Society

Thursday

James Delingpole James Delingpole

My amazing dad has found the secret of a happy life

This week I wanted to tell you about my amazing dad. He hasn’t died or anything. I just thought I’d get in there with my panegyric quick while he’s still got most of his marbles and before he’s lying in a coffin quite deaf to all the nice stuff I’m about to say about him. So: my dad. What prompted this was a chance remark he made the other day about having left school at 15. Fifteen? ‘Well I wasn’t enjoying it,’ he explained. ‘And Dad said he couldn’t afford the fees. So it made much more sense for me to come and work for the family firm as a

Boris Johnson

The secrets of London’s Athenian golden age

I had a misspent youth. During the period when most normal adolescents were playing Grand Theft Auto or discovering ten interesting facts about Pamela Anderson, I am afraid that I would take the tube by myself — aged about 13 — and visit the British Museum. I would walk through the cat-headed Egyptians and the cloven-hoofed Babylon-ians and the typewriter-bearded Assyrians, and all the other savage and ludicrous Near Eastern divinities, until I penetrated the innermost and holiest shrine of London’s greatest cultural temple, the Duveen galleries. And there, like so many before and since, I would give thanks to the slightly dim–witted 7th Earl of Elgin. Yes, I would mentally

Mary Wakefield Mary Wakefield

The perfectionist builder I always wanted

I have a friend who is perhaps best described by that old-fashioned phrase ‘ladies’ man’. He’s not a cad or a bounder — quite the opposite, in fact. He’d never leave a lady in the lurch, or lie to her, he simply enjoys the company of women — quite a lot of women — and they seem to enjoy him too. He knows all the hottest spots in town, and somehow all the barmen and doormen too. More important, he’s a listener, and as any girl will tell you, a man who listens is a rare and miraculous thing. But of all the cards up his sleeve, there’s one that

Lucy Vickery

Hidden benefits

In Competition No. 2864 you were invited to submit an imaginary feature from a newspaper’s health pages extolling the benefits to wellbeing of something traditionally thought to be bad for you. Brian Murdoch cast a new light on excessive boozing: ‘The Romans knew about it, of course, and new guidelines have re-endorsed the values of binge drinking as a regular purgation of the system.’ And if you have always viewed the deep-fried Mars Bar with suspicion, think again: Rob Stuart’s entry argues (not altogether convincingly) that, far from being ‘nutritional Armageddon’, the DFMB actually provides us with the requisite five-a-day. Cathy Bryant rebrands adultery as an aid to weight loss

Matthew Lynn

How to Ed-proof your portfolio

It was 2 May 1997. Not only was most of the country celebrating the election of a bright young Kennedy-esque Prime Minister called Tony Blair, so too, perhaps more surprisingly, were the champagne-swilling Thatcherites of the City of London. As the government took office, the FTSE 100 index climbed up to 4,455, and it was to carry on rising over the next few months, reaching 5,193 by the year’s end. Indeed, for much of its first term, Britain’s last Labour government was accompanied by a raging bull market, as the dotcom bubble reached its peak. Will history repeat itself? In May, we may well see another newly elected Labour prime

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

BP’s been punished enough – but not because Americans hate the Brits

I should declare two connections before I start offering opinions about the latest US judgment against BP relating to the ‘Macondo’ disaster — the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and subsequent spillage in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The first is that I’m occasionally invited to interview BP executives for its in-house magazine. That doesn’t mean I’m in their camp, but it does mean I have had the opportunity to discuss Macondo with, among others, chairman Carl-Henrik Svanberg, and I did not think he was merely parroting the corporate line when he told me, ‘We’re not going to let people take advantage of us, but we’re going to

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Stay, Scotland – the Spectator readers’ message

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_11_Sept_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”Fraser Nelson, Tom Holland and Leah McLaren discuss how we can still save the Union” startat=50] Listen [/audioplayer]I’ve just arrived in Edinburgh, where I’ll be handing out copies of the new magazine on Princes St from 8am tomorrow morning (helped by two readers, who kindly answered my appeal on Twitter). It’s a rather special edition: for the first time our 186-year history, the cover story has been written by the readers. We asked them to write a letter to Scots, telling them what they thought – rather than rely on the message being conveyed by the politicians. The volume and quality of the replies has been remarkable. And it

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Spiking the guns of German intrigue

The papers of Monday published the welcome news that Britain, France, and Russia have agreed ‘not to conclude peace separately during the present war.’ Of course, it was quite unthinkable that Britain, France, or Russia should be so base as to make terms at the expense of her friends. Nevertheless, a signed pledge is an excellent thing to have, if only because it puts the matter beyond the possibility of doubt, and because it spikes the guns of German intrigue, which, if report speaks truly, had already began. It is, indeed, a pitiable situation when allies think of their own interests more than of the common cause, as William III. discovered when

Tuesday

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Could homosexuality split the Catholic Church?

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the ebullient Archbishop of New York, has welcomed the ‘wise decision’ by organisers of the city’s St Patrick’s Day parade to lift their ban on gay groups marching under their own banners. He has ‘no problem with it at all’. His predecessor, Cardinal John O’Connor, who supported the ban in 1990, must be turning in his grave. More to the point, conservative American Catholics feel let down by Dolan, an orthodox and tribal prelate who likes to roll up his sleeves and jab in the direction of the snidely liberal New York Times. Here’s the response of Deal Hudson, a leading Catholic Republican (and certainly not an anti-gay bigot): Cardinal Dolan’s mistake,

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Fairly well, so far

From The Spectator, 12 September 1914: WE are not going to begin shouting before we are out of the wood. We say this out of no foolish superstition that it is unlucky to do so, but for the very plain and good reason that we are not out of the wood, though we admit that during the week things have gone fairly well, and that the prospects look somewhat brighter. But even so our success may well turn out to be temporary. Indeed, we might almost say that in one sense it is certain to prove temporary, because a campaign with fairly equal forces such as are now arrayed against

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

‘Home rule’ for Scotland means the English question must finally be answered

We are now on the verge of the biggest set of constitutional changes in living memory. Even if Scotland votes No, there is going to be a move towards a far more federal UK. The timetable Gordon Brown is announcing this evening for a ‘Home Rule Bill’, borrowing the phrase off Gladstone and the Lib Dems, is a demonstration not only of how concerned the Unionist parties are about the polls coming out of Scotland but how quickly this will all happen. Brown envisages a new settlement by the end of January next year. Now, there is a question about whether it is wise to change the constitutional fabric of

Dr Michael Banna

Calling doctors fat won’t make anyone thinner

Obesity. Everyone’s talking about it. It’s bad. Gives you diabetes, heart disease, and it makes you fat. And if you’re a newspaper, the chief executive of NHS England will tell you that it renders healthcare professionals less capable of doing their jobs. ‘Fat docs ordered to slim by NHS Chief’ cried the Sun. I didn’t get the memo. He actually told the papers, not the people. But let’s forget about just how insulting that is. Let’s forget that obesity is part of a big lifestyle puzzle, and it’s activity and nutrition doctors should be promoting, not just weight loss. Let’s say he came to us with the suggestion that we should

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

The royal womb watching begins. It’s enough to make you yearn for independence

So, there’s the final nail in the coffin of the ‘Better Together’ campaign. The Duchess of Cambridge is up the duff again and, according to The Daily Mail, being treated for morning sickness. Can of flat Coca Cola usually does the trick, according to women I’ve known who have suffered similarly, but they were admittedly from less gilded provenance. Anyway, while I have nothing at all against Kate and wish her a comfortable and radiant pregnancy, I think that if I were wavering on the independence issue north of the border this would finally make up my mind. The thrill of being part of a country which didn’t have to

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Kate and the Queen come out fighting for the Union

Well, what a coup for the No campaign. At least that was my first thought before I found, annoyingly, that it seems to have occurred to every Twitter user too (at least, so I’m told). Anyway, a new baby in prospect for the Cambridges and a PR stroke of genius for the Unionists – because we know, don’t we, that the entire Royal Family is squarely behind the Union and would simply hate for the monarch to have to negotiate a border the way James I et al had to. See Daily Mail, passim. Pretty English Kate, symbolically fecund, has at a stroke trumped the weekend polls. The Better Together campaign

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Join The Spectator’s campaign to save Britain (and write our next cover story)

We’ve had an extraordinary response to our request for emails saying why you hope that Scotland votes to stay, and to keep our country united. So many that we’ll put this on the cover – it will be the first cover piece written by readers, not journalists. And we need more! So please, email me at editor@spectator.co.uk with why you’d like Scots to stay. People power can save the union. Alex Salmond is very good at defining England as an elite, and making out as if the rest of the UK is indifferent to the survival of Britain. He’s very good at portraying his opponent as being one, big, posh

Susannah Hickling

Ten healthy reasons to drink a cup of tea

Drinking tea might stop you having a stroke. A meta-analysis of nine studies revealed that people who drank three or more cups of tea (black or green) had a 21% lower risk. You could lower your cholesterol. Drinking a brew has been shown to cut cholesterol in people with mildly raised levels. But it’ll take more than one cup – the study concerned had participants downing five cups a day of black tea over three weeks. You might cut your chances of dying from heart disease. Dutch researchers concluded that people who downed between three and six cups of black tea a day had a 45% reduced risk. Tea may

Sunday

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: A ‘psycho-political’ study of the English

‘The Magazines’, from The Spectator, 5 September 1914: THE most interesting paper in the new Nineteenth Century is that by Sir Harry Johnston on “The German War and its Consequences.” Writing as one with many German friends, he sets forth the reasons why his love for Germany has changed to righteous anger. They are, briefly, that Germany, ruled by the Hohenzollerns and inflamed by Prussian Professors, though Great Britain and France had made all reasonable concessions to her colonial and commercial aspirations, has, on the pretext of the Austro-Servian quarrel, violated the neutrality of an unoffending country and conducted the war in Belgium and France with a barbarity hitherto associated

Molly Guinness

In praise and reproval of the elderly: slow, itinerant, violent – and revolutionary

It’s been a good week for old people. On Friday, the Chilean poet Nicanor Parra celebrated his 100th birthday, and at midday people in Chile stopped whatever they were doing to read one of his poems. On his annual visit to Skegness, a 104-year-old man called Sid Pope was delighted when he was welcomed by local dignitaries and the town’s mascot (a jolly fisherman). Meanwhile at Sadler’s Wells, the over-sixties are limbering up for a dance festival for oldsters. And in Iraq aged Peshmerga warriors who retired years ago are returning to the army to help fight the Islamic State. Recent Spectator writers have been rigorously unsentimental about old people.

Saturday

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Super-rich children take private jets to college

When Thomas Piketty published his Capital in the 21 Century, the Financial Times tried to dismiss his research as bogus. Its more conventional thinkers hated his argument that the children of the rich would receive vast amounts of unearned wealth because the assets of their parents would grow faster than the real economy. If Piketty was right, claims that we were a society which valued social mobility would become a joke: a screen that hid the rigged game of life. However idle or stupid they were, rich kids would win, whatever politicians parroted about “opportunity for all”. Only hefty wealth and inheritance taxes could stop them, and build a fairer

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Do you want Scots to stay in the UK? Say why – and be published in the Spectator

It’s extraordinary to think that we could be 12 days away from the dissolution of our country. The union of Scotland and England, perhaps the most successful and consequential alliance in history, could be ended – and for the worst of reasons. The Scottish National Party has been campaigning hard, and campaigning well. Alex Salmond has excelled in depicting his enemy as a cold-hearted England (and the people they vote for) whose values are so irreconcilable with those of Scotland that the only answer is the partition of (and, ergo, the end of) Britain. As a Scot with three English children, I loathe this agenda more than I can say. But