Society

Sunday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Two sorts of cuts

This is the graphic to my News of the World column, representing the choice at the next election: two sorts of cuts. If Gordon Brown were smart, he would argue that his cuts would be better-aimed and more compassionate. Instead, he chooses to lie, saying – as he did in PMQs – that the choice is “between a Government who are prepared to invest in the future and a Conservative Party that will cut.” No one, in any media outlet save for the Mirror (in which he has placed an article today), accepts this demonstrably false proposition. The deceit is rejected today by Martin Ivens in the Sunday Times, John

Saturday

Alex James

Slow Life | 13 June 2009

My heart’s beating faster. I’ve been completely immersed in pop music all week. Spent the days playing bass with Blur in a rehearsal studio complex, a dozen or more sticky soundproof cells right next to Pentonville Prison: overhearing The Pretenders, Ash and Feeder on my way to the bog; unidentified waterfalls of soul and volcanoes of rock billowing and erupting from windowless corridors. After ripping through 40 songs at high volume on Tuesday I went to meet my music publisher at the café by the Serpentine. Well, he was full of beans. Always is: the music industry runs on a mixture of enthusiasm, gossip and serendipity. We sat in deckchairs

Jeremy Clarke

Low Life | 13 June 2009

There’s an obscure corner of me that relishes pain and physical injury. It doesn’t want permanent pain. But an occasional sharp reminder of the reality of pain exhilarates it. So when I foolishly unscrewed the cap on my car radiator and a fountain of boiling water erupted, scalding the underside of my forearm, this masochistic side of me was quite chuffed. The rest of me was immmediately concerned with refilling the radiator and reservoir. From the midden in the rear footwells I dug out two empty plastic water bottles and carried them up the drive of the nearest house and rang the bell beside the front door. It was a

Taki

High Life | 13 June 2009

On board S/Y Bushido, off Ibiza As everyone who has followed the America’s Cup fiasco knows, it is now up to international courts to decide who shall defend what and where. The egregious Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli is the holder, and has been sued by Larry Ellison, an American sick-making, money-grubbing billionaire, whose stink pot, Rising Sun, has to be among the world’s ugliest gin palaces. Hence when word got out that the Pug’s Club regatta was to take place off the island of Ibiza last weekend, thousands of Spaniards swelled the beaches in the hope of seeing real sailing boats fight it out at sea, rather than in some

Roderick Conway-Morris

Dispatch from Venice

Roderick Conway Morris on how the city is trying new ways to overcome its economic crisis When the Venice Biennale was founded in 1895 it was in many ways a response to the crisis facing the city. No longer an independent republic and marginalised in the newly re-unified Kingdom of Italy, Venice was seeking ways to re-invent itself, attract new types of visitors and boost the local economy. Most of the great exhibitions during that period were one-offs but the forward-looking poet, playwright and mayor of Venice, Riccardo Selvatico, and his circle could see the benefit of making the exhibition a regular event. This year’s edition, which continues until 22

Tamzin Lightwater

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody | 13 June 2009

Monday What a triumph! Not that we’re complacent. While this is undeniably a resounding victory which paves the way to our impending general election landslide, we are not taking anything for granted. In fact we are mindful that we may still lose. Except that we so obviously won’t! Hooray!! Now, I must get my head around this ring-round of Euro people. We’re in ‘final negotiations’ — complete and utter panic stations — and Jed’s put a big target grid up on the whiteboard. We’ve got 50 MEPs from three countries but the rules say we need seven. So we’re trying Latvia, Denmark, Belgium, Lithuania and Estonia. For each MEP we

The Spectator

Letters | 13 June 2009

Back to Black Sir: Taki (High Life, 16 May) exaggerated the ineptitude of my counsel in Chicago, and in this I am happy to agree with Tom Bower (Letters, 23 May), but they were not my counsel of choice, whom I was prevented from retaining by an asset seizure that was subsequently judged by the jury to be improper. Nor is this a tough prison. It is low security, not divided into cells, and without violence, but Taki is correct that the judge and probation officer recommended minimal security, for which I am technically not eligible as a non-American. Bower is completely mistaken in everything else he wrote in his

Dot Wordsworth

Mind Your Language | 13 June 2009

What is wrong with the following sentence, taken from a newspaper? ‘Any MP announcing they will step down should face a by-election because they are no longer representing their constituents.’  What is wrong with the following sentence, taken from a newspaper? ‘Any MP announcing they will step down should face a by-election because they are no longer representing their constituents.’ Quite apart from any political consideration, the grammar is awry. A single MP should not be followed by plural pronouns (they, their). Yet we all do this in speech, partly to avoid the difficulty of a singular pronoun, he, standing for women as well as men. I mentioned a book

Toby Young Toby Young

Status Anxiety | 13 June 2009

For several weeks now I have been agonising about whether to run for Parliament as an independent at the next election. On the one hand, the current political crisis means that an independent has a higher-than-normal chance of being elected. But on the other, it is not clear what an MP who isn’t affiliated with any of the major political parties could achieve. What would be the point? As the father of four young children, the issue I care most about is education. In the constituency of Ealing Central and Acton where I live there are only two outstanding state secondary schools, one C of E, the other Catholic. The

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 13 June 2009

Q. My oldest school-friend, who moved to Paris, has recently been staying with me in London while visiting her sick mother. This was on my invitation. However I have noticed that she has been ringing her own family in Paris quite freely from our telephone and spending sometimes up to 40 minutes changing and rebooking her flights on a premium rate number. We do not like to be stingy but due to the credit crunch, which has not affected her, it came as a blow when we noticed that our telephone bill has escalated considerably. As it looks like she is going to be here sporadically for the next few

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Ahmadinejad’s American Supporters

I don’t pretend to have a sophisticated grasp on the complexities of Iranian politics and society, but it’s worth noting that Ahmadinejad had support outside Iran too. To wit, Daniel Pipes: while my heart goes out to the many Iranians who desperately want the vile Ahmadinejad out of power, my head tells me it’s best that he remain in office. When Mohammed Khatami was president, his sweet words lulled many people into complacency, even as the nuclear weapons program developed on his watch. If the patterns remain unchanged, better to have a bellicose, apocalyptic, in-your-face Ahmadinejad who scares the world than a sweet-talking Mousavi who again lulls it to sleep,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The next Speaker must command cross-party support

Frank Field is right that the new Speaker must be able to “command support amongst all the parties here at Westminster, including their own.” Field, who would make a fine Speaker, is right that it would be inappropriate for him to run unless he can gain considerable Labour support over the next couple of days. One hopes that John Bercow, whose Tory support is minimal, comes to the same, statesman-like conclusion.  If he gets the job thanks almost entirely to Labour voters he will be ineffective. As Field says: “It is important that our election of Speaker is seen to be one that is not driven by party advantage. If

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Iranian election was fixed from the start

Elections in Iran are neither free nor fair. Even before anyone started campaigning, the Iranian theocracy had barred any candidate they perceived to be a threat to the Islamic revolution from standing. So, it is not surprising that there appears to have been considerable interference with the voting process to give Ahmadinejad victory in the first round of voting. (The Interior Ministry says that with ninety percent of the vote counted, Ahmadinejad has sixty three percent of the vote and Moussavi a little under 35 percent). The three opposition candidates are saying that they will not accept the result. But it is unclear whether they will be able to mobilise

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A morning of Mandelson and Miliband

The Telegraph’s interview with Peter Mandelson and The Guardian’s with David Miliband are setting the news agenda this morning. Mandelson tells the Telegraph that he expects there will be another attempt to topple Brown from a “small group who keep coming back”. While Miliband admits he considered resigning on Thursday night. Both push the message that the economy might come out of recession far sooner than anyone expected. Clearly this is what Labour strategists believes might rebuild the party’s reputation. But it is hard to see how they can brag about their economic record ithout seeming out of touch with a population who are still worried about rising unemployment. Aside

Roger Alton Roger Alton

Spectator Sport | 13 June 2009

For obvious nomenclatural reasons I have always followed the triumphs of Roger Federer with especial interest, as massive back-page headlines like ‘Masterful Roger Rules the World’, or ‘Is Roger the Best Ever?’ lift the spirits no end. And now only 10 days to Wimbledon and the headlines will be back again. Roger the Great clearly wants it this year, as every year. Particularly to overtake Pete Sampras’s record of 14 Grand Slam titles after he drew level with Sampras in Paris and became only the fourth player of the modern era to win all four Grand Slam titles.   Watching the French final at the weekend, you felt for poor Robin

Lucy Vickery

Competition | 13 June 2009

In Competition No. 2599 you were invited to step into the shoes of a well-known writer, past or present, and give their account, in verse or prose, of a career path they might have taken. The assignment was inspired by the Observer’s ‘My other life’ column, in which writers reveal their fantasy job. Jan Morris, for example, harbours a desire to take to the waves: ‘If I weren’t me, I would like to be a ship…’. No ships in a large and excellent entry, but step forward Jane Austen, stripper; John Betjeman, trapeze artist; Harold Pinter, florist; Geoffrey Chaucer, astronaut; and John Samson’s Ernest Hemingway, stand-up comedian (‘Which painter had

Giannandrea Poesio

In praise of Diaghilev

I wish I had been at the Châtelet Theatre in Paris on the evening of 18 May 1909 for the dress rehearsal of the new Saison Russe, organised by Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, or ‘de’ Diaghilev as he liked to be called. I wish I had been at the Châtelet Theatre in Paris on the evening of 18 May 1909 for the dress rehearsal of the new Saison Russe, organised by Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, or ‘de’ Diaghilev as he liked to be called. That evening, the notable audience invited to the exclusive event were to see ballet as they had never seen it before. Gone were the pretty ladies in frilly

Kate Chisholm

Access all areas

‘Visualisation’ is the latest buzzword at BBC Radio. ‘Visualisation’ is the latest buzzword at BBC Radio. ‘Audiences,’ announces the press release, ‘will be able to watch some of their favourite radio shows being broadcast.’ (Note the use of the word ‘audiences’; we’re no longer thought of as mere listeners.) There’ll be ‘glanceable’ content, webcam streams, ‘enhanced’ online versions of staple ‘consoles’ (or rather programmes), and ‘a mobile version of the console’ (for the uninitiated, a roundup of the best bits of the programme that can be downloaded anytime, anywhere). You’ll be able to see what’s going on in the studio, ‘watch’ guests being interviewed ‘live’ on radio, and read all

Friday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Brown’s cuts

Gordon Brown does not change his ways, or his tactics. It will have shocked him to find the newspapers rejecting as a lie his claim that he would not cut spending. But he’ll be thinking, “they’ll get bored of this rebuttal and I won’t get bored of my attack.” So his strategy is to bulldoze his lie through to the public over the media’s objections. Labour has just released a dossier setting out what 10 percent cuts would supposedly mean. But as we know from the IFS and the 2009 Budget, Labour plans to cut by 7 percent – the difference between the two figures is simply because the Tories