Society

Sunday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

London Scottish (1914)

The war memorial in my hometown, a place of no more than 6,000 people today, lists the names of no fewer than 292 men from Selkirk killed in the Great War. As we remember them, and the hundreds of thousands and millions of others today, it’s also worth noting that it is a mark of how much better the world is now that such sacrifice, such slaughter, is all but inconceivable. There are thousands of terrible stories with which one can mark Remembrance Sunday. Stuart Bathgate wrote a fine piece for the Scotsman yesterday, reminding us of one such story and the dreadful casualties suffered by the London Scottish rugby

Saturday

Melissa Kite

Dressed to kill

This will be a bit of harmless fun, I thought, as I climbed three flights of stairs to the top of a building in theatreland in search of a fancy-dress costume. I found myself in a room full of rails crammed tight with bright costumes. And there, standing in front of them, was the strangest person I have ever seen. She was wearing a lacy Dangerous Liaisons number with bursting décolletage and enormous side hoops, and she was smiling a disconcertingly wide smile. When I told her I had come to hire a fancy-dress costume she shrieked as if someone had stuck a cattle prod up her bottom. ‘Oh, how

Taki

Backing Zac

New York ‘Why would he run for Parliament?’ screams the headline in the New York Times. A subheading lists ‘An inherited passion for women, gambling, the environment and politics’. As I start to read, I fear the worst, but as it turns out it could have been a lot worse. Zac Goldsmith’s name is big in Britain, less so in America, although in green circles he’s an international prince. Although meant rhetorically, it’s quite dumb to ask why a person would run for Parliament, as if being rich and normal — liking women — disqualifies one from holding office. In fact, that’s what’s wrong with politics. The wrong people are

Robin Oakley

Early retirement

How can Flat racing keep its public enthused when the moment a superstar emerges he is whisked away to other duties? Winning the 2000 Guineas, the Derby, the Coral Eclipse, the Juddmonte International, the Irish Champion Stakes and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Sea The Stars gave us a glorious summer. But at only three, before you can say ‘how was it for you?’, he is off to the breeding sheds to meet a bevy of equine lovelies and racing must begin the search for the next Great One. It is as if Beckham and Ronaldo had been whisked off permanently to a life of TV celebrity shows before

Peter Hoskin

The ultimate jam session

Peter Hoskin celebrates 50 years of American independent cinema As so often, our story begins with Mickey Mouse and a child’s pliant mind. The child in this case was Amos Vogel, growing up in 1930s Vienna. His father had bought him a small hand-cranked film projector, and the kid Vogel used to sit there, winding the handle and watching Mickey, Krazy Kat and other cartoon characters dance across the walls. Only there was frequently something odd, something perverse, about their movements. You see, Vogel used to enjoy running the projector in reverse — making the films, and the characters, go backwards. The experience must have tripped some wires in the

The Spectator

Brown’s bank job

It is a shame that Gordon Brown said in parliament that he ‘saved the world’ when he meant to say ‘saved the banks’, because the latter proposition is the more preposterous. It is a shame that Gordon Brown said in parliament that he ‘saved the world’ when he meant to say ‘saved the banks’, because the latter proposition is the more preposterous. After more than a year of throwing our money at the banks, the Prime Minister has fixed nothing. He simply stopped a run on the banks by putting the British taxpayer on the hook for all of their losses. Since then, banks like RBS and Lloyds have used

The Spectator

Trick and Treaty

David Cameron has been a Conservative long enough to know defeat when he sees it. After years of bribing, cajoling and bullying, the European Union has won. It will soon have the powers it asked for when drawing up its constitution five years ago. It has ignored the ‘no’ votes in France and the Netherlands, renamed the Lisbon Treaty, couched it in language so technocratic that even lawyers cannot bring themselves to read it. Its weapon has been utter brazenness that has staggered even Europhiles like David Miliband. It is not ashamed, in the least, by its abject lack of democratic legitimacy. So to hold a British referendum on a

The Spectator

Portrait of the Week – 7 November 2009

Mr David Cameron, the leader of the opposition, had to explain why a ‘cast iron guarantee’ by the Conservatives to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty would no longer be possible, now it had been ratified. Mr David Cameron, the leader of the opposition, had to explain why a ‘cast iron guarantee’ by the Conservatives to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty would no longer be possible, now it had been ratified. The Royal Bank of Scotland will sell 318 branches and the Lloyds banking group more than 600 in a move demanded by the European Commission to avoid a breach of competition rules. Lloyds announced a £13.5

Harold Evans

Diary – 7 November 2009

Many hands tore at the Berlin Wall. To a large extent it collapsed from its own weight, but we should acknowledge the shove given by European democrats, Pope John Paul II, the dissidents in the Soviet Union, and Arthur Schlesinger Jr and George Kennan, who defined the policies that contained communism without blowing up the world or in the name of freedom destroying freedom at home. And Gorbachev. I see him around a lot and regret that he never seems to get the acclaim he deserves for being willing to put his country before his party. Americans tend to give most of the credit to Ronald Reagan. In the 1950s

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 7 November 2009

Only a little more than a year ago, Gordon Brown was considered very clever when he had a word with Sir Victor Blank at a cocktail party and encouraged him to merge Lloyds and HBOS to help save the British banking system. Not long afterwards, Sir Victor was forced to resign after the merger produced chaos and stupefying losses were exposed. Mr Brown, however, is still here, and this week, with equal brilliance, he has ordered the break-up of the bank he merged, in order to help save the British banking system again, while he puts a further £5.8 billion of government money behind it. It is not easy to

Tamzin Lightwater

Diary of a Notting Hill nobody | 7 November 2009

Monday It wasn’t easy for Dave to come out and say it but he was really brave. Personally, I can’t see what all the fuss is about. We never said we were definitely going to have a referendum. Just that we definitely wanted to. There are a lot of things we definitely want to do. It doesn’t mean we are definitely going to do them. Take our lovely new health policy, for example. Yes, Dave is ‘guaranteeing’ up to £1.5 billion of savings by cutting bureaucracy in the NHS. And of course, in an ideal world that would mean we actually did it. But it is not an ideal world.

The Spectator

Letters | 7 November 2009

Self-destructive policies Sir: Congratulations to Melanie Phillips (‘The clash of uncivilisations’, 24 October) for exposing the hypocrisy and appeasement at the heart of the out-of-touch, politically correct liberal establishment, particularly among the media and mainstream politicians. New Labour’s self-destructive policies of open borders and multiculturalism are an explosive cocktail, which seem designed to undermine British culture, and have driven frustrated voters into the arms of parties such as Ukip and the odious BNP. Having recently retired from 20 years working in the Middle East, I can verify that the liberal Muslim governments are much more vigorous in pursuing Islamic extremists and are baffled by our weakness. What is the point

Toby Young Toby Young

I’d expected a Hefner party, but this was like a ‘mixer’ at a florida retirement home

I’m writing this having just flown back from Jamaica on the red eye (no pun intended). I feel a little shell-shocked, but not because I was up all night trying to stop my two-year-old son from running up and down the aisle screaming ‘Bollocks’. Rather, it’s because my wife and I spent our last evening at a resort called Hedonism II. I had wanted to go to this place ever since stumbling across a brochure on our first day. As far as I could tell from flicking through its pages, Hedonism II is essentially a nudist resort populated entirely by supermodels. Guests are encouraged to spend the morning playing ‘Naked

Dot Wordsworth

Mind your language | 7 November 2009

Dot is very exercised by Shakespeare.. Every time I see a Shakespeare play, I wonder how many of the words the audience is picking up. It is all very well their getting the drift from the behaviour of the actors, but that makes it like a mime accompanied by unknown utterances. Matters are not helped for the poor children who must study Shakespeare by internet glossaries that mislead. So, in Hamlet, the word gall in the line ‘Let the galled jade wince, our withers are unwrung’, is explained on a commonly used website as ‘Bitterness, anything bitter’. The meaning here, though, is not ‘embittered’ but ‘afflicted with a swelling’. The

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 7 November 2009

Q. At a party recently I was bearded by a woman who effectively pinned me against a wall while she lectured me about an aspect of my work that has just reached the public domain. No one came to rescue me for about 20 minutes. How can one get away from people in situations like this without causing offence? A.D., London SW1 A. Glance over the shoulder of the overbearing person as though your attention has been distracted by someone gesturing at you. Mouth ‘just coming’ to the imaginary person. Then say, ‘What a nightmare. I am being dragged away…’ Finish your sentence and move on, shaking your head reluctantly.

Peter Jones

Ancient & modern | 07 November 2009

As part of a revolution in higher education, Lord Mandelson is requiring information about universities to be modelled on a food-labelling system that will treat students as paying customers — another step on the route to the day when the job of our university teachers will be to provide not education but gratification. What else do paying customers demand? The don becomes a pimp. In his dialogue Gorgias, Socrates describes a pimp as a person who caters for the desires of others. Socrates is driving towards the view that the body and soul have genuine interests that must be served if one is to lead the good life. He rejects

David Blackburn

G20: the way ahead ignores unresolved issues

Home of golf and full of five star hotels, St. Andrews is a lovely spot for a weekend shindig, so it’s no surprise that the G20 have convened there for their latest navel-gaze.   This meeting was supposed to be the preserve of finance ministers, but you can’t keep a statesman down. Gordon Brown delivered an impromptu lecture on ‘the way ahead’ to ministers who have, by some fluke obviously, stewarded a return to growth in their respective countries. Brown is adamant that curbing stimulus packages and inaugurating exit strategies be co-ordinated globally. He spoke of the need to protect taxpayers’ investments with what he called a ‘social contract’. He

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Obama’s three Afghan mistakes

The Obama administration did not inherit a good situation in Afghanistan. But decisions it has taken have made the situation there worse. First, during the transition it flirted with the idea of withdrawing US support from Hamid Karzai but did not follow through. The result of this was that Karzai—worried about losing American support—came to rely ever more heavily on the support of the worst elements in his circle making him an even worse partner than before. Second it downplayed the importance of democracy promotion. Some might claim that this was sensible pragmatism. But the blow dealt to the Afghan mission, both on the ground and over here, by the

Interconnect

Competition | 7 November 2009

In Competition No. 2620 you were invited to submit an argument, in verse, for the superiority of one vegetable over another. It was Pablo Neruda’s ‘Ode to the artichoke’ that got me thinking about the pecking order in the vegetable kingdom. Here’s a snippet: ‘The cabbage/ Dedicated itself/ To trying on skirts,/ The oregano/ To perfuming the world,/ And the sweet/ Artichoke/ There in the garden,/ Dressed like a warrior,/ Burnished/ Like a proud/ Pomegranate…’ In a bumper crop of entries Martin Parker impressed, as did Frank Osen, David Mackie, Ray Kelley, Robert Schechter and Juliet Walker. In fact, you were all on sparkling form. But there’s room for only

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Alan Johnson is right: the boss should make the decisions; the experts should advise

I have an independent financial adviser. I can recommend him. He gives me expert advice. But I decide, and sometimes I disagree. Nobody would question either the propriety or the commonplace nature of this arrangement. Recently we were discussing what to do with my maturing pension fund. His suggestions looked shrewd but were predicated on a measure of resumed economic growth and the persistence for some years of low interest rates. His assessment was well-informed and would be widely shared. But I just have this hunch that all is not well; that Western economies including our own are rather weakly placed in the grand global scheme of things; that the