Society

Saturday

25 Feb 2012

Class is back

…and the divisions are more bitterly felt than ever Until recently, the British middle classes felt quite good about themselves. The class war was over, and they had won it. Pretty much everyone wanted to join the middle classes. If they were not already members, the way things were going they very soon would be. ‘Embourgeoisement’ was the sociologists’ word for what was happening. Contrary to Marx’s flight plan, the bourgeoisie was turning out to be the preferred destination of History. No longer was British society shaped like a pyramid, with a steepling summit of idle toffs and an enormous broad base of deprived and discontented proles. It had already

Matthew Parris

Beware – I would say to believers – the patronage of unbelievers

This goes to print on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. So allow me to pitch in to February’s religion-versus-secularism debate from a new direction. As an unbeliever I wish to complain on behalf of serious religious belief. Faith is being defended by the wrong people, in the wrong way. ‘Faith’ means faith. Doubt is not faith. Faith is not seeking but finding. Real Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Jewish believers are being patronised by kindly agnostics who privately believe that the convictions of those they patronise are delusions. A lazy mish-mash of covert agnosticism is being advanced in defence of religion as a social institution. But ‘whatever floats

James Delingpole

Separating myth from reality in a history of the Battle of Britain

We all know that the time before we were born was a golden age when men were manlier, women lovelier, civilisation more civilised, culture more edifying, values more valued and so on. But what if it isn’t actually true? What if, say, it turned out that Winston Churchill was damn near as slippery and unprincipled a politician as David Cameron? What if the Battle of Britain wasn’t actually won by ‘the Few’ — and wasn’t even primarily a fighter battle anyway? What if, damn it, the famously long hot summer of 1940 was in fact mostly overcast with just a hot bit right at the end in September? What if

Martin Vander Weyer

Any other business: The Greeks are coming, and our teenagers won’t be much competition for them

One consequence of the Greek crisis — in which default remains a strong possibility despite the latest bail-out, and either way the Greek economy will be dead for a decade — must surely be a wave of Greek migrants looking for work across the EU. And since they won’t find a welcome between Macedonia and the Channel, that means an influx into Britain, absorbing many of the new jobs that will be on offer when real recovery finally kicks in. So it’s curious that David Cameron chose this week to sign a letter, with ten other EU leaders, calling for a ‘more integrated open labour market’ to help migrants settle

Aidan Hartley

Wild life | 25 February 2012

Kenya At Nairobi’s Muthaiga Club this week I bumped into Stanley Johnson, author of the superb memoir Stanley, I Presume and father of Britain’s future prime minister. Mr Johnson and I have an English education in common. Apart from Oxford and Sherborne, we attended the prep school Ravenswood, on the edge of Exmoor. ‘On the whole, I still take a positive view of my time at Ravenswood,’ wrote Johnson — and I agree. His book motivated me to dig out my old school reports. I was astonished to find that the masters seemed kinder than I recall them. The curriculum was more advanced than it is for my two

Lucy Vickery

Competition: Funny valentine

In Competition No. 2735 you were invited to take as your first line ‘My love is like a [fill in blank]’, and continue, in light verse. Amid the ailments — ‘a drippy nose’, ‘a whooping cough’; the animals — ‘a three-toed sloth’, ‘a sea urchin’; and foodstuffs galore: ‘ripe Gorgonzola’, ‘ a tub of lard’, ‘a rack of ribs’, Bridget Rees’s inventive opening impressed: ‘My love is like a — do you know,/ I don’t know what he’s like!/ I thought I knew for twenty years/ And then he took a hike…’ Honourable mentions, too, to Max Ross and Adam Campbell. The winners get £25 each. Basil Ransome-Davies nets £30.

Roger Alton

Spectator Sport: Glove story

My foul-mouthed friend Claudine had it about right after seeing Michael ‘full-frontal’ Fassbender’s latest sex-and-angst gloomathon, Shame. ‘I didn’t know where to look,’ she said, ‘when Carey Mulligan started singing.’ And anybody who’s spent any time caring about Arsenal these past few years won’t have known where to look as the team was pulled apart by an ageing Milan side, before collapsing to Sunderland in the FA Cup. If you want a long and happy life with the full complement of legs, it’s always best to keep on the right side of Roy Keane. But the Cork man was on to something when he complained about the number of Arsenal

Jrh Mcewen

Travel – Scottish Highlands: Dream land

The doubt that comes to mind in the Highlands when faced with such wonders as Glenfinnan — is this for real? — always arises when recalling the enchanted coastal village Glenelg. ‘Does Glenelg exist?’ seems an almost reasonable thought when away from the place. ‘Did I ever see those colours, that light, the Sound of Sleat and the distant islands? Was that golden eagle a dream?’ Part of the reason is that Glenelg is removed, beyond, even otherworldly in location. As close as the Scottish mainland gets to the Isle of Skye, Glenelg can only be reached (from April to October) via the island (and the world’s last sea-going, hand-operated

Harry Mount

Travel – Norway: Northern light

In the constant light of summer, Tromsø is an extraordinarily civilised place from which to visit the wilderness, discovers Harry Mount ‘Why do the British look so ill?’ I was asked by a 23-year-old woman at a dinner party in the Arctic Norwegian city of Tromsø. ‘Is it because they have chips for breakfast?’ She seemed to have steered clear of the chips herself; her skin looked like it had been put on fresh that morning. ‘Why do Norwegians look so good,’ I asked back, ‘when they drink even more than we do?’ The answer lay on the plates in front of us: reindeer sashimi followed by grilled whale, then

Fraser Nelson

Travel – Sweden: Ice pick

Now is the time to skate Stockholm’s archipelago, says Fraser Nelson There are two times to visit Sweden: the height of summer or the depths of winter. If you have to choose, go now. Diving into the waters of Stockholm’s archipelago is a joy you can more or less imagine: skating across them, and having a snow barbecue afterwards, is something that has to be done to be believed. Every year, British lovers of winter sports do head off to the slopes in Italy, France, Austria or Switzerland — it doesn’t really matter what country, because the set-up is the same. But Sweden is unique. The Stockholm archipelago boasts something

Olivia Glazebrook

Golden oldies | 25 February 2012

A young Indian entrepreneur, Sonny (Dev Patel), has a brilliant idea: to open a hotel that caters for the ‘elderly and beautiful’ British tourist. He plans, in other words, to exploit that pot at the end of the service industry rainbow, the ‘grey pound’. Sonny fakes some photographs depicting what he hopes his hotel will look like (one day in the future when the building works are done) and prints a brochure that hoodwinks seven gullible pensioners, each in a state of mental and/or physical disrepair, into booking their one-way ticket to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. They arrive — following a journey in which they discover that India is

Friday

24 Feb 2012

The Spectator

The week that was | 24 February 2012

Here is a selection of articles and discussions from this week on Spectator.co.uk… Most read: Fraser Nelson saying George Osborne accidentally makes the case for more savings. Most shared: Rod Liddle on the Saudi journalist who could be killed for a tweet. Most discussed: Matt Cavanagh discussing the implications of the border security report. And the best of the rest… Fraser Nelson backs the Liberal Democrats’ plans for a £10,000 tax threshold. James Forsyth reveals the 50p tax is raising less than expected and that tensions are rising inside the coalition. Peter Hoskin says IDS may have to change his work scheme and examines Michael Gove’s latest prognosis for education.

Jonathan Jones

Tim Farron wants competition dropped from the Health Bill

Will there be further changes to the Health and Social Care Bill? Liberal Democrat President Tim Farron certainly wants some, as he told ITV’s Party People last night: ‘If the new competition introduced through this Bill is removed, then I think it’s better on the books than it is off it… What I want is for the Lords to propose changes that will remove the new competition elements from the Bill and I would like the Government to give way on those things. It’s all to play for.’ Farron’s echoing the call made by fellow Lib Dem Shirley Williams last week and by a group of activists who have submitted

Jonathan Jones

Which tax cuts would be best for the economy?

With all these tax cut suggestions kicking about — and with the British economy desperately in need of some oomph — it’s worth asking: which would help growth the most? It’s not of course the only consideration, but it is clearly an important one as we struggle to find our way out of recession. Fortunately, the OECD is on hand with two recent reports to help answer our question. The first, ‘Tax Reform and Economic Growth’, divides taxes into four broad categories and ranks them on how harmful they are to growth: This suggests that the Centre for Policy Studies is right — on growth grounds at least —

Jonathan Jones

Transcript: Grayling on work experience

On the Today Programme this morning, Employment Minister Chris Grayling defended the government’s Work Experience programme in light of the recent controversies around it. Here’s a full transcript of the interview: Evan Davis: Well how can work experience get such a bad name? A string of high profile companies have pulled out of one government scheme providing work experience for young people. The latest, retailer Poundland, has announced it is suspending its participation in the scheme although it’s not quite clear which scheme it is, because there are several government schemes for getting people, long-term unemployed or young, into work. Let’s see if we can clarify what is going on

Rod Liddle

How to describe Sean Penn’s article?

I have been asked, rightly enough, to use obscene language a little less frequently on these pages. This is something which I have strived to do. But there’s a problem, because this morning I read an article written by the actor Sean Penn, about the ‘Malvinas/Falklands’ dispute, and cannot find any way in which I can avoid using the word ‘fuckwit’. There are lots of words one can use to describe Mr Penn’s article, such as: self-regarding, self-important, meaningless, akin to the efforts of a not terribly bright eleven-year-old boy sticking a pin randomly into the pages of a slightly surreal dictionary, the final address at a debating society in

James Forsyth

Gove knows the importance of adoption

The coalition’s work on adoption is one of its more impressive bits of public service reform. It starts from the right premise, that adoption is vastly preferable to children being in care. It then uses changes to the regulations, transparency and a plethora of providers to try and increase the number of adoptions. It is, for example, absurd that the current system has left to children being left in care because of worries that their ethnicity does not match that of their potential adopters. Or, that people are being denied the chance to adopt because they smoke. These reforms are being pushed hard by both Number 10 and the Department

Alex Massie

Sean Penn: A Kissinger For Our Time

One of Henry Kissinger’s great gifts is the ability to write op-eds that are clear as petrol. I recall one such piece, published by the Washington Post (his favoured venue for ex cathedra announcements), that left opponents and supporters of tougher measures against Saddam Hussein believing the old man was on their side. Kissinger had, still has I assume, the ability to inject complexity into a coin-toss. He baffles with nuance. Though I suspect their politics differ, Sean Penn evidently fancies himself a Kissinger for our times. The great man has space in the Guardian today, revealing his thoughts on the future of the Falkland Islands. For this we should,

Alex Massie

Prisoner: Cell Block Athens

The Financial Times has a swell story today, demonstrating how Greece, already a ward of Brussels, is not likely to be trusted with even its own pocket-money, far less be allowed out without a chaperone. She is imprisoned: European creditor countries are demanding 38 specific changes in Greek tax, spending and wage policies by the end of this month and have laid out extra reforms that amount to micromanaging the country’s government for two years, according to documents obtained by the Financial Times. The reforms, spelt out in three separate memoranda of a combined 90 pages, are the price that Greece has agreed to pay to obtain a €130bn second

Fraser Nelson

The dark side of the Big Society

The A4e scandal is getting worse. Emma Harrison has quit as David Cameron’s back-to-work tsar, the police are still investigating a case discovered last year and there’s a suggestion their investigation is widening. This is, for David Cameron, the dark side of the Big Society. In my Daily Telegraph column today, I explain why. ‘The Big Society’ is a silly name for a good idea: that lots of companies, charities, etc will help provide government services. They are given freedom to innovate, to create — and the freedom to get things badly wrong. This is the freedom which A4e seems to have availed itself of. It grew like crazy, perhaps