Society Archives

Thursday

14 Feb 2013

Come, friendly bombs

In Competition No. 2784 you were invited to rewrite John Betjeman’s poem ‘Slough’, substituting the target of your choice. The poet Ian McMillan sprang to Slough’s defence in 2005 with ‘Slough Re-visited’, an antidote to Betjeman’s jaundiced take on the town: ‘Come friendly words and splash on Slough!/ Celebrate it, here and now/ Describe it with a gasp, a “wow!”/ Of Sweet Berkshire breath’. But according to Betjeman’s daughter, Candida Lycett-Green, her father regretted having written the 1937 poem, a fact acknowledged by Frank Osen and several others besides. Mr Osen takes £30; the rest £25. Although he lived to disavow His wish that bombs might fall on Slough, Soon

Rod Liddle

The poor have been sold horse dressed as beef – and they should be compensated

Well at least — so far — no middle-class food has been found to contain large chunks of horsey. It’s all been in the junk they feed the chavs. It’s true that Waitrose withdrew some beefburgers for sale a week or two back, but this was only a ‘precautionary measure’ and later the burgers were found to contain ‘100 per cent beef’, from privately educated cows, according to the supermarket. Thank the lord, etc. Instead, it’s all in the Findus beef lasagne and some unspeakable frozen product from Tesco which masquerades as spaghetti bolognese. Or spaghetti bologneigghhhhhhhhhs, as I daresay the red tops will call it henceforth. It seems highly

Simon Nixon

Reshoring: how jobs came flooding back to America

It is 20 years since the US presidential candidate Ross Perot railed against globalisation, warning of a ‘giant sucking sound’ as millions of jobs left America and went to foreign factories. The presidential hopeful warned that a new economic curse — offshoring — would shut steel mills and factories without government protection. But listen closely and a different sucking sound can now be heard: jobs coming back to America. A country once panicked about ‘offshoring’ has a new buzzword: ‘re-shoring’. The US recovery is weak and unemployment remains high. But quietly, manufacturing has been making a strong recovery, adding 500,000 jobs since the end of the recession. America, influential analysts

Clarissa Tan

Why do Brits seek Eastern spirituality when they have so much of their own?

I used to hang around a group of friends who worked for a British events company. Their boss was a keen follower of Buddhism and all things Oriental and, since the course of business never does run smooth, regularly consulted a feng shui practitioner. The practitioner, who wanted to be called Jampa, gave advice on everything from the setting up of a branch office to the placement of a goldfish bowl. He charged £500 a visit, with the viewing of two floors in an office counting as two visits. Jampa’s real name was something like Trevor Stevens, and in the days before he started donning the saffron robes of an

Douglas Murray

Lars Hedegaard interview: ‘I may be killed if I write this’

The assassin came to his home dressed as a postman. When the historian and journalist Lars Hedegaard opened his front door, the man — whom Lars describes as ‘looking like a typical Muslim immigrant’ in his mid-twenties — fired straight at his head. Though Hedegaard was a yard away, the bullet narrowly missed. The mild-mannered scholar (70 years old) then punched his assailant in the head. The man dropped the gun, picked it up and fired again. The gun jammed and the man ran off. More than a week later, he has yet to be found. Hedegaard has had to leave his home and is under police protection at an

Neil Clark

Where did all the sweet people go?

To say someone was ‘sweet’ used to be quite common in Britain. We didn’t just use the word to describe our mothers and grandmothers, but a wide range of people, including public figures. But not any more. Public acts of sweetness, such as gently warning people that their shoelaces were untied, are now rare. Sweetness seems to be in terminal decline. Having just celebrated Valentine’s Day, now seems an appropriate time to ask why. Sweetness is not just about niceness, or good manners, though both help. Sir Cliff Richard may be nice and well-mannered, but is he sweet? He’s a little too self-regarding — and self-regard and sweetness don’t go

James Delingpole

How Twitter almost destroyed me

Last year, my old sparring partner George Monbiot got himself into a spot of bother. ‘Why not stick the knife in on your blog?’ various people suggested. But I didn’t because George’s travails had nothing whatsoever to do with his wrongheaded political views (which I’m more than happy to attack at every turn). They had to do with a libel he’d repeated about someone on Twitter. About this, I refused to gloat. This is not because I’m an incredibly decent, warm and caring person. Well, not just. It’s because, as a fellow Twitter user, I recognised a case of ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ Of course

Martin Vander Weyer

Here’s my strategic review, Barclays: see shareholders right and the rest will follow

Antony Jenkins, the new-broom chief executive of Barclays, has the tone of a junior minister, not long in parliament, who finds himself promoted to high office after the big beast who preceded him was toppled by scandal. In fact he’s been in the bank 30 years, climbing the ladder so quietly that none of my contemporaries there (I coincided with him in Barclays for a decade) ever mentioned him as a man to watch before he was picked to follow Bob Diamond. His ‘strategic review’ is full of hot-button stuff about ‘values’, but what struck me about his interview on the Today programme on Tuesday morning was that in his

Giles Coren

Giles Coren eats fried seal loin with Eva Avila

My week began on a plane to Quebec, where I’m filming a show for Canadian television. It is a broadcast pilot for a format of my own devising and, if it flies, I stand to make billions. But first it must succeed in Canada. Because Canada is the country that has bravely chosen to try it first, and shelled out the initial moolah. I am delighted that my show is getting its big chance in this great country, rather than boring old America, say, or England. I love Canada. I have always said it is the most culturally innovative and pleasant-to-visit country on earth. (I have never been to Canada in my life before.)

Hugo Rifkind

Another good idea goes the way of all wheezes

Coercing the long-term unemployed into work placements is not a stupid idea. Nobody thinks it is. And by ‘nobody’ in this context, I mean Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, and Liam Byrne, the shadow work and pensions secretary, and they’re pretty much the only people worth listening to. Doubtless, quite a few of the actual long-term unemployed have differing views. But they would, wouldn’t they? I’ll tell you what is a stupid idea, though. Telling a woman who already has a work placement in a museum that she has to quit it and go and do one in Poundland is a stupid idea. And telling a trained mechanic

Wednesday

13 Feb 2013

Nick Cohen

Lone voices against Terror

I went to the Toynbee Hall, the meeting place for the radical East End, this week to listen to a debate many radicals would rather not hear. British Asian feminists and their supporters had gathered to launch the Centre for Secular Space an organisation whose work I would say is close to essential. It is not fashionable, however, because its focus is the collusion between the Anglo-American left and the Islamist right, which has betrayed so many Muslims and ex-Muslims, most notably Muslim and ex-Muslim women. Gita Sahgal, Nehru’s great niece, became the movement’s figurehead and eloquent spokeswoman when the once respectable and now contemptible Amnesty International fired her for

James Forsyth

Owen Paterson worried by risks of Mexican horsemeat in British food

The horsemeat scandal illustrates just how much of our daily government now takes place in Brussels. Owen Paterson is heading there today, for any real action on this crisis will have to be taken at a European level. One of those involved in the government’s response to this crisis tells me the problem is that once products are inside the European single market they are very few checks on them. This figure called it, ‘a faith based system that isn’t working’. This is particularly alarming because the horsemeat that is turning up in British food could not be from here or even Romania but the US via Mexico. In 2007,

Alex Massie

No, Barack Obama has not declared an end to the War on Terror – Spectator Blogs

I see that Con Coughlin is at it again. Apparently, you see, Barack Obama has “taken leave of reality”. How so? By declaring that al-Qaeda is but “a shadow of its former self”. That seems a reasonable statement to me. Moreover, the sensible response to that declaration is surely I should bloody well hope so. Otherwise what have we – that is, chiefly, the US Armed Forces – been doing these past dozen years? According to Con, however, the President is, at best, hopelessly naive and, more probably, abdicating from his responsibilities. You see: Is he forgetting that it is only five months since Chris Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya, died following an

Thomas Duggins

Adultery and the same-sex marriage bill

Nadine Dorries said during the debate on same sex marriage last week that ‘This bill in no way makes a requirement of faithfulness from same-sex couples. In fact, it does the opposite’. Her rather surprising claim stems from the government’s plans to maintain the current definition of adultery in the equal marriage bill. Although not defined in statute, case law defines adultery as sexual intercourse between persons of the opposite sex. So while a heterosexual man can be divorced on the basis of unfaithfulness with another woman, a homosexual man could not on the basis of unfaithfulness with another man. The definition of adultery has caused legislators a collective headache

Isabel Hardman

The government’s work experience scheme isn’t headed for the plug hole

Depending on which paper you read this morning, the government’s work experience scheme is either heading for the plug hole or going from strength to strength. The Guardian has an editorial praising Cait Reilly, the geology graduate who fought the workfare scheme she found herself on, The Telegraph says workfare can ‘still do the job for Britain’, and The Sun carries a bullish piece by Iain Duncan Smith on why the scheme is not ‘slave labour’. The problem is that everyone has managed to interpret yesterday’s Court of Appeal judgement as favouring their own view of the scheme. Reilly emerged yesterday with her lawyer to claim victory, but the Work

Simon Hoggart

February Mini-bar

Around twice a year, I visit the Swig world HQ (an office in Chiswick, west London) and taste some of the most delicious wines known to humanity. Next day I consult my notes, and realise that it is going to be almost impossible to make a choice. They are too good, too delectable and such amazing value that anyone would want to snap up cases of them all. But maybe if you try this selection — two South African and two Italian wines — you will be tempted to browse Swig’s catalogue and find even more treasures. Take this delicious 2012 Sauvignon Blanc made in Constantia, South Africa, at Hussey’s

Tuesday

12 Feb 2013

Steerpike

Lord Heseltine is ‘Golden Oldie of the Year’

To Simpson’s-in-the-Strand this afternoon for The Oldie of the Year Awards (the ‘Tootys’ for short), which were presented by Sir Terry Wogan. The guest list read like a Tatler bash in the late 70s. Debonair Peter Bowles charmed anything that walked by him. Naughty Jilly Cooper chatted amiably to all and sundry about nothing and everything. Eileen Aitkens and Geoffrey Palmer rubbed shoulders with Joan Bakewell. Barry Cryer’s dirty laugh could be heard over the gentle conversation of Dennis Norden, Tony Blackburn, Simon Hoggart and Richard Ingrams. A boozy lunch passed without incident, and then it was time to stay awake for Wogan. He began by saying that Ingrams, the

Steerpike

The Fleet Street fox hunt

One of London’s worst kept secrets has finally been revealed in an explosion of PR and TV appearances for Susie Boniface, the hack behind the Fleet Street Fox mask. Whilst anonymous, the former Sunday Mirror journalist managed to bring the unlikely bedfellows of Nadine Dorries and Jemima Khan together into an angry pact of hatred toward the acerbic blogger. Now that Foxy’s long awaited book is out, a new guessing game has begun: who are the charmingly-named characters based upon? The true identities of ‘TwatFace’, ‘Fatty’ and ‘Princess Flashy Knickers’ should be cringing in newsrooms across Fleet Street, as their cigarette paper thin disguises unravel. Snappy ‘Tania Banks’, a rival

Rod Liddle

Look out Liverpool

Now here’s something to warm the heart. A bunch of medics from Liverpool have set up an organisation called ‘Street Doctors’, where they go out and teach gang members how to staunch and sew up stab wounds. The obvious downside to this pioneering initiative is that we will probably, as a consequence, be left with more living gang members than would otherwise have been the case. They do not seem to have thought about that. Unless they also plan to teach them the most efficacious places to stab someone, perhaps with a cut-out-and-keep diagrammatical aid. Hopefully the NHS will intervene and instead of sewing up stab victims, the gang members

Alex Massie

Obituary of the Week: Jungleyes Love – Spectator Blogs

I’ve been on Jura on a Wedding Planning Immersion Course* these past few days so, apart from noting that the Pope is retiring (upon which I have no opinion), I’ve not been paying little attention to the outside world. Some things have crept through, however. Among them this splendid obituary in today’s Telegraph. The intro is arresting and in the best tradition of Telegraph obituaries: Jungleyes Love, who has died aged 56, was an Old Harrovian hippie who traded in runic jewellery, dinosaur eggs and fossilised animal excrement, which he sold from his shop on the tourist trail to Kew Gardens in south-west London. Well, you want to know more,