Society

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

So let’s get this straight…

After today’s VAT changes: a) If you walked into a pasty shop and bought a pasty that has been kept hot in a cabinet (or in foil, or on a hot plate, or whatever), then you WOULD pay VAT. b) If instead that pasty had come straight out of the oven, then you WOULD NOT pay VAT. c) If the pasty was cold, or had been left to cool, you WOULD NOT pay VAT. d) If the pasty was cold, and then reheated in an oven or microwave before being handed over, then you WOULD pay VAT. e) If the pasty was being kept hot in a cabinet when you

Jonathan Jones

Secret justice concessions won’t silence its critics

Two U-turns in 12 hours — even for this government that’s some going. Following George Osborne’s watering down of his VAT changes, Ken Clarke has rowed back some of his ‘secret justice’ proposals. Specifically, the Justice and Security Bill — published today — does not extend closed hearings to inquests, as previously planned. It will still allow Closed Material Procedures to be used in civil cases, but only on ‘national security’ grounds rather than ‘public interest’ ones, and only when a judge — not just a minister — decides that it is necessary. These concessions are being touted as Lib Dem victories, after Nick Clegg and his party vigorously opposed

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Weak, Weak, Weak

So the government is appeasing pie-eaters today. And caravan owners. In one sense this is unsurprising since increasing taxes on items perceived to be enjoyed chiefly by the working-class is rarely a popular move and, in terms of presentation, especially awkward for a government most of whose ministers are from wealthy backgrounds. Nevertheless, this u-turn is probably a mistake.  It is another reminder that this government can be bullied. We saw that when perfectly sensible plans to sell state-owned trees were abandoned and we see it again now. Like pies and caravans, the proposed forestry sell-off was a relatively trivial matter rebuffed by, in that instance, a largely urban, largely

Monday

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 28 May 2012

…here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: Peter Hoskin says the IMF is losing patience with Greece, reports on UK Uncut’s protest outside Nick Clegg’s home, looks at the expenses allegations against Baroness Warsi, and watches the continuing tragedy in Syria. James Forsyth sees a shift in the government’s thinking about the eurocrisis, and reports on how it is threatening the coalition’s unity. Rod Liddle hopes Warsi has a good answer to her expenses allegations. And Nick Cohen says the Green movement is losing its goodwill.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The coalition’s new idea for more debt

How best to help British business? More debt, of course — varieties of this answer come time and time again from this government. This time it’s Lord Young proposing £2,500 loans for young people, copying a successful model of the Prince’s Trust. The latter point should give reassurance, as the Trust has quite a striking success rate. But what would really help business grow is to abolish regulation on firms with 200 employees or fewer, to cut payroll tax — the ‘jobs tax’ as Cameron called it before he increased it — or cut corporation tax to the 15 per cent that (as Ben Brogan revealed) Steve Hilton proposed before

Sunday

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Take the mickey back

Our beliefs are like our families. Some we live with every day. Others are distant relations we rarely see but still think of as part of our clan in a warm, vague way. On the odd occasions they thought about it, leftists and more conservatives than readers of the Spectator may expect have seen the green movement as an eccentric aunt: a bit dotty perhaps, but a good sort and one of the family. I suspect that the majority of the population thinks the same. Stereotypes reveal popular attitudes, and although many mock the caricature lentil-eating, bicycle-loving vegetarian, their mockery is not malicious. No one would complain if an organic

Peter Hoskin

The Syrian tragedy continues

Last Friday, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, produced a gloomy 13-page report about the situation in Syria. ‘The overall level of violence in the country remains quite high,’ he wrote, before adding that ‘there has been only small progress’ on Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan. And then, as if to prove his point, around 90 people — children among them — were killed in the town of Houla. The government has denied responsibility for the atrocity, instead blaming ‘terrorists’. But, whoever or whatever it was, you get the picture. It’s a bloody and terrible mess. The question that has loomed across this weekend is: what now?

Saturday

Robin Oakley

Beyond expectations

When they present themselves there are certain experiences you simply have to undergo to make life complete, like rounding Cape Horn, watching the waters cascade over the Niagara Falls or flying on Concorde (although Mrs Oakley, I felt, rather overdid that last one when it was still possible by dancing that night with the captain in Cairo). I would add to the list, in the five months or so while it is still possible, the absolute must of seeing Frankel in action on a racecourse. Owner Lady Beaverbrook once declared, ‘I have all the art I need but nothing makes my heart beat like a horse.’ And while in one

Melissa Kite

Real life | 26 May 2012

Eerily enough, I was watching Catch-22 when it happened. We were just about to get to the part where Yossarian learns that the only solution to his problem is made impossible by a circumstance inherent in the problem itself. Suddenly, I keeled over on to my knees. The boyfriend looked at me askance. ‘What? What’s the matter?’ ‘Pain! Can’t breathe!’ I gasped. I crawled down the hallway to the loo and will leave out what went on in there for quality control purposes. Suffice to say that when I emerged the boyfriend had come to the conclusion that the organic salmon I ate for lunch had been altogether too organic.

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 26 May 2012

After a party the night before, those who had stayed the night were staggering around among the debris in a state of shock and disbelief trying to piece together what had happened. The headline news was that someone had driven his Land-Rover through a fence and abandoned it teetering on the edge of a cliff. The herd of bullocks being contained by the fence had all hoofed it and the farmer was displeased, apparently. The other news was that the beautiful young mother of the two beautiful little girls was still semi-paralysed and throwing up in the garden, and the Low life correspondent of The Spectator had been sick in

Taki

High life | 26 May 2012

On board S/Y Bushido My moment of glory came and went in a jiffy, actually a whole afternoon of filming on board without a single retake, temper tantrum or the expected fight between the star, Alec Baldwin, and yours truly. The name of the movie is Seduced and Abandoned, and it has nothing to do with the Italian golden oldie. It is an original non-fiction story — the great Greek thespian Taki plays himself — of seeking funds for a movie among the labyrinthine circus of the Cannes film festival. Alec and James Toback also play themselves, as does the producer Michael Mailer. Now, as some of you may remember,

The Spectator

Letters | 26 May 2012

Private passions Sir: I was a pupil at St Paul’s School from 1952 to 1957. I remember seeing the bill for a term: £30 tuition, plus £15 ‘extras’ (lunches, books…). I was a scholar, so the £30 was deleted. It was no great distinction to be a scholar, as there were 153 scholars among the 650 pupils. My group of friends all got Oxbridge scholarships. As a student in 1960, I had a holiday job as a milkman. I only earned £12 a week, but some milkmen earned enough commission to bring their weekly wage packet up to £20. In the 1950s, the average milkman could afford to send his

The Spectator

Letters | 26 May 2012

Private passions Sir: I was a pupil at St Paul’s School from 1952 to 1957. I remember seeing the bill for a term: £30 tuition, plus £15 ‘extras’ (lunches, books…). I was a scholar, so the £30 was deleted. It was no great distinction to be a scholar, as there were 153 scholars among the 650 pupils. My group of friends all got Oxbridge scholarships. As a student in 1960, I had a holiday job as a milkman. I only earned £12 a week, but some milkmen earned enough commission to bring their weekly wage packet up to £20. In the 1950s, the average milkman could afford to send his

Dot Wordsworth

The

‘How do you stand on the the?’ asked my husband. ‘The the?’ ‘Yes, the the.’ We could have gone on all morning, but the phone went, a so-called opinion survey. By the time I had sent them (or him) away with a flea in his ear, my husband had drifted off. The the in question was the one before Albany, the Regency sets of rooms off Piccadilly that the rich, impatient Alan Clark characterised as possessing ‘cold and miserable squalor’. Most people call it ‘the Albany’, despite snobby objections. If it had retained the name Albany House, there would have been no problem. Dickens referred to it as ‘Albany’, but

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 26 May 2012

Q. I give a young guns’ shoot for my childrens’ twentysomething friends every year and make a house party of it— it is an essential part of this very extravagant weekend that guests come to both the shoot and the dinner afterwards. This is fine for those staying; but I have found recently that one or two local invitees from very social families, who get a lot of these sort of invitations, accept the shoot but refuse the dinner on the basis that they have prior invites elsewhere. How can I tactfully make sure that they realise it is both or nothing, leaving them no opportunity to accept only the

Toby Young Toby Young

Status Anxiety: Quenching the flame

I was staying with my family in Devon last weekend when my son Ludo spotted that the Olympic Torch Relay was due to pass through Dartmouth on Sunday morning. ‘Can we go, Daddy?’ he asked. ‘Please, please, please?’ Dartmouth was only ten minutes from the cottage we were renting, so it seemed churlish to refuse. Caroline and the other children were quite excited by the prospect, too. Even my curiosity was piqued. I envisaged a distinguished Olympian running with the torch, followed by a squad of young hopefuls. A scene from the director’s cut of Chariots of Fire. We arrived in Dartmouth at about 11 a.m., having read on the

Peter Jones

Ancient and modern: An ostracism is called for

So: Angela Merkel proposes a Greek referendum on the euro, David Cameron says the forthcoming election there is the equivalent of a referendum. But as ancient Greeks knew, what is needed at this point is an ostracism. An ostrakon (pl. ostraka) was a piece of broken pottery. It cost nothing (unlike papyrus) and was widely available. On it, Athenian citizens wrote the name of the individual whom they wanted removed from the political arena in Athens and sent into honourable exile for ten years. It worked like this. Once a year, Athenian citizens in Assembly were asked if they wanted to hold an ostracism. The reason for it can be

Clive James

Diary – 26 May 2012

This month has been the launching season for my new collection of poems, Nefertiti in the Flak Tower. Not many younger people, I have been discovering, know what a flak tower is, or was. Perhaps I should have called the book something else. One of the poems in the book is called ‘Whitman and the Moth’: it might have been wiser to call the book that. Early in the launching season I was asked to read the poem aloud on that excellent radio programme Front Row. The poem is a meditation on the old poet at the point of his death and I’m afraid I found the right voice for

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 26 May 2012

Home The International Monetary Fund suggested Britain should undertake more quantitative easing or even cut interest rates. But Christine Lagarde, the IMF’s managing director, said ‘I shiver’ at the thought of Britain’s deficit in 2010 having been left without plans for fiscal consolidation. Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, made a noise for his side of the coalition by writing in the Sun about the report on employment commissioned by the government from Adrian Beecroft, the venture capitalist: ‘Some people think that if labour rights were stripped down to the most basic minimum, employers would start hiring and the economy would soar again. This is complete nonsense.’ ‘I think he is

Peter Hoskin

Getting personal

‘It’s getting personal this time.’ So says a UK Uncut type, in the video above, explaining why the group staged a protest outside Nick Clegg’s home in Putney today. The event passed off peacefully, apparently — but this brand of personalisation must still be worrying for those subjected to it. As Tim Montgomerie points out, ‘The Cleggs have young children and it can’t have been pleasant for them (if they were at home) or for local families.’ You wonder which politician, and which other local families, will be next. Louise Mensch has called on Tory supporters to donate £5 to the Lib Dems today ‘to show solidarity to the DPM and his family’