Society

Thursday

Toby Young Toby Young

Britain is now a socialist utopia

Scarcely a day passes, it seems, without another book landing with a thud on my desk that bemoans the rise of inequality. On this side of the Atlantic we have The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett and Injustice by Daniel Dorling, while in America we have Charles Murray’s Coming Apart and Joseph Stiglitz’s The Price of Inequality. I’m coming round to the view that these intellectual heavyweights have got it back to front and the really significant social trend of our era is the triumph of equality. So it was refreshing to dip into A Classless Society, the third volume of Alwyn Turner’s history of Britain since

Robin Oakley

Qataris invest heavily in British bloodstock

A fresh new breeze is wafting through British racing. Led by the enthusiastic Sheikh Fahad Al Thani, the Qatar ruling family is investing heavily in buying British bloodstock and, through their Qipco holdings, sponsoring the richest day’s racing in Britain. At first British racegoers accepted the newcomers with a polite smile, seeing them as another bunch of mineral-resources-rich foreigners who would enjoy a few nice days out at Newmarket and Goodwood and then pass on to a new fancy such as founding theme parks or financing movies. But that is not how it is: the Qataris love their racing and are spending cleverly — a key example being the racing

Alexander Chancellor

Why don’t the Italians ask me to translate their restaurant menus?

When we bought the farmhouse in Tuscany, where I am now, more than 40 years ago, there were only two restaurants within a five-mile radius and neither of them was much good. And being in the unfashionable province of Arezzo, as opposed to the then already popular Chianti region between Siena and Florence, there were few foreigners among their patrons, so they published their menus only in Italian. But 40 years have brought many changes. Many foreigners priced out of the Chianti region have bought houses here, foreign tourism has increased dramatically, and new restaurants have sprung up all over the place. And now it is very hard to find

Jeremy Clarke

His first night out in three weeks and Jeremy Clarke failed to pull

I haven’t been out for three weeks and I’m up for a big night. To prove it I’m wearing my cowboy shirt with silver buttons and crimson roses embroidered on the shoulders. I ring Trev to check in and say I’m just leaving the house. So that we don’t have to worry about last orders, I tell him, I’ve got two tickets for a reggae disco at a bar with a late licence. ‘It’s been a long time, bud!’ he says. ‘How’s the old love life?’ I say. ‘Are you still seeing that Juliet?’ Trev’s love life conforms to the rules of a narrow, traditional genre, but within these constraints

Taki

Taki: What Roger Federer and Anthony Weiner have in common

  Gstaad One possesses youth, talent, fame, even beauty, the other none of the above except arrogance, physical repulsiveness and a sexual impudence that fits perfectly into our pornocentric culture. Both, however, need to quit their respective professions, the former in order to preserve his great legacy, the latter to save the city of New York from one more repellent politician-pervert. I’ll start with the good guy. Roger Federer is among the greatest champions ever, if not the greatest of all time. If one goes by the record, 17 grand slams, he has the top spot by a mile. He’s been — sorry for the cliché — a credit to

Kate Chisholm

Lenny Henry’s tear-jerker

Every so often a programme comes along that completely alters the way you think about something you thought you understood. It’s 60 years since the end of the Korean war on 27 July 1953 and last Friday the World Service marked the occasion by rebroadcasting an interview from the Witness series. These short programmes, often just ten minutes, give us little-known stories from history told by those who experienced them. Their brevity focuses the mind, enhances the impact. David Hawkins was just 17 when he was sent out to Korea from the USA to fight against the communists of the North. Injured almost immediately, he found himself in a PoW

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Dear Justin Welby – here’s how you can really take on Wonga

I’ve been in the pulpit again, this time to salute the centenary of the death of Charles Norris Gray, a formidable Victorian vicar of my Yorkshire town of Helmsley. Gray was a social activist with strong opinions on everything from sanitation to election candidates, and he did a great deal of good for his parish — so I’m not averse to the idea of churchmen intervening in worldly affairs, and I think Archbishop Justin Welby was right to highlight the parasitical nature of ‘payday lenders’ such as Wonga, even if he was subsequently embarrassed to discover that the Church of England was an indirect investor in it. But by his

James Delingpole James Delingpole

Do women really watch as much porn as men?

You may be aware that David Cameron — as part of a secret, Lynton Crosby-inspired operation codenamed Suck Up Shamelessly To The Embittered Authoritarian Killjoy Harpies At Mumsnet — has decreed that as from next year the default option when you sign a contract with your new internet provider will be ‘No porn in this household, thank you. I think it’s a disgrace.’ Superficially (and does this coalition ever think any other way?) I can see this makes a lot of sense. After all, what do a growing national debt, falling living standards, rising inflation, skyrocketing energy prices, out-of-control immigration, Weimar-style money-printing, a burgeoning new housing bubble, a failed health

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

This cant about protecting children from porn is really about protecting the coalition

I have tried very hard to become an afficianado of pornography, seeing as it is by far the most popular pastime in the world. Also, it annoys a lot of people that I don’t like, so I feel I should put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. But the trouble is, the scenarios never quite rattle my cage. I find myself despising the men involved, and disliking the women, before even the cap has been removed from the lubricant. This is an impediment to full enjoyment, feeling averse to the grunting, smug male half-wits and the unnaturally supplicant — and usually tattooed — ladies. I sometimes wonder

Conrad Black

Conrad Black’s farewell to the British press

The astonishing level of enthusiasm over the birth of the new prince goes far beyond the pleasure that people naturally feel for an attractive young couple who have had a healthy child. If there is any truth at all to these estimates in the North American media that trinkets and other bric-a-brac, and even increased numbers of tourists, will produce hundreds of millions of pounds for the British economy, the answer lies not just in normal goodwill and the effusions of the most strenuous monarchists. If my memory is accurate,  the last time there was so much public interest in a royal event, albeit of the exactly opposite nature, was

Henry Jeffreys

The last male space – why old-fashioned barbers are booming

For 14 years only one man has cut my hair. Actually, that is not strictly true. Last year I went elsewhere and I felt like a husband visiting a prostitute for the first time. It made me realise how attached I’d become to my barber, Kyri, a Greek Cypriot with a shop in Kensal Rise. I’ve been with him longer than any relationship, my marriage and most of my friendships. It was the nearest barber’s to my first flat in London. Since then I’ve moved further and further away but I always make the journey back to get my hair cut. Over the years Kyri has become a friend and

Paul Spicer

A secret sperm donor service in post-first world war London

These days there are sophisticated and scientific solutions to the dismal problem of unwanted childlessness — there are IVF, Viagra and well-established egg and sperm donor services. We think of these as recent advantages and give thanks for the modern age. But what only very few people are aware of is that long before sperm donation was practically or ethically possible, in the early 20th century, a secret sperm donation service existed for those women most in need. Helena Wright was a renowned doctor, bestselling author, campaigner and educator who overcame the establishment to pioneer contraceptive medicine in England and throughout the world. Kind, intelligent, funny and attractive, Helena had

Melissa Kite

Bats vs people

Imagine: it’s Sunday morning, and the warden of a medieval village church arrives to get the place ready for communion only to find the altar covered in bat droppings. As he gets scrubbing, he reflects on how he rang the officials at Natural England to request help getting rid of these bats — ‘Perhaps they could be relocated somewhere?’ he asked innocently — but their response was to read him the riot act about his responsibilities to the bats under EU law. To fulfil its obligations, the church had to install a leaded ‘bat flap’ to let the creatures in and out — a dedicated window the bats can use

Raymond Keene

Il miglior fabbro

Lothar Schmid, chess grandmaster, the world’s greatest collector of chess books and the only arbiter trusted by Bobby Fischer, died earlier this year, and the chess world lost one of its great characters.   Schmid (born 1928) officiated as arbiter at three of Fischer’s matches, including the 1972 Match of the Century, where Fischer wrested the crown from Boris Spassky. The difficulties and challenges in 1972 would have exhausted the patience of a stylitic anchorite, but he went on to arbit further stormy matches between Karpov, Korchnoi and Kasparov.   Schmid returned as arbiter for Fischer’s 1992 swansong against Spassky in the former Yugoslavia, but this time he faced no

Raymond Keene

no. 277

White to play. This position is from Keene-Eley, Whitby 1964. White’s next move won at once. What did he play? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 6 August or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk or by fax on 020 7681 3773. The winner will be the first correct answer out of a hat, and each week I shall be offering a prize of £20. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery.   Last week’s solution 1 Qf5 (planning 1 … Rg7 2 Qf7+!) Last week’s winner Sam Buxton, London SE4

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 1 August 2013

Q. I very recently attended my son’s black-tie leavers’ ball at his school on one of the hottest evenings of the year. I thought it would be good opportunity to wear my white jacket and was very surprised to find that nearly everyone else was in the usual black DJ. I spoke to the one other man who was wearing a white jacket, observing that if you couldn’t wear it in mid-summer, when could you? He suggested that there was a formality about not wearing a white tux north of a certain latitude, but was not precise on this point. This sounded pompous nonsense to me, but do you have

The Spectator

Letters: How IQ is handed down

IQ and social mobility Sir: It seems not to have occurred to our leaders that ability is not evenly distributed across the social classes. In a meritocratic society, employers will try to recruit the most able candidates into the top positions. There, they meet other bright people, pair off and have children. As Professor Plomin’s work clearly demonstrates (‘The Truth about Intelligence’, 27 July), these children inherit much of their intelligence from their parents, so like them, they succeed in the education system and end up getting top jobs. Middle-class kids therefore tend to outperform working-class kids, not because they are unfairly privileged, but because they are likely to be

The Spectator

Barometer | 1 August 2013

Art by the seaside The Kent seaside resort of Herne Bay staged the parade of a urinal through the town to celebrate its connection with Marcel Duchamp, who spent a month there in 1913 and credited the place with rekindling his artistic career — a postcard to a friend declared: ‘I am not dead. I am in Herne Bay.’ Some other artists and their favoured English seaside resorts: — J.M.W. Turner frequently visited Margate for inspiration, after first being sent there as an 11-year-old boy. — John Constable lived in Brighton between 1824 and 1828. — Vincent van Gogh taught at a small boarding school in Ramsgate in 1876, from

Peter Jones

Ancient and modern: Herodotus on 111

The NHS 111 line, designed to deal with problems that do not count as emergencies, is in financial and organisational trouble yet again, but the Greek historian Herodotus (c. 490-c. 425 BC) may be able to help. In his travels he came across a ‘most ingenious’ public medical service. Many ancient cultures made important observations about the workings of the body and cures for illness, but it was ancient Greeks who tried to rationalise the process. Hippocrates, the father of rational medicine (5th-century bc), laid down the key principle as follows: ‘What escapes our vision we must grasp by mental sight, and the doctor, being unable to see the nature

Susanna Gross

Bridge | 1 August 2013

I haven’t played rubber bridge for a few years now (the demands of young children), but recently I’ve been hearing the siren call again — and decided to pop into my old haunt TGRs. I wanted to watch for a while, rather than play (I’m too rusty), and what great timing it turned out to be. The club’s manager, the brilliant Artur Malinowski, had just landed in a grand slam:   West led a trump. Artur (South) drew trumps in two rounds. If spades break 4-4, then one spade ruff will provide four discards for the losing clubs. Artur saw an additional chance. He cashed three top spades: West discarded