Dave – 21 November 2013
Society
Thursday
Books and Arts – 21 November 2013
to 2137: Speculation
The two words were BULL and BEAR. BULL is suggested by 36, 41, 6 and 10; BEAR by 34, 37, 1D and 5. First prize M. Purdie, Ceres, Cupar, Fife Runners-up Rhidian Llewellyn, Minchinhampton, Glos; Ben Stephenson, London SW12
Is addiction a disease?
Tonight, the Spectator will host a debate on the motion: ‘Addiction is not a disease’. Damian Thompson, Theodore Dalrymple and Dr Aric Sigman will lock horns with Trinny Woodall, Dominic Ruffy and Vic Watts to decide whether addiction is a medical condition or a pattern of immoderate behaviour. The extraordinary story of Reverend Flowers is likely to feature in the discussions. As Melanie Phillips writes in this week’s Spectator cover piece: ‘So what about all those drugs and orgies? The behaviour which even his former rent boy described as ‘debauched’? How could a man with such predilections have got away with being a Methodist minister for 40 years? Flowers claims the
How much of homophobia is just generic macho stupidity?
I fear that Stonewall are turning into those old colonels who used to write to the Telegraph complaining that the word ‘gay’ had been taken up by homosexualists. Viz had a letter to that effect a few years back lamenting that the kids have taken a perfectly good word, ‘gay’ as in homosexual, and now use it to mean ‘rubbish’. Stonewall have a point, of course; however much people might argue that gay in its tertiary sense is entirely separate from its secondary meaning, it’s still clearly going to be hurtful when kids use it as an insult. You can make all the semantic arguments in the world about how
24 hour Tubes are on their way — the impact on London will be huge
Ravers of London rejoice — 24-hour tubes at the weekend are finally on their way. TfL has announced today that trains on the Victoria, Central, Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines will run constantly from Friday morning till Sunday evening. The all-night drinkers of the capital have long wondered why it wasn’t possible to keep the Underground running all night. Engineering work has been blamed, while the trade unions have remained bolshie with TfL (I can’t wait for Bob Crow to pop up complaining about this). But by 2015, these lines should be all set for the 21st century. If you happen to live on one of these lines, you’re all set
Social landlords have prostituted themselves over ‘Build to Rent’
Last weekend a group of young professionals, forced by a spiralling housing market to rent rooms in shared houses at exorbitant prices, moved into a new development in London’s Stratford East — an area booming in the wake of the 2012 Olympics. To mark their arrival, they held a housewarming party. But these youngsters had not rented their own home in Stratford. Instead, the group of housing campaigners had entered the development to hold a party in protest at the government’s failure to tackle the rising cost of rent — and role of social landlords in that failure. The development in question was an apartment block designed for private rent
November Mini-Bar
Graham Mitchell, who calls himself the Wine Explorer, comes from one of England’s leading wine families. His great-grandfather had a watering hole in Fleet Street, and wanted to be Lord Mayor of London. But they told him that nobody who had his name over a pub could rise to an office of such magnificence, so he renamed the bar El Vino, after his sherry-importing business. He got the gig. Now with several branches, it is still owned and run by the family. One sprog leapt for freedom; Graham’s brother Andrew was the Chief Whip who resigned over ‘plebgate’. Now Graham has come up with a Christmas case which demonstrates his
What rhetoric can do for you – and what you can do for rhetoric
Listen to Mark Forsyth discuss what makes a political sound bite: [audioboo url=”http://audioboo.fm/boos/1746136-mark-forsyth-inkyfool-on-the-importance-of-political-sound-bites”/] In December 2011, there was a major reversal of American policy and ideology. Barack Obama told a crowd of veterans: ‘You stood up for America. Now America must stand up for you.’ A U-turn! A flop-flip! Because, if you think about it, Obama was saying the exact opposite of JFK: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.’ And nobody noticed. Obama was still the heir to Kennedy, because he used the same rhetoric. Technically, it’s called chiasmus. The press and the public hate rhetoric. The convention is
The Revd Paul Flowers ticked all the right ‘progressive’ boxes — that’s why he could get away with anything
Listen to Melanie Phillips and Jesse Norman discuss Paul Flowers: [audioboo url=”https://audioboo.fm/boos/1746120-melanie-phillips-vs-jesse-norman-on-revd-paul-flowers”/] Yet again, one particular question has formed on lips up and down the land. How in heaven’s name could so many people have failed to spot such a spectacular abuse of a public position? We heard it first in the Jimmy Savile scandal, when the posthumous discovery of half a century of predation left people incredulous that so many had known about but done nothing to stop his serial depravities. Now a similar question needs to be asked about the Revd Paul Flowers, the disgraced Methodist minister and former chairman of the Co-op Bank who was filmed apparently
Sporting double
In Competition 2824 you were invited to submit double clerihews about a well-known sporting figure past or present. The clerihew was invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley as a bored schoolboy. His son Nicolas subsequently came up with the double clerihew and trebles have been recorded. Other noted practitioners include Chesterton and Auden — and, of course, James Michie, who contributed many stellar examples to this magazine. The rules governing the form are not iron-clad, as I see it. After all, Bentley himself bent them from time to time, as in this example. The art of Biography Is different from Geography. Geography is about maps, But Biography is about
Rory Sutherland: The one issue where we accept the idea of genetic determinism
Some people are gay. Get over it’ — this was the slogan for a campaign against homophobia. A series of YouTube videos follows the same approach: a cameraman asks people on the street, ‘When did you choose to be straight?’ The subtext — that sexual orientation is innate, not chosen — has undoubtedly succeeded in promoting tolerance. The only strange thing here is that the argument leans heavily on genetic determinism which in almost any other field of debate is anathema to most liberal opinion. Imagine putting up a poster with the legend ‘Some children are brighter than others. #Truth.’ Or ‘Women are crap at parallel parking. Just live with it.’ A more principled argument
Mineral reserves
St James’s Street is a repository of urban comfort. It contains majestic clubs, a gunsmith, a boot-maker, a barber, a cigar shop and a hatter. There are also restaurants, although the doyen is just round a corner in Jermyn Street: Wilton’s. Few if any establishments can match the quality of its seafood. It is as if the ghost of old Marks, its founder, was still on duty, to ensure no backsliding. In his day, a young aristocrat once enquired whether the smoked salmon was up to snuff. Marks looked pained. ‘I don’t know ’ow you can ask that question, my Lord. The smoked salmon ’ere is always the best that
The 2013 Michael Heath Award for cartooning — shortlist (part I)
Nine cartoonists are shortlisted for the first ever Michael Heath Award for cartooning. The theme of the contest, sponsored by John Lobb, is ‘Man in Motion’. Work by four of the shortlisted artists is below. We’ll print four more next week, and the winner on 7 December. Thanks to all who entered — and congratulations to those on the shortlist. Sponsored by
Notes on…London galleries
Everybody knows that the London art scene is thriving, and so of course the big international commercial galleries have set up here: Gagosian, David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth and Pace. This global razzmatazz puts pressure on the city’s home-grown independent galleries — especially those in Cork Street in Mayfair. Cork Street has been at the heart of London’s art scene for more than 90 years, and helped launch some of the most famous artists of modern times. It is now closing for redevelopment by international landlords, so let’s hope they appreciate the street’s cultural importance and welcome the galleries back. But we don’t have to lament too long for Cork
Melissa Kite: I can no longer find knickers small enough to fit me
Barely a week goes by when a female Lib Dem minister doesn’t pledge some new coalition initiative on ‘female body confidence’. The junior equalities minister Jo Swinson was at it again when she congratulated Debenhams for becoming the first high-street retailer to introduce size 16 mannequins. Ms Swinson said: ‘The images we see in the world of fashion are all pretty much the same. It’s as if there’s only one way of being beautiful. Yet nine in ten people say they would like to see a broader range of body shapes shown in advertising and the media.’ For broader range of body shapes, read fat, by the way. For nine
Profumo. Chatterley. The Beatles. 1963 was the year old England died
Shortly before his death, David Frost rang to ask me to take part in a radio series he was making to mark the 50th anniversary of ‘the year, Chris, that I know is closest to your heart, 1963’. This was not because 1963 was the year when he and I worked together on the BBC satire show That Was The Week That Was (TW3), which overnight made Frost a television superstar. It was because he remembered the importance I had given to the events of that year in The Neophiliacs, a book I wrote long ago analysing the tidal wave of change which swept through British life in the 1950s
Hugo Rifkind: From porn to Bitcoin, governments can’t control the web — so why is Cameron trying?
What people don’t seem to realise is that the geeks are winning. Actually, scratch that. They’ve all but won. The world just hasn’t realised yet. So, when the likes of David Cameron talk of, say, blocking regular porn, or eradicating child porn, people take him seriously, as though this might actually be a thing in his power to do. Rather than what it truly is, which is something between a cynical gimmick and a last, desperate, deluded grasp at a dissolving straw. I mean, look, it might work a bit. Aspiring nonces, I suppose, will be set back by a week or two. People who just stumble upon kiddie porn
How Britain invented freedom – and why we need to save it now
The single most common reaction I get from Americans when they learn that we’re placing our newspapers under our politicians is: ‘Y’all need a Bill of Rights’. You can see their point. Absolute freedom of expression used to distinguish the English-speaking peoples from the run of nations. The restrictions which even other western democracies applied — prohibitions on Nazi symbols, for example — were inconceivable in the Anglosphere. Over the past quarter of a century, that has changed. Anglophone democracies now regularly prosecute people for saying the wrong thing, usually on grounds of putative insult to some minority group. We have become accustomed, in Britain, to people being arrested for
The death of Tory Anglicanism
This week the General Synod edged one step closer towards permitting the ordination of female bishops. The final outcome is likely to be some kind of compromise to appease traditionalists similar to that in 1992 when the ordination of female priests was passed. But unlike that occasion, one crucial voice will not be heard nor probably venture an opinion — the Conservative party, which has distanced itself from ecclesiastical affairs over the past 20 years. This was not the case back in 1992 when a band of Conservative MPs joined Anglican traditionalists in opposing female ordination. Enoch Powell considered it a ‘blasphemous pantomime’, Ann Widdecombe spoke of her ‘utter grief
