Society

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cut housing benefit for under-25s? Yes, but be careful, say Tory members

George Osborne might have failed to get his housing benefit cut for the under-25s past the Lib Dems in time for the Autumn Statement, but, as James reported in his Mail on Sunday column this week, the Tories will be keen to put it in their 2015 manifesto, partly to show voters what a majority Conservative government could achieve without the shackles of coalition. I understand the party has been consulting members on its welfare policy in the past few weeks, and unsurprisingly, the response has been enormous. In fact, the policy forum hasn’t seen such interest from members since it asked them what they wanted to see in terms

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Ricky Ponting’s Recessional – Spectator Blogs

With the Don at three and Keith Miller inked for the all-rounder’s role at six there are only two open spots in Australia’s all-time middle order. It is a measure of Ricky Ponting’s greatness that no-one doubts he’s a sensible, worthy contender for one of those places. You may prefer the claims of Clem Hill, Charlie McCartney, Stan McCabe, Neil Harvey or Greg Chappell, but Punter is undoubtedly part of the conversation and only a fool would scoff at including him in this Fantasy XI. That’s how good he was. In England I fancy there’s sometimes a tendency to forget how fine a batsman Ponting was and instead place a

Monday

Steerpike Steerpike

Kate Middleton pregnant, the world reacts

Ask not where I was when I heard that the Duchess of Cambridge was pregnant, ask rather where I was when Miss Khloé Kardashian, of the Californian Kardashians, shared her views on the joyous news with the world: ‘Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge!! A royal baby!!! 🙂 awwww so sweet’. Not to be beaten, our very own Cheryl Cole quickly joined in the orgy of cooing: ‘I’m sooooooo excited that we’re having a royal baby !!!!Congratulations to Kate and Wills !!!!!!’ Everywhere there is a celebrity, Piers Morgan is quick to follow: ‘Congratulations to every magazine editor for calling Kate Middleton’s pregnancy – especially those who did

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

MPs criticise ‘voluntary’ tax arrangements for Starbucks and other big companies

Danny Alexander might be glad that a PR panic before the Public Accounts Committee published its report into HMRC and the ability of multinational companies to avoid paying their share of corporation tax means he could be able to visit a Starbucks again in the near future. But his remarks on Radio 4 this morning show what a mess our tax system has got into. As PAC chair Margaret Hodge observed on Radio 5Live, there is now ‘a danger that corporation tax is becoming a voluntary tax’, and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury’s remarks did little to diminish that impression. Alexander said: ‘I think what I’d say is, look,

Sunday

The Spectator

Should we treat phone hacking victims as experts on press regulation?

Much of the response to the Leveson Inquiry has focused on the disappointment of the victims of phone hacking and other intrusions by the press that David Cameron is opposed to introducing statutory underpinning for a new system of newspaper regulation. But how much can victims tell us about how to change a system? In an article for the Spectator in May, Carol Sarler argued that it was unwise to treat victims of tragedy as universal sages. Sarler pointed to the way Sara Payne and Denise Fergus were often called to back certain laws in an ‘automatic elevation of “victim” to “expert”‘. She wrote: It really is no surprise to

Saturday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

I need your help

I am in southern Italy and there has been thunder and lightning pretty much continuously since Tuesday. I am quite scared of lightning. I need to buy some comestibles; especially wine and cigarettes. But the tiny apartment I have rented is connected to the outside world only by 72 metal steps affixed to the side of the mountain by metal scaffolding. The lightning is all about. Should I risk it? Would it help if I wore rubber-soled shoes for my dash to the shop? Or will I be forever fused to the rockface, like a sort of crap gargoyle? I turn to you for help, and succour.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The British press is still trapped in a fight for survival

The newspaper industry is apparently working this weekend on a new response to the Leveson inquiry. This should be an interesting exercise. Throughout this imbroglio, the British press has proven itself almost comically incapable of collusion; to collectively agree on anything is not in the nature of our fiercely-competitive newspapers. This makes for healthy competition and democracy: no one can ‘square’ the press in Britain because there are too many newspapers who dislike each other too much. But this has been a problem for the press, in general, during the Leveson inquiry. Hacked Off produced a very well-run campaign and presented a united front. But as Charles Moore argued in

Christopher Silvester

Rare Opportunity

What the hell are you talking about? These 17 chemical elements, with names such as neodymium, dysprosium and europium, are used in the manufacture of objects ranging from lasers, aerospace components and nuclear batteries to camera lenses, energy-efficient light bulbs and self-cleaning ovens. Where do they come from? Today 95 per cent of the world’s supply comes from China. Deposits are dwindling fast and unless new sources are discovered, global demand will drastically exceed supply. California used to produce a fair amount, but closed its Mountain Pass mine because the Chinese undercut prices. Production has resumed there, but the Chinese still call the shots. Why haven’t I heard of anyone

Thursday

Raymond Keene

No. 246

White to play. This position is from Anderssen-Kieseritzky, Simpson’s in the Strand, London 1851. It is known in chess literature as ‘The Immortal Game’. Can you spot White’s immortal finish? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 4 December 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 … Qxf3 Last week’s winner Jim Vivian-Griffiths, Monmouth

Taki

High life | 29 November 2012

The gossip is that the Washington Post is in bad trouble and losing money as only Tina Brown can. Not that Brown has anything to do with the Post. Tina loses zillions for Barry Diller, who finances the Daily Beast at about 10 million greenbacks a year, and is closing the 40 million per annum loser Newsweek, although it’s not his own money, but that of those who invest with him. If I’m confusing you, don’t blame me. I actually pay my writers, unlike that other Greek, Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington, who dropped the Greek part of her name just as the Greeks let go of the drachma and went for

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 29 November 2012

Last week I received by post an invitation card from The Spectator office to the Parliamentarian of the Year Awards at the Savoy. My goodness, you should have seen this card. It was handsomely embossed, printed in beautiful copperplate, and so large that the postman couldn’t fit it through the letterbox. The Spectator requested ‘the pleasure of my company’, it said, and underneath there was a brief outline of the beano. From 12.30 p.m. we would be drinking Pol Roger champagne; at 1.15 we would be toddling in for the lunch and the awards ceremony; and at 3.45 ‘carriages’ would be outside to wheel away the fallen. I was very

Melissa Kite

Real life | 29 November 2012

Never turn your back on builders. I only nipped out to walk the dog. I was barely gone half an hour. When I left I had one good room. The spare room. The only nice room in the house. I really love the only nice room in the house. I love the jasmine white walls, the beige carpet, the peaceful spotlighting, the satin curtains, the silk cushions, the newly fitted wardrobes. I keep it meticulously tidy because it is all I have got to show so far for my six-week-long renovations. The rest of the place looks like a bomb has hit it. The spaniel and I curl up on

Alexander Chancellor

Long life | 29 November 2012

The first thing that strikes you when you arrive for an investiture at Buckingham Palace is how polite the police are. In contrast to their colleagues in other grimmer branches of law enforcement, they are friendly, jokey, and brimming with goodwill. Even the security men who search your car for explosives before you drive through the palace gate are jovial and easy-going. You might think that herding recipients of honours into Buckingham Palace might be exactly the kind of constabulary duty W.S. Gilbert had in mind when he decided that a policeman’s lot was not a happy one, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen policemen looking more cheerful. Are

Susanna Gross

Bridge | 29 November 2012

Ever heard of the ‘gum-wrapper coup’? My guess is not — as far as I’m aware, only one person has ever pulled it off, and that was about 80 years ago. I came across it while reading a book about the ‘father of contract bridge’, Ely Culbertson. Ely was a brilliant player but chronically impatient. He found it hard to sit still: whenever he was dummy he would lay down his hand as quickly as possible so he could get up and pace the room. On one occasion, the opponent on lead, David Burnstine, purposely dropped a chewing-gum wrapper on the table; quick as a flash, Ely laid down his

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 29 November 2012

Q. My son attends a drama school and, while I have always encouraged him to be open about his background, I was somewhat alarmed when he reported the following. He was talking to his fellow students about shooting, how much he enjoyed it — his father did it a lot, too, he added. His audience became more and more horrified until one exclaimed ‘Whoa, far too heavy — I mean I smoke spliff, but heroin? No way!’ Should he put the record straight? — T.L., Wantage, Oxon A. Your son should refuse to be drawn on the subject, should it come up again. It will be far better for his

Tanya Gold Tanya Gold

Tanya Gold reviews Colbert

A creation myth: Earl -Cadogan wandered into Oriel, the ancient Sloane Square brasserie on his land, like a lardy dachshund, if slightly more cadaverous. For 25 years Oriel served as a second home for the Chelsea hags and, worse, the brats, who still wear strange coloured cords, work in estate agency or PR, and are called, even now, Caroline; and it was pretty bad, stuffed with idiocy and yapping. (I would say that Chelsea deserves no better, and should be nuked with pies, but that is not my job.) Cadogan, who has taste, hated it, and so, with the neat malice of a guardsman, he decapitated it. He gave it

Dot Wordsworth

Norovirus

‘I wandered home ’tween twelve and one,’ sang my husband, waving his head from side to side in the fond belief that it made him look more like Olivia Newton-John, ‘I cried, “My God, what have I done?” ’ I was feeling a little queasy to start with, and this did not help. The occasion, if not excuse, for my husband’s rendition of Banks of the Ohio was my having succumbed to a member of the Norovirus genus. It takes its name from Norwalk (pop. 17,012) in Ohio. Norwalk, Ohio, is named after Norwalk, Connecticut, which the British set on fire in 1779. The householders were compensated with land south

Peter Jones

Democracy and the C of E

By refusing to consecrate women as bishops, the C of E has failed in the eyes of all its Revd Lucys and Giles to fulfil its sacred calling of acquiescence to the commandments of a secular society. Fifth-century BC Athenians must therefore step in and show them how to do it. All the ‘political’ words in English, from ‘policy’ to ‘police’, derive from the ancient Greek polis, meaning (roughly) ‘city-state’; and in ancient Greece, the polis wielded the ultimate authority over the sacred rituals that lay at the heart of its religious life. Priests did not run churches, preach, teach, meet in synods or claim moral or theological authority, let alone

The Spectator

Letters | 29 November 2012

Too busy for terrorism Sir: The Islamisation of countries surrounding Israel may not necessarily constitute an increased threat to the Jewish state (‘Israel under siege’, 24 November).
The reluctance of Hezbollah to open a second front in Israel’s north in the past weeks may be due to the recent economic recovery of south Lebanon following massive infrastructure destruction extending up to south Beirut in the 2006 war with Israel, largely funded by Iran.
Similar economic growth and prosperity in the West Bank may well be responsible for the virtual absence of any recent anti-Israel violence. (A recent television report on West Bank high schools showed many kids wearing orthodontic braces — a

The Spectator

Barometer | 29 November 2012

Local elections in Catalonia, which could lead to an independence referendum, put the region in a race with Scotland to be the world’s next new nation. Some other contenders: NEW CALEDONIA A collectivity of France governed by a high commissioner and a 54-seat territorial congress. Rejected independence in a referendum in 1987 but will hold another one in 2015. MTHWAKAZI A kingdom until the late 19th century, now part of  Zimbabwe. A MTHWAKAZI independence party was founded earlier this year. CABINDA Former Portuguese Congo, now a province of Angola. Detached from the rest of Angola by strip of the Congo. BIAFRA Breakaway republic from Nigeria which existed between 1967 and 1970 before being reabsorbed.