Society

Friday

David Blackburn

Osborne: I know what it’s like to be in business

George Osborne spoke to Telegraph’s Festival of Business this morning and he gave a speech that was dominated by the issue of growth, or rather its absence. He reiterated the tax cuts and entrepreneurial relief measures first unveiled in March’s Budget. Osborne didn’t limit himself to his list of accomplishments. It was an empathetic speech. He related his memories of the “ups and downs” of his father’s business, the drapers Osborne&Little. He acknowledged the pressures of running your own enterprise in conjunction with a busy family life; a constant struggle that is exacerbated during hard times. “I know the kinds of pressure you are under,” he said. Osborne is frequently

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Father of Globalisation

I hadn’t noticed that Keith Tantlinger, who may fairly be considered on of the fathers of globalisation, had died. Actually, until I read his obituary in yesterday’s Telegraph I’d never heard of him. Nevertheless, were you to write a history of the last fifty years you’d want to include a chapter on the man who, essentially, invented container shipping and explain how his work helped build the modern world: The idea of transporting cargos in a sealed metal box is a simple one, and indeed containers had been in use since the 19th century to haul heavy cargo like coal. It was not the box that Tantlinger designed, but the

Thursday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

When the Red Rose Blooms Again

Who dares say the County Championship is a useless anachronism? Rumours of its irrelevance have been much exagerrated for years and we were reminded of this again today as Lancashire took their first outright title since 1934, defeating my beloved Somerset by eight wickets and with just five overs to spare. It still, even in the evening glow of victory, seems improbable that a county with Lancashire’s cricketing resources and tradition could have gone so many decades without a championship but whenever Lancs were good someone else was just a little bit better and, of course, sometimes – or so they’ll tell you in Manchester – the rain would make

David Blackburn

The last of England

Martin Vander Weyer’s column in the latest issue of the magazine is essential reading. It features five current stories from the business world. The Vickers report, Martin says, will merely offer the same poor service for consumers at a greater cost. Martin also notes, as he did two weeks ago, that American banks are winding down their lending to European counterparts in anticipation of a crash, and adds that American politicians are keen to paint Europe as the bogeyman for their financial ills, conveniently ignoring the failure of Obama’s hugely expensive stimulus. Martin also touches on unemployment and the Eurozone crisis. His final vignette is a parable for our troubled

Nick Seddon

Time to recognise that the hospital is dead

For many years, it has been Government policy to move healthcare out of hospitals and into community units and homes, and concentrate specialist surgeries in centres of clinical excellence. This is politically contentious: former Secretary of State for Health Patricia Hewitt was closing local maternity units, but she had to deal with the humiliation of Ivan Lewis, a minister in her department, fighting her changes in his own constituency. But the time has finally come to break our national addiction to hospitals. In a report published today by Reform, Professor Paul Corrigan, who was a health special advisor to Tony Blair, argues that “the old model and concept of the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What the riots mean for Ken Clarke

The more we learn about the riots, the more it is becoming clear that experienced criminals were responsible for a lot of the looting. The Standard reports today that in London a quarter of those charged in relation to the riots had already been convicted of ten or more offences. What remains to be seen is if these hardened criminals instigated the riots, or simply took advantage of them. The involvement of these veterans of crime demonstrates the need both for better work on rehabilitating prisoners and for longer sentences to keep habitual criminals off the streets. The problem with Ken Clarke is that he, admittedly partly for budget reasons,

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

From the archives: Is that you, Johann Hari?

Today, Johann Hari admitted to vandalising his enemies’ Wikipedia entries using the psydonym David Rose. One of his victims, the writer and Spectator blogger Nick Cohen, suspected so all along. His dairy, from July, is below: I learned that Johann Hari was a journalist who was better at attention-seeking than truth-telling when a small American journal asked me to reply to his review of What’s Left, a book of mine on the dark forces in liberal-left politics. I looked at it and was astonished. It was not that he disliked my ideas — he was entitled to disagree — but that he had attacked a book I had not written. He

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

My objection to the EU

The Spectator debate next week is about whether or not we should leave the European Union. Luckily, this is one of the very few issues upon which I am undecided and not possessed of an arrogant and fatuous opinion. Luckily, because I am moderating the debate and therefore am required to be neutral. My objection to the European Union was always largely racist, rather than economic or political. Had Britain been asked to join a union consisting largely of what Hitler would describe as Greater Germany, plus the official Scandies and their arriviste cousins in Latvia, I would have had us sign up without demurral. My objection was to having

Tuesday

Clarissa Tan

HSBC – Britain’s local bank?

So what’s the upshot of yesterday’s Vickers review into banking? A research note issued today by UBS puts it bluntly: Lloyds to do better, Barclays to shrink and HSBC to quit Britain entirely. The UBS note, written by Alastair Ryan and John-Paul Crutchley, points out that HSBC took not a penny of bailout money. It was able to cushion its own fall – so why hang around and let British regulators hack off its investment banking division? “HSBC required no state support during the recent crisis, either explicitly through capital or implicitly through liquidity or funding support,” says the note. “This is forgotten in official UK thinking about what happened

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Think-Tank Conspiracy

Wee Georgie Monbiot is desperate to find a Koch-sized “conspiracy” in Britain. Apparently: [F]ree-market thinktanks are nothing of the kind. They are public relations agencies, secretly lobbying for the corporations and multimillionaires who finance them. If they wish to refute this claim, they should disclose their funding. Until then, whenever you hear the term free-market thinktank, think of a tank, crushing democracy, driven by big business. So, no hyperbole there. As it happens, I think it’s a good idea for think tanks to disclose their funding. At the same time it’s perfectly reasonable for private entities to ask that their donations be a private matter and that you have to

Jonathan Jones

Inflation target missed again

Today’s inflation figures remind us of the trouble the Bank of England will have if – as most analysts suspect – it embarks on another phase of Quantitative Easing. CPI inflation was 4.5 per cent in the year to August, and RPI at 5.2 per cent, both up a touch from July.  CPI inflation has now overshot the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target for 60 of the past 75 months. It has been at more than 3 per cent since the start of 2010. As a result of last month’s figure, Governor Mervyn King wrote his now-standard letter to George Osborne to “explain” why inflation is above the

Monday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Tales of cocaine, teachers’ edition

A Welsh bloke who snorted half of Bolivia up his nostrils has been told he can carry on his chosen profession – that of a teacher. Huw Davies, who is also a Conservative councillor – which one assumes is how he acquired his stash of gak – was sacked by Brynteg Comprehensive School after being convicted of possession of cocaine, but the General Teaching Council has said he is free to work in any other school. The GTC has struck off precisely 20 teachers in the last 12 years; I think, to incur their wrath, a teacher would need to strangle the children and feed them into a woodchipper, cackling

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 12 September – 18 September 2011

Welcome to the latest CoffeeHousers’ Wall. For those who haven’t come across the Wall before, it’s a post we put up each Monday, on which — providing your writing isn’t libellous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency — you’ll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no topic, so there’s no need to stay ‘on topic’, which means you’ll be able to debate with each other more freely and extensively. There’s also no constraint on the length of what you write — so, in effect, you can become Coffee House bloggers. Anything’s fair game, from political stories in your local paper, to

Sunday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Time for the QE gamble, again

It’s time to warm up the printing presses. When growth evaporates and governments feel politically unable to cut spending or raise taxes, there’s only one tool left: printing more money. We can expect more of it soon. As James says today, Osborne believes he has created the conditions where the Bank of England can do some more Quantitative Easing and it could start as early as next month; an unusual move, given how high inflation is. But the Bank is (as ever) forecasting a return to the 2 per cent target soon – and may now claim that economic weakness makes an undershoot likely. And so (the logic will run)

Salvatore Bono

Spotify Sunday: Commemorating September 11<sup>th</sup> and celebrating NYC

Ten years ago today, the worst attack on American soil occurred. You will always remember exactly where you were when you first heard the news of a plane hitting the Twin Towers. On that dreadful Tuesday morning, I was beginning my final year at high school in a small town in Long Island that is not that far from New York City. That day, New York, America and the world changed forever. The zealots who brought down the Towers may have altered the skyline and face of the city that never sleeps, but they failed to bring us down as people, as New Yorkers and as citizens of the world.

Saturday

Melissa Kite

Real Life | 10 September 2011

The experts keep telling me I’ve got to put her to bed and leave her, but I can’t do it. I know I’m making a rod for my own back but when she starts crying in the night I get up and bring her into my bed. I try to sleep when she sleeps, but I’m so besotted with her that I tend to just stay awake staring at her as she’s lying in my arms. I don’t want to miss the slightest thing: a furrowing of her brow, a twitch of her tiny nose. As I type this, she’s lying in my lap looking adoringly up at me. I’m

Jeremy Clarke

Low Life | 10 September 2011

My sister got married twice last week, both times to the same bloke, thank goodness. She was married on the Thursday by the state in a register office, and on the Saturday she and Stan stood in front of an Anglican clergyman in a church and asked God to graciously add His blessing to that of the British government. The state affair took place in the same register office as the one at which I fruitlessly gave notice of my intention to marry Cowgirl back in December. I felt such a nit. There were only three of us there to witness the union, so I couldn’t hide in the crowd,

Taki

High Life | 10 September 2011

To Aix-en-Provence for a young friend’s wedding to a celebrity DJ in a beautiful tent in an olive grove. A short chat with the beautiful Kate Moss and her hubby, followed by some heavy boozing under the disapproving eyes of my two children and their mother. Aix is a beautiful old town with many parts still unspoiled, but crowded over the weekend. I stayed on my boat in Marseilles and really enjoyed myself because of the kids being around. Fun is fun, but September promises not to be so, what with the euro about to collapse along with Greece and the rest of the PIGS. Papa Hemingway described going broke

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 10 September 2011

Q. I was amused by your correspondent ‘J.P.’ (16 April) who complained of her daughter-in-law’s ‘bosom flashing’ at dinner parties. A similar thing happened at a house party in France this year: one of the female guests wore an open shirt so loosely knotted that ‘J.P.’ would have been even more shocked. The woman opposite became so exasperated she left the table briefly — to return with her own dress wide open and no bra. She had rather more on offer, and it did the trick: for the rest of the holiday the offender covered up. But — as you suggest — the men were disappointed. —M.J.H., Alston, Cumbria A

Dot Wordsworth

Concise Oxford Dictionary

‘Does it have fart ?’ asked my husband, when he saw the centenary facsimile of The Concise Oxford Dictionary (£20). His question reminded me of the woman who looked for rude words in Dr Johnson’s Dictionary and then congratulated him on omitting them. In 1911, when H.W. Fowler and his brother F.G. Fowler (who was to die in 1918) completed the Concise, they did put in fart, cautioning that it was ‘indecent’. My husband’s enquiry, though, had more point than he knew, for the Fowlers’ first joint enterprise, on moving to adjacent cottages in Guernsey in 1903, was a translation of Lucian. As R.W. Burchfield noted (in his biographical sketch of