Society

Saturday

Taki

High life | 14 April 2012

Papa Hemingway’s recently published letter to an Italian male friend revealed his human side, one all of his admirers were always aware of (like Bogie, tough on the outside, jelly on the inside). Until lately, Papa haters had a good long run. Soon after Carlos Baker’s matchless biography appeared around 1970, nine years after Hemingway’s suicide, the naysayers started to gnaw away at him. The rats were led by modernists, feminists and other such rubbish, the kind of non-talented, self-aggrandising phonies that have turned literature into the unreadable garbage that’s around today, especially in America. Papa’s straight, short, no-nonsense style didn’t suit them. Magic realism did. It hid their lack

The Spectator

Letters | 14 April 2012

Threatened Christians Sir: Douglas Davis’s article on the plight of Arab Christians (‘Out of the east’, 7 April) raised a very important issue. What a shame he cynically exploited their misery to perform a clumsy character assassination on Muslims generally. Conjuring sensational phrases like ‘judenrein’ to raise the spectre of 1930s German fascism, was not only utterly irrelevant; it reminded the reader of Mr Davis’s highly partial agenda. He doesn’t mention, for instance, that the Syrian Christian community’s plight is bound up with their perceived tactical support for the repressive Assad regime. It’s indisputably tragic, but it is not black and white. Secondly, last time I was in the West

Peter Jones

Ancient and modern: Going postal

The principle of the Royal Mail is far older than our youthful version, which was founded in 1516 by Henry VIII’s ‘Master of the Posts’ and made publicly available in 1635. When Xerxes, king of the Persians, realised the extent of the disaster he had suffered at the battle of Salamis (481 bc), Herodotus tells us that the Persian equivalent, the angareion, was put into operation to take the news back home. Nothing human is faster, he said, and ‘neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds’ [rather, ‘course, race’] — words running along the frieze that fronts

The Spectator

Barometer | 14 April 2012

Local heroes The BBC spent £2 million on fares to allow London-based staff to commute to its new studios in Manchester. There are some well-known people who live in Salford: — Harold Riley, artist — Mike Sweeney, DJ — Andy Whyment, actor And some Salford-born people who moved away: — Alistair Cooke, broadcaster — Ben Kingsley, actor — Albert Finney, actor — Robert Powell, actor — Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, composer Old boy network Robert Mugabe is reported to be on the point of death aged 88. Africa has produced long-lived leaders and ex-leaders in spite of low general life expectancy. Here is how some notable leaders compare with the

Lynn Barber

Diary – 14 April 2012

Last summer when I was staying with my friend India Knight in Cornwall she said I absolutely must join Twitter. Besides being a Sunday Times columnist, she is a Twitter queen, No. 73 in the Top Twit 100, with 57,000 followers. Better still, she has a ‘peer index rating’ — whatever that is — of 58, which is higher than Alan Rusbridger’s, tee hee. I read some of India’s tweets and wasn’t convinced but then she said: ‘Look, Lynn, editors take it seriously. They think if you have 57,000 followers you have 57,000 fans; they see it as proof of popularity.’ ‘But I haven’t got 57,000 followers,’ I whimpered. ‘I

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 14 April 2012

Home The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Britain would not violate human rights by extraditing to the United States five terrorist suspects: Abu Hamza, Babar Ahmad, Adel Abdul Bary, Talha Ahsan and Khaled al-Fawwaz; the case of Haroon Aswat, who suffers from schizophrenia, was adjourned. A car bomb was found at Newry, Co. Down. The Independent Police Complaints Commission investigated ten incidents of alleged racism involving 18 officers. Football clubs should pay for policing further away from stadiums, Assistant Chief Constable Andy Holt said on behalf of the Association of Chief Police Officers. A fire in a goods yard in Canning Town cut off electricity for 88,000. •••

The Spectator

Human wrongs

There is a danger in this week’s ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that Abu Hamza and four other Islamic extremists can be extradited to face terror charges in America. The danger is that it makes the court look reasonable and in doing so weakens the case for removing Britain from its jurisdiction. The Prime Minister did nothing to allay this fear when he appeared flattered by the court’s ruling, admitting only to a little frustration at the speed of its decisions. But one apparently reasonable decision does not eliminate the court’s inadequacies, or the indefensible fact that Britain has to wait to hear from Strasbourg over matters

The Spectator

The week that was | 14 April 2012

Here is a selection of articles and discussions from this week on Spectator.co.uk… Most read and discussed: Sebastian Payne on the rise of UKIP. Most shared: Rod Liddle on the beacon for Islam — Mehdi Hasan. And the best of the rest… Fraser Nelson is unhappy on another triumph for big government and believes Mitt Romney is responsible for the ‘charity tax’ debacle. James Forsyth reports that Grant Shapps has ‘deep reservations’ on the conservatory tax and says the Blair-Brown wars continue to rage on. Jonathan Jones look the return of Operation Motorman and welcomes an attempt to fix the broken energy market. Sebastian Payne presents the first episode of The View from 22 and thinks the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why Lansley might hang on

Perhaps, the biggest question about the post-Olympics reshuffle is what happens to Andrew Lansley. In an interview with The Times (£) today, he makes it abundantly clear that he expects to stay at Health. Now, there are certainly those in Downing Street who would like to see him moved. But I suspect that he’s got a better chance of staying in post than most people realise. There are three reasons for this. First, Lansley is the person who understands best what the bill actually does. Anyone else on the Tory side would face a steep learning curve. Second, it is far from certain that a slicker communicator would actually fare

Neil Obrien

Another country | 14 April 2012

London’s separateness from the rest of Britain becomes more pronounced every year London has always been different from the rest of the country. But in recent decades the differences have widened to the point that, economically and socially, the capital now has little in common with the rest of Britain. The city may be hosting the Olympics in July, but none of those attending should kid themselves that they have visited Britain. London has effectively left the UK; it belongs instead to a loose international federation of global cities united by their economic dynamism and cosmopolitanism and the people who flit between them. This leads to a big problem: Londonitis.

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Note to protestors: elitism and privilege are not the same thing

‘Theoretical perspectives on contemporary cities, with a specific focus on the global nature of urban social and political change and development. The course will consider classic and recent theory and analysis emanating from ‘Northern’ academic and policy contexts, while also challenging western-centric views of the city… The course will equip students interested in urban change and development to understand and consider appropriate responses to social and political aspects of cities.’ —LSE course module in Contemporary Urbanism Trenton Oldfield, the smirking Australian halfwit who was dragged from the Thames having successfully disrupted the 158th Oxford-Cambridge boat race, is in this country for the purpose of taking the above university course at

Peter Mckay

Plucking heartstrings

Why I’m proud to play the banjo The death last week of legendary banjo player Earl Scruggs was marked by generous obituaries. He fashioned a style of playing now copied worldwide. In 2004, his instrumental ‘Foggy Mountain Breakdown’ — theme music for the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde — was chosen by the US Library of Congress for the National Recording Registry. He died at 88. So, a good innings. No doubt he’s now playing elsewhere. As they say in Nashville, ‘The good Lord likes a little pickin’ too.’ A friend wonders how I ‘defend’ playing — or, more accurately trying to play — the banjo. As if it’s a

Anne Wareham

Please shut the gates

Eighty-five years ago the National Gardens Scheme was created and blighted gardens in the UK forever. And in this anniversary year we will be bored silly by the praises sung of it. Starting as a scheme to let everyone, even the hoi polloi, into posh gardens for a donation to charity, it now dominates the garden world, tainting all it touches. Somehow the belief has grown that the gardens under the scheme are great, quality gardens. The reality of their predominant mediocrity can never be confronted because, my dear, it’s all for good causes. Good gardens, awful gardens, nonexistent gardens such as Antony Woodward’s rather vacant plot on an inaccessible

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Any other business: Bob’s worth more than his rivals put together, but that doesn’t add up to £18 million

Should Bob Diamond of Barclays be paid a whole lot more than Stephen Hester of RBS, António Horta Osório of Lloyds or Stuart Gulliver of HSBC? Arguably he should, for reasons I’ll try to explain, but a group of institutions including Standard Life, Fidelity and Scottish Widows intend to vote against his £17.7 million haul for 2011 at the bank’s AGM in two weeks’ time, and one influential voice, Pensions & Investment Research Consultants, says performance has been so poor that Diamond deserves no bonus at all, ‘indeed the board should be considering clawbacks’. It’s true that Barclays’ share price stands 20 per cent below where it was when he

Lucy Vickery

Competition: Eastertide

In Competition No. 2742 you were invited to take as your first line ‘Dear Lord the day of eggs is here…’, which is the opening to Amanda McKittrick Ros’s poem ‘Eastertide’, and continue, in a similarly bad vein, for up to 16 lines. Described in the Oxford Companion to Irish Literature as ‘uniquely dreadful’, McKittrick Ros, who died in 1939, nonetheless boasted devotees among the literary elite. Aldous Huxley wrote an essay on her extraordinary use of language, highlights of which include ‘globes of glare’ (eyes), ‘bony supports’ (legs) and ‘southern necessary’ (pants). Congratulations, all round. It was a magnificent entry and there are too many honourable mentions to list

Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland

The Wiki Man: Double crossed

There is no shortage of competitors for the strangest site on the internet. ‘The Britney Spears Guide to Semiconductor Physics’, for instance. Or gooseduds.com — an essential website (essential, that is, if you have ornamental garden geese and feel the urge to dress them in seasonal clothes). Or hatsofmeat.com, a website that shows exactly what its name suggests. But, after 18 years of surfing the web, last week I stumbled on a page more ridiculous than any of these. I live in Kent. Getting to Heathrow is a nuisance. The south-western stretch of the M25 is often congested, and the journey is made slower by Surrey’s habit of imposing random

Bruce Anderson

Drink: Flowers of Scotland

Back in the Sixties, there was a more than usually sanguinary murder in Glasgow. While the killer was awaiting trial, the Scottish Daily Express decided to buy up his family. This must have been after the days when such a case would end with a good hanging; Alan Cochrane insists that he is not that old. But the newspaper thought that the low-lifers’ tales of the dark and bloody alleyways of the Gorbals would titillate its readers. Alan, then a young reporter, was told to hide the family from rival bidders until judgment day, in some discreet hotel up on Lomond-side. That did not sound a hard posting, until he

William Waldegrave

Man with a trade mission

About the second part of the title of Nigel Cliff’s excellent book there can be no argument. Vasco da Gama’s voyages do indeed remind one of those of Odysseus and Aeneas — in the range of adventures, mostly disastrous, which befell the tiny ships, and also in the iron will of their leader. His ruthless pursuit of his goal left a trail of destruction behind him, both for his own companions and for those whom they encountered along the way. It is the first part of the title, which claims that Portugese policy was the last fling of medieval crusading, about which there may be more doubt.   The Christian

Friday

The Spectator

From the archives: The loss of the Titanic

On Sunday, it’ll be 100 years to the day since RMS Titanic sank during its maiden voyage. To mark the occasion, here is a piece about the disaster that appeared in The Spectator at the time: The loss of the ‘Titanic’, 20 April 1912 The appalling loss of life in the ‘Titanic’ and the story of what is in some ways the most terrible wreck in the history of shipping have not only compelled the emotion of the whole world, but have turned both Great Britain and the United States to wide and solemn searchings of heart. The destruction of the largest ship afloat on her maiden voyage, of a

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

How Mitt Romney inspired the British charity tax debacle

How is Mitt Romney linked to the charity tax debacle? I thought I’d pass on to CoffeeHousers an explanation which passed on to me about the origins of this latest mess. It dates back to the point in the Budget negotiations where Nick Clegg had finally persuaded Osborne to introduce a Mansion Tax. A major coup for his party — but Cameron vetoed, thinking it’d hurt Boris in London. Clegg is annoyed, tells Osborne he can’t have his 40p tax, but he still has a problem. A Lib Dem spring conference is coming up — so what will he announce? He hunts for a new idea. The Thursday before the