Society

Saturday

25 Aug 2012

Long life | 25 August 2012

What has happened to Italy, a country that not even Mussolini could discipline? It used to be cheerfully anarchic and self-indulgent: cars parked haphazardly all over pavements, long lunches and long siestas, fat tummies full of pasta. Officialdom, though bloated and intrusive, could also be flexible. I first fell in love with Italy more than 50 years ago when I skidded on an icy road into a tram stop in Milan, knocking over a bollard and banging my head (no seat belts then) on the windscreen, and a man in uniform poked his head through the window offering to help me move the car because the bollard was the property

Peter Jones

Vitruvius on rail franchising

Ever since nationalisation was invented in the 19th century, private franchising (e.g. the West Coast Main Line) has raised the question: why should private business profit from a public service which the state ‘should’ run for all? Ancients, obviously, never gave it a second thought. When Romans needed roads and aqueducts built, armies serviced, mines worked etc., they contracted the work out, as they did too with collecting provincial taxes. This always meant trouble. Whatever system was used — from private consortia (publicani) buying the right to collect taxes or local bigwigs collecting them under the eye of the Roman financial officer — there were always complaints about unfairness and extortion. There were the usual

The Spectator

Letters | 25 August 2012

A place for sport Sir: Many of us in the education world are baffled by the political furore over school sports fields. Harris Federation runs 13 academies, largely in tight urban spaces. All manage to deliver outstanding sports lessons. Why? Because of the skill of our sports teachers and the vision of our sponsor, Lord Harris of Peckham, who once dreamt of becoming a professional footballer. Harris Boys’ Academy East Dulwich has sport as a subject specialism but almost no outside space of its own. Bizarrely, in 2008 Southwark Council would only provide planning permission to build the school on condition that we would not use the park opposite for

Dot Wordsworth

Bill

In 1911, bakers and dustmen were more likely than most to be called Bill, or at least William, according to one of those family genealogy companies, Ancestry.co.uk, which has been rummaging in the census for that year. My impression 101 years later is that Bills are rarer than Williams, Wills or even Willses. Prince William is certainly not a Bill. Not all Bills were of the burgling classes even a century ago. Bill in P.G. Wodehouse’s song (written in 1917 and reused in Showboat) may be an ‘ordinary man’, but the author also used the name for at least two peers of the realm and a millionaire. He seemed oddly fond

Raymond Keene

No. 231 | 25 August 2012

White to play. This position is from Leko-Ivanchuk, Nice 2009. All three white pieces are on the kingside while the black forces are all on the queenside. The black king is somewhat vulnerable. How did Leko proceed? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 28 August 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 Rd6 Last week’s winner Geoff Bee, Epsom

Susanna Gross

Bridge | 25 August 2012

The Olympics may be over — but is another gold medal in the pipeline for Team GB? At the time of writing, the England Women are battling it out with Russia in the final of the 14th World Bridge Games, taking place in Lille. If they win, it will be their second triumph in as many months: in June they won the European championships. By the time you read this, will they have conquered the world (well, the women’s world)? Meanwhile, at the same venue in Lille, other bridge stars of the past 12 months were celebrated this week when the International Bridge Press Association presented its 2012 Awards. Winner

Raymond Keene

Grand prix

London’s newest and most flamboyant chess entrepreneur, Andy Paulson of Agon, which has acquired all World Championship rights from Fidé, is set to stage a spectacular Grand Prix tournament at Simpson’s-in-the-Strand starting on 20 September. The superb line-up includes Peter Svidler, Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Grischuk, Wang Hao (the victor of the recent tournament in Biel, ahead of Magnus Carlsen), former world title challengers Vesselin Topalov, Boris Gelfand and Peter Leko and rising star Anish Giri. In addition to this tantalising feast of chess Andy is also bringing the World Championship qualifying tournament to London next March. This week a game and a puzzle by two of the illustrious competitors in

Columba

2074: capital punishment

Six unclued lights are names for HELL (12), which is ‘A CITY MUCH LIKE LONDON’ (38 43) according to a quotation by SHELLEY. First prize J.H. Peevers, Didmarton, Glos Runners-up Chris James, Ruislip Manor, Middlesex; J. Smithies, Guernsey

Columba

2077: Below par

Each of seventeen clues comprises a definition part and a hidden consecutive jumble of the answer including one extra letter. The extras spell the first four words of a saying (in ODQ). The remaining seven words of the saying are supplied by 37 of the puzzle’s clues. Solvers must highlight a concealed item (six letters) which, in accordance with the saying, accounts for the presence in the grid of six unclued lights. Across 8 Try endless cordiality (4) 12 Handsome quality in masculine threads kept by escorts (10) 13 End of event just involving women typical of urban area (6) 14 Revision two pupils emphasise (7,

Douglas Murray

Has any country got gun laws right?

Every time there is a shooting in the US there is an eruption of sanctimony from Europe about how crazy the US gun-laws are. But there are some good reasons for those laws, and many Americans feel gun-ownership to be an important part of what keeps them American. However, the downsides are just awful. Gun-murder rates in the US are appalling, and though advocates of the US gun lobby always say ‘guns don’t kill people – people kill people’, the fact is that people with guns can kill more people than those without guns. The Colorado cinema shooter being just one recent example. But nobody has got it right, have they? After all,

Alex Massie

The SNP’s Slumbering Summer – Spectator Blogs

I have it on good authority that, as matters stand, some senior figures within the SNP are concerned by the way the party has lost – or is perceived to have lost – momentum this summer. Of course, the road to the independence referendum is a long one and there’s ample time for the nationalists to up their game. Nevertheless, right now, their message is not cutting through as effectively as they would hope. That’s the subject for a column I’ve written for today’s Scotsman: Even so, the SNP’s message has become oddly blurred. What is independence actually designed to achieve? For months now, the party has reassured voters that

Isabel Hardman

The IMF’s ‘too far, too fast’ warning

There is great excitement in some circles at a paper from the International Monetary Fund which has emerged in the past 24 hours. This piece of research warns that cutting government spending too quickly can weaken economies permanently and lead to even deeper recessions. It says: The analysis in this paper shows that withdrawing fiscal stimuli too quickly in economies where output is already contracting can prolong their recessions without generating the expected fiscal saving. This is particularly true if the consolidation is centred around cuts to public expenditure – likely reflecting the fact that reductions in public spending have powerful effects on the consumption of financially-constrained agents in the economy

Roger Alton

Kevin Pietersen needs a Graeme Smith

Having reached the summit of the Test cricket rankings by thoroughly outplaying England in three matches that flew largely under the radar due to events in east London, South Africa continue their tour as summer winds down with some one-day cricket. They are pretty handy at this form of the sport, too, and can be expected to end England’s unbeaten run, which stands at ten games, over the course of the five-match series. Both teams will change personnel for the series but perhaps the most significant difference in the South African dressing room will be that Graeme Smith won’t be the captain. Smith stepped aside after the World Cup last

Aidan Hartley

Wild life | 25 August 2012

Kigali Eighteen years after Rwanda’s bloodbath I disembarked from my flight and was surprised to see that mortar craters no longer pitted the airport tarmac. At a city café where I recall Hutu militias swigging lager next to a pile of severed hands, I saw a pretty blonde in a short dress, shades, red lipstick, reading a book. My sniper alleys were lined with streetlights where young Rwandans walked home from work; the dunes of stinking corpses had become business parks. My contact hadn’t changed a bit. He still smokes like a soldier but his hair, like mine, is turning white prematurely. His kids came with him to collect me

Annabel Howard

Driving to Shangri La

I’d go to Canada if I wanted to ski, or fish, or see the Northern Lights, but in the end it was only to launch my (Canadian) boyfriend D.W.’s book that I ventured west. I hate to think of myself as prejudiced, but even lyrical books like Will Fiennes’s The Snow Geese don’t do much to encourage Canadian tourism. Which made D.W.’s goal — to woo me into a love of the Great White North — difficult: I was determined not to be converted. D.W. is a native of the Kootenay Valley, British Columbia, where, he says, ‘Men are men, and so are women.’ His book is set there, in

Martin Vander Weyer

Branson always puts up a fight, but his days as a railwayman are surely over

In my list of things to do before I die, going up in a hot-air balloon with Sir Richard Branson ranks pretty low. But still I admire his fighting spirit: he hates to lose, or to let his enemies and critics get the better of him. He saw off British Airways’ dirty tricks over the Atlantic 20 years ago. He successfully bid for the rump of Northern Rock despite long being sniffed at by the City as an unsuitable person to run a bank. Joint venture partners who have crossed swords with him over the years have found him as merciless as he is litigious. And he’s not going to

Lucy Vickery

Sickly sweet

In Competition No. 2760 you were invited to submit an example of the kind of treacly inspirational poetry that adorns the office walls of a life coach and might be quoted by motivational speakers. Banality and triteness are not as easy to churn out as you might think. ‘I found this extraordinarily difficult,’ confessed Gerard Benson. ‘I gained a new respect for Ella Wheeler Wilcox [‘Laugh, and the world laughs with you;/ Weep, and you weep alone’] and her like.’ Still, there were some magnificently nauseating offerings. D.A. Prince leads the field and is rewarded with the bonus fiver. Her fellow winners take £25 each. (But remember, unlucky losers, there

James Delingpole

I’ve left London. How will I ever work again

They say that moving house is the third most traumatic thing after death and divorce and they’re right about that, I reckon. For the past few weeks and months I’ve been treating our London house not like the beloved home where I’ve spent 12 happy years but more like an anonymous shell where I just happen to eat, sleep and work. I used to enjoy having new friends round and hearing them wax lyrical about the niceness of the wallpaper or the size of the bedrooms or the delightfulness of the view over the park, but not this year. I used to spend hours in the garden, but I’ve scarcely

Mark Lutyens

The new country garden

Like Nostradamus, the vision is flickering but I believe I have glimpsed the future — at least, the future look of garden and landscape design. I wonder whether, in these dark times, we are at the threshold of a new enlightened age. There were two great moments in the history of garden and landscape design: the first was the introduction of naturalistic planting pioneered by William Robinson and Gertrude Jekyll towards the end of the 19th century; and second, before that, in the first half of the 18th century, the landscape movement as exemplified by William Kent and Capability Brown. Both movements — ‘game-changers’ at the time — were preceded

Mark Mason

A fan’s notes

When was the last time a piece of technology made you happy? Truly happy, so satisfied with the experience that you immediately wanted to repeat it? For me it was last weekend, in a pub toilet, using an Excel Xlerator hand dryer. This unbelievably powerful bit of equipment sorted out my mitts in less time than it takes to say ‘force 12 hurricane’. I was tempted to re-wash them, simply for the fun of using it again. And I realised this is the only sort of device that gives real pleasure these days: one that does a basic job very, very well. All the kit that’s supposed to amaze us