Society

Thursday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 28 March 2013

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, in a speech designed to show that Britain was no longer to be a ‘soft touch’ for immigrants, said that people from the European Union would have to show they had a ‘genuine chance of getting work’ in order to claim UK unemployment benefits for more than six months. The UK Border Agency was to be abolished, the Home Secretary, Theresa May, told the Commons, because its performance was ‘not good enough’, and ‘the number of illegal immigrants removed does not keep up with the number of people who are here illegally’. The agency would be split up and returned to the Home Office,

The Spectator

Twitter vs Easter

‘Distracted from distraction by distraction’ was one way in which T.S. Eliot described the inhabitants of ‘this twittering world’ in his Four Quartets. Eliot’s words seem more accurate today than even he might have expected. With the apparently ceaseless intrusion into our lives of permanent media feeds, gossip reported as news and news reported as gossip, it has never been easier to become lost by, and in, distraction. Not to mention the twittering. Easter briefly quietens the babble. Unlike Christmas, it’s a story that doesn’t lend itself to much commercial fuss: no kings or presents. Easter is a story of sacrifice, torture, abandonment and death — and, through it all,

Columba

2106: 30/3

30 3 is a definition of one unclued light (which 34 follows) and also a cryptic indication of 16A. 34 is marked by the holder of the 16A with a 40. One unclued light is the name of the 40, and one is the name of the holder of the 16A. One of these lights consists of three words.   Across 1 Nippers in scrape, first to last (5) 6 Criminal cases involving youth in attacks (8) 12 Standard answer with humourless face concerning appendage (10) 13 Wiped notice about black and white herons put back (9) 14 Old-fashioned expression of surprise over medal (4) 15 Clutches appeal to stop

Columba

2013: Rime

Extra words to be removed from clues were: ‘Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And, sorry I could not travel both’.  The lines of verse appearing in the grid (highlighted for clarity only) were ‘I took the one less travelled by, And that has made all the difference’ from the poem ‘The Road Less Travelled’ by Robert Frost.   First prize Roderick Rhodes, Goldsborough, N. Yorks Runners-up Richard Poole, Harlech, Gwynedd; J. Gill, Warlingham, Surrey

David Blackburn

William Hague works on the government’s women problem

It beat the baseball cap. William Hague’s trip to the DRC and Rwanda created several wonderful photo opportunities with no less a figure than Angelina Jolie. It would be wrong to say that Hague’s interest in the victims of rape in Africa is mere PR: Hague is convinced that action must be taken to eradicate these crimes; and, at next month’s G8 summit, he will use Britain’s diplomatic clout on human rights to encourage international authorities to pursue and prosecute men who contravene the Geneva Convention and the Statute of the International Criminal Court by using rape as a weapon in conflict. Yet it would also be naive to say

Steerpike Steerpike

Lurhmann, Baz Lurhmann

Baz Lurhmann’s adaptation of The Great Gatsby (above) may yet enrage purists; but it seems that the Australian director already has his eyes on another product. Speaking exclusively to Spectator Life, Lurhmann reveals that taking on Shakespeare and the 20th Century’s favourite novel are not enough: ‘I have more things in my cupboard I want to make. There’s the Shakespeare canon, there are cinematic musicals, there are edgy psychological works. Sometimes having a brand is a burden because sometimes I’d like to be a shooter and knock off a movie just for the fun of making someone else’s script or a Bond film.’ Steerpike hopes Daniel Craig is getting his singing

David Blackburn

John Hayes: Muslims are right about Britain

John Hayes, the prime minister’s latest tribune, achieved some fame or infamy, depending on your view, when he wrote the following article for the Spectator on 6 August 2005, a month after the 7/7 bombings. I wonder if he still holds these views, and, if he does, whether the prime minister agrees with him? Muslims are right about Britain Many moderate Muslims believe that much of Britain is decadent. They are right. Mr Blair says that the fanatics who want to blow us up despise us, but he won’t admit that their decent co-religionists who are the best hope of undermining the extremists at source — despair of us. They

Charlotte Leslie

David Nicholson should have no future in the NHS

When T.S Eliot spoke of the folly of trying to ‘Devise systems so perfect, that nobody will need to be good’, he effectively described a distinction between the left – who instinctively turn to systems to get things done, and the right – who tend to believe in focusing on individuals, people, and their values. In a world where the centre-ground has become over-crowded with political parties all frantically claiming it, and a rainbow array of party hues (Blue Labour, Red Tories), this is a distinction that still makes some sense. In fewer areas is this distinction seen more clearly than how we think of our public services. Whether we

Sebastian Payne

The View from 22 — the pickpocket state and Trenton Oldfield vs Douglas Murray

Did the protestor at last year’s the Oxford and Cambridge boat race last year achieve anything? In this week’s Spectator, Trenton Oldfield files a prison notebook describing his experience before, during and after the stunt. He considers his protest a success, raising the profile of elitism and inequality concerns. Douglas Murray thinks otherwise. They go head-to-head in spectacular fashion on this week’s View from 22 podcast, debating whether the politics of protest are changing, the scale of poverty and elitism in Britain and whether the country is on the cusp of a huge shift towards ‘direct democracy’ (14:40) Fraser Nelson is joined by Jonathan Portes, director of the National Institute

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Why I fear for my daughter

To listen to many disability pressure groups, adult social care for people with learning disabilities is being slashed by a heartless government. What few of them want to tell you, however, is that the government is spending far more than it needs to on looking after adults with learning difficulties, as well as exposing many to cruelty and exploitation, thanks to an ideological obsession with placing them in ordinary housing rather than the communities in which many have lived for decades. I have an interest to declare: I have a daughter with learning difficulties who in two years’ time will qualify for adult social care. It is a transition, I

Paul Mason

What’s kicking off in Cyprus

Downtown Nicosia has been closed, on and off, for more than a week. On the terraces of the upmarket coffee shops, the torches flicker and the disco music babbles. When the Cypriot government shut the banks, many retailers decided to close as well, so the mannequins stare each other out across semi-deserted streets. As the president tries to negotiate the final bailout in Brussels, I hunch over a cappuccino with a senior MP, who lists the country’s future options. They are limited: tourism, gas, financial services — though without a banking sector, that’s going to take some doing. As we talk, I realise the MP is also quizzing me: I

Louise Cooper

Forget Cyprus, the real savings robbery is in Britain

There are many reasons that the fate of Cyprus is being followed so closely in Britain. One is sympathy for those who are about to pay the price for the sins of a banking sector that was at one point seven times the size of the island’s economy. Another is shock at how the island, to which Britain granted independence just 53 years ago, now finds itself caught between Berlin, Moscow and Brussels. But the real lesson of Cyprus can be applied closer to home: when governments run out of money, they come after other people’s. Everyone is looking at Cyprus and asking: how safe are my savings? In Cyprus,

Jonathan Ruffer

Beauty, philanthropy and Auckland Castle

Three years ago, on an Ignatian retreat in Wales, two of the staff were taken ill — a priest and a kitchen maid, Maria. At Eucharist, we were given regular updates on the progress of the priest, but radio silence when it came to Maria. Inwardly furious, I raged at the inequality: ‘Who will look after the little guy?’ I thought. A rhetorical question to God is apt to bring about a practical answer, and I determined to change the course of my life, from working in finance to striving for regeneration in the deprived areas of the north-east of England. But to my great surprise I find myself occupied

Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland

Why Granada is the unfriendliest town on earth

The city of Granada is notable for several things. Most visitors go to see the Alhambra, or for a strange procession during Holy Week interesting chiefly for having provided fashion tips to the Ku Klux Klan. Judging by its Wikipedia entry, it is also home to Europe’s most eccentric twinning committee: its twin towns include Aix-en-Provence, Freiburg, Marrakech and Sneinton, a suburb of Nottingham whose attractions extend to a moderately interesting windmill. Its other distinction is that it is the unfriendliest place I have ever been. Granada’s hospitality industry seems to have improved little since 1936, when locals celebrated the return of Federico Garciá Lorca by shooting him and dumping

Roger Scruton

Celebrity fun vs scared joy

Easter is the season of rebirth and renewal. It is hard to renew ourselves, not because we are weak and tempted only, but because our pleasure-seeking culture pours scorn on all the old ways of sacrifice, and conceives fulfilment as fun. ‘Have fun’ has replaced ‘Fare well’ as the good wish of parting, and everything on which our happiness depends has been veiled by a mask of instant pleasure. You don’t have to be a philosopher or a theologian to recognise that pleasure and happiness are not the same. There are wicked pleasures, destructive pleasures, addictive pleasures, despicable pleasures: but there is no such thing as wicked, destructive, addictive or

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

It’s not just rich Russian that will share Cyprus’ pain

In their second attempt to clean the Augean stables of Cyprus’s banking system without jeopardising the integrity of the euro, bailout negotiators seem to have heeded most of my advice from last week. After the 36-0 rejection by the Cypriot parliament of a first set of terms that included a levy on all bank deposits, large and small, the new €10 billion deal reached in the early hours of Monday protected depositors with holdings of less than €100,000 while letting the weakest of the island’s big banks, Laiki, go under in an orderly way. Laiki’s unprotected larger depositors will lose most, while those of Bank of Cyprus (which will absorb

Bruce Anderson

Lock up your Burgundy – the Chinese are coming!

We should all perform good works. A friend of mine helps to run a soup kitchen in Soho. She summons the wives of the mighty from their seats, in order to fill the lowly with good things. There is a degree of competitiveness. Soignée ladies arrive from Belgravia and Knightsbridge, keeping narrowed eyes on one another’s provender. The rough sleepers are comforted with ris de veau comme chez Troisgros or gnocchi alla Milanese, even if they would prefer a bag of chips and a bottle of meths. Ad maiorem Dei gloriam. My duties are more demanding. I serve on the wine committee of a London club. That is much harder

Lucy Vickery

Johnsonian

In Competition No. 2790 you were invited to take inspiration from Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language of 1755 and come up with some suitable Johnsonian definitions for modern times.   Thanks to Michael Williamson from Australia, who suggested that I invite competitors to put themselves in the Good Doctor’s shoes and imagine how he might have responded to our 21st-century world.   It is a tall order indeed to follow in the footsteps of such a towering figure. His elegant definitions, which often resemble mini exercises in moral instruction, are shot through with his defiantly un-PC prejudices, yet leavened with wit and utterly without sanctimony. Opera is