Society

Saturday

Taki

High Life | 23 May 2009

New York This being my last week in the Bagel, the butterflies have arrived with a vengeance. Stuttgart, I am told, will be no picnic. Two top judokas, one Japanese, the other German, are in my age group, which I find quite ironic. My boat is named Bushido — the way of the Samurai warrior — and my admiration for the Wehrmacht’s fighting qualities and spirit is no secret. The greatest fighting unit ever — and I include the Spartans, and the US Marines — was Rommel’s 25th Panzer Regiment of the 7th Panzer Division. I only hope the father of the German I will meet in Stuttgart was not

Robin Oakley

The Turf | 23 May 2009

Mother of Parliaments? More like the Ugly Sister of Parliaments these days. But without an expenses system like a roulette wheel permanently fixed to pay up, how can the rest of us find the money to have our moats cleared and our helipad hedges trimmed? As usual the Twelve to Follow relies on a scientific mix of racecourse bar gossip, blind hope and Timeform’s Racehorses of 2008 (£75 from Portway Press, Halifax, West Yorkshire WF2 9LP). Sir Michael Stoute’s yard is stuffed with distinguished animals like Conduit and Patkai. We might get better prices though on Confront, a one-time Classic hope who made an impressive seasonal debut winning a Newmarket

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 23 May 2009

By chance, Mr Speaker had invited me to a party on Tuesday evening. I had decided, rude though it would have been, to attend, but to tell him to his face that he should go. But by the time I got there, he had. All emotions went into reverse. The reception was in aid of St Margaret’s, Westminster, the parish church of Parliament, which needs £2 million. Showing none of the chippy defensiveness which has made him so unpopular, Michael Martin gave a charming little talk about how, despite being a Scottish Roman Catholic, he had been made to feel at home at St Margaret’s when he first arrived 30

Tamzin Lightwater

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody | 23 May 2009

Monday Dave wants an estimate. Says he wants us to ‘bottom line it’ for him. This is tricky. We’ve been ringing round constituencies all weekend and seats are coming up all over the place. Jed says we may have to bring in another A list. We’re going to need Cleanskins. More young women and people in their twenties with limited experience of all walks of life. More young women… more young women… Should I stand?!?! Where should I stand?!?! I would need a Surrey seat. But that doesn’t look so impossible any longer. Mr Gove seems to be hanging in. But what about Mr Grayling? Can’t believe I’m thinking like

Dot Wordsworth

Mind your language | 23 May 2009

William Barnes, that remarkable Dorset schoolmaster turned rector, with his buckled shoes and knee-breeches, and eccentric ideas on the English language, wrote a poem on milking time: I come along where wide-horn’d cows, ’Ithin a nook, a-screen’d by boughs, Did stan’ an’ flip the white-hoop’d païls Wi’ heäiry tufts o’ swingèn taïls. The milking time in which MPs have now been detected has already spawned two words, one of them being flip. It is quite distant in meaning from the action of Barnes’s cows’ tails. In the 17th century, 200 years before Barnes’s time, flip had appeared from nowhere as an alternative to fillip, meaning ‘a flick with finger and

The Spectator

Letters | 23 May 2009

Black as he is painted Sir: Taki is a wonderful man but his lament about Conrad Black (High Life, 16 May) cannot pass uncorrected. Conrad Black’s defence did not suffer because he was forced to rely on ‘friendly Canadian lawyers’. One lawyer, Eddie Greenspan, is Toronto’s top fraud defendant, while the second lawyer, Ed Genson, ranks among Chicago’s very best criminal defenders and would be offended to be called Canadian. In the event, both performed remarkably well, demolishing several key prosecution witnesses. Black pleads that he did not have sufficient money to hire better lawyers, but his filings with a Canadian court show that he still possesses a fortune, not

Toby Young Toby Young

Status Anxiety | 23 May 2009

I flatter myself that I’m a Vegas insider, but in fact I’m just a regular sucker I am spending the entire month of May in Las Vegas making an American television programme and I am not having a good time. Before embarking on this trip, I indulged in all sorts of fantasies about what might happen to me in Sin City. Would I be ‘discovered’ by Steve Wynn who would give me the opportunity to reprise my one-man show at the Bellagio? In fact, the most banal and utterly predictable thing has happened: I’ve become addicted to gambling. According to the American Psychiatric Association, a ‘pathological gambler’ typically displays the

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 23 May 2009

Q. As a boy I was taught to stand up when a lady enters or leaves the room or indeed when she leaves and returns to the table in a restaurant. I have a new girlfriend and am moving in slightly different circles these days and wonder whether I might inadvertently be ‘giving offence’ to any feisty feminists by maintaining this practice. What is your advice, Mary? I.B., London SW3 A. It would be an unusually aggressive feminist who would take you to task for this heritage act of courtesy. Should there be aggro, however, just defuse the tension by blaming your age and claiming the habit was so deeply

Peter Jones

Ancient & Modern | 23 May 2009

The general public, never having felt politicians can be wholly trusted, already believe any discreditable rumour about them that comes their way. Even though the recent expenses scandal has fingered fewer than 10 per cent of MPs, the situation will become far worse, as the Romans knew. The historian Cassius Dio argued that, under the Roman republic, the political system was broadly open: all decisions were taken by the Senatus Populusque Romanus, and made a matter of public record. But under the emperors, there was dramatic change: ‘Even though some things were made public by chance, they were not believed because they could not be verified. People suspected that things

Peter Hoskin

King rains on Brown’s parade

An intriguing little story in the FT about the worsening relations between Gordon Brown and Mervyn King.  Apparently, our Dear Leader doesn’t like the downbeat rhetoric that the Governor of the Bank of England is deploying: “There is growing irritation in Downing Street and the Treasury towards Mr King. The prime minister and Alistair Darling, chancellor, have been left fuming by the governor’s interventions, most notably after his downbeat assessment this month of the economic outlook, a viewpoint pounced on by the Conservatives. Although Mr King’s forecasts were broadly similar to those set out by Mr Darling in last month’s Budget, the governor’s gloom-laden press conference at the launch of

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Andrew MacKay to step down

Only this morning, Andrew MacKay said that he would stand for election again – but after a conversation with David Cameron he has now decided to stand down at the next election. The open meeting he held had several calls for him to go, and there was talk of a petition. The grassroots momentum was significant. This, make no mistake, is a personal loss to David Cameron who relied on MacKay to be his eyes and ears in the backbenches. That Cameron has been prepared to say goodbye to Mackay shows that he’s prepared to lose people who matter to him – as well as those, like Douglas Hogg, who

James Forsyth James Forsyth

It’s ending in America

As the whole expenses scandal rumbles on, the economic crisis has been knocked off the front pages. But it hasn’t gone away. Today there’s an interesting article in the Washington Post saying that while the worst is over in America, the recession in Europe will be longer and deeper. (The numbers the Post mentions about Britain are particularly grim). Here are the key paragraphs of the article: “Nine months into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, the free fall in the United States appears to be giving way to a more measured decline, but economists are struggling to find a steady pulse in European and other industrialized nations,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What ungrateful ducks

From Sir Peter Viggers’s statement on his failed attempt to put a floating duck island on expenses: “it was never liked by the ducks and is now in storage.” Hat tip: Conservative Home  

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Flint tells Brown, don’t sack Blears

Hazel Blears flipping her second home several times is one of the worst cases uncovered by the Telegraph. But her actions are really no worse than those of Geoff Hoon. Yet, it is Blears who has copped most of the flak from the media. Gordon Brown hasn’t helped her case by describing her actions as ‘totally unacceptable behaviour’ while defending Hoon. There is a view that Blears, who remember criticised the PM in a newspaper article just days before this story broke, is being set up to the be the symbolic Cabinet sacking over the whole expenses business. So it is interesting to see her close friend Caroline Flint say

Alex Massie Alex Massie

What’s the Best Sports City in the World?

That’s the question Dan Drezner asks, riffing on this frankly dubious Toronto Star survey of North American cities. The Star bases its criteria upon winning percentage which is a rum, if typically North American, way of looking at these matters, and comes up with the rather surprising verdict that Indianapolis is the best sports city in North America. Make of that what you may. It wouldn’t be enough for me. Anyway, Dan wonders how to take this “global” factoring in all those non-American sports and coming up with a candidate for the title of “Greatest Sporting City in the World”. I suspect readers will have their own views on this

Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland

The Wiki Man | 23 May 2009

When I was a child, almost everyone I knew had a single telephone kept in a draughty hallway. Why the hallway I don’t know. Perhaps the bell was better heard from there or else they were copying the location from posher homes where once a butler would have answered it. Until recently, there was also a single place — a study or spare room — where people went to use a computer. Today laptops outsell desktops and wireless internet access means you can use them in every room. This seemingly small detail will have far-reaching effects. For instance, have you ever wondered where people find time for the many hours they now

Interconnect

Competition | 23 May 2009

In Competition No. 2596 you were invited to submit an alphabet primer designed for children of the Noughties. A far cry from the piety and moral lessons of primers past, yours were designed for a generation-in-waiting of Heat-reading (J is generally for Jade), debt-ridden (‘Y’s for the Year the economy shrank, Z’s for Zilch that’s in the bank.’: Tim Raikes), violent (K almost always spells knife), illiterate (‘Z is for xenophobia’: Phil Thomas), egocentric (‘M is for me before everyone’: Michael Cregan), appearance-obsessed (B is mostly for botox) technophiles (Facebook, Twitter, etc, etc). While my Asbo reference didn’t exactly set the scene for an uplifting read, I suspect that today’s

Lucinda Baring

New wine in old bottles

Lucinda Baring meets Simon Berry, chairman of a 200-year-old company that’s more modern than it looks  Berry Bros & Rudd in St James’s Street epitomises the idea of an old-fashioned wine merchant. Outside, the façade has remained largely unchanged for centuries. Inside, the panelling, desks and uneven wooden floor transport you to an era long gone. And yet this venerable appearance belies the efficient mechanisms of a much more modern business. Other family-run wine merchants have been less successful in updating their brand. Lay & Wheeler, a 150-year-old family business very similar to Berry Bros and perhaps their closest competitor, was bought by Majestic in March, and Avery’s of Bristol,

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Another Voice | 23 May 2009

Sleeping with Agatha Christie and the ghosts of guests past in Syria’s Baron Hotel Do you believe in ghosts? I wish I did, for were I to entertain the flimsiest hope that some relic of a personality could haunt a place where once they were, then I should not have slept a wink last night, for the thrill of who might linger. But I slept soundly in Agatha Christie’s bedroom. T.E. Lawrence slept next door. Where am I? Well, if I tell you that any visiting Madame Arcati would expect to contact — besides those two — Field Marshall Lord Slim, Lord Hore-Belisha, H.V. Morton, María Teresa de Borbón and