Society

Sunday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Rolf Harris: accused, but not charged.

I always thought there was something a little bit sinister about that Jake The Peg character. With what he refers to as his ‘extra leg’, m’lud. And then, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I would draw your attention to the follow up hit which was entitled, signally, ‘Two Little Boys’………… So, now it’s Rolf Harris – and Channel Five has been forced to pull its scheduled transmission of ‘Olive The Ostrich’, in case Rolf’s alleged guilt somehow seeps out of the television screen and into the innocent and vulnerable ears of toddlers. But guilt of what? As with almost all of the rest of the celebrities arrested with great

Friday

Daniel Larison

Boston bombing: the danger of half-truths and misinformation

Reports that two young Chechen men, Dzokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, were responsible for Monday’s bombings in Boston and the subsequent murder of an MIT campus police officer have probably left many Americans more than a little confused. Most Americans may vaguely remember the Chechen wars of the 1990s and early 2000s, but most also have little or no familiarity with the North Caucasus or its peoples. More than most other parts of the world, Chechnya is just a name to most people in the US, and this gap in knowledge is liable to be filled with misinformation and half-truths. Since spectacular terrorist attacks have happened in the last twelve

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Fitch downgrades UK credit rating

Fitch’s announcement that it is downgrading the UK’s credit rating to AA+ isn’t as politically explosive as the downgrade from Moody’s in February, as it was inevitable that once one major ratings agency dropped the AAA, the others would follow like dominoes. The bigger story will be when all agencies have dropped the rating. Fitch said this afternoon that the reason for the downgrade was that ‘the fiscal space to absorb further adverse economic and financial shocks is no longer consistent with a ‘AAA’ rating’. The agency forecasts that general government gross debt will peak at 101 per cent of GDP in 2015/16, having previously warned that failure to turn

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

An upside to the gold rout

Unless you bet your life savings on gold some time in the past three years — after its price had passed on the way up the level to which it has now fallen back — there’s no need to be distressed by headlines about a ‘gold rout’, nor even the prospect of a ‘bear embrace’. The impulses behind this sudden downward lurch are positive for expectations of economic revival. Gold is the timeless safe haven for those who distrust governments and fear inflation, so a stampede of sellers — on Monday there seemed to be virtually no buyers — indicates an ebb tide in those sentiments. In the US in

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The school day and the ‘global race’

Should Michael Gove lengthen the school day? The question itself is wrong, of course, as what he wants to do is give schools the opportunity to change hours as they wish, rather than telling them what do to. This isn’t a case of ‘here is your freedom, and this is how you must use it’, but a change in the contract so that schools can do what they want. Currently, the contract for teachers in maintained schools states that they should work no more than 195 days or 1265 hours a year. The Education department has asked the independent School Teachers’ Review Body to look again at this contract so

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Move over, Dawkins. The atheist spring of the last decade is wilting.

I couldn’t get Richard Dawkins to reply to Theo Hobson’s excellent article on ‘the new new atheists’. Probably, he didn’t see my message. Or maybe he thought it beneath him. Or maybe like God he just doesn’t respond to all our entreaties. There’s no doubt, though, that Theo’s piece touched a nerve among the godless trolls of the web — just look at the comments section. Theo must be on to something. The new atheist spring of the 2000s is wilting. Dawkins suddenly seems like a strange anachronism. In his place, a humbler and more honest atheism is emerging, led by brilliant minds like our very own Douglas Murray on one hand and Alain de Botton on the other. The

Nick De Bois

The scattergun Snooping Bill won’t help tackle crime, or protect people

Over a year ago, the Government proposed to increase the available powers of surveillance – giving authorities the ability to monitor every British citizen’s internet activities. It is claimed that such powers are essential to keep pace with tackling crime and terrorism; even though such proposals were ditched by the last Government. Their plans faced substantial opposition across Parliament, from the public, internet experts and civil liberties groups. Interestingly, the Government’s current plans bear little difference and continue to face similar oppositions. A Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament, alongside the Intelligence and Security Select Committee conducted pre-legislative scrutiny of the Communications Data Bill. Both committees expressed clear concerns

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Govt keeps Snooping Bill campaigners in the dark

It’s not looking good for the Snooping Bill. The legislation is currently being re-written after serious concerns were raised with the first draft, but I’ve got hold of a letter from privacy campaigners which accuses the government of failing to hold the public consultation that was one of the conditions laid down in the damning report that killed off the first draft. The letter, from Big Brother Watch, Liberty, Open Rights Group and Privacy International, expresses fears that meetings between the organisations and Home Office ministers could be used as evidence that ministers have been consulting on the new legislation. It says: ‘In evidence to the Joint Committee it became

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 18 April 2013

What to do about PMQs Sir: Charles Moore (Notes, 6 April) is right to propose that Prime Minister’s Questions revert to the long-standing previous practice of two 15-minute sessions a week (on a Tuesday and Thursday) in place of the current 30-minute session. Tony Blair introduced the present arrangement at the beginning of his premiership for one of the reasons offered by Mr Moore: that it would reduce the time he would have to spend each week on preparation. Whether Tony’s intention was also, as Mr Moore suggests, to reduce his exposure to attack, I doubt; in any case it certainly did not achieve this. The vulnerability of the Prime

Taki

High life | 18 April 2013

New York I chose to live on 68th street between Madison and Fifth Avenue because it’s next to Central Park and is considered as convenient an address as any in the city. Not too far uptown and the DMZ — 92nd street; not too close to the shopping shrines down by the 50s. The house where I live now used to be the Austrian consulate and from my second-floor flat I can look into a grand embassy structure that no one ever uses as far as I’m concerned. It belongs to Indonesia, although when I bought my new flat I was told it was the Polish embassy and rushed to

Jeremy Clarke

Can’t pull in England? Buy a Thai girl, he told me

On Sunday morning early I was trying to hitch a ride home. A big white Mercedes van came haring around the bend. I stuck out my thumb and it swerved violently and stopped beside me. ‘A good night, then, was it?’ said the driver as I collapsed into the passenger seat. A comedian. Young fella. Wide awake. Chewing gum. Loving the life. It must have been my glassy eyes and my crumpled, slept-in jacket that gave me away. I had a think. Not bad, I said. I listed the names of the pubs and the two clubs we’d been to. ‘So did you pull?’ he said. Pardon? I said. ‘Pull.

Melissa Kite

Real life | 18 April 2013

Having diagnosed myself with diabetes, I demanded the doctor run a full set of blood tests. Just to confirm what I already knew, you understand. I was weak, dizzy, my vision was blurred, I felt devastatingly tired, could barely get out of bed, and only then to stuff myself frenziedly with chocolate and biscuits. The internet sites were very clear. Type 2 diabetes can affect thin people as well. In fact, we are the forgotten sufferers. This is because there is a little known phenomenon known as ‘skinny-fat’. Thin on the outside, fat on the inside. It was entirely possible, these sites assured me, that my internal organs were coated

Alexander Chancellor

Grand political comedy in Rome and the Vatican

One of the sculptures at the British Museum’s splendid Pompeii exhibition shows four ferocious dogs attacking a stag as it awaits its bloody death with quiet resignation. It is a beautiful work of art, brilliantly carved from a single slab of marble, but potentially shocking today because it appears to rejoice at the prospect of the stag being torn to pieces. The museum clearly fears so, for the label beside the sculpture anticipates objections to it by explaining that the ancient Romans, unlike us, were very keen on bloodsports. This enthusiasm, together with an obsession with erect penises, is one of the few ways in which the Romans were not

Janet de Botton

Bridge | 18 April 2013

How do you stand on reunions? I always thought nothing on earth would get me to one but you live and learn. School reunions were the biggest no-no — who wants to see what they’d look like if they hadn’t spent a freaking fortune on themselves and deprived themselves of food most of their life? But last weekend I was summoned to a family reunion and it was heaven. At the end of all the celebrations, the laughter, the tears, the compliments, the drunken maudlin hugs, a core group of Bridgies found each other and stayed up late discussing hands. Apart from ability, style is the great divider. There was

Raymond Keene

Adrian Hollis

Adrian, who died earlier this year, was both an Oxford classicist from Keble College and a Correspondence Chess Grandmaster. One of the outstanding personalities of British chess, he won the UK Correspondence Chess Championship three times, either outright or shared. But his superlative achievement was to win a world title. From 1982 to 1987 he represented Great Britain in the 9th Correspondence Olympiad, winning the World Championship ahead of the USSR, Germany, Hungary and Yugoslavia.   Chess is usually played over the board, whereas correspondence players deliberate at leisure over their moves, then transmit them by post to the opponent. Such slow-motion games can last years or more, and in

Petronella Wyatt

Diary – 18 April 2013

One of Lady Thatcher’s least publicised qualities, which raised her above any  other politician I have known, was the complete absence of schadenfreude or triumphalism. In 1992, I was fortunate enough to be asked by Alistair McAlpine, Lady Thatcher’s former Treasurer and close friend, to spend election night with the recently deposed premier and her family at his London home. Denis and Mark Thatcher were understandably bitter. When Tory wet Chris Patten, whose vitriol towards her had known no bounds, lost his seat, they leapt to their feet and whooped like Watusi chieftains. I shall never forget the majesty on her features as she reprimanded them: ‘Sit down at once!

Raymond Keene

No. 262

White to play. This position is from Hollis-Courteney, Bognor Regis 1959. The Black king is badly exposed. How did White quickly cash in? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 23 April 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 … Nd2 Last week’s winner Gill Marcus, Pinner, Middlesex

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 18 April 2013

Home With the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, the 2,300 invited to attend Lady Thatcher’s funeral in St Paul’s cathedral included the three surviving former prime ministers, members of her cabinets, the leader of the opposition, F.W. de Klerk, June Whitfield, Joan Collins, Dame Shirley Bassey and Sir Terry Wogan. Mikhail Gorbachev did not attend, because of ill health, Lord Kinnock because of a previous funeral engagement, the Argentine ambassador for an unstated reason and Sally Bercow, the Speaker’s wife, because she didn’t want to. Much time had been spent discussing whether the BBC should play on its singles hit chart programme ‘Ding Dong! The Witch Is Dead’, which had

Tanya Gold Tanya Gold

Tanya Gold reviews The Ritz

The Ritz Hotel is a cake on Piccadilly made of stone; inside this cake, Lady Thatcher died. Some think it is tragic that she died here in the cake of stone; I do not. It has Italian men in tailcoats, a gifted pastry chef, and views of Green Park; she chose, I suspect, the ultimate free-market death. I would have chosen the Connaught for my slightly more social-democratic death, but this is suitable for Lady Thatcher; it is for hot blonde chicks who love swagger and flounce, and imagine a country wrapped in chintz and whisky and power. Lady Thatcher was a girl first, a politician later; her closest twin

Dot Wordsworth

Machinations

Ian Hislop mocked Stephen Mangan, when he put in a turn as the man asking the questions on Have I Got News For You last week, for saying ‘masination’ (for machination), but Hislop himself used the unjustified modern pronunciation ‘mashination’. The version with ‘mash-’ is not known for sure until 1961, although a book published in 1931, The BBC’s Recommendations for Pronouncing Difficult Words (which I recommend to Mr Hislop) stipulates the traditional pronunciation (‘makination’). This suggests that people were already going wrong in those days. Pronouncing the first syllable as ‘mash’ came about through the influence of machine. Pronouncing words that we have only seen in print is a