Society

Thursday

Robin Oakley

The turf: Robin Oakley tries to reconcile Henry Cecil with his biographer Brough Scott

The trouble with writing about people is their friends. Back when woolly mammoths roamed the earth and I was Crossbencher in the Sunday Express, I wrote admiringly about the burgeoning prospects of a young MP. He was of Dutch origin and I suggested that he might become the first Hollander to lead the British Labour party. A friend was drinking in Annie’s Bar in the Commons two days later and overheard another MP congratulate my subject. ‘Nice article about you in Crossbencher, Dick.’ ‘Yes,’ he replied, smiling modestly. ‘Don’t know what I did to deserve that.’ A little later in came another colleague. ‘Oh, Dick, I’m so sorry about that

Toby Young Toby Young

Rise of the intolerant liberals

The highlight of the year I spent as a postgraduate at Harvard was a speech given by Tom Wolfe to the graduating class of 1988. His theme was the decline of Christianity in America and the extraordinary freedom that had given rise to. Until quite recently in American history, he argued, people’s personal behaviour had been circumscribed by their sense of right and wrong, which was largely dictated by the morality associated with various puritan sects dating back to the first European settlers. When it came to sex, for instance, their choices were limited by a fear that certain practices would cause irreparable spiritual harm. Not any more, said Wolfe.

Dot Wordsworth

Lady

In the sobriquet Iron Lady, isn’t lady too deferential for a mocking nickname? Its author, Yuri Gavrilov, hardly knew that in current English, lady is a genteelism when used by those who fear that if they say woman it will be taken as an accusation that someone is no lady. This has had the perverse effect that those who normally call women women still call the cleaning woman the cleaning lady. It was in the Red Star newspaper dated 24 January 1976 that Margaret Thatcher, when leader of the opposition, was called zheleznaya dama, ‘iron lady’. The iron part had parallels in the Iron Chancellor Bismarck or the Iron Duke

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 25 April 2013

Q. Last week on a plane from Heathrow I sat next to a very attractive man. We started talking and I could tell he liked me too. Unfortunately, although we established that we both live in London, the flight was not quite long enough to warrant an exchange of telephone numbers. Unfortunately he lives in Highgate and I in Balham so I am unlikely to ever see him again. Mary, how could I have managed this better? I am not on Facebook. —Name and address withheld A. You could have said, ‘What’s that very good pub in Highgate called?’ When he replied, for example, ‘The King’s Arms?’ You would say,

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 25 April 2013

Home George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, visited Glasgow to cast doubt on the probability of an independent Scotland being allowed to continue to use the pound: ‘Why would 58 million citizens give away some of their sovereignty over monetary and potentially other economic policies to five million people in another state?’ The government borrowed £120.6 billion in the financial year 2012–2013, £300 million less than in the previous year. Fitch became the second agency to downgrade Britain’s credit rating by a notch from AAA. The Co-op pulled out of buying 632 branches of Lloyds Banking Group, put up for sale to meet European competition rules. The government planned to

The Spectator

Scotland is an ingenious country saddled with the most witless politicians in Europe. Why give them more power?

It would be all too easy this week to argue that the case for Scottish independence is falling apart. Alex Salmond is an able politician and a peerless mischief-maker, but he tends to fall mute when confronted with the myriad contradictions of his own policies. It happened this week, when George Osborne said that it is ‘unlikely’ that the rest of the UK would enter into a formal currency pact with an independent Scotland. No matter, says Mr Salmond, an independent Scotland would use sterling anyway. This would be a strange form of independence. It would reduce Scotland to the status of Panama, which uses the US dollar without the

Dumpynose

2110: Resort

Unclued lights could be resorted to form eight of a kind.   Across 6 Here and there scratch top NCO round stomach (6) 11 Half note maidenly shape within a type of sheath (10) 13 Image of a German holding digging stick (5) 14 Centres with smogs district medical officer visits (8) 16 Staff in Oz not working properly (5) 17 Caustic undertone killing one novel (7) 18 Extremely great wave in lake (7, two words) 19 I select new morning coat without decoration (9) 22 Formality in church (3) 23 Kind spirit knocked down shielding ancient coin (6) 24 Deathless eagle crossing the void (6) 26 Existence of women

Dumpynose

2107: Problem X | 25 April 2013

FILM FANS (18) will know that numbers in the problem are linked to film titles: Seven BRIDES (1D) for Seven BROTHERS (22); The Four FEATHERS (5A); 12 ANGRY MEN (37/35); Five EASY PIECES (11/42). 7 x ([4 x 12] – 5) x 7 = 2107, the number of the CROSSWORD (19). First prize Katy Berry, Sutton Coldfield Runners-up Nick Hussey, Overton, Hampshire; P. Langdale, London N10

Douglas Murray

Islamophobia is a government priority. What about Islamism?

According to one of his family members Tamerlan Tsarnaev was, among other things, ‘angry that the world pictures Islam as a violent religion.’ His efforts to refute this charge included planting bombs in the middle of a family sports event in Boston, killing – among others – an eight year old boy. The case brings to mind that of Muzzammil Hassan from western New York. Hassan was the founder of Bridges TV in the US – a station set up to help ‘non-Muslims overcome the negative images they may have of both Muslims and Islam.’ Mr Hassan was subsequently convicted and sent to prison for beheading his wife. Certainly this

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Things are looking up for the Tories

There’s a distinct sense of optimism in the Tory ranks today. First, there’s relief that a triple dip recession has been avoided. Dire economic news would have ended the rare outbreak of unity in the Tory party. Second, the changes to Number 10 and the newly announced policy board have gone down well with Tory MPs. Even those who have not been offered a role are pleased at this broadening of the Cameron operation; the recall of Peter Lilley to the colours has gone down particularly well. For the first time, there’s a feeling that Cameron is prepared to consult and listen to his party and that is prepared to be

Steerpike Steerpike

The Regulated?

With plummeting sales and the damage caused by the Johann Hari scandal, Chris Blackhurst had his work cut out when he took over as Editor of the Independent in 2011. Perhaps he saw the Leveson Inquiry as a chance to make a name for himself, because he became a frequent figure on the airwaves and signed his paper up to the government’s Royal Charter on the very day it was announced. But he’s cutting an increasingly isolated figure on Fleet Street these days. As the Times (£) puts it this afternoon when reporting news of a rival Royal Charter agreed by newspaper publishers: ‘The Guardian has not declared support for the new charter

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Scenes of domestic bliss, chez Liddle

I was sitting on the stoop with a cigarette after dinner while my wife browsed the television channels to see if there was anything we might want to watch. Eventually she called out: ‘There’s Treblinka: Death Camp Survivors. Or The Vicar of Dibley. Up to you – I can’t decide.’ I just thought I’d share that domestic moment with you.

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Simon Singh: Let us now praise a bloody-minded hero

I don’t normally campaign. I’m not a joiner or a natural committee man. But the state of free speech in England pushed me into despair, and three years ago I started to do what little I could for the campaign for libel reform. Britain was not a country where the natives could debate their grievances and foreigners could come to talk of oppression in their own lands. Our politicians and judges welcomed actions from corporations at home that were clearly designed to use the crushing power of money to intimidate critics into silence, and from Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs, Hollywood paedophiles, Islamist fanatics and Saudi petro-billionaires. A Russian newspaper contesting

Jonathan Jones

No triple-dip: GDP up by 0.3%

The UK seems to have avoided a triple-dip recession. According to today’s estimate from the Office for National Statistics, the economy grew by 0.3 per cent in the first three months of 2013. But it is important to remember that this is just a first estimate, with a margin of error of ±0.7 points. So today’s figure could still be revised down to show a triple-dip, or revised up to show stronger growth. This still leaves GDP 2.6 per cent below its pre-recession peak, five years after the downturn hit. And here’s how we compare to our competitors in David Cameron’s ‘global race’:    

Sebastian Payne

The View from 22 — Sex and success, Conservative vs. Labour unity and the two-wheeled tyranny of cyclists

What do Margaret Thatcher, Sheryl Sandberg and Angela Merkel have in common? They are the ultimate alpha-female icons, according to Alison Wolf. In this week’s Spectator cover feature, Alison examines the ultra-competitive female elites who are pulling ahead and leaving the rest of the ‘sisterhood’ behind. On this week’s View from 22 podcast, the Spectator’s deputy editor Mary Wakefield discusses with Alison what makes an alpha female, why they are only interested in alpha males and how feminism is response for this new divide. Melissa Kite and Gary Lingard also debate whether the world now revolves around cyclists. In this week’s magazine, Melissa argues that beautiful country paths should stop be turned into tarmac cycle routes. But Gary Lingard, the former

Daniel Hardisty

The Drowners

They have done this before, the two lovers, each believing the other is drowning – parting their lips as the salt water covers they smile at the precision of their timing. There is a simplicity in the bound hands: the skin’s shudder, the bubbles on blue lips which rise like tiny unheard songs, the strands of weightless hair which billow and collapse. They have learned the patience to fall and drift as the skeins of sunlight dissipate; and to measure in secret the other’s weight: then wriggle free, let drop and begin to lift; and not to think of who might take the gift of the seabed’s blank and tender

Melissa Kite

The tyranny of the cycle track

If Joni Mitchell were writing her song ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ today, about the ruination of the natural world by the march of modernity, the lyrics might run something like this: ‘They paved paradise, put up a cycling route.’ Not content with demanding cycling lanes through our towns and cities, the cycling lobby — by which I don’t mean old maids bicycling to communion, I mean the Lycra brigade — are starting to turn the countryside into a surface on which they can pedal themselves into an endorphin-rich sweat as well, it seems. The tarmacking of a six-mile track through unspoilt Warwickshire countryside near my parents’ home is the latest evidence

Alison Wolf

The unfair sex – how feminism created a new class divide

James is 15 years old, coming up to his GCSEs; and the researcher he is talking to is clueless about girls. Yes, he tells her, girls at his school, underage girls, do indeed have sex. With guys in their class, like him. The researcher is surprised. Haven’t girls gone studious; aren’t they collecting the top grades, leaving the boys behind? James states the obvious. ‘It’s not girls with As or A*s,’ he explains. ‘Girls with As are virgins.’ Today, almost a quarter of girls report having underage sex. But there are almost as many girls waiting till they’re 20 or more. This isn’t random, a question of whether and when