Society

Saturday

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 19 March 2011

‘You can be young, optimistic and oppose AV’, says the magazine spiked. ‘You can be young, optimistic and oppose AV’, says the magazine spiked. I am sorry to hear it, because we anti-AV people were hoping not to be pestered by any young, optimistic people, but to oppose change in an elderly, unthinking and sullen manner. ‘Non tali auxilio!’, we cry, confident that young, optimistic people will not know what we mean. But one might feel more optimistic if one could have referendums on subjects for which there is real popular demand. The AV vote is so obviously and solely the result of a treaty between politicians that it just

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 19 March 2011

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, told the Commons that a no-fly zone over Libya was ‘perfectly deliverable’. Next day, G8 foreign ministers meeting in Paris failed to agree to one. Britain, France and Lebanon put a resolution to the United Nations. Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, said ‘We should not rush to judgment’ on nuclear energy in Britain in light of the damage in Japan.  An emergency meeting of the British Medical Association called on the government to withdraw the Health Bill and start again. Tickets for the Olympic Games in London next year went on sale. An Olympic countdown clock in Trafalgar Square stopped. Lord Hutton of Furness,

Alex Massie Alex Massie

How Journalism Works, Part XXXVII

Ben Goldacre deplores the reluctance of newspapers to link to original sources and then demonstrates why they don’t: Professor Anna Ahn published a paper recently, showing that people with shorter heels have larger calves. For the Telegraph this became “Why stilletos are the secret to shapely legs”, for the Mail “Stilletos give women shapelier legs than flats”, for the Express “Stilletos tone up your legs”. But anybody who read even the press release, which is a readable piece of popular science itself, would immediately see that this study had nothing whatsoever to do with shoes. It didn’t look at shoe heel height, it looked at anatomical heel length, the distance

Daniel Korski

Come on, NATO, get a move on

NATO’s top decision-making body is meeting in emergency session to review military plans for a no-fly zone over Libya. The alliance is expected to issue the order to launch the operation. But the action now is taking place not inside NATO, but in a coalition-of-the-willing led by France and Britain. Germany and Turkey are said to be blocking swift action. For NATO Secretary-General Rasmussen, this should be disconcerting. Only a few months ago, NATO celebrated the agreement of a new strategic blueprint which said: ‘NATO has a unique and robust set of political and military capabilities to address the full spectrum of crises  – before, during and after conflicts.  NATO

David Blackburn

Paris summit spells trouble for Gaddafi

After today’s discussions in Paris, the international coalition against Gaddafi is building. The AFP reports that, in addition to France and Britain, Norway, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands will be joined by Qatar and other Arab forces. Silvio Berlusconi has moved to quash reports that Italian aircraft are already engaged, saying that Italy will provided bases but no aircraft at this stage. David Cameron has emerged from the summit in Paris to make a statement in support of President Sarkozy and his words were equally severe: “Colonel Gaddafi has made this happen. He has lied to the international community, he has promised a ceasefire, he has broken that ceasefire. He

Daniel Korski

The winners and losers

In English we have an odd expression: “to have a good war”. The phrase was originally used to describe someone who was decorated or otherwise distinguished themselves, usually during WW II. Allan Massie, for example, wrote that author William Golding “had a good war, first as an ordinary seaman, then as an officer in command of a Landing Craft Tank (Rocket) on D-Day”. Today, newspapers and blogs have been quick to use the phrase for politicians. So David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy are said to have had a “good war” over Libya, so far at least, with Barack Obama faring differently. Organisations also have good and bad wars – with

Andrew Haldenby

The government has been the author of its troubles

In his Spectator column this week, James Forsyth painted a picture of a government taken by surprise by enemies who have, in effect, ambushed them – the civil service, the civil service’s lawyers and the European Union in particular. Clearly the government is frustrated by the “forces of conservatism” and the “enemies of enterprise”, but the difficult truth is that a lot the government’s problems are of its own making, and in its own hands to put right. When it comes to the civil service, the government hasn’t simply inherited an uncooperative Whitehall. It has strengthened its position, as a conscious policy decision. Francis Maude said it in terms at

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Life in Brighton

It’s the combination of the stories heralded by these Brighton Argus bills that makes you wonder. Brighton must be quite a piece of work. Perhaps your local paper can do better than this, however? [Thanks to Damian Counsell.]

Anna Arco

Me and the IB

Any parent wanting their child to take the International Baccalaureate should be warned: the workload is going to be heavy. Prepare to hear your child whine about extended essays, and how their friends doing A-levels have it much easier. The International Baccalaureate, or IB, requires pupils to take six main subjects alongside a mandatory course in Theory of Knowledge (basic epistemology), as well as a number of hours of creativity, action and service classes, and an interdisciplinary extended essay. Diploma candidates must take mathematics, a science, a first language as well as a second language (English can be either), a humanities subject and an arts subject. Three of the six

Oliver Lewis

Multiple choice | 19 March 2011

When it comes to qualifications, English schoolchildren have more choice than ever. Everyone knows about GCSEs and A-levels, yet few pay much attention to the alternatives, such as the International Baccalaureate and the International A-level. Why are these alternatives overlooked? Because they are the preserve of independent schools. The independent sector has the great advantage of not being compelled to follow the national curriculum guidelines, which prevent state schools from offering alternative exams. The new government, under Michael Gove’s liberating education agenda, is attempting to give state pupils access to different qualifications, but it is going to take a while. Independent schools, by contrast, have had plenty of time to

Fergus Llewellyn

A world away

The best of today’s boarding schools are a welcoming, stable home from home, says Fergus Llewellyn – but with opportunities that home might not offer ‘I f schools are what they were in my time, you’ll see a great many cruel blackguard things done, and hear a deal of foul bad talk. But never fear. You tell the truth, keep a brave and kind heart, and never listen to or say anything you wouldn’t have your mother and sister hear…’ — Tom Brown’s Schooldays, 1857 For many, the term ‘public school’ conjures up a host of pejorative images: a little boy shedding a discreet (he hopes) tear as his self-absorbed

Lucy Vickery

Competition | 19 March 2011

Lucy Vickery presents this week’s competition In Competition No. 2688 you were invited to submit a short story incorporating six book titles. A deceptively straightforward assignment, this one. It is trickier than you might think to weave titles into prose in a way that is both unstilted and inventive — without compromising the quality of the tale. There was no upper limit on the number of book titles used and many of you seemed hellbent on packing in as many as possible, which didn’t gain any extra points, I’m afraid. Commendations to J. Seery, Pete Ritchie and Geoff Muss. The winners, printed below, get £25 each. Frank McDonald scoops £30.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

One week to get a grip

It was meant to be a routine budget. Now Osborne looks like the government’s last chance ‘The Cameron project is worth saving’, a government insider said to me recently. It was a striking declaration. After ten months in government, the people on the inside are not talking about a bumpy start or a rough patch. Rather, their language suggests an existential struggle: they worry that, unless something changes, they will fail. The sense of panic that was so acute among Conservatives four years ago, when Gordon Brown seemed ready to call and win an election, has returned. And with that, a feeling that something drastic needs to be done —

Daniel McCarthy

The hawk in No. 10

Will Cameron play the Bush to Obama’s Blair? Eight years ago an American president led a passive British prime minister into a war both countries would regret. David Cameron is eager for history to repeat itself, with the national roles reversed. While Barack Obama dithers, Cameron demands tough action against Libya — with a western-imposed no-fly zone seemingly uppermost on his mind. ‘Do we want a situation where a failed pariah state festers on Europe’s southern border,’ he asks, ‘potentially threatening our security, pushing people across the Mediterranean and creating a more dangerous and uncertain world for Britain and for all our allies, as well as for the people of

Roger Alton Roger Alton

Spectator Sport: Italian rugby: a pinnacle of civilisation

There was an advert recently on Italian TV when four vast but genial blokes filled the screen extolling the virtues of an unspecified product, before the camera pulled back to reveal they were all Italian rugby forwards and squeezed shoulder to shoulder inside a minute Fiat. The ad was pleasing for a number of reasons, not least the sight of half a ton of grinning humanity crammed into a tiny space. But I particularly liked it because it seemed to show that Italian rugby was becoming part of mainstream Italian culture, like football, food and Fellini. Like anyone with a modicum of humanity, I am continually wrestling with the eternal

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Has David Dimbleby killed the BNP?

Is this the end for the British National Party? I know that sentence reads like one of those headlines in the Daily Mail to which the answer is always no, like ‘Do tramps give you cancer?’ But things are nonetheless looking a little grim for that doughty and loveable band of white supremacists who, the whining left kept telling us, were poised to sweep all before them, like Guderian’s elite XIX Corp at the Battle of Wyzna. Is this the end for the British National Party? I know that sentence reads like one of those headlines in the Daily Mail to which the answer is always no, like ‘Do tramps

Tania Coke

Tokyo waits

A strange calm followed Friday’s earthquake It is eerily quiet this evening. I hear no traffic, no wind, not even the birds. It’s hard to believe that Tokyo has been in a state of emergency for four days, following earthquake, tsunami and radioactive leaks. I was at home alone on Friday at 2.45 p.m., in a quiet residential area of Tokyo. When the house started shaking I ran out onto the street. I could see only two other people. They disappeared before I had a chance to talk to them, so I too went back inside. Bottles had fallen off shelves, coffee was splattered across the hob, the contents of

John R. Bradley

Battle lines | 19 March 2011

It’s tribal and religious divisions that really shape the Middle East – and that account for the Saudi intervention in Bahrain I once got lost in Asir, the mountainous region on Saudi Arabia’s southwestern border with Yemen. This was the home of many of the terrorists on September 11, from the million-strong al-Ghamdi tribe. But the strangest thing, to me as a westerner, was that I seemed to be the only person who cared which country I was in. I met an elderly man with a garland of flowers in his hair, and asked if I was in Yemen. ‘It’s all the same to us down here,’ he mumbled. The

Mark Mason

Chained to the keys

I recently had to write the final section of a book. It wasn’t very long — 500 words or so, about half the length of this article — and an imminent train journey seemed the ideal opportunity. No laptop accompanying me, but that didn’t matter: as an exercise in nostalgia I would write the words in longhand. The words, however, refused to appear. The paper stayed defiantly blank. It dawned on me that I can no longer write except on computer. Virtually every writer I know, or know of, is the same. As so often, technology has first liberated and then enslaved. Fetishisation of the writing process is nothing new

James Delingpole James Delingpole

Why don’t we stand up for our freedom to drive?

The Fawn came up to me the other day in a state of extreme agitation: she’d been listening to George Monbiot on the radio. The Fawn came up to me the other day in a state of extreme agitation: she’d been listening to George Monbiot on the radio. My ears pricked up. I do so love it when the Fawn gets cross about the same things as me. It makes me glad that I’m not married to one of those leftie wives — we all know the sort — who drag their more right-wing husbands down the siren path of bien-pensant foolishness. Monbiot had been on the Today programme with