Society

Saturday

Imogen Lycett-Green

Digestif

Heavenly jockeys, splitting trousers and plenty of Pinot Grigio – Imogen Lycett Green enjoys a breathless lunch in the Cotswolds with Jilly Cooper Two hours earlier she had rushed, panting, into the Crown Inn in Frampton Mansell. ‘I am SO SORRY I am late!’ she said, falling into the fire-smoky bar wearing leggings, knee-length brown boots, a white shirt and a belt that looks like a piece of horse tack. Sexy is the only word for it. Her instantly recognisable helmet/halo of thick grey hair frames her round, rosy-cheeked face. She is wearing a silver brooch of a galloping racehorse. ‘How are you?’ she says to the young barman. ‘I’m

Dave Broom

Time is of the essence

We move through silent streets walled by shuttered houses and closed stores. I know that the French leave en masse in August, but in Cognac the ritual seems also to extend to wintertime. Even the landscape seems somnambulant. Skeletal vines whose cordons point crabbed fingers towards where the sun should be line the roadsides. Yet there is life. Something is stirring in the region’s black, mould-covered, thick-walled chais. At the bottom of a set of worn stone steps in Remy-Martin’s Domaine de Grollet is a collection of large and clearly ancient casks. It is here where the blend of Cognacs which comprise the house’s iconic prestige blend Louis XIII spends

Marcin Miller

Hine: the vintage house

Bernard Hine has impeccable manners. However, as we meet for an apéritif at Hine House, he is a little disgruntled. The source of his unhappiness is a stomach upset which means he is unable to indulge in the foie gras and the 1953 Vintage port, among other treats. A lesser man would have made his excuses, but Bernard’s sense of duty and hospitality doesn’t permit such a course of action. Indeed, his discontent appears to be based more on his inability to fully participate in the dinner than any personal inconvenience. The surroundings are historic: Hine House, one of the oldest in Jarnac, has stood on the banks of the

Claire Sharp

Advertisement Feature: A healthy classic

There’s no need to miss out on your favourite dishes with tasty, healthy recipes incorporating Benecol® foods, says Claire Sharp Beef Wellington is often seen as a hearty dish made from rich, indulgent ingredients. If you’re concerned about your cholesterol levels you might think this dish is off the menu, but what if there was a modern, leaner version so you can still enjoy your favourite classic meal — the healthier way? This recipe uses Benecol Olive Spread and filo pastry, which contains less fat than other pastries. Like all Benecol foods, the Olive Spread contains plant stanols which are proven to lower cholesterol*. Here it’s combined with beef fillet,

Sybil Kapoor

Liquid hideaways

Last year, in a nod towards austerity, I gave up my membership to Milk and Honey, a cocktail club in Soho. I rationalised that as a non-member, I could still book a dimly lit, silver-toned booth downstairs to enjoy their delicious Penicillin — a reviving concoction of peaty whisky, honey, ginger and lemon — at least until 11 p.m. However, as I sipped my farewell M&H dry martini, made with a twist of lemon and some fragrant Junipero gin, it struck me that there is something comforting in having a regular drinking den. Clearly, research was needed. My requirements were simple: superlative cocktails, convivial atmosphere and within walking distance of

Lucy Vickery

Competition: Ouch!

Lucy Vickery presents this week’s competition In Competition No. 2691 you were invited to submit toe-curlingly bad analogies. Gratitude and respect to my opposite number over at the Washington Post’s Style Invitational contest from whom I plundered this idea. So impressed was I by the sublimely funny winning entries this challenge generates across the pond that I felt compelled to throw down the gauntlet to Spectator competitors. You did me proud: I squirmed and chuckled my way through an entry of inspired awfulness. The first five winners, printed below, pocket £18 each; the rest get £10. The state of the bathroom could only bring to mind the surface of a

Penny Junor

Diary – 9 April 2011

Less than a week after explaining in words of one syllable that we were broke, I saw my husband’s hand held high above his head at a charity auction. I assumed it was the gesture of a drowning man; but the auctioneer took it as a bid and the gavel fell. We, whose outgoings exceed our income, paid handsomely for a day’s labour from six young people from Youth Action Wiltshire — a charity that supports disadvantaged young people. A very good cause, I didn’t doubt, but was the man mad? The six kids arrived last Sunday, three girls and three boys, between 13 and 17, all responsible for a

Matt Cavanagh

Operation amnesia

Britain’s failings in Afghanistan have as much to do with short memories as shortages of troops When Liam Fox visited Afghanistan in January, he was, like the defence secretaries before him, keen to tell the story of a country moving towards peace and stability. So he stopped by the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, seen as one of the most orderly and peaceful in the country. At least, that is how it was seen until last Friday, when a mob stormed a United Nations compound and murdered seven unarmed staff — apparently to avenge a Koran-burning in Florida. A year after America’s troop surge in Afghanistan, there are dispiritingly few signs

Taffeta Gray

Downe time

Kate Middleton has asked her wedding guests and well-wishers to donate money to Beatbullying, a British anti-bullying charity. This announcement has led to some silly stories in the press about how badly she was bullied when she was a pupil at Downe House, a girls boarding school in Berkshire. She was tormented, it’s said, because she was ‘too perfect’, so she left after two terms for Marlborough College, where girls mind perfection less. I was a couple of years above Kate, or Catherine as she was known, at Downe House. I don’t remember her, but a friend of mine in her year recalls her being ‘quiet and square, with brown

Aidan Hartley

Wild life | 9 April 2011

Weregoi Plains Three shots rang out in the night air. Rustlers had attacked my neighbour’s boma a few hundred metres from home. At the time, our children were watching a cartoon before bedtime. Thankfully, the bandits were only after the cattle. They got away with a couple of dozen steers. Cow theft is a noble pastime for the Samburu youth. Stealing televisions is still beneath them. When called, the police announced that they were not permitted to work in the hours of darkness in case of ambush. It was a revelation I sense might help ne’er-do-wells plan efficiently. After hours of milling about, we set off in the pre-dawn chill

Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland

The Wiki Man: Sporting behaviour

‘You’re never alone with a Strand’, created by the S.H. Benson agency in 1959, is now famous as the most unsuccessful advertisement ever. With its raincoated figure standing alone on Albert Bridge, seeking solace from some unseen misfortune by drawing on a Strand cigarette, it was admired on artistic grounds until it emerged that the imagery depressed not only viewers but also sales. In our defence (S.H. Benson later merged with Ogilvy & Mather), the Strand was also a lousy-tasting cigarette. ‘You’re never alone with a Strand’, created by the S.H. Benson agency in 1959, is now famous as the most unsuccessful advertisement ever. With its raincoated figure standing alone

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

David Willetts should know better than to tell the truth to the Guardian

Are women to blame for almost everything, as the Minister of State for Universities and Science, David Willetts, seems to think? I would not lightly discount the possibility; they can, after all, be terribly trying. They are certainly to blame for most of the bad things which have happened in my life, if you discount me as a causal factor (which you do if you are me, if you get my drift). Not only that but there seem to be more of them around at the moment, in bars and restaurants, on our television screens, driving cars all over the place or arguing interminably with cashpoint machines as the queue

Philip Delves-Broughton

Bubble 2.0

There is nothing more maddening to an old-school investor than a bubble. And especially a bubble in which young people are getting outrageously rich. But here we are, 11 years after the last technology bubble popped, in the midst of another of those exuberant moments. Facebook valued at $75 billion. Groupon, a three year old coupon business, at $25 billion. College dropouts with a knack for programming and a devilish knowledge of our online behaviours are suddenly worth more than a roomful of Goldman Sachs partners. The valuations are crazy, the value investors splutter. There are real businesses with real earnings worth nothing like these shooting stars. It’s immoral! Well,

Robert Gorelangton

The face of space

Everyone loved Yuri Gagarin – but he was always a Soviet sideshow Fifty years ago, on 12 April, Yuri Gagarin, a tractor-driver’s son from Smolensk, climbed aboard a capsule about the size of a Morris Minor, perched on top of a massive rocket. He followed into space a mongrel bitch called Laika, but unlike the poor mutt he survived. He completed a single orbit of Earth in 108 minutes flat and parachuted safely back on to Russian soil. The first human in space, he instantly became the most famous man on earth. Within weeks of touchdown, the 27-year-old Gagarin arrived in Manchester, home of a new TV soap called Coronation

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

‘The global warming concern is over. Time for a return to sanity’: a Spectator debate

Lord Lawson, the former chancellor, proposed the motion by addressing various myths promoted by the ‘relics’ of the opposition. The average temperature rise since fossil fuels were first used had been barely one degree Celsius, he said, and no warming had been observed this century. The cost of ‘decarbonising’ the economy, he added, would be catastrophic. Oil was not about to run out and ‘winnable gas’ was available in ever greater abundance. Yet schoolchildren were being deliberately scared to death about global warming by their teachers. ‘This is not just outrageous but wicked.’ Simon Singh, opposing, said that he was more willing to credit the 97 per cent of scientists

Hugo Rifkind Hugo Rifkind

You don’t have to be nice to be right – but it would certainly help

But what was Oliver Letwin on about, anyway? Why doesn’t he want more people from Sheffield taking holidays? And why tell Boris Johnson this? ‘We don’t want to see more families in Sheffield being able to afford cheap holidays,’ he apparently told Boris, who told the world. But what was Oliver Letwin on about, anyway? Why doesn’t he want more people from Sheffield taking holidays? And why tell Boris Johnson this? ‘We don’t want to see more families in Sheffield being able to afford cheap holidays,’ he apparently told Boris, who told the world. But why? The only thing they can possibly have been discussing was airports in the south-east.

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Any other business | 9 April 2011

Sunny spells, icy showers and an inflationary wind blowing from America Daffodils everywhere and the FTSE is back around 6,000. Builders are busy after the frozen winter, it’s ‘business as usual’ again in financial services, and although manufacturing lost momentum in March — exports remained strong, but nervous consumers depressed domestic demand — industry is generally perky. The British Chambers of Commerce expect first-quarter growth of 0.6 per cent or better, reversing the previous 0.5 per fall — and although recovery could be sluggish for the rest of the year, the trend will be in the right direction. So there’s room for optimism, of a cautious kind. Like April’s weather,

Andrew Taylor

Recent crime fiction

Henning Mankell bestrides the landscape of Scandavian crime fiction like a despondent colossus. Last year’s The Man from Beijing, was a disappointing stand-alone thriller with too much polemical baggage. His new novel, The Troubled Man (Harvill Secker, £17.99), brings the return of his series hero, Inspector Kurt Wallender. The title says it all: now that he’s 60, Wallender’s trademark gloom is darkened still further by the creeping fear that his memory is no longer what it used to be, and that this is the first symptom of a far more serious condition. In the first few chapters, he also faces disciplinary action, breaks his wrist and gets mugged. So it

Friday

The Spectator

The week that was | 8 April 2011

Here is a selection of posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the last week. Fraser Nelson calls for the schools revolution to be reinforced. James Forsyth lists the runners and riders in a possible reshuffle, and wonders why Clegg didn’t complain about Lansley’s reforms earlier. Peter Hoskin reveals who has won and who has lost, and considers the fallout from Portugal. David Blackburn explains how the government plans to rescue its NHS reforms, and reveals how Labour is fighting back in Pickles’ war on ‘propaganda’. Jonathan Jones says that Grammar schools aren’t a solution to the social mobility problem. Rod Liddle could be leader of the British Tea Party, apparently. Alex

David Blackburn

How might the MoD get round its spending settlement?

The Ministry of Defence is Whitehall’s last monolith. Charged with the nation’s defence, it is powerful enough to challenge the Treasury. As Pete notes, there are signs that it’s trying to defer (if not avoid) the cuts laid out the punishing strategic defence and security review. It has many ways of doing this. Obviously it can use political pressure because troops are deployed in Afghanistan and Libya. But there’s also a neat accounting step that allows the MoD can transfer costs directly to the Treasury. You may recall that the Budget contained a £700m increase for ‘single use military expenditure’ (SUME) in 2011-2012. SUME does not appear as capital spending