Society Archives

Wednesday

29 Oct 2008

In the footsteps of Herodotus

The Man who Invented History, by Justin Marozzi When Kristin Scott Thomas told a saucy tale out of Herodotus in the film of The English Patient, sales of The Histories shot up 450 per cent, according to Justin Marozzi, who has taken the seemingly inevitable step of travelling around the Herodotean world in the footsteps of the Father of History. Marozzi bubbles with enthusiasm for the man who was, he says, also the first travel writer, the first prose stylist, the first anthropologist, foreign correspondent, ‘an aspiring geographer, a budding moralist, a skilful dramatist, a high-spirited explorer and an inveterate storyteller’. It’s not an easy act to follow, but Marozzi

Lloyd Evans

Lead us not into temptation

Blowing Whistles Leicester Square Theatre Faces in the Crowd Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, Royal Court Oh, what a gay play. The exhibitionist bravado of gay culture, its carnival antics and exuberant self-sufficiency convince us straight folk that we have nothing more to learn about this colourful subterranean neverland. Matthew Todd’s comedy is packed with welcome surprises. It opens with a pair of London swingers, Nigel and Jamie, awaiting a 17-year-old blind date trawled from an internet site. The boy turns out to be a blond-ringleted chav from Croydon, whose angelic looks and towerblock insouciance immediately confound their expectations. He’s bisexual, for one thing. ‘I like c**t,’ he tells the ogling queens.

Sinclair McKay

A quantum of respect for the forgotten master

Double-dealing female agents. Secret ciphers. Car chases. Now that we have all ingested rather more than a quantum of publicity for Ian Fleming’s gaudy fictions, it might be time for the true inventor of the modern spy novel — and the original purveyor of the above-named elements — to take his bow. The name was Le Queux. William Le Queux. He is almost totally forgotten now. But between the 1890s and the 1920s, he was one of Britain’s most phenomenally popular authors. In the dying days of Victoria’s reign, right up past the first world war, Le Queux turned out countless thrillers that gave us all the familiar leitmotifs of

David Tang

Kabul Notebook

The grandson of the King told my wife and me at dinner that we were ‘the only two tourists in Kabul’! In fact, we nearly did not arrive because on the eve of our flight, the aid-worker Gayle Williams was shot dead by the Taleban in broad daylight. The incident made world headlines and the Afghan capital suddenly more dangerous. I was at a shoot and all my fellow guns thought I would be mad to go. But I also knew that I would go mad if I did not. For assurance, I telephoned the inimitable Rory Stewart on the ground. He was too polite to insist on our visit,

Rod Liddle

The real lesson is: the public don’t like Jonathan Ross or Russell Brand

Rod Liddle says that the row over their radio ‘prank’ has exposed the fact that these two smug, overpaid performers aren’t really that popular. There are no fans to defend them There’s this new deal being offered by the telephone inquiry service 118 118. If you answer a question correctly, you get to ask as many questions as you want all day, free of charge, and they will answer them. The test question they asked me was: ‘What pop star was born in Finchley on January 21, 1971?’ The answer, obviously, is Emma Bunton, also known as Baby Spice. I got a message of congratulations from 118 118 and the

Tuesday

28 Oct 2008

Alex Massie

The Twenty/20 Virus

Regular readers may have noticed – but not necessarily been disheartened by – the absence of much cricket-related commentary here. There are a couple of reasons for its absence. First, I’ve been reading a lot in preparation for what I hope may become a longer-term project. Secondly, so much of the news these days is sufficiently depressing as to make one think that the game – that is to say, the game one knows and loves – is scarcely worth the candle. And yet, despite this, there are occasional sparks of light. Consider the comments of Darren Ganga, for instance. The West Indian is no-one’s idea of a titan, but

James Forsyth

The McCain campaign’s final week gets off to a bad start

Mike Allen reports that in conversation with him “a top McCain adviser one-ups the priceless “diva” description [of Palin], calling her “a whack job.” Now, this is—to put it mildly—unhelpful. The idea of Palin ‘going rogue’ is catnip to the press and this quote will dominate at least the first news cycle of the day. The McCain campaign is down in every key battleground state with a week to go. They are going to have to turn in one of the great final week performances in campaign history to turn this round. They cannot afford to lose news cycles to distractions like this. Instead, they need to remind the electorate

Matthew Dancona

Congratulations, Dr Maths

Sometimes Oxford, that much-maligned national institution, so often associated only with Brideshead and the Bullingdon, really gets it right. When I was a young Fellow at All Souls, there was one other member of college – not Isaiah Berlin – who liked the Happy Mondays and New Order, and his name was Marcus du Sautoy. I nicknamed him Dr Maths. He was a young mathematician whose references were almost too good to believe. He dressed like a student, had changeable hair colour, was a great cook, loved music and Arsenal, and spent his evening at theatre workshops. He was also, without a shadow of a doubt, the cleverest person I

James Forsyth

What public service does Russell Brand’s show perform?

Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross deserve all the opprobrium being poured on them over their phone calls to Andrew Sachs boasting about Brand’s relationship with Sachs’ granddaughter. Their behaviour was as pathetic as it was boorish. But there is a broader point here, what on earth is the public service justification for Brand’s show? Brand and Ross were providing precisely the kind of lowest common-denominator humour that advocates of the licence fee tell us would dominate the airwaves without public subsidy. Leaving aside the offensiveness of their calls to Sachs, there really does seem to be no justification for having the licence fee support the base comedy that Brand and

James Forsyth

The unanswered Ashcroft questions return

As soon as Nat Rothschild’s letter to The Times about George Osborne and Deripaska was published, it was obvious that it was only a matter of time before the Ashcroft issue got dragged into the spotlight again. Sure enough, today Rachel Sylvester devotes her column to Ashcroft’s tax and residency status. There is no getting away from the fact that the questions about Ashcroft are legitimate. As Rachel points out, “The Conservative Party has, however, already taken millions of pounds from a man who refuses to say whether he is resident and pays tax in this country…. The problem is that Lord Ashcroft, who grew up in Belize, refuses to

Monday

27 Oct 2008

Alex Massie

Department of Punditry

Oh dear. The days of the free lunch may be numbered: This blog aims to do one thing: track the forecasts of Britain pundits, bloggers and others on politics and elections, foreign affairs and economic trends. It is often said that there is no accountability for newspaper pundits – they can guess wrong time and again and see no consequences. With this blog and the way in which it highlights pundits’ forecasts, that may change. But our aim is not to catch out or embarrass pundits, or to record only mistaken predictions. We aim but to keep a record for posterity of all forecasts – those that are proved right,

Alex Massie

Britannia Sighs Again (This Time With Relief)

On the other hand, occasionally there is some good news. Plans for a “Britishness Day” have been dropped, it has emerged. The plan for a national holiday, like July 4 in the US or Bastille Day in France, was proposed as part of Gordon Brown’s plan to celebrate Britishness. It was one of the key recommendations of a citizenship review he commissioned from Lord Goldsmith last year. But minister Michael Wills told MPs that while some ideas from the review would be taken forward, there were no plans to introduce a national day. So at least we’re spared this naff embarrassment.

Alex Massie

Twittering

So, Twitter is the new rock’n’roll. Or something like that. Perhaps it is. Did you know, for instance, that Stephen Fry is a Twitterer? Well, he is and you can follow his feed here. (Mine is here, incidentally.)

James Forsyth

No hedge

James Surowiecki has a good primer on why nothing worked to counter the flurry of selling in the markets. Here’s the key part of his argument, but do read the whole thing: “Rating agencies and Wall Street analysts are always with us. But the most destructive procyclical force in today’s market is relatively new—hedge funds. There’s an irony here: hedge funds have been touted as a great countercyclical force. Because hedge-fund investors, unlike mutual-fund investors, usually can’t pull their money out on a daily basis, the funds were supposed to be able to take a longer-term view and pursue contrarian strategies (like the hedge-fund manager John Paulson’s huge bets against

James Forsyth

A way out of the Tory class pickle

Tim Montgomerie is running an excellent series on what the Tories should do next. One of his ideas is to move Eric Pickles to party chairman in an attempt to make the Tory top team more socially balanced. Certainly since David Davis’ resignation the Tory top team has appeared too posh. The problem has only been exacerbated by all the photos of George Osborne in his Bullindon Club outfit and the descriptions of Osborne’s holiday habits. Pickles would help offset this impression. The class card didn’t work for Labour in Crewe and Nantwich because they played it too crudely. It could be deployed far more effectively against the Tories by

Peter Hoskin

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 27 October – 2 November

Welcome to the latest CoffeeHousers’ Wall. For those who haven’t come across the Wall before, it’s a post we put up each Monday, on which – provided your writing isn’t libellous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency – you’ll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no topic, so there’s no need to stay ‘on topic’ – which means you’ll be able to debate with each other more freely and extensively. There’s also no constraint on the length of what you write – so, in effect, you can become Coffee House bloggers. Anything’s fair game – from political stories in your local

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 27 October 2008

Here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: James Forsyth notes the BBC’s odd sense of priorities, and lambasts Gordon Brown’s role in the current economic downturn. Peter Hoskin tracks the latest developments in ‘Yachtgate’. Stephen Pollard celebrates truffles. Melanie Phillips observes the bus to Planet Hedonism. Clive Davis reports on the US Presidential race. And Americano identifies the main reason why McCain is losing.

James Forsyth

The wisdom (?) of pundits

Over at Centre Right, Peter Cuthbertson has launched a new blog dedicated to tracking the accuracy of pundit predictions. This is a fun idea—albeit one that rather fills those of us who make predictions with dread—so if you see any good examples do email Peter.

James Forsyth

Osborne to step back from fundraising

Today’s papers report that following the Deripaska affair, George Osborne will no longer take a direct fundraising role. A source close to Osborne tells The Times, “Lessons have been learnt. From now on, George has decided that he will not be involved in discussions about individual donations from individual donors”. This is a sensible move. As shadow Chancellor, Osborne is too vulnerable to the appearance of conflicts of interest to play an active fundraising role. If he had carried on doing so, Labour would have made hay out of the issue. The Tories need to leave the business of fundraising to those like Michael Spencer and Andrew Feldman whose principal

Sunday

26 Oct 2008

Alex Massie

Britain’s Best Newspaper

Sure, you could read about an EU investigation into Peter Mandelson’s (dodgy) relationship with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. You might even enjoy the Observer telling Macavity Broon that he cannae escape responsibility for this recession. All fine stuff and worthy and useful and so on. But what you really want to read is this story about Geoge Osbourne’s alleged fascination with dog collars and rubber underpants. No “public interest” whatsoever. Great fun, in other words. God bless the News of the World.