Society

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 20 September – 26 September

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

Buzz words

It is not unusual to hear older people complain about how little botany is taught in schools these days, a serious deficiency where young would-be gardeners are concerned. As serious, however, is the longstanding general ignorance of entomology, the study of insects. I count myself among the ignorami. From pretty well a standing start, I have spent my gardening life trying to discover more about this enormous, and hugely influential, phylum of the animal kingdom. Only recently, for example, have I begun even vaguely to understand the biology of Vespidae or social wasps. This is shameful, I know, considering what an impact they have on the garden and those who

Toby Young

What’s happened to the chaps?

Bad news this week for those who fear we’re becoming a nation of girlie men. According to a survey carried out by Demos, a third of men who graduated from university this summer would give up their careers to care for their children. In addition, more than half the men surveyed said they frequently dress up in women’s clothing, while 66 per cent admitted they still hide behind the sofa during Doctor Who. Okay, I made that last part up, but I wouldn’t be surprised. The feminisation of the latest generation of young men never ceases to amaze me. With their long, blow-dried hair, their expensive designer clothes, their ‘man

Irish connection

Shepherd’s Walk in Epsom has seen plenty of horse action over the years. Jack Reardon trained there 70 years ago and it was from that leafy lane that John Sutcliffe sent out Specify to win the 1971 Grand National and from where John Benstead would patiently prepare slow-developing stayers for Hamdan al-Maktoum. A few years ago, though, several trainers having moved in and out, the proud morning parade of horses heading across to the grandstand and the training grounds had dwindled to a trickle. All that has now changed. Fifty-plus equine athletes wind through the trees of a morning again. Roger Teal has scored at top level, and at Ermyn

Real life

If you’re Eric Pickles, please look away now. I think it only fair to warn the Secretary of State for local government, in case he happens to be reading this in a precious moment of relaxation, that I’m about to have another rant about the catastrophic events that unfolded after one of his advisors sent me a text message while I was riding my horse one Sunday afternoon. For those who don’t know the back story, this thrusting young spin doctor, probably thinking he was being really on his game in a retro-Alastair Campbell sort of way, attempted to monster me for a news story I had written which he

High life

Gstaad The new look requires a new, improved Taki. From now on gravitas will be my middle name. There will be no more of this jet-set stuff. Constant classical themes will mix with references to songs by Schubert, and stories inspired by Horace and Racine. Taki the social commentator is dead; long live Taki the philosopher, humanist and classical scholar. (And if you believe that, it’s time for the men in white coats.) But let me try, for this time only at least, to justify my new middle name. Eight years ago Pat Buchanan, Scott McConnell and I founded the American Conservative, a national biweekly whose purpose was to expose

Letters | 18 September 2010

The ventures of faith Sir: Peter Hitchens eloquently describes the moral vacuum created by the permissive society, and suggests recourse to the Book of Common Prayer (‘In the shadow of the Pope’, 11 September). The world, however, will never be saved by beautiful prose. Indeed, aesthetic indulgence may all too easily substitute for moral rigour. ‘We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings,’ we Anglicans pray; ‘the remembrance of them is grievous unto us; the burden of them is intolerable.’ How glorious to surrender to such seductive self-flagellation. And then we go out and sin again. The Christian message is that we can overcome sin only

Mind your language | 18 September 2010

‘Quick, darling, you’re missing the last taboo,’ shouted my husband from the drawing-room with the television on, as I was working in the kitchen. ‘Quick, darling, you’re missing the last taboo,’ shouted my husband from the drawing-room with the television on, as I was working in the kitchen. He is a collector of last taboos. Once, it was death. Since there’s been geriatric sex (when he loudly complained of the misuse of geriatric), sex-change surgery live, The Vagina Monologues, Tourettism and Joan Bakewell. Yet linguistic taboos about race, sex (‘gender’) and disability have multiplied, despite the popularity of ever more ingeniously obscene slang. On the same principle as Wikipedia, these

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 18 September 2010

It is a convention of modern politics that cuts in public spending must be made sorrowfully. Etiquette seems to demand that phrases like ‘unpleasant task’ and ‘sharing the pain’ be used. Just before writing this, I heard Francis Maude on the Today programme deploying such terms with studious moderation. But one notices that most top-quality politicians, including Mr Maude, actually take some professional pleasure in the work. They are right to do so. It should be an absolute condition of taking money from the public through taxation that the person taking it minds wasting it. It is an absolute certainty, given the amounts of money taken, that huge amounts will

Portrait of the week | 18 September 2010

Home Pope Benedict XVI was expected to conclude a four-day state visit to Britain with the beatification of Cardinal Newman in Birmingham, after addressing Parliament at Westminster Hall and meeting the Queen in Edinburgh. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, called the visit ‘incredibly important and historic’. The Queen’s Speech, outlining the government programme of legislation, which was expected in the autumn of 2011, has been delayed until spring 2012. Derek Barnett, the president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, said that austerity is likely to lead to ‘disaffection, social and industrial tensions’. Unions at the BBC planned two 48-hour strikes, affecting coverage of the Conservative party conference. A 2,000-year-old Roman bronze

Benedict brings hope

But, if the protestors know where Benedict XVI stands on issues of sexual morality, they have a very shaky grasp of his precise relationship to these issues. The arrival of Pope Benedict XVI in Britain has provoked protests that, in the intesity of their anger, far exceed those that greet the state visits of blood-drenched dictators. That is because the Pope is seen to represent — in ascending order of secular distaste — religion, Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church and the conservative wing of Catholicism. Fair enough: Benedict does represent all of these things. He opposes atheism, regarding it as a desperately sad alienation of man from his creator. He

Spot the difference

You may notice that your Spectator looks a little different this week. We have updated its design, but cautiously, taking the best ideas from past magazines, and refreshing the rest. Even the tidiest house needs a little spring-cleaning from time to time. Many read the Spectator back to front, so our peerless books and arts sections now have their own opening page. Some readers felt that Taki and Jeremy Clarke were buried at the back of the Arts section, so we’ve given them a section of their own — Life begins at page 71. And we’ve made room for some shorter features as well as long reads. And what of

Barometer | 18 September 2010

Papal visit Pope Benedict XVI visits Britain this week, only the second pope to do so. The first was John Paul II in 1982. Some facts and figures from his visit: — John Paul II’s native Poland was still behind the Iron Curtain and it was to be another 22 years before it joined the EU. Nevertheless, 24,000 Poles then living in Britain attended a mass at Crystal Palace. — As the media coverage intensified, 350,000 people attended open-air mass at Coventry Cathedral, a million lined the streets in Liverpool and 180,000 attended mass at York racecourse. —By the time the Pope reached Manchester, interest had waned. Only 200,000, compared

Enrichment – Best of the Rest

Azamara Club Cruises www.azamaraclubcruises.co.uk 0844 493 4016 Azamara offer upscale boutique cruises within the Royal Caribbean Cruise portfolio. Azamara prides itself on offering guests two or three nights in ports such as St Petersburg, Sorrento, Venice and Monte Carlo. Its two ships, Azamara Quest and Azamara Journey, take just 650 passengers each and are able to enter smaller harbours. Every cruise has a ‘destination specialist’ on board to give in-depth information about the ports of call. In December Quest will sail from Singapore to Hong Kong and in January it sets out for a 14-night Chinese New Year voyage. In the spring it will sail from Dubai to Athens. In

A learning experience

The wash from the cruise ship Crystal Serenity sends spray splashing up to the Hotel du Cap Eden Roc, where F. Scott Fitzgerald finished The Great Gatsby. That’s the sort of fact that passengers aboard this luxury ship appreciate. Guests on Crystal Serenity have opted to be ‘enriched’, meaning they have eschewed the kind of uncomprehending, mass experience they might get on bigger cruises. They want instead an atmosphere of erudition and culture. They are cruising not just to enjoy, but to learn. Enrichment is not a matter of sophistication, nationality or class and certainly not one of wealth: one does not need to be rich to be enriched. Indeed

Ancient & modern | 18 September 2010

Thought-crimes mainly refer to what we all think about those stupid laws and bossy official directives only designed for your benefit, sir. Romans did not face these but rather what George Orwell in 1984 understood by thought-crime: wholly innocent activities interpreted as threats to state security. The historian Tacitus is full of them. When one of Rome’s best-loved sons, Germanicus, mysteriously died, many suspected the jealous emperor Tiberius was involved. So in ad 28, when a distinguished Roman, Titius Sabinus, started helping out the widow and family, some ambitious public figures saw a chance to prove their loyalty to the emperor by stitching up Sabinus good and proper. One of

Lloyd Evans

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Review of Spectator arts funding debate

‘Time for the arts to stand on its own two feet and stop sponging off the taxpayer’ From the start, the combatively worded motion came under attack. Culture secretary Ed Vaizey called it ‘brutal, vulgar, left-wing, and hostile to excellence and quality.’ He urged us not to think of the arts as a layabout teenager watching Neighbours and eating cold pizza all day. The arts doesn’t sponge off the taxpayer, he said, it’s the other way around. The subsidy supports the burgeoning tourism market. He revealed that the independent arts sector welcomes stated-funded art and regards it as a research and development department. He defended free entrance to museums with

I think, therefore I’m guilty

Britain is a liberal and progressive utopia – and the authorities will arrest anyone who disagrees Everyone can agree that today’s Britain — which we’re always being told has become so much more liberal — is the very model of a forward-looking, tolerant society in which freedom of expression is paramount. Correct? If only. In fact, the intellectual trend in Britain is a remorseless slide towards a dark age of intolerance, reverting to a reason-suppressing, heresy-hunting culture in which certain opinions are being turned into thought crimes. Astoundingly, people are being arrested by the police — even if the case against them eventually falls — because of what they have