Society

Sunday

1 Jan 2012

European integration that we can get behind

Part of the magic of the New Year’s Day concert from the Vienna Philharmonic is knowing that millions are watching the same event live, right throughout Europe. It’s perhaps the only cultural event that unites the continent in this way (other than Eurovision). Politically and economically, not very much binds us together, as the tensions within the European Union demonstrate. The continent is a model of diversity, which is why homogenisation attempts fail. But when it comes to culture, it’s a different story altogether — with classical music being, perhaps, one of the strongest unifying factors. Turn up to a concert hall in Edinburgh, Leeds or Athens to listen to

Saturday

31 Dec 2011

Melissa Kite

Real life | 31 December 2011

By the time you read this I shall probably be 40. I say probably not because I am thinking of ending it all to ensure I remain for ever young in people’s hearts. I say it because the way things are going, the event may go completely unnoticed. It may be so ignored by my nearest and dearest that I may just wake up on 1 January and forget that I am 40. I tried to plan a party, you see, a big bash, but unfortunately I came up against RSVP evasion. I suppose it doesn’t help to be born when people are traditionally busy drinking mint-flavoured Bailey’s and going

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 31 December 2011

I was standing on the pavement outside the Lahore Kebab House, Hendon, after a three-hour lunch, waiting for a minicab. Fifty of us had sat down at a flower-laden table to samosas and champagne, kebabs and Valpolicella. Amid a convivial uproar, our host had stood, tapped his water glass with his spoon, and made a speech of thanks and welcome. Last year, to our host’s transparent consternation, his speech was hijacked by Lord Charles, the ventriloquist’s dummy, who’d made obscene remarks about some of the guests. Today his speech was again persistently interrupted, this time by Sooty on the one hand, and by Sweep on the other, whispering irrelevant comments

Taki

High life | 31 December 2011

So the end-of-the-year Christmas party was the best yet, even if I say so myself. The festivities began at 10 p.m. and ended somewhat hazily around 6 the next morning. My son JT provided the youth, I provided the gravitas. Actually, it was the other way round. I provided the brawn — judo and karate instructors and practitioners — he provided the artsy-fartsy types from Brooklyn with lotsa pretty girls. Cauliflower brains mixing freely with cauliflower ears. To my great regret my buddy Michael Mailer, son of Norman and a very good boxer who has gone to Hollywood and now produces movies, had to fly to South Africa, but like

Dot Wordsworth

Across

The word of the year is across. Earlier this month someone on the radio spoke of hospital experiences ‘across the patient journey’. The meaning was ‘throughout’. It is universality that across is now felt to express. A widely favoured, seldom understood figure of speech is across the piece. Proof of the obscurity of its application, even for those who use it, is that they often make it across the piste, as if it came from skiing. Across is everywhere. In the Independent, Alexander Lebedev wrote about promoting ‘fair journalism across the globe’. One might think it would be round the globe, or perhaps around the globe. There is a difference

Tanya Gold

Food: I have been here before

34 is the new restaurant from Richard Caring, the ‘Lex Luthor of Mayfair’, who owns The Ivy, Le Caprice and Annabel’s. In my research, which I undertake before every review — clams tend not to have a back-story — Caring emerges as a character from a Sidney Sheldon novel, or perhaps Lace: ‘Which of you bitches has my entrée?’ He is unpopular with the WASP establishment because A) he is Jewish and B) he is orange. And so the myths, fuelled by Tatler, float. He survived the 2004 tsunami by sheltering behind an atoll. He has a nuclear silo under the J Sheekey Oyster Bar, which is pointed at Pizza

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 31 December 2011

Q. How can I tell a new young colleague that he needs to wash? He and I share an office and he is exceptionally nice but the smell in our shared quarters is sickening. What do you advise? — E.C., Oxford A. Try this method which has resolved the same problem for others. Say to the youth, ‘I am going to ask you a question and I want you to be completely honest, even if you think it may hurt my feelings. do I smell?’ When he says no, say excitedly, ‘Phew! It’s not me then. But haven’t you noticed there is a terrible smell in our room? If it

Toby Young

Status Anxiety | 31 December 2011

For me, the end of one year and the beginning of the next is a time of mixed feelings. I always take stock, looking back to see what I’ve accomplished in the year gone by, and on that score I have much to celebrate. The West London Free School opened in September, the culmination of two years’ work, and has proved to be a success. Children, parents and staff are happy and we’ve had over 1,000 applicants for our next 120 places. Much of 2012 will be taken up with laying the groundwork for our lower school and sixth form, both of which we hope to open in 2013. But

The Spectator

Letters | 31 December 2011

Chiller app Sir: Niall Ferguson (‘On being called a racist’, 17/24 December) says that ‘the freedom of the press does not extend to defamation’. This is an odd idea, but one which Ferguson shares with the governments of those countries in which journalists are routinely imprisoned for insulting the powerful. In England, defamation is a civil offence and claims of libel must be won through reasoned argument, not simply asserted. He claims that, in the London Review of Books review of Civilisation, Pankaj Mishra accuses him of racism. He says that ‘expressions of racism are now defined as criminal acts in Britain’. They are not. Inciting or stirring up racial

Peter Jones

Ancient and modern: Gods everywhere

And so the ‘God’ particle may have been discovered. Or not. Ancient Greeks would have thought it a waste of time, since the rational intellect could deal only with what was humanly intelligible, and gods barely fitted that category. Anyway, as the philosopher Heraclitus said, everything was full of gods. So why bother? When the farmer-poet Hesiod described how the world began, there was only Chaos, ‘Emptiness’. Then Earth appeared, then the dark Underworld. Rather surprisingly, Eros, sexual desire, pops up next. It soon becomes clear why. These basic elements start producing other elements, some by mating, some not. But none would mate unless they felt the desire to. So

The Spectator

Barometer | 31 December 2011

100 candles Some of those who are due to be celebrating hundredth birthdays in 2012: 3 February Mary Carlisle, US actress who starred alongside Bing Crosby in Doctor Rhythm 8 April Alois Brunner, assistant to Adolf Eichmann, never brought to justice and still believed to be living under the name Dr Georg Fischer in Damascus 28 April Kaneto Shindo, Japanese film director best known for making films about the bombing of his home city, Hiroshima 4 July Said Akl, Lebanese poet and nationalist 1 October Kathleen Ollerenshaw, mathematician who overcame deafness to become head of mathematics at Manchester University and education adviser to Mrs Thatcher 17 December Ted Short, former education secretary and deputy leader of

Harry Mount

Diary – 31 December 2011

At last, 18 years after leaving university, the call comes to appear on the University Challenge Christmas Special. A wonderful boost for my intellectual vanity. Not so good for the physical sort. Halfway through filming, at Granada Studios in Manchester, a man in props approached me in the make-up room. ‘I’m afraid you’re strobing,’ he said, pointing at my checked shirt, which produced a blurring effect on telly. ‘Do you mind wearing the studio shirt?’ The studio shirt was bright grey — if that’s not an oxymoron — with a highly varnished sheen. At lunchtime, I rushed off to Brooks Brothers and bought myself a non-strobing, non-shiny blue shirt, for

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 31 December 2011

Home The Duke of Edinburgh, aged 90, left Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire four days after arriving by helicopter for an emergency operation to fit a stent in a blocked coronary artery. ‘It is tragedy that often draws out the most and the best from the human spirit,’ the Queen said in her Christmas broadcast, recorded earlier. In an interview with RTE, David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that the Queen’s visit to Ireland in May had been a ‘game-changer’ in Anglo-Irish relations. The body of Christopher Hitchens, who died aged 62, was donated for medical research. Kauto Star won an unprecedented fifth King George VI Chase at Kempton. ••• Mr

Peter Hoskin

Happy New Year, CoffeeHousers!

A quick post to wish CoffeeHousers a very happy New Year, and to thank you for reading and commenting in 2011. The blog may be a bit quieter over the next day or two (although there will be some posts); but, rest assured, we’ll come roaring back to normal service early next week. In the meantime, there’s still time to enter our New Year competition. Or how about sifting back through the ten ‘most-read’ articles from all across the website this year? Here are the links: 1) What the papers won’t say — Peter Oborne 2) The footballer is named — Alex Massie 3) More like Veena, please — Nick Cohen 4)

Peter Hoskin

A year of Spotify Sundays

As the name suggests, our Spotify Sunday posts normally run on a Sunday. But let’s make an exception for this round-up of all the Spotify Sundays that have featured on the Arts Blog in 2011. You’re probably familiar with them already — but if you’re not, then they’re the Spectator website’s equivalent of Desert Island Discs. One of our writers or friends selects ten songs, often with a unifying theme, and writes a sentence or two about each. Provided you’ve downloaded Spotify (for free!) onto your computer then you can listen to those songs (for free!) by following the link at the end of each Spotify Sunday post. The selection

Douglas Murray

How democracy fared in 2011

Even before we were a month in, 2011 was an historic year. Principally because in a region of the world where governments shift through military coup or foreign intervention, dictators fell — and others tottered — thanks to local popular uprisings. Whatever the outcome of those events (and I have expressed my fears elsewhere, here) they remain a landmark worth observing. Whether or not the coming years are any good at all for them, 2011 was a great year for democrats in the Middle East. In the older democracies of the West, however, 2011 was more disconcerting. If anyone doubts this, consider the following experiment. It is the beginning of

The Spectator

How to write a diary

Over the years, many intriguing, famous and noteworthy individuals have written a diary for The Spectator. Some good, some bad. Some exhilarating, some excruciating. But this week’s diarist offers a timely lesson in how to do it properly. The best Speccie diaries are both personal and professional, idiosyncratic yet informative, quirky yet insightful, giving the reader a unique ringside perspective into important topical events. Ideally, they are devoid of the spin and crass self-promotion normally found in the mainstream press, and delve not only into the mindset but also the emotional vulnerabilities of the diarist at a decisive, reflective or simply amusing point in their lives. This week’s very special

The Spectator

Escape from gangland

The murder of a teenager on Boxing Day, stabbed during a brawl over a pair of trainers in Oxford Street, offers another horrifying glimpse of the culture of violence being incubated in our sink estates. Police have not yet confirmed if this was another gang killing, but it seems to fit a sickening pattern. There was Negus McClean, killed in April after he confronted a gang who tried to steal his brother’s mobile phone. Then Nicholas Pearton, stabbed to death in a shop doorway in May by a group of schoolboys. At each outrage politicians denounce criminality and the police promise crackdowns. Then things carry on as before. It’s unclear

James Forsyth

Politics: Can the coalition survive a good year for the Tories?

Westminster used to think that 2012 would be the year that the ‘feel-good factor’ returned. Back in May 2010, all three parties expected the economic mood to lift. Combine that with the Olympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and it seemed a good bet that, come September, the country would be smiling. Labour frontbenchers feared that David Cameron would seize his chance to go to the country in search of a majority of his own. Now even the most optimistic believe that the economy will remain in a critical condition. Yet, against the odds, Cameron remains in the ascendant. The Conservatives are polling significantly ahead of their performance in the

Anne Applebaum

Russia’s new dissidents

Alexei Navalny, the de facto leader of the demonstrators who thronged freezing Moscow on Christmas Eve, minces no words. On rospil.info, a website he founded that is dedicated to the investigation of local and municipal corruption, he introduces the topic like this: ‘Why is all of this necessary? Because pensioners, doctors and teachers are practically starving while the thieves in power buy ever more villas, yachts, and the devil knows what else.’ Nor does Navalny shy away from sharp visual imagery. Another one of his projects is to collect photographs of potholes, crumbling motorways, cracking bridges and other road catastrophes waiting to happen. On his personal blog, where he posts