Society

Wednesday

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

The wonder of Jon Pertwee and his frilly shirt

 When a friend asked if I wanted anything for Christmas I took a deep breath and replied: ‘Well, maybe I finally need to watch this.’ I handed him a video cassette retrieved from my sister’s attic and he took it to a place that digitises such things. On Christmas Day I nervously plugged in the memory stick. There we were: Carmel and I, aged about seven and nine, bathed in late-1960s sunshine in the garden of our mock-Tudor house in Woodmansterne Road, Carshalton Beeches, Surrey. (I emphasise ‘Surrey’, because in those days Carshaltonions were in Margo Leadbetter-style denial over new local government boundaries that landed them in – shudder –

Ross Clark Ross Clark

House prices aren’t falling any time soon

Economic forecasts rarely survive far into the New Year. Just look at last year’s prophecy by the IMF that the UK economy would shrink by 0.6 per cent in 2023, which was already being revised by March. But we are only three days into 2024 and already the forecasts of falling house prices are beginning to look somewhat questionable. In November, the Office for Budgetary Responsibility (OBR) forecast that prices would slip by 4.7 per cent over the year. The Halifax followed that up by forecasting a 2 to 4 per cent slide. Yesterday, however, the Halifax became one of those banks which has started slashing fixed rates. A two year fix is suddenly

The Spectator

2633: Highly critical – solution

According to the ODQ, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II said of The Abduction from the Seraglio: ‘Too beautiful for our ears, and much too many notes, dear Mozart.’ First prize Sue Topham, Elston, Newark, Nottinghamshire Runners-up Anthony Harker, Oxford; Rosemary Paquette, Toronto, Canada

Mr Magoo

2635: Brilliant

The unclued entries (three of two words, two of three words, one of one word) each complete a phrase starting with the same first word. Across 11    Move left to right in washing plants (9) 12    Bird of prey? (5) 14    Mischief-maker’s restrained in hearing (4) 15    Worry Camilla on a regular basis (3) 18    Bone breaking seal’s coat of antimony (7) 19    Lady chess champion bitten by snakes (7) 22    Edrich perhaps pens a note for Strauss? (6) 23    It’ll project language dividing France and Spain (6) 24    Mosquito agrees to wipe out two hundred (5) 27    Gascoigne avoiding his first yellow (5) 29    Failing to digest a fizzy

Lucy Vickery

Spectator competition winners: unlikely forecasts for the year ahead

In Competition No. 3330 you were invited to submit some improbable forecasts, in verse, for the year ahead. Things you deemed unlikely to happen this year ranged from the predictable – peace in Ukraine, a reversal of climate change – to the whimsical: Donald Trump as the next Pope and Snoop Dogg eloping with Penny Mordaunt. The winners earn £25. Around the UK coast he’ll steerHis rusty, overladen barge,locating homes for refugees…What are you up to now, Farage? If punishment that’s capitalCan find itself again restored,There’ll be a chance for Penny M,To demonstrate her massive sword. Incompetently, CleverlyCalled Stockton some disgusting names,But, in this topsy-turvy world,The New Year holds great

Luke McShane

No. 782

White to play. Mateusz Bartel-Jules Moussard, London Chess Classic 2023. Bartel’s next move yielded a crushing advantage. What did he play? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 8 January. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1 Ne5!, e.g. 1…dxe5 2 Qd8# or 1…Kxe5 2 Qh8# or 1…d5 2 Ne6# or 1…Nxd3 2 Nef3# or 1…Nc2 2 Ngf3# Last week’s winner Mike Pitt, Cardiff

Luke McShane

London Classic

Michael Adams described his victory at last month’s London Chess Classic as ‘probably my best ever result’. Rated fourth in the world in his prime, Adams has won countless tournaments, but was delighted that, at the age of 52, he could still triumph against a much younger field. The top seed was the Indian teenager Gukesh, who reached the world top ten earlier this year. Adams scored two early wins in his trademark positional style against Amin Tabatabaei from Iran and Mateusz Bartel from Poland. But he got a lucky break in the sixth round, where the French grandmaster Jules Moussard’s exemplary play unravelled after a moment of carelessness. White’s bishop outshines

Peter Wood

Claudine Gay is gone – but Harvard’s radical clerisy remain

In the end, Barack Obama, Penny Pritzker, 700-some members of the faculty, the mighty voice of the Harvard Crimson and the entire nomenclature of the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion movement could not save her from herself. Claudine Gay resigned as president of Harvard University after a month of relentless criticism. In principle, her feckless performance on 5 December before the House of Representatives’ committee on education and the workforce should have been sufficient to persuade Harvard’s board (which aristocratically calls itself the Harvard Corporation) to cut her loose. But it took wave after wave of revelations about alleged Gay’s plagiarism to break the hauteur of Ms. Pritzker and the ten other members

Tuesday

Ross Anderson

London’s New Year fireworks were a dangerous shambles

Drone lights, shining above Westminster, spelled out ‘London: a place for everyone,’ at this year’s New Year Eve show in the capital. To most watching on TV around the world, it was big, fun spectacle with bright fireworks and New Year cheer.   It’s only good fortune that it didn’t become a crowd crush, of the like which killed 159 people in Seoul in 2022.  But for the people on the ground, who had waited in line to see the fireworks on Waterloo bridge, it was anything but. As with thousands of others in the ‘Pink 3’ queue, my New Year’s Eve was spent in an unmoving, unmanaged line, which was

Julie Bindel

It’s no surprise Mhairi Black has turned on Nicola Sturgeon

Mhairi Black can clearly see which way the wind is blowing. ‘I did always feel a wee bit uncomfortable,’ the SNP’s deputy leader at Westminster has said of the cult of personality around former first minister Nicola Sturgeon. ‘We shouldn’t be relying on one face or one person,’ Black told Times Radio, adding that she had always ‘had issues’ with the way Sturgeon ran the party, and that she ‘didn’t miss her’. Isn’t it funny that Black felt so uncomfortable about such things but has only spoken out now? Whatever Black thinks about Sturgeon, she was a clear supporter of her ex-boss’s deeply bonkers and unpopular legislation that could have

Annabel Denham

Labour won’t fix Britain’s childcare mess

Labour appeared stumped when, earlier this year, the government announced it would be drastically increasing its ‘free’ childcare provision. Given it was a policy that shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson was rumoured to be considering, her party would now need to find a way to outdo itself. Now, we have a clearer idea what its ‘signature offer’ to voters might entail. At present, all parents of pre-school children over the age of three are entitled to 15 ‘free’ hours with registered providers. From April 2024, this will expand to all over-twos, and from September, to all children over nine months (the point at which Statutory Maternity Pay ends). If the rollout continues

Jawad Iqbal

Wayne Rooney’s failure is no surprise

There was a certain inevitability to the sacking of Wayne Rooney as Birmingham City manager. The only real surprise is how swiftly the end came. Rooney lasted just 13 weeks – all of 83 days – in charge. He won only twice, picking up a grand total of ten points, and suffered nine defeats in 15 games. The 3-0 loss to Leeds on New Year’s Day proved to be  the final straw. It left Birmingham 20th in the Championship table and just six points above the relegation places. The club’s chief executive, Garry Cook, who brashly promised an era of ‘fear-free football’ under Rooney, seems to have changed his tune:

Debbie Hayton

The trouble with Ofsted

Ruth Perry’s death last year was a tragedy. The headteacher had carried the burden of an Ofsted inspection pretty much alone over the Christmas holiday. The sword of Damocles was no longer dangling by a thread, but hurtling towards her. Perry knew that the inspection report was on its way but only one word mattered: inadequate. Unable to discuss the report openly for fear of incurring the wrath of Ofsted, Perry took her own life on 8 January. Now Ofsted has paused inspections until assessors have been properly trained to protect the wellbeing of headteachers and their staff. As a teacher, I wonder why it took them so long to

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

Japan’s earthquake has brought back painful memories

The year 2024 began in the worst possible way for Japan. At least 30 people were killed by a powerful earthquake which struck the Ishikawa prefecture on the west coast of the country in mid-afternoon on New Year’s day. The death toll is expected to rise considerably. The quake registered 7.6 on the Richter scale, making it one of the most powerful in recent history. To give you some idea of the magnitude, it is a level that will knock you off your feet – I was unnerved enough by the swaying I felt in a Tokyo department store 180 miles away to hold on to a rail. Japan’s geospatial

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

How progressive ideology hijacked the festive season

Fireworks at New Year are the purest distillation of the spirit of frippery. All Sadiq Khan had to do was give ‘em the old razzle dazzle. There is no higher meaning to these colourful explosions, no significance to the spectacle beyond the fun of communal cries of ‘ooh!’ and ‘aah!’ Fireworks are quite enough – more than enough – in themselves. You can leave it to the bangers to do the job; adding anything else on top is not necessary. Appending a civic lecture to a firework display is like adding tripe to a trifle.  But Khan, like all the grim municipal fun sponges who run and ruin almost everything nowadays, can’t just sit back and let

Andrew Tettenborn

The European Court has become positively immoral

Another new year, and on the very first day we hear of two cases where human rights law has made a laughing stock of our immigration system.  Gjelosh Kolicaj, an Albanian migrant given dual British citizenship after marrying a British woman (whom he later divorced), turned out to be a senior crime boss. After he got six years for money laundering, the Home Office said he should be stripped of his citizenship and deported. Immigration judges quashed the order: insufficient consideration had been given to his right to family life under article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights (from two children born here to a later wife) and a

Monday

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Just Say No to abstinence this January

Today’s a day for waltzes from Vienna and loafing around on one of the three days of the year when people actually stop work. But tomorrow, it’s going to be business as usual – only worse. The retail sector goes all glum on 2 January. It’s out with the party food, the charcuterie platters, port and anything featuring mincemeat, and in with smoothies, salads and plant-based ready meals, plus a focus on fitness gear in the clothing department. Oh and alcohol free everything for the teetotal binge that is Dry January.  January never was a time for abstinence; it was a time for sociability and eating well Can we not see how bizarre,

Nicholas Farrell

The ancient roots of Italy’s Festa della Befana

In Italy if you are not careful, you are condemned to measure out your life in religious festivals. There are so many of them. Perhaps that’s why I find La Befana a bit of a pain coming as it does so hard on the heels of so many others. Or maybe it’s because it is essentially a pagan festival and our civilisation has lost all contact with that world. But then again, maybe it’s just that I have become a miserable old git. The Festa della Befana takes place throughout Italy, but especially in the north, on 5 January, the night before Epiphany. It contains elements that are also found

Natasha Voase

Paris doesn’t want the 2024 Olympics

As hundreds of boats float elegantly down the Seine at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics this summer, one well-known and loved landmark will be absent. The bouquinistes, antique booksellers who have lined the banks for centuries, will have decamped for the duration of the games. For many Parisians who face the prospect of their city being swamped by almost a million incomers, this is the final nail in the coffin. Though much of the French population support the Games or are indifferent, Parisians have been quick to complain about the Games’ arrival. Nearly 44 per cent of Parisians thought the Olympics were a ‘bad thing’, according to one survey,

Sunday

Christopher Snowdon

Why did it take so long to give Tim Martin a knighthood?

The news that Tim Martin, the founder of JD Wetherspoon, has been given a knighthood in the New Year Honours list caused predictable outrage among the perpetually outraged. The gong was awarded for Sir Tim’s ‘services to hospitality and culture’, but the usual crybabies on social media asked whether it was really because he supported Brexit. The real question is why did it take so long? The first Wetherspoons opened in 1979 (named after a teacher who told him that he would never amount to anything). There are now more than 800 of them. His services to hospitality and culture are indisputable, but Wetherspoons is more than a successful business.