to something like sauna temperature. I had walked what felt like a mile, pulling my wheelie suitcase, because Sixt wasn’t in the main car-hire area near the terminal exit, and hadn’t warned me

Robin Oakley

The joy of the early autumn Newmarket meetings

There’s no shrewder punter than J.P. McManus who likes to say: ‘There’d be many more fish in the sea if they could only learn to keep their mouths shut.’ Last year, clever young Emmet Mullins won the Cesarewitch with J.P.’s The Shunter but when Emmet let it be known that he was aiming for the other half of the Autumn Double, sending This Songisforyou to Newmarket for last Saturday’s Cambridgeshire, there was no way of keeping a lid on things. The money poured on him for days. This side of the Irish Sea we all run scared of the Emerald Isle these days: if it isn’t Aidan O’Brien sending yet

Luke McShane

Imminent disaster

Mistakes in chess come in pairs. Last month, and not for the first time, that nugget of wisdom thumped me on the nose. Representing England at the Olympiad in Budapest, my game against Luca Moroni was proceeding rather pleasantly. It was clear the Italian grandmaster had underestimated my sacrifice of rook for bishop in the middlegame, and I was about to recover my material investment with interest. Alas, my return was diminished by an elementary tactical oversight, missing the move 25 Na4xb6 (see first diagram). No matter – I was still a pawn to the good. I moved my rook which was under attack, and he responded in the obvious

Luke McShane

No. 821

White to play. Ciolacu-Khotenashvili, Fide Women’s Olympiad, Budapest, September 2024. How did White crown her kingside attack? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 7 October. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1 Rxe7! Rxe7 2 Qd5+! Qxd5 3 Nxe7+ Kf7 4 Nxd5 wins Last week’s winner Chris McSheehy, Mattingley, Hampshire

Victoria Lane

Spectator Competition: Smalls miracle

In Comp 3369 you were invited to write about the recent underwear storm of Chongqing, or some other freak event, as if it had happened centuries ago and become legend. The entries were wonderfully imaginative, though they dangled some grim visions of the future. It pains me not to squeeze in David Silverman’s poem, so here is his second verse: Sing of that legendary dawn: Of Chongqing’s briefs and panties, borne Aloft o’er realms of Genghis Khan; Of knickers measureless to man, Of boxer, Y-front, bra and thong, Dry clean and machine washable. Recall the words of Mao Zedong: That miracles are possible! The winners below receive £25. In days

Lavatch

2674: New crop

7D (two words), performed by 40A (two words), suggests the other unclued lights, which are all similarly amended forms of words of a kind. A final ‘7D’, itself a thematically appropriate word, must be highlighted in the final grid. Across 1               Actor, you said, departed with a hook (8) 8               Young bird from e.g. Spain returning (4) 11            Pet perhaps I put on rocky shingle (7,6) 15            Son, rugged and skinny (7) 16            Mythic work almost included from the east (4) 23            Cricket side permits decorative items (7) 25            Parisian to go with soldier caught reacting badly? (8) 26            Deviation from course, meaning to get on (8) 27            What crooks

Lavatch

2671: Canned madras – solution

Nine unclued lights have been seen on STAGE (35): THE RIVALS (4A), ELECTRA (27), THE BIRDS (29), ALL MY SONS (39), LYSISTRATA (1D), BECKET (3), NO MAN’S LAND (19), ORESTES (26) and ST JOAN (30) (‘Saint Joan’ in short form). RHINO (33) (‘Rhinoceros’ in short form) is to be shaded. First prize Mydrim Jones, London WC1 Runners-up Trevor Evans, Drulingen, France; Gail Petrie, Brean, Somerset

Peter Jones

Will Rachel Reeves’s Iron Age morph into a Golden Age?

Rachel Reeves seems to be promising us an initial Iron Age of misery which will mutate into a glorious Golden Age. How very classical of her. It is true that some ancient Greeks saw it the other way round. They argued that it was early civilisation that was the Golden Age, inhabited by men who lived ageless and free from hardship, while Nature poured forth its fruits, harvested by men at leisure (comic poets greatly enjoyed imagining a world in which it rained wine and pease porridge, hot sausage slices rolled down rivers and inanimate objects jumped to obey orders: ‘Table, come here! Cup, go wash yourself! Fish, turn over

Matt Ridley

How Ed Miliband plans to conjure electricity out of nothing

Electricity is magical stuff. From a couple of tiny holes in a wall comes an apparently endless supply of invisible, weightless, silent ether that turns instantly into light, heat, motion or information at your command. It is a metaphor for the modern economy: we use pure energy to create useful outcomes in the real world. We found out last week that Britain has now for the first time achieved top spot, among 25 nations, in terms of the price we pay for this supernatural ichor, for both domestic and industrial use. This is a disaster. Electricity prices have doubled in Britain since 2019. They are 46 per cent above the