Society

Roger Alton

Spectator Sport: Coach party

Nobody ever seemed to have a good word to say for Ivan Lendl, though I personally enjoyed his general cool implacability. But why so disliked? It wasn’t as though he stood in the way of British tennis glory: Lendl’s career coincided with headlines that read ‘British Wimbledon hopes extinguished as Jeremy Bates loses rain-delayed first-round match’. No, we didn’t take to Lendl because he didn’t smile much and was as undemonstrative as you could get, the perfect bad guy to put in front of lovable showmen like Boris Becker, Pat Cash and Henri Leconte. Lendl was the last chip off the old Communist Bloc. If Rocky IV had been made

The opera of all operas

As I’m not the first person to have pointed out, the Royal Opera has indulged in a truly phenomenal number of performances of La Traviata this season, in the largely traditional production by Richard Eyre, which opened in 1994 with Angela Gheorghiu making her name. The three main roles have been cast differently for these three runs of performances, of which the last has just begun. It’s the kind of production that allows plenty of scope for individual interpretations, and in the many revivals I have seen of it the two outstanding pieces of casting have been the Alfredo of Jonas Kaufmann in 2008, which showed how interesting this usually

Kate comeback

What is Christmas for, exactly? For me, it’s a time of reflection and of sudden dawning realisation. Reflection on the year’s new music, and the sudden dawning realisation that I have hardly heard any of it. Not that I think it matters. Newness isn’t everything, or even very much, and there’s no reason why anyone should feel obliged to keep up with all the new releases, which is almost a job in itself. Far easier to let the songs worth hearing shake themselves free from the vast knobbly mass of tripe, drivel, Coldplay comebacks and Noel Gallagher solo albums. The good stuff will always find your ears in the end.

The week that was | 13 January 2012

Here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the past week: Fraser Nelson says the battle for Britain has begun, and explains why IDS’s welfare reforms are so important. James Forsyth looks at the battle lines being drawn over Scotland and wonders if Spain might prevent its independence. Peter Hoskin reports on Ed Miliband’s insipid speech and asks what’s next for the welfare reforms. From Edinburgh, Hamish Macdonell says Alex Salmond’s running rings around Cameron. Jonathan Jones reports on Mitt Romney’s comfortable win in New Hampshire, and takes an early look at the Obama-Romney electoral map. Daniel Korski looks at the latest developments on an EU transactions tax, and gives four

Fraser Nelson

IDS must stay the course on welfare reform

Welfare wars are erupting again, with Iain Duncan Smith’s bill amended in the Lords and more showdowns ahead. Number 10 has been completely robust, threatening to use rarely-invoked powers to overrule the Lords. In my Telegraph column today, I say why it’s so important that David Cameron does not go wobbly – as his predecessors did.   Tony Blair understood the need for radical welfare reform, especially when his idol Bill Clinton introduced it in America. Listening to his speeches in the mid-90s is heartbreaking: he had precisely the right idea, but lacked the determination to implement it. Frank Field was asked to ‘think the unthinkable’, but when disabled protesters

Gove takes on bad teachers

Michael Gove’s giving a robust defence of his plans to make it quicker and easier for schools to sack bad teachers. ‘You wouldn’t tolerate an underperforming surgeon in an operating theatre, or an underperforming midwife at your child’s birth,’ he says in the Mail. ‘Why is it that we tolerate underperforming teachers in the classroom?’ And he was similarly forceful in an interview on the Today programme, the full transcript of which we’ve got here. Gove is emphatic about how important this is. ‘The evidence is quite clear,’ he says. ‘If you’re with a bad teacher, you can go back a year; if you’re with a good teacher you can

James Forsyth

Cameron hints at child benefit taper

David Cameron’s comments to The House magazine on child benefit are causing quite a stir this morning. The Telegraph splashes on the PM’s line that ‘Some people say that’s the unfairness of it, that you lose the child benefit if you have a higher rate taxpayer in the family,’ he said. ‘Two people below the level keep the benefit. So, there’s a threshold, a cliff-edge issue.’ ‘We always said we would look at the way it’s implemented and that remains the case, but I don’t want to impinge on the Chancellor’s Budget.’ I suspect that what Cameron means by this is that they are looking at a taper. When one

Alex Massie

Poor Mitt Romney: He Keeps Winning!

Mitt Romney’s romp to the Republican nomination has not been without its troubles but Romney’s difficulties are as nothing compared to those facing a press corps determined to string the primary season out for as long as possible. A Romney victory in South Carolina is bad news for the media. It will ruin the fun. So, with that appalling prospect looming, it’s necessary to get creative. Vanity Fair’s Todd Purdum wins today’s gong for his intriguing theory that Romney is in trouble because he keeps winning. Pity Mitt Romney. It’s hard to imagine anyone else who could do what he’s just done: become the first non-incumbent Republican to win the

Signal failure | 12 January 2012

The latest Spectator is out today, and it contains an article by William Astor that attacks the government — and, by extension, David Cameron — over their decision to proceed with HS2. Given that it’s causing quite a stir across the news agenda, we thought CoffeeHousers might like to see it for themselves:    Rail privatisation by the Major government heralded the largest growth in passenger numbers in decades. This was down to improvements in service and a timetable to suit passengers, coupled with some attractive fare offers. But future growth of rail travel is unlikely to be at the same high rate and there we have the nub of

Where will the Welfare Reform Bill go from here?

Yep, it’s that battle over ‘fairness’ again. Labour peers, along with a decent scattering of Lib Dems and independents, believe that some of the government’s money-saving welfare measures are unfair – which is why they voted them down in the Lords last night. Whereas the government, of course, thinks quite the opposite. Their proposed limits to Employment and Support Allowance are designed, they say, to affect those who either can work or who have a relatively good level of income already, while keeping the ‘safety net’ in place for everyone. And that’s fair not just to benefit claimants, but also to other taxpayers who are contributing towards the system. Which

Alex Massie

Peter Oborne Returns to Form

After last week’s mishap, Peter Oborne returns to form with a column best considered as a mash-note to the Radio Four theme. Because Peter is, essentially, a romantic he allows himself to be carried away by the fond vigour of his desire to see Great Britain preserved for future generations to enjoy. That should not detract from the central thrust of his column: Alex Salmond, that most brilliant and attractive of modern British politicians, is capable of superbly articulating the sense of nobility, romance, mission and fierce patriotism felt by many SNP supporters. Nationalism and the cry for liberty can be an intoxicating cocktail, even at the start of the

An excellent Iron Lady, a dismal Denis

Why did they choose Jim Broadbent to play Denis Thatcher? You see, The Iron Lady can make a great boast. The central performance is extremely convincing. So convincing that you get lost in it. You don’t end up watching the film, thinking ‘God, that performance by Meryl Streep is excellent.’ You just accept that she is Margaret Thatcher and wonder whether it is appropriate to intrude into her privacy. In other words, the very fact that we start worrying about privacy is tribute to the performance. But Jim Broadbent does, well, a very good Jim Broadbent impersonation. I like Jim Broadbent impersonations. But not in the middle of a film about Margaret

Alex Massie

Everything Changes and Yet Everything Remains the Same

Today’s commentary on the independence referendum kerfuffle is out-sourced to the Daily Mash: As Scottish first minister Alex Salmond set out his timetable for an independence referendum, he was dealt a devastating blow after research showed separation from the UK would make absolutely no difference whatsoever. Professor Henry Brubaker, of the Institute for Studies, said: “It will still be damp, windy and miles from everywhere.” “The Scottish people will continue to shop, drink, complain, work for the council, eat beige food and hate each other because of football, religion or some bastard hybrid of the two.” […] “They will also retain their baffling sense of entitlement and the government will

Freddy Gray

The rise of the Ron Paul Movement

Everybody knew that Mitt Romney would win in New Hampshire. But the real success story of last night is Ron Paul, who came second, with 23.5 per cent of the vote. In 2008, he came fifth, with just eight per cent of the vote. Santorum, Gingrich and other ‘anti-Mitt’ candidates have risen and fallen, but Paul, who has refused to attack Romney directly in recent days, grows stronger and stronger. The Paul campaign, as Grace Wyler reports, has been playing a long game. They have been focusing their efforts on states, such as Iowa, in which they can win substantial numbers of delegates ahead of the Republican National Convention in

A green-light for HS2 — but the coalition’s political instincts should tell it to stop

Earlier today, the Government announced that it is still planning to go ahead with a new high-speed rail line that will reach Birmingham by 2026, and then be connected to Manchester and Leeds. And it’s doing so in the face of widespread scepticism among the public and business leaders. When we at the TPA commissioned YouGov to test public support for different cuts in public spending, 48 per cent of the public supported cutting the project against just 34 per cent opposed. While organisations like the CBI back high-speed rail, the Institute of Directors (IoD) actually asked their members and found that 38 per cent thought HS2 would represent poor

Lloyd Evans

The anti-academies club

‘Anyone here from the Spectator?’ Last night a packed meeting at Downhills Primary in Haringey began with this ominous query from the chairman, Clive Boutle, who leads a local campaign against academies. Seated at the side of the hall I kept quiet. ‘No one?’ said Boutle, ‘Great, we’re safe.’ The meeting had attracted about 800 protesters and activists who oppose Michael Gove’s decision to force Downhills – a failing multi-ethnic school – to become an academy. ‘Michael Gove really hates us,’ continued Boutle, his manner urbane rather than menacing. ‘The government doesn’t like Haringey. There hasn’t been a Tory here since Noah was in short trousers. So we’re no risk.’

Cutting immigration won’t help youth unemployment

Reading the papers today, you could be forgiven for thinking that MigrationWatch’s new report was a smoking gun against immigration. Here we have a study that links immigration to unemployment, in the face of nearly all previous research that has found no such link. However, looking at the MigrationWatch piece itself, it quickly becomes clear how implausible these claims are. The MigrationWatch report centres on a comparison of rising youth unemployment and rising immigration from the ‘A8’ countries – the Eastern European states that joined the EU in 2004. The correlation between the two is remarkably weak. During the initial rise in immigration between 2004 and the end of 2008,

Rod Liddle

Is Worrall Thompson getting off lightly?

I see that the famous midget cook, Antony Worrall Thompson, has been cautioned for having nicked some wine and cheese from the Henley branch of Tesco. Indeed, it seems he was filmed tucking some Cathedral City Cheddar or something inside his bag on new fewer than five separate occasions. It’s been a tough few years for Worrall Thompson’s businesses, on account of the recession, and some of his restaurants have closed down. I have no great animus against AWT, and am of course steadfastly behind his work for FOREST. But there is a marked difference between the sort of treatment a well-known Tory-supporting chef gets from the legal system and

James Forsyth

Obama enjoys the high life

Amidst all the talk of Tony Blair’s post-office earnings, it is interesting to read in The Times of Barack Obama’s post-presidency ambitions. In Jodi Kantor’s new book on the Obamas, the president is quoted telling old friends of the couple that: ‘When I leave office there are only two things I want. I want a plane and I want a valet.’ Now, I am sure Obama made the remark half in jest. But it does show how quickly politicians become accustomed to the conveniences of office. Though in Blair’s case, his money-making seems to be motivated more by a desire to match the lifestyle of the global elite that he