Society

Thursday

Tanya Gold Tanya Gold

Tanya Gold: The sheer horror of Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland

Winter Wonderland is a Christmas-themed playground that lands on the sorry part of Hyde Park in November; the part that is munched underfoot, and is sad, and makes money. It sucks up children and spits them out fatter and closer to death, but happy — at least that is what their parents say. The children themselves look drugged, or frightened, because their parents are invariably screaming at them. From the north, Wonderland looks like Coney Island, a cold, bleak fairground from Scooby Doo, with seagulls screaming and circling, far more than is usual for central London. That is when I begin to mistrust Wonderland. We are here for the same

Mary Killen

Dear Mary solves problems for Sir Les Patterson, Rachel Johnson, Rory Stewart and more

Once again Mary has invited some of her favourite figures in the public eye to submit personal queries for her attention. From Sir Les Patterson Q. I am a distinguished Australian diplomat and happily married man, and I recently had a discreet liaison with a lady of oriental descent who was married to a newspaper tycoon. They are splitting up and I’m worried my name could be dragged into the limelight. How can I keep this out of the press? Alternatively, if it hits the headlines, how do I keep Lady Patterson from reading about it?  A. Tongues are already wagging so it is too late for a cover-up, but

Raymond Keene

London classics II

This year’s London Classic tournament is still in progress and features Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand, reigning British champion Gawain Jones, Nigel Short and Michael Adams. As a continuing tribute to classic positions, played in London events, I give this week a number of spectacular conclusions to games played in the capital. After many years of a Soviet boycott against the defector Viktor Korchnoi, the reigning world champion Anatoly Karpov finally faced him at the Phillips and Drew/GLC tournament in London 1984. With Korchnoi in his habitual time trouble, Karpov finished with a flourish.   Karpov-Korchnoi: London 1984   35 Re7 Rd8 36 Kg2 Qb3 37 Qxg4 Rg8 38 Ng6+ Black

Raymond Keene

Christmas Issue

White to play. This position is from King-Howell, Staunton Memorial, London 2003. Can you spot White’s fine finish to the attack?   Because of the Christmas printing schedule, we regret that this is not a prize puzzle.   Last week’s solution 1 … Qh1+

Dot Wordsworth

Why twerking sounds so stupid

The Widow Twankey first appeared on stage in 1861. At that time daily papers listed on Boxing Day dozens of novelty-stuffed pantomimes. But as far as I can make out, Aladdin, or, The Wonderful Scamp, in which the widow, played by James Rogers, made her entrance, was not a Christmas pantomime but a burlesque, for which the Strand theatre was celebrated. She was first spelled Twankay, being named after a popular variety of green tea. The origins of the tea’s name (spelled twanky on its first appearance in print in 1840), are as obscure as Chinese geography was then. It was attributed to a dialect version of two streams, a town or

The Spectator

Letters: Jeff Jarvis defends internet companies, Royal Society fellows defend Lord Lawson

A net gain Sir: Jamie Bartlett tries to balance plus and minus, and ends with zero (‘Little Brothers are watching you’, 7 December). But I wonder: why lead with the negative? Yes, data can be misused, marketers and government can misbehave (no — they will). But what are we to do? Block progress? Why don’t we write the rules instead? A billion-plus people are sharing their observations, questions, answers and lives online because they — we — find benefit in connecting with each other: offering services, gathering information and knowledge, and finding efficiencies. I engage in willing transactions with Google (though not the NSA) to deliver greater relevance with less noise.

Peter Jones

While shepherds watched, civilisation was born

‘And lo, there were shepherds in the fields, watching over their flocks by night…’   Reading recently that it was the 25th anniversary of the invention of the world wide web, I reflected (yet again) on the difficulty of creating in any of our minds that sense of the world as experienced by the Greeks and Romans. So the ancients did not have Xboxes, Y-fronts, or a ‘knowledge’ economy? Or a civil service, a banking industry, or any industry? Or any institutions like universities, the BBC or the FA? Well, well. In his Works and Days (c. 680 bc), the Greek farmer-poet Hesiod gives us some sense of the unrelenting peasant

Sebastian Faulks

Sebastian Faulks’s diary: Inside the official first world war commemorations

A year or so ago I was asked to sit on a committee that advises the government on how to commemorate the first world war. It consists of about 30 dauntingly well-qualified people (former heads of the army and of Nato, historians, ex-defence secretaries), so there seems little for me to contribute at meetings. But it is interesting to be on the government side of something and see how it deals with public expectation and the press. In the summer there was a report in a British paper that the Germans had sent over their commemoration team and asked if, instead of dwelling on the conflict, the British could make

The Spectator

Barometer | 12 December 2013

Whose year is it anyway? Some things which 2014 has been declared to be the year of: — Year of the Horse (China) — International Year of Family Farming (World Rural Forum) — Year of the Brain (European Brain Council) — Year of the Salamander (Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation) — Year of Crystallography (UN) — Year of Solidarity with Palestinians (UN) Topping out Some things due to be completed in 2014: — Melco Crown casino, Manila, £1 billion building with 240 tables and 1,250 slot machines — Marina 101 tower, Dubai, with 101 storeys, 1417 feet — Hampden Park stadium, Glasgow Football stadium being converted into dual use football and athletics stadium

The Spectator

What happened in 2013, from Depardieu’s hug to Sachin’s last bow

January David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said he wanted to ‘negotiate a new settlement with our European partners’, and that before the end of 2017 would ‘give the British people a referendum with a very simple in or out choice’. Gérard Depardieu hugged President Vladimir Putin at the Black Sea resort of Sochi as he received a Russian passport. French troops were welcomed in the streets of Timbuktu as they drove back Islamist forces in Mali. HMV, the record shop, and Blockbuster, the DVD rental firm, went into administration. There were riots in Belfast. A helicopter crashed into a tower block at Vauxhall in London. The City of London approved

The Spectator

Joy to the world | 12 December 2013

Pessimism sells. It shifts books and newspapers, sends ratings soaring. It fills lecture halls, wins research grants, makes political careers. We are fed this constant diet of doom, predicting anything from meteorological Armageddon to a tyranny of austerity, and so it is little wonder that we tend to miss the bigger story. A cold, dispassionate look at the facts reveals that we are living in a golden era. and that, if you use objective measures, 2013 has been the best year in human history. As a public service – and one which is rarely provided in broadcast or print – The Spectator will below provide evidence for these assertions. We can

Mr Magoo

Cold Comfort | 12 December 2013

Five Christmas carols (5, 6, 5, 3 and 4 words respectively) have been re-arranged, and re-titled at 23/38 (4 words), 59/54/62D/5 (4 words), 87/12/74 (4 words), 20 (5 words) and 72/46A (3 words). A sixth carol (19 letters, 4 words) has been concealed in the grid under a new title (4 words), which must be highlighted. The initials of all six original carols can spell CUT BACK SWIM — COMFORT ICY DIGITS. Ignore an accent in 36D.   Across   1 Clocks measure time with seconds and musical rods (9) 8 Maths groups used for secret filming (10, two words) 15 Council reduced fare (4) 17 Get embarrassed once, when

Columba

To 2140: Essex Man

The hero is Father Brown, appearing in column 3. ‘The Innocence (22) / Wisdom (15) / Secret (6D) / Scandal (27) of Father Brown’ are four collections containing, respectively, the stories ‘The Blue Cross’ (7), ‘The Purple Wig’ (25), ‘The Red Moon of Meru’ (18) and ‘The Green Man’ (26). First prize Steve Reszetniak, Enfield, Middlesex Runners-up P.L. Macdougall, London SW6; Brenda Widger, Bowdon, Cheshire

Ed West Ed West

You have to admire the chutzpah of the Saudis in protesting religious intolerance

Further to yesterday’s post on Britain’s apathy about Christian persecution, the main question people asked in response was: what can Britain do, without military means? Taking aside that our military power helped to bring about persecution in Iraq and almost certainly would have done in Syria had this government got its way, there are lots of ways you can peacefully influence a country’s politics, including financial and moral pressure. That is what Saudi Arabia does, after all. The Organisation Islamic Co-operation (OIC), for example, a bloc of 57 Muslim countries dominated by the Saudis, has just released the latest edition of its annual ‘Islamophobia report’. It states that in the

Frank Field

The first two years of life are more important for social mobility than schooling

Much is prattled on about social mobility. Practically the whole emphasis, however, is put on schools. Yet by the time most children reach school, life’s race for many of us has been determined. The report I wrote for the Prime Minister published in December 2010, The Foundation Years: preventing poor children becoming poor adults, had this as its main conclusion. Drawing on all the evidence we have available to us, the report suggested that the very first stages of life, in pregnancy, and during the first two years, are crucial as to where most children will end up in adult life. Using one of the national cohorts, Leon Feinstein showed

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Rod Liddle: Gordon Brown has vanished. Why?

It may come as a grave surprise to you that, when it was offered as a prize in a charity auction, the opportunity to attend a dinner lecture by the former prime minister Gordon Brown failed to reach anywhere near the sum the organisers had expected. Particularly so as the prize promised, as a special treat, the chance to join Gordon for dessert. You would imagine there would be literally millions of people who’d jump at the chance to sit next to Mr Brown as he glowered over his ice cream, to which he had applied copious amounts of salt, totally silent except for the occasional sotto voce murmuring of

The Spectator

Spectator survey: What would you tell your 14-year-old self?

Joan Bakewell Broadcaster and journalist Those early teenage years are a time of doubt and discovery. Take time to be alone and speak honestly to yourself. Weigh up what you think others — family, friends, teachers — think of you. Then consider what you feel about the world and your place in it. Read the world’s great books and see the best of theatre and cinema. Take time to be thoughtful, and then come out bold and confident in yourself. Aim for the good things in life, which are not money and property, or even travel and glamour. Instead learn to value friendship, the beauty of nature, kindness across generations and the

Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov: How Putin’s poker game makes fools of the West

In chess you see everything. Every piece of information you need is available on the board, so what is being tested during a game is your ability to process all that information. In politics things are different: we never have all the information. People often compare politics to chess, but in fact politics is more like a game of cards, poker perhaps, in which winning means relying on guts, instincts and strength. Which is why, in the terrible international game being played over Syria, Vladimir Putin is currently the master. Although — as I will explain — his winning streak may not last, at least for the time being he