Society

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Mitchell’s right move

Andrew Mitchell’s decision to prioritise Afghanistan in the development budget is sensible. It demonstrates that Mitchell, a former soldier, understands that the Britain’s overseas aid needs to be in support of Britain’s foreign policy objectives. The Observer reports that Mitchell will announce a 40 percent increase in the Afghan aid budget. This will be paid for both by the increase in development spending and by reducing aid to countries in Eastern Europe and Latin America. I also understand that Mitchell has been emphasising to his department that it needs to work better with the military. For too long, there has been a culture at DFID that has seen it as

Saturday

Melissa Kite

Me, myself and I

‘It’s not all about you, you know.’ Where did this nonsensical phrase come from and how did it enter into common parlance? I had a boyfriend who used to say it regularly, with particular vigour during times of crisis. I would arrive back from a trip to the Middle East bursting to tell him about how I’d passed out on a Hercules jet in 120 degree heat and been revived by the head of the British army and he would huff and puff and say, ‘It’s not all about you, you know.’ I had a similar run-in with a girlfriend recently. She rang up to ask whether I would like

Jeremy Clarke

Spirit of reconciliation

I was lolling in a deckchair with a vanilla ice cream, watching the literary types in their interesting shoes pass to and fro along the cobbled path, when, 30 yards away, across the grassy courtyard, Martin Amis appeared in a doorway and lit up. I recognised the face instantly. I watched him carefully. He must have been gasping. How many seconds, roughly, do ordinary smokers inhale for at each visit? One second? Two? With Martin Amis I counted up to five. He sucked the guts right out of his fag in about four goes. The last time I saw anyone attacking a cigarette with as much boggle-eyed addiction was on

Taki

The party’s over . . .

My last week in London felt like the end of a school term — bittersweet. I was glad to be flying off to the sun, but sad to leave good friends and very good times behind. Mind you, the last night, that of the Speccie summer party, descended into farce when my Low life colleague and I were photographed at 5 a.m. having a spirited discussion about the human condition. Jeremy wrote about it last week but he chose to forget certain details. Both he and I had been boozing for at least ten hours, but thankfully had not started until after we were presented to a very gracious and

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 17 July 2010

Q. I have had very discreet surgery to improve a jowly effect I was developing. I did not tell anyone I was having it done as my parents would be horrified if they found out. I believe I look much better but no one has complimented me and I am worried that this is because I have overdone it, and people are embarrassed. In the absence of a confidante (no one I know can keep a secret) how can I find out if people suspect I have had something done and if they think it a mistake? Name withheld, Kent A. Say to a sequence of friends that you are

Toby Young Toby Young

Noma is the supreme example of ‘localism’ in restaurants. Shame it’s in Copenhagen

It was too good an invitation to turn down. My friend James had managed to get a reservation at Noma, recently named best restaurant in the world by Restaurant magazine. True, it’s in Copenhagen, but James offered to use his air miles to get me a ticket if I paid for lunch. ‘You’re on,’ I said. On the face of it, there’s something a little odd about this gastronomic landmark being in Denmark. I don’t mean that the Danes aren’t famous for their food. It’s more that you wouldn’t expect to find such a potent symbol of plutocratic excess in the world’s most socially democratic country. Of the world’s richest

The Spectator

Letters | 17 July 2010

The mills of God Sir: Theo Hobson’s concern at the emergence of Grindr (‘Gay sex by sat-nav’, 10 July) is understandable but he goes too far in describing the phenomenon as typical of male homosexual culture. Hedonism there certainly is, but that is not an exclusively gay characteristic, nor is it the case that male gay culture is the vector by which heterosexual culture becomes hedonistic. There are other trends within gay culture that emphasise the significance of constancy and commitment. The Revd Dr Jeffrey John’s Permanent, Faithful, Stable is a particularly significant example. It applies to gay relationships the wisdom of centuries of Christian experience. It applies such orthodoxy

Dot Wordsworth

Mind your language | 17 July 2010

I have never seen the point of quiche, so I noticed with equanimity a hole where the quiche should be on the shelves of my local Sainsbury’s. I have never seen the point of quiche, so I noticed with equanimity a hole where the quiche should be on the shelves of my local Sainsbury’s. ‘Due to production issues,’ said a sign, ‘availability across quiche has been affected.’ Issues was to be expected, since mass-amnesia has lost the word problems. But the sign represented a new high-point in the rise of across. I suppose here, in the world of quiche, it meant ‘of all kinds’. It would refer not only to

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 17 July 2010

General practitioners, operating in consortia under an independent commissioning board, are to take charge of 70 per cent of the National Health Service budget by 2013, with the abolition of all England’s ten strategic health authorities and the 152 primary care trusts, according to a White Paper. General practitioners, operating in consortia under an independent commissioning board, are to take charge of 70 per cent of the National Health Service budget by 2013, with the abolition of all England’s ten strategic health authorities and the 152 primary care trusts, according to a White Paper. The annual rate of inflation measured by the Consumer Prices Index fell to 3.2 per cent

The Spectator

Military matters

David Cameron is not as keen on fighting wars as Tony Blair. His hesitancy is born out of respect for the military. The last decade saw the British government fight five wars on a peacetime budget, thereby stretching the military to (and often beyond) breaking point. The cost of this was avoidable deaths and inevitable defeats. A few hundred troops on patrol in Basra were never going to pacify a city of three million. Without a surge in Sangin, the troops were left to be picked off. The defence review, due in October, comes at a crucial juncture for Britain as we decide our place in the world. Around that

Peter Jones

Ancient & modern | 17 July 2010

Cold cabbage anyway (people didn’t like Brown? No!), Lord Mandelson’s memoirs read like the work of a robot with a dictaphone. Cold cabbage anyway (people didn’t like Brown? No!), Lord Mandelson’s memoirs read like the work of a robot with a dictaphone. Contrast the letters of the Roman statesman Cicero (106-43 bc). ‘I talk to you,’ Cicero said to his chum Atticus, ‘as though I were talking to myself,’ and in doing so he reveals the man: cultured, liberal and humane, witty and stylish, nervous, vain and indiscrete, but perhaps most of all, ever dependent for peace of mind on the views of others. ‘Think what I must be suffering,’

David Blackburn

The Hollobone dimension

As Paul Goodman notes, it is entirely possible that Philip Hollobone’s statements about the burka were taken out of context. As far as I can gather Hollobone has not yet dissociated himself, which is indicative of the contrary.   The French ban on the burkha has English tongues wagging, and Hollobone has looked to stimulate debate. Islamic groups, many of them extreme, will now decamp to Hollobone’s constituency office in Kettering and look to foment a media storm. But so what? This is a debate that must be had.  For example, it must be determined in law whether or not the burka is a religious item, and therefore inviolable under

David Blackburn

Convenient timing

Guess who has popped-up as David Cameron departs for Washington? The Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who is defying the gravest of medical prognoses. It’s all suspiciously convenient, given Britain and America’s recent terse relations. What’s more BP, the international bogeyman, is in the firing line – Hillary Clinton will investigate rumours that the company conspired with the British government to include al-Megrahi in a Prisoner Transfer Agreement, and that BP pressured the Scottish executive to release al-Megrahi last summer. She’s wasting her time: this well of fetid intrigue was capped last summer. Britain and Libya had to produce a PTA to normalise diplomatic relations so that trade could be opened

Patrick Wintour

Mandelson’s lesson for Labour: don’t ignore the deficit

Most vendettas, at least in Sicilian legend, are accompanied by omertà, a belief that it is shameful to betray your worst enemies even if it would benefit your cause. New Labour has long felt at ease with the vendetta, but has struggled with the concept of omertà. The Mandelson memoirs, the Blair memoirs, the Campbell diaries, the Cook diaries, the Blunkett diaries, the Deborah Mattinson assessment, the Rawnsley confessionals, the New Labour literature and score-settling would make even the most capacious Kindle fuse at their sheer volume. Much of the advance publicity for the Mandelson memoirs has surrounded the now dreary impasse between Blair and Brown, a relationship that looks

Celia Haddon

Are octopuses just like us?

The publicity frenzy over Paul the octopus, who accurately predicted the results of the World Cup by opening boxes labelled with team colours, has concealed something much more interesting than his apparent psychic powers. Here is an animal with a third of his nervous system outside his brain and no central spinal column who is nevertheless able to open man-made jars and boxes. This ‘lower form of life’, as we might once have called an invertebrate, can use tools, navigate mazes, recognise the humans that feed him, and make use of landmarks in planning a route. Scientific interest in octopus intelligence is part of a quiet revolution in animal behaviour

Christian House

The 89-year-old Boy

By the age of 21 Geoffrey Wellum knew his life had peaked. It was downhill from here on in. He was a squadron leader and had won a DFC. Moreover, he had lived through the Battle of Britain. Today, he is one of the few of ‘The Few’ left to tell the tale of how they won the battle 70 years ago this summer. Waiting for Wellum in his local hotel bar, perched on the cliffs of Mullion Cove, I watch the rifle-green Channel grinding on to the rocks below. I’m reminded of the watery graves of the many fellow pilots he pays tribute to in his bestselling memoir First

Alex Murray

My Gatwick hell

Alex Murray was detained for two hours by Special Branch at Gatwick for using the word ‘bomb’ at security — and finds that in this age of terrorism airport staff just can’t take a joke I live in France, but because I have family in England and Belgium, I travel frequently. And so, on the occasions when I have to fly rather than take the train, I do everything to get through the hell of British airport security with the minimum of fuss. I never wear a belt. I usually check bags and often board empty-handed.   Indeed, my main concern when travelling is usually my wife. She’s a Belgian

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

The Raoul Moat affair has uncovered a seething pit of northern madness

What on earth is the government going to do about all these deranged northerners running amok shooting people? The more callous among you might well argue that it doesn’t really matter, as these madmen are only shooting other northerners, and so it is therefore none of our business. Perhaps. But there is no guarantee that the next deranged northerner will not get on a train, if he can afford it, and start shooting at us, instead. This is the thing; you simply cannot tell with nutters, there is no logic to their mayhem. There is a case to be made for employing the consensual, democratic approach adopted by the Cumbria

James Bartholomew

Swiss welfare runs like clockwork

In Britain we are now glumly entering the age of austerity and everyone expects unemployment to go on rising. This has been the case in the past: even when the economy starts to grow, there is a painfully long lag before unemployment starts to fall. But not in Switzerland is different. There, unemployment is already falling. Since January, it has fallen from an already low 4.5 per cent to 3.8 per cent, half the UK rate. If you go to Zurich and ask why there are so comparatively few people out of work, you have a good chance of being told: ‘employment is picking up fast because it is cheap

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

The spy game catches everyone who plays it

It’s been a good month for spy commentators. Experts on espionage have been popping up everywhere in the news media, offering views, news and background information on secret intelligence. The exposure of a Russian spy-ring operating in the United States, followed by a spy-swap in which America retrieved four of theirs in return for Russia retrieving ten of theirs (but ‘we got back really good ones’, explained the US Vice President, Joe Biden) has brought the whole business of Great Power intelligence-gathering to the forefront of media attention. Almost everybody loves a good spy story, as spy novelists will attest. But listening to John Le Carré on the Today programme