Society

Ancient and Modern – 30 August 2008

Last time we saw how Socrates and Plato were among the majority of ancient thinkers who supported the ‘creationist’ theory of the world. But there was an ‘anti-creationist’ lobby too, led by the 5th-century Athenian atomists Leucippus and Democritus. Not that they set out to oppose the creationists; it was just that their understanding of the nature of the world led them, inevitably, to quite opposite conclusions. The atomists hypothesised that minute, unsplittable atomoi, below the level of sense-perception, were the basic stuff out of which the world was made. These atomoi grouped themselves in various ways to produce the world we see around us. Since these atoms were infinite

Dear Mary | 30 August 2008

Your problems solved Q. I have recently moved from New York to London to join my husband who is English and who works here. My problem is that when we are out together at, for example, early evening gallery openings or at the opera we often meet people my husband knows but who are new to me. Sometimes people will invite us to come and stay with them in the country or come to dinner. I am finding it very confusing to know what to say because my husband is always standing beside me smiling in so friendly a manner and nodding as though he wants to accept the invitation,

Alex Massie

The Glass Ceiling Will Shatter in 2012

If McCain loses in November there’s no guarantee that Sarah Palin will be a front-runner to secure the GOP nomination in 2012 (though I’d guess she will be a contender). But if McCain wins and, as seems possible, serves just one term then, clearly she would be. Equally, if Obama loses this year there’s no certainty that Hillary Clinton will automatically be the prohibitive favourite for the Democratic nomination in 2012 (though that too seems quite possible). But, one way or another, the combination of Hillary’s near-miss this year and Palin’s presence on the GOP ticket makes me think that it is more likely than not that a woman, even

Alex Massie

McCain’s decision making process

A question for the rest of us: Suppose a President McCain approached every problem, dispute or stramash with the same rigour, diligence and sweet consideration with which he seems to have chosen his running-mate? What might this tell us about a President McCain?

James Forsyth

The Palin pick

Talking to those Democrats who didn’t get the first flight out of Denver one picks up two conflicting emotions about the Palin pick: relief and fear. They are all happy that McCain has so neutered his attack on Obama’s experience; yes Obama was a state senator just four years ago but the person that John McCain—a 72 year old cancer survivor—has chosen to put a heart beat away from the presidency was the Mayor of a small Alaskan town then. But there is also real concern that John McCain might have finally found a domestic message; that he and Palin will run as reformers who are prepared to fight a

Roger Alton

Spectator Sport | 30 August 2008

The last time I saw Darren Gough in action was on the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special last December. The ruddy-cheeked stalwart of the Yorkshire and England fast-bowling attack doesn’t look like a natural for the more skinny-limbed athleticism of ballroom dancing, but he won the show with alarming ease, twirling across the floor with a light-footed sureness as if gravity didn’t exist (rather like Usain Bolt at the Olympics, come to think of it, who runs as if the ground wasn’t there). The Dazzler still turns out for Yorkshire (he’s club captain, best recent figures 2-62 off eight overs) but more to the point, he also presides over one

Competition | 30 August 2008

In Competition No 2559 you were invited to complete a poem starting ‘Come, friendly bombs, and fall on …!’ with the target of your choice. In a huge entry, Gordon Brown and his crew were by far the most popular destination for your WMDs (you may as well pack your bags now, mate). Other favourite targets of the Spectator-reading and competition-entering community were George Bush and his gang, yoof (especially its clothes), bad smells, graffiti, the Celtic fringe, Geordieland, Disneyland, The Archers, Crewe, Worcester, Kent, Heathrow, Brighton, Bath, Windsor and Eton, people who write nasty things about Slough, Tesco, plastic bags, Men (from a man) and Me (from two women).

City Life | 30 August 2008

The credit crunch reaches the home of the rotten apple and the ‘Rolexo’ watch James Gregory Pool III is an elderly, stooping Canadian with a most un-usual job. Every month he boards a plane from Canada with 200 sedated heifers and flies with them to Almaty to beef up and variegate Kazakhstan’s breeding livestock. He’s the archetypal eccentric foreign entrepreneur one finds in this eccentric Central Asian city. A recent trip threw up several such oddities: a German wine trader trying — and largely failing — to interest the Kazakhs in £100-a-bottle claret; a Norwegian flogging confessedly second-rate salmon to hotels and restaurants; a 19-year-old British geologist so driven to

And Another Thing | 30 August 2008

The spectacular increase in scientific knowledge during the last hundred years tempts me to ask: cui bono? We now live on average twice as long as in the early 19th century. But what does our ability to repair our bodies and fend off fatal diseases do except prepare us for a long twilight of Alzheimer’s and debility, a burden on our families and a reproach on ourselves. I recall a woman in her mid-nineties, who had led a life of duty, saying over and over again: ‘I have lived too long.’ I spend much of my time studying history, especially letters, diaries and biographies, and I see no evidence that

Global Warning | 30 August 2008

I think I should abandon the world: I am too easily irritated by it. I should follow the example of Xavier de Maistre, brother of the brilliantly reactionary philosopher, Joseph, and stick henceforth to my room. In his Voyage autour de ma chambre, de Maistre tells us that by describing his journey he is offering an infinite number of unhappy persons a perfect antidote to boredom, and that the pleasure of such a journey is proof also against the ceaseless envy of men. Moreover it is cheap, an advantage not to be sneezed at in time of rising prices. No sooner do I leave my house than I meet, or

Wild Life | 30 August 2008

The ‘No’ republic Georgia In Gagra, where Stalin had his Black Sea dacha, a dog bit my producer Alex. Since the USSR’s collapse Gagra has been in Abkhazia, an illegal, separatist region of Georgia. Not the place to find rabies vaccine. We raced to Sochi in Russia, overtaking Putin’s armoured columns pulling back from their blitzkrieg against Georgia. Here in a hospital soaked with dried blood from pugilistic Muscovite holidaymakers, Alex had his jabs. Next, the taxi driver — a cantankerous Armenian — attempted to rob us. The only thing I will miss about Abkhazia is the landscape: mountains above, sea below. Part of the natural charm is its arrested

Alex Massie

Hail to the Victors

I’ve another piece up over at Culture11, this time it’s a hymn to college football, the best of all American sports. Yes, really. Next week I’ll invite an American to write about cricket here. Coals to Newcastle and all that. Photo of the Big House in Ann Arbor by Flickr user Mollyali. Used under a Creative Commons license

Alex Massie

What do they know of Maggie, whom only Maggie’s legend know?

More National Review foolishness. This time from Jay Nordlinger: Will Sarah P. [Palin] be considered a woman — by the media, by the “chattering classes”? That is a question worth pondering. Possibly, she’ll be considered just a conservative Republican. Did anyone ever consider Mrs. Thatcher a woman — in a political-electoral context? The answer to this, as anyone with any knowledge of British politics could have told him, is a resounding, unequivocal Yes. Another easy answer to a stupid question. And yes, I should stop reading these people…

The week that was | 29 August 2008

On Americano James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson have been reporting from Denver, Colorado, on the Democratic National Conference. James thinks McCain has rolled the dice with his VP pick and the Democrat electoral challenge. Fraser thinks Obama is too triumphalist and Hilary Clinton is positioning for 2012 Peter Hoskin asks if Brown has bought more time and how to sell a Cabinet Sean Martin thinks timing is everything and that political correctness harms the fight against knife crime Daniel Korski outs the Conspirator in Chief Clive Davis shows what Obama is getting wrong Trading Floor travels to the Nordic paradise  

James Forsyth

McCain rolls the dice

A few weeks ago I was talking to a Republican who fretted that McCain wasn’t far enough behind. His worry was that the McCain campaign wouldn’t realise just how many risks it has to take to win. Well after McCain has tapped the young, inexperienced Alaska Governor Sarah Palin no one can make that argument anymore. The question is this is a sensible risk or a stupid one? The argument for it being sensible is that she is a woman, a Washington outsider, a reformer, someone who excites social conservatives but doesn’t scare moderates and understands energy issues at a time when high gas prices regularly come in the top

Is this independence?

Earlier this week, Russia formally recognised South Ossetia’s “independence”.  And now, as the Telegraph reports: Znaur Gassiyev, the Speaker of South Ossetia’s parliament, said the enclave would formally join Russia “in several years” or possible earlier. This had been “firmly stated by both leaders” during their meeting in Moscow. Tarzan Kokoiti, the deputy Speaker, predicted: “We will live in one united Russian state.”

James Forsyth

Not a great speech but an effective one

On a night which will live long in the memory, Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president. His acceptance speech was in parts stridently populist but in others presented Obama as the great conciliator. The speech as a text was not one of Obama’s best but it was delivered with the passion that he is often said to lack. When he thundered ‘Enough!’ about the last eight years the crowd was momentarily taken aback. This convention has been criticised for not being harsh enough on John McCain, Obama set about correcting that with surprisingly harsh attacks on his opponent. He repeatedly accused McCain of being out of touch and