Society

Saturday

25 Oct 2008

Mind your language | 25 October 2008

It is a curious misapprehension of many otherwise intelligent and well-informed people to think that a writer who is the earliest to be quoted in the dictionary as having used a word actually invented it. The lofty Oxonian Geoffrey Madan (1895-1947), who as the son of Bodley’s librarian should have known better, left in his Notebooks a list of words under the names of the people who ‘invented them’ (if the published transcript may be relied on). So he attributes insecurity to the invention of Sir Thomas Browne. The OED does indeed quote the old physician as using the word in 1646 but, later in its entry, quotes Jeremy Taylor

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 25 October 2008

Q. May I pass on a tip to readers? Now is the time of year to plant soft fruit bushes. Blackcurrants are a superfood and, if the berries are frozen, a few bushes will provide a whole family’s vitamin C needs throughout the winter of 2009. Think of the savings on supermarket juices. G.W., Wiltshire A. Thank you for this tip. Q. I am a member of a golf club that is considered to be one of the best in southern England and where non-members enjoy playing. Naturally, in addition to paying an annual subscription, there is a cost if one invites a guest to play. As is usual with

James Forsyth

The main reason why McCain is losing

The post-mortems are already beginning on John McCain’s campaign. There is plenty for folk to get stuck into—the lack of a domestic policy message, the Palin pick, the failure to distance from Bush until so late in the campaign—but McCain is trailing principally because he is a national security candidate in what has turned into an almost exclusively economic election. As Steve Hayes notes, back in 2007 the most important issue in picking a president for both Republicans and Democrats were national security related—terrorism for Republicans, Iraq for Democrats. Now only nine percent cite terrorism and seven percent Iraq as their top issue while 57 percent name the economy. This

James Forsyth

London is going to be hit particularly hard by the recession

When you look at these figures from Time magazine you realise how hard hit this country, and London especially, is going to be by this recession: “In 2007 financial services accounted for 10.1% of the U.K.’s gross domestic product, up from 5.5% in 2001. Add in professional services linked to finance, such as accounting, law and management consulting, and the total rises to 14%. And that’s for Britain as a whole. For London, finance has been even more important: it accounts for almost one-fifth of the city’s total output, perhaps as much as one-third if professional services are included. That’s far more than for even New York City, where financial

James Forsyth

On the trail in Glenrothes

Ian Jack has a dispatch from Glenrothes in today’s Guardian. Here is his main point: “The conventional wisdom about Glenrothes goes like this. After its victory in Glasgow East, the Scottish National party thought it could wipe out Labour’s 10,000-majority. Then the global crisis erupted. Small-country nationalism no longer looked so clever – Salmond will never praise Iceland again. The UK Treasury bailed out Scotland’s two greatest banks and Brown emerged as the saviour of the world economy. An SNP victory is no longer secure. There’s a new spring in Labour’s step. All may be broadly true; people will mention it when asked, though usually only as a kind of

James Forsyth

Who will be the change?

There is an argument that British politics since 1994 is a historical freak, a product of a period of ever-increasing prosperity which allowed politicians to avoid the hard choices that typically define politics. As Charles Moore puts it in today’s Telegraph, “our two main parties have both been caught facing the wrong way. Their policy preoccupations, their political positioning, their promises have depended on perpetual prosperity. Now these look as relevant as estate agents’ freesheets offering timeshares in Spain. When a really big crisis hits, it takes people a surprisingly long time to understand the basic point, which is that Everything is Different Now. Fear makes people reluctant to admit

Lloyd Evans

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Howard Jacobson discusses his novel ‘The Act of Love’ with Peter Florence

No Jews. No hint of Jewishness anywhere. That was Howard Jacobson’s instruction to himself when he sat down to write his new novel, The Act of Love. ‘I took the restriction very seriously,’ he told Peter Florence in a discussion for Intelligence Squared on 22nd October. ‘I nearly set about writing the book without using any word containing the letter “J”. Then I realised that “Howard Jacobson” would appear on the cover.’ Jewishness defines Jacobson. It provokes, exhilarates and exasperates him but he can’t escape it. ‘I failed anyway,’ he shrugs with ironic pride. ‘Someone pointed out that the phrase “the sound of bells ringing in a Christian village” was

Roger Alton

Spectator sport | 25 October 2008

It’s showbiz As anyone with an unhealthy addiction to Saturday Night Live and presidential debates can tell you, Americans stage a contest like no one else. And that doesn’t just apply to the race for the White House. So if you find yourself in the mood for a slice of Uncle Sam as an election curtain-raiser this weekend, tune in to the American football. Or — if you can swing yourself a ticket somehow — go to Wembley and see for yourself. The NFL is coming to London, with the San Diego Chargers taking on the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. It will be a perfectly packaged event too, four

Toby Young

Status anxiety

Be careful what you wish for — or, as the old proverb puts it, if God hates you, he grants your deepest wish. All my life I have wanted to be famous and now that I am finally enjoying my 15 minutes I am not sure it is all it is cracked up to be. I mistakenly thought that becoming a celebrity would be liberating — I would shrug off the everyday constraints of being a repressed, middle-class Englishman and get in touch with my inner egomaniac. In fact, the opposite is true. Since How to Lose Friends & Alienate People became the number one film at the British box

Lucy Vickery

Competition | 25 October 2008

In Competition No. 2567 you were invited to submit a letter of application for a job of your choosing written by a character from a novel or poem who would appear to be a very unpromising candidate. Thank you to Michael Cregan — the idea for this comp is one of his, tweaked by me. Keith Norman made a persuasive pitch on behalf of the Pied Piper of Hamelin for the post of Head of Music at Eton: ‘I can, with all confidence, promise to take your entire student body with me in whatever I undertake…’, while Andrew Mason’s Ancient Mariner, applying to be Seabird Conservation Officer — ‘If you

Tim Congdon

There is nothing magic about this Keynesian fad

Mr Brown’s bank recapitalisation exercise has been portrayed in the British media as a financial and political coup. The Financial Times has been particularly enthusiastic, describing it as ‘a global template’. Mr Brown’s admirers apparently believe that the British government’s programme is both intellectually original and a real-world success, and is therefore being copied in other leading nations. The truth is very different. The government’s policy is not intellectually original, it will not be fully implemented in practice and, to the extent that it is implemented, it will be a disaster. Further, no other country is copying Brown’s plan or behaving as vindictively as Britain towards its financial system. Admittedly,

The Spectator

Schoolboy errors

In December 1998, as Peter Mandelson resigned from the Cabinet for the first time, he and Tony Blair spelt out a modern doctrine for responsible political conduct. ‘We came to power promising to uphold the highest possible standards in public life,’ Mandelson wrote to Blair. ‘We have not just to do so, but we must be seen to do so’ (italics added). The then Prime Minister replied: ‘As you said to me “we can’t be like the last lot”.’ This, rather than any technical breach of the rules, was why Mr Mandelson had to go ten years ago, when his secret £373,000 home loan from Geoffrey Robinson was disclosed. Thus

Aidan Hartley

Wild life | 25 October 2008

Yemen For a fortnight our group has spent nights on the desert beaches east of Aden, looking out to sea. We strain to hear voices above the waves. At dawn the water’s surface is calm and dimpled with shoals of fish. The tide line is scattered with dead puffer fish, plastic rubbish, dolphin skulls. Fat yellow crabs gather behind your back and close in when you are not looking. Each morning emaciated people emerge from the ocean in their dozens. They are Somalis fleeing war in Mogadishu, or Ethiopians escaping their overpopulated dustbowl. Many die crossing the Gulf of Aden. The smugglers’ boats are crowded like slave ships. Passengers are

Matthew Parris

Another voice | 25 October 2008

Wherever the civilised English gather to discuss the state we’re in, it is almost axiomatic to allow that we’re getting less refined. Discourse, public and private, is (we tell each other) getting cruder; wit is duller; our culture is dumbing down. A vulgarity and obviousness is gaining ground over the art of delicate suggestion. Nowhere do we assume this to be truer than in the use of language for the purposes of discourtesy. Twenty years ago, when I first began putting together an anthology of insult and abuse, I would have subscribed to this view. The book was to be called Scorn and as we began combing through literature ancient

Friday

24 Oct 2008

Alex Massie

Department of You Coudn’t Make It Up

Not for the first time this year, one has to wonder what question Fred Thompson could possibly be the answer to. K-Lo remains charmingly indefatigable: Unleashing Fred Thompson works his magic to get out the vote. No further comment required.

Alex Massie

Travels in Wingnuttia

There are loonies everywhere, of course. Still, Jon Swift’s summary of some of the anti-Obama conspiracy theories that have swilled around the wingnut blogosphere this year is a treat. He introduces his post, thus: Hampered by quaint, old-fashioned rules of journalism that require citing evidence and reputable sources, the mainstream media has failed to report a number of important stories about Obama and the conservative blogosphere has had to step up and do the media’s job for them. As a public service I have collected some of the most important of these stories in one place. Pulitzer Prize judges, take note! Some of the stories below are shocking and even

The Spectator

The week that was | 24 October 2008

Here are some of the posts made during the past week on Spectator.co.uk: Matthew d’Ancona outlines the warning that ‘Yachtgate’ has delivered to the Tories. Fraser Nelson lauds the true defenders of liberty, and reveals how Gordon Brown has fiddled the debt figures. James Forsyth says the worst seems to have passed for Osborne in the ‘Yachtgate’ scandal, and suggests that the Tories need an enforcer who can protect the shadow cabinet from themselves. Peter Hoskin makes the case for an austerity Olympics, and reports on the latest crime statistics. Stephen Pollard regrets a trip to the theatre. Melanie Phillips gives her take on ‘Yachtgate’. Clive Davis highlights why a recession could

James Forsyth

Oh Darling

On October 7th, Alistair Darling called the Icelandic Finance Minister in an attempt to find out what iceland was doing to protect British savers who had money deposited in Icelandic banks. Here’s how the conversation starts: Mathiesen: Hello. Darling: Hello. Mathiesen: This is Árni Mathiesen, Minister of Finance. Darling: Hello, we met a few months ago, weeks ago. Mathiesen: No, we have never met. You met the Minister of Trade. Darling: Alright, sorry. Mathiesen: No problem Perhaps, not the best way to kick things off.

Peter Hoskin

The case for an “austerity Olympics”

60 years ago, in the economically-depressed aftermath of WW2, Britain successfuly staged an “austerity Olympics” – pared-down, efficient, organised and even profitable, it was widely considered a momentous success. In today’s Guardian, Simon Jenkins persuasively argues for another austerity Olympics in 2012 – the times call for it, he says. And it’s hard to disagree. Even if you think Darling’s spend-our-way-out-of-trouble approach is the right way forward, there remains the question of what all that public cash should be spent on. There’s something deeply irresponsible about “pour[ing] crazy sums of money – £9.3bn – into two weeks of sport”. Particularly when that £9.3 billion budget is particularly – and unnecessarily – swollen anyway.

James Forsyth

Mandelson sketches out his policy vision for Labour

Peter Mandelson’s interview in Progress is well worth reading. In it, he sets out the three areas where he thinks Labour needs to up its policy game: “First, social mobility where Labour needs to provide ‘new ladders for working-class youngsters to climb, taking advantage of the growing aspiration of … parents for their children to go to university.’ Second, the party also needs to outline a vision for ‘the jobs of the future … regearing our economy and our sources of employment to match the opportunities the changing global economy is going to offer’. Finally, Mandelson advocates ‘further individualisation of our public services’. In education and health, particularly, he argues,