Society

Thursday

13 Dec 2012

Downing Street’s Maria Miller dilemma

There was a time during the Leveson Inquiry when Jeremy Hunt’s departure from the government was treated as almost inevitable by the media, including yours truly. But Number 10 backed him. He survived and was then promoted in the reshuffle. When it eventually came out, the Leveson Report made only minor criticisms of him and cleared him of the most serious charges against him. This has confirmed Number 10 in its view that most media squalls blow themselves out in time. But the Cameroons have always accepted that MPs’ expenses is a toxic subject with the public. Cameron made a fair number of enemies on the backbenches, with the hard-line

Alex Massie

The History Kids

Martin Kettle has a column in today’s Guardian lamenting the inadequacy of the teaching of English history in schools today. He suggests that “the English people are increasingly cut off from their own history.” Is this so? Possibly! But then he makes the mistake of presuming the English are unusually unfortunate in this respect. To wit: It is a fair bet that today’s young Scots know more about Scotland’s history, today’s young Welsh more about Wales, and today’s young Irish more about Ireland than today’s young English know about England. In fact the nature of their own historical experiences may mean that the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish also

Steerpike

Why James Harding had to quit as Times editor

Given that James Harding is generally regarded as the best editor of The Times to have worked under Rupert Murdoch, what happened yesterday? Mr Steerpike has been making some inquiries. It emerges that Murdoch had not been on speaking terms with Harding since summer last year, and latterly did not even bother to see him on his irregular visits to his Wapping HQ. It is not clear why proprietor has fallen out with editor, though huge losses, falling circulation and too pinkish/independent an editorial line are the usual reasons for Murdoch turning against his editors — and The Times had been “guilty” of all three. Twice this year News International

Wednesday

12 Dec 2012

Raymond Keene

London greats

This Christmas and New Year I am publishing a series of tributes to players in great London games. This week, examples of play by Capablanca, who won the great tournament at London in 1922, and Lasker, who stormed to victory in London 1899. The Capablanca game in particular is a mighty struggle which still causes controversy to the current day, in view of his bold attempt to exclude Black’s queen’s bishop from active operations. Capablanca-Bogoljubow: London 1922; Ruy Lopez 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0–0 Be7 6 Re1 b5 7 Bb3 d6 8 c3 0-0 9 d4 exd4 10 cxd4

Tanya Gold

Tanya Gold reviews the Orient-Express

The British Pullman on platform 1 at Victoria station looks mad, because it is 9 a.m. and ugly British commuters are running around, looking wracked and unhappy, like extras from Les Misérables, in slightly uglier clothes. Yet this train, which could have steamed out of Julian Fellowes’s head, sits in a grand puddle of cliché, like a duchess desperately trying not to look as if she is shopping at Lidl: graceful, romantic, a bygone age, the romance of steam, er, Foyle’s War. Its customers, a pile of mother/daughter forgiveness jaunts and happy — or unhappy — couples, are trying to look classy, which isn’t easy at Victoria station on a weekday. They

Raymond Keene

Puzzle | 12 December 2012

Black to play. This position is a variation from Lee-Lasker, London 1899. The white king has been driven into a dangerous situation in the centre of the board. How can Black conclude? Owing to early printing deadlines, we regret that this week’s is not a prize puzzle. Last week’s solution 1 f7+

Taki

High life | 12 December 2012

Religion is in decline, tradition takes a back seat to fashion, and same-sex marriage is now looked upon as normal. Previous taboos are accepted, such as swearing on television, and watching films about flesh-eating zombies and blood-sucking vampires feasting amidst car crashes and explosions, not to mention non-stop violence on screen. How to balance ethics and entertainment seems to have been lost for ever among the creative types our media take so seriously. But it’s Christmas time once again, and the one thing the Christian religion preaches is to live in peace with our fellow man, which I suppose makes Christianity one hell of a failed doctrine. Let’s face it,

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 12 December 2012

At the end of the carol service, the vicar invited us to stay for a cup of tea and a mince pie, to be served at the back of the church. Seeing me standing alone with my cup and saucer, one of the elderly parishioners approached with a smile of Christian welcome. I was afraid she was going to ask me if I knew that Jesus loved me. But instead she wanted to tell me how many squirrels she’d shot — 35 of the ‘beggars’ since October. They plunder her hanging bird feeders. She leans out of her bedroom window and pots them, she claimed, with a .22 air rifle.

Melissa Kite

Real life | 12 December 2012

Shortly after rekindling my relationship with the builder boyfriend, I had another hair-brained scheme. I brought the mad chestnut mare in from her retirement field thinking that while I’m U-turning on crucial decisions with Cameronesque ease, I might as well review my policy on horses, as well as men. The mad chestnut mare is 25 and murderously bad-tempered. Age has done nothing to mellow her. The staff at the stables call her ‘the old bag’. She is like an elderly relative in a nursing home who derives perverse pleasure from giving the people who look after her hell. Whenever I turn up, I am greeted with comments such as: ‘The

Alexander Chancellor

Long life | 12 December 2012

I have a daughter called Freya, aged seven, who sometimes makes suggestions for this column but complains that I never take any notice of them. In particular, she is cross with me for never mentioning her dog Lena, a large mongrel that looks a bit like a black curly-haired Alsatian but has on the other hand the sweetest of temperaments. Given this is Christmas, I thought I would please Freya by finally doing so. But I should add that this is not the only reason, for Lena is a dog worth celebrating. Lena comes originally from Umbria in Italy, where Freya once used to spend holidays with her mother in

Robin Oakley

National loyalty

‘The Grand National is a great race,’ one of Britain’s most respected racecourse chiefs told me over lunch the other day, ‘but in 2013 we’ll all be watching it from behind the sofa.’ Aintree’s showpiece remains racing’s biggest attraction, the one event that brings in the non-racing world to have a bet. Eleven million watch it in Britain alone. But because of the media focus, especially on any animal deaths that occur in it, he was arguing, the Grand National is also racing’s biggest potential public-relations disaster, as when the Gold Cup winner Synchronised and According to Pete died in last year’s race. Within days there was dramatic supporting evidence

Susanna Gross

Bridge | 12 December 2012

At a dinner party recently, I was asked whether men and women are equally good at bridge. Not at the very highest level, I replied. If you were to name the top 300 players in the world, only one or two — at most — would be women. When I was asked why, I replied that I thought it was possible that our minds work slightly differently. There was an uncomfortable pause. Then the man sitting on my left — a successful writer — asked whether I wrote my bridge column for the Telegraph; when I said it was for The Spectator, he gave a patronisingly knowing nod (it obviously

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 12 December 2012

Once again Mary has invited some of her favourite figures in the public eye to submit personal queries for her attention. From Plum Sykes Q. I have always given Christmas presents to all my five siblings and their children. Just to put you in the picture, the presents are at the Ralph Lauren cashmere sweater or Lanvin costume jewellery-type level. Although, being in the fashion industry, I do get enormous discounts on these things, they are still quite pricey. Last year I finally faced up to the fact that my siblings never, ever send me or my children Christmas presents. So I decided not to send any to them. The

The Spectator

Barometer | 12 December 2012

Double trouble The Duchess of Cambridge’s acute morning sickness was said to be associated with twins, raising the prospect of an awkward question of succession, especially if twins were to be born as a result of caesarean section. No monarchy has yet been tested in such a way. —Prince Vincent of Denmark was born before his twin sister Princess Josephine in 2011, but neither is likely to succeed to the throne as they have two older siblings, Prince Christian and Princess Isabella. —The only royal twin to have reached the throne in Britain was James II of Scotland. He was born after his brother, Alexander Stewart, Duke of Rothesay, in 1430, but

Dot Wordsworth

‘Everything goes dead mad’: the strange world of sportspeak

What tense shall we use? That’s the first question autobiographers must settle. The historic present might convey a sense of immediacy. ‘I’m just one race away from becoming an Olympic champion,’ Victoria Pendleton writes, describing events four years ago in Beijing. ‘My legs have been unbelievably quiet. They lead down to my feet, and I pump them effortlessly, hard and fast, up and down, round and round.’ It proved a winning formula. Things hadn’t always been so easy. ‘I am not the same girl who took a Swiss Army knife and used it on herself because the cutting was less hurtful than the darker pain inside,’ we discover on page

Peter Jones

A woman’s place in Homer

Christmas is the time in the church calendar when Woman-as-Mother comes into supreme prominence. But in classical literature, Women-as-Anything never seem to enjoy much of a press, being either ignored or depicted as sex-mad, treacherous drunkards — and this despite a world teeming with goddesses, as well as stories about mortal women producing offspring from divine encounters. The reason most often given is simple: misogyny. But it is not as simple as that. The West’s first and most influential author is Homer (c. 700 BC). Composer of the Iliad and Odyssey, he paints a quite different picture of women in many roles — as wives, mothers or slaves. The Iliad

The Spectator

Letters | 12 December 2012

Courts to be proud of Sir: Nick Cohen’s article (‘Export-only justice’, 8 December) might leave the reader with the impression that the use of the High Court in London by overseas litigants is a) novel and b) detrimental to the taxpayer. I do not believe either to be the case. Law students have long had drummed into them the fact that in a large number of cases (commercial court cases in particular), it is the norm for neither party to be domiciled in the UK, and I have yet to be informed — when raising inquiry of the listing office — that litigation timescales are lengthening by dint of an

The Spectator

Glad tidings

The below is from The Spectator, the best-written and most entertaining magazine in the English language. To read the whole magazine on iPad/iPhone, click here for a free trial. Or click here for a Kindle free trial. To listen to politicians is to be given the impression of a dangerous, cruel world where things are bad and getting worse. This, in a way, is the politicians’ job: to highlight problems and to try their best to offer solutions. But the great advances of mankind come about not from statesmen, but from ordinary people. Governments across the world appear stuck in what Michael Lind, on page 30, describes as an era

Pippa Middleton

Diary – 12 December 2012

I have been much teased for my book, Celebrate: A Year Of British Festivities For Families And Friends. Lots of journalists are saying that my advice is glaringly obvious. A spoof twitter account called @pippatips offers such pearls as: ‘Enjoy a glass of water by getting a clean glass and pouring in water from a tap or bottle.’ It’s all good fun, I know, and I realise that authors ought to take criticism on the chin. But in my defence, let me say this: Celebrate is meant to be a guide to party planning and, as such, it has to cover the basics. If I were to write a cookery

The Spectator

Portrait of the year | 12 December 2012

January Britain’s public debt rose above £1,000 billion for the first time. Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, was stripped of his knighthood. The High Speed 2 rail link between London and Birmingham was given the go-ahead. Police removed protestors’ tents in Parliament Square under a new act. Abu Qatada won an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights against deportation to Jordan. In Syria protestors continued to be killed. In Saudi Arabia 28,000 women applied for jobs in lingerie shops, in which only men could previously serve. February The High Court ruled that prayers said at meetings of Bideford council were unlawful.