Society

Saturday

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 1 March 2008

Q. I suffer from a form of visual Spoonerism (in New College chapel Warden Spooner concluded, ‘in the sermon which I have just been preaching, wherever I have said Aristotle I have meant St Paul’). I often recognise a person as somebody completely different. The other day I went to a private view at a Bond Street gallery and confidently greeted our host as Gerry. I thought he seemed a little cool. As we left I said a cheerful ‘Goodbye, Gerry’. Actually it turns out that his name is Christopher, and I know perfectly well the difference between Christopher and Gerry. What am I to do to remedy this unfortunate

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 1 March 2008

This is what Stubbs’s Constitutional History of England says: ‘That individual members should not be called to account for their behaviour in Parliament, or for words there spoken, by any authority external to the house in which the offence was given, seems to be the essential safeguard of freedom of debate. It was the boon guaranteed by the king to the Speaker when he accepted him, under the general term, privilege.’ This is still the case, but people don’t understand it any more. They keep thinking that some external authority should control MPs. They do not realise that, if this happened, they would be taking away their own power, which

Tamzin Lightwater

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody | 1 March 2008

Monday Thank goodness I keep a diary. I want to put on record here so that future generations of Lightwaters can see that it was my idea to have Our Leader encounter a great white ‘shark’ while surfing in South Africa! Moreover I picked out the blue, Malibu-cut Vilebrequins Dave was wearing while fleeing the ‘shark’. And I was in charge of the photos of him emerging from the sea looking like a dark-haired Daniel Craig. Of course Poppy and Suzie are trying to take all the credit but Jed knows it was me. He says if he can find someone else to take over pot plant and ambience management,

Toby Young Toby Young

Status Anxiety | 1 March 2008

I can’t afford to send my children to private school — and I’m relishing the cachet This morning I received a letter from Norland Place, a much sought-after private school on Holland Park Avenue, informing me that my son Ludo had been awarded a place in September 2009. There was a time when this would have been a cause of rejoicing in our household, but not any more. My wife and I applied to the school a couple of years ago, back when we only had one other child. Now that we have three and are about to have another, taking up the place is unthinkable. Sending two children to

Peter Jones

Ancient & modern | 01 March 2008

Macavity-like, Brown was never there when he was Chancellor, and rarely seems to be there now he is Prime Minister. When he is, he is always blaming someone else or avoiding the question. This is highly reminiscent of the second Roman emperor Tiberius who, like Brown, was following someone, Augustus, who had revolutionised the whole system. But there is a significant difference between them. Emperor was the last thing Tiberius wanted to be. Brown has been dreaming of nothing else. The Roman historian Tacitus could not believe that at Augustus’ death in ad 14 Tiberius was so antipathetic to the idea of assuming power. He therefore considered him duplicitous, cloaking

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Hillary plays her final card

I’m out in Texas right now ahead of the primary here on Tuesday, a must-win contest for Hillary Clinton is she is to maintain a realistic chance of winning the Democratic nomination. The polls currently show that Hillary has fallen behind in the Lone Star state and yesterday her campaign wheeled out its final weapon, the argument that Obama is dangerously inexperienced for a president. A new TV ad asks voters who they wanted to answer the phone at 3am in the White House in an international crisis. The ad doesn’t really work as most voters won’t instantly think of Hillary when asked that question but it is pretty much

Lucy Vickery

A life examined | 1 March 2008

In Competition No. 2533 you were invited to submit an obituary of a well-known fictional character, which gave you the opportunity to try your hand at what is an often underrated art. The only fictional character that I am aware of who has been honoured with an obituary in the real world is Hercule Poirot, whose death was marked by a front-page splash on 6 August 1975 — in the New York Times, no less. There was a record postbag this week, with a welcome influx of newcomers. Popular subjects included William Brown, Sherlock Holmes and various members of the cast of the Pooh stories. While some of you stuck

Robert Shepherd

The real tributaries of Enoch’s ‘rivers of blood’

What was in Enoch Powell’s mind when he made his explosive ‘rivers of blood’ speech on immigration 40 years ago this spring? His repetition of wild allegations against immigrants made by his constituents and his apocalyptic warnings of bloody racial conflict ended his front-bench career. Overnight Powell was transformed into a folk-hero for many and a hate-figure for others. Four decades later, the fallout from his outburst is still toxic, as a Tory parliamentary candidate, Nigel Hastilow, discovered to his cost last autumn when he echoed the view sometimes muttered outside polite society and stated that Enoch had been right. Unlike the Archbishop of Canterbury speaking recently about sharia law,

Roger Alton Roger Alton

Spectator Sport | 1 March 2008

With Shilpa Shetty, Lachlan Murdoch, Aussie feist-meister Andrew Symonds and more Indian billionaires than you can shake a stump at, the eye-watering player-auction for the new Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL) in Mumbai last week was never going to be something tailored for the Long Room at Lord’s. But this should be good for cricket, and very good for good cricketers. Money well spent you might say. In case you missed it, some of the world’s best players were sold off to a new set of eight big-city franchises across India — Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Jaipur (where young Lachlan’s Emerging Media owns the team) among others — for mind-blowing sums

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

IQ2 goes back to school

Lloyd Evans reports on the latest Spectator / Intelligence Squared debate Intelligence Squared squared up to intelligence last Tuesday. How do we get the best from our brightest youngsters while not chucking the dimwits on to the educational scrapheap? Chris Woodhead, former chief inspector of schools, proposed the motion, ‘All schools, state as well as private, should be allowed to select their own pupils.’ With his wry, memorable turn of phrase, he derided the idea that selection equals segregation. ‘It’s a myth that the sharp-elbowed middle classes colonise the best schools while the working classes lose out.’ Teachers, he said, were sick and tired of Whitehall diktats. And those opposing selection

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Another voice | 1 March 2008

The truth about the Auschwitz ‘gimmick’ row is that Labour exploited Jewish sensitivities David Cameron, said the Times last Saturday, ‘was facing intense political criticism last night after including student “trips to Auschwitz” on a list of government gimmicks.’ The Daily Mail was more shrill: ‘Pressure was piling on David Cameron last night to apologise,’ said the paper. ‘Senior figures from the Jewish community expressed dismay after an attempt by the Conservative leader to attack the Prime Minister spectacularly backfired.’ The Guardian confined itself to saying that Mr Cameron had ‘found himself at odds’ with Jewish leaders after including student trips to Auschwitz ‘in a list of “Gordon Brown’s 26

Friday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Drudge Breaks Media Silence on Princes Mission

A defence* of Royalty: Prince Harry in Afghanistan. Oddly stirring stuff, actually. Good for him and, amazingly, good for the MoD and the media for ensuring that the Prince’s comrades were not endangered by his presence on the front line becoming a matter of public knowledge until now. UPDATE: Fraser says some of the most prominent British bloggers knew of Harry’s deployment and kept the news to themselves too. This ain’t a new media vs old media tussle, it’s common sense and, in this instance, a certain courtesy to a young soldier who wants to serve his country without imperiling his comrades. Nothing significant is gained by “breaking” an agreed

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Lessons from the Tomb Raider

It’s easy, of course, to mock actors and pop stars and their worthy pretensions to saving the planet. But whatever else one may say of her, I think it’s true that Angelina Jolie takes her role as a UNHCR “ambassador” more seriously than most. Anyway, she has an interesting and persuasive op-ed in the Washington Post today: My visit left me even more deeply convinced that we not only have a moral obligation to help displaced Iraqi families, but also a serious, long-term, national security interest in ending this crisis. Today’s humanitarian crisis in Iraq — and the potential consequences for our national security — are great. Can the United

Johan Wennstrm

Swedish lessons

As one of the many conservatives who cast his vote for Sweden’s centre-right Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt in September 2006, I found it uplifting to read the speech he gave at the LSE on Tuesday night. It included a number of controversial but important statements. He said the root of Sweden’s problems, economic and educational, is the radical ‘socialist’ policies which ‘swept over Swedish society’ in the 1970’s; policies that were about ‘questioning free enterprise’ and ‘sharp tax rises’. Unfortunately, Reinfeldt has never dared to say this in front a Swedish audience. His government has put the brakes on the rising unemployment figures by making it more profitable to work,

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Depositing pain

The decision by Lloyds TSB to stop offering mortgages to anyone who has a deposit of less the 10% opens up what could be a striking divergence in fortunes.  Those with enough equity will not really notice the impact of the credit crunch. First Direct, for example, was recently offering a 4.75% fix to those with more than 25% equity. It is to the poorer that loan rates will shoot skywards.  So Middle England may not notice the crunch, or any slide in its property prices. The pain will be felt, and repossessions visited, on those without a parental nest egg to deposit. And this pain may well not be picked

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Thinking of Afghanistan

Prince Harry’s brave service in Afghanistan should make us all think more about that country, the forgotten front in the war on terror. As Roger Cohen points out in The New York Times, Europe’s commitment to it has been pitiful. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO secretary general, concedes that the alliance is 10 percent short of its requirement. While the febrile nature of the political situation is summed up by the fact that,  “Zalmay Khalilzad, the Afghan-born U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has been getting daily calls from Afghan politicians urging him to run for president next year.”

Thursday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Tiger vs Roger?

Ah, the great Tiger Woods vs Roger Federer debate continues. Muttblog suggests most scribblers taking part in this Slam-Fest plump for Woods as, comparatively speaking, the greater of the two. He highlights this Steve Sailor post which makes some salient points. The fact that each sport contains four majors each year allows for superficial but misleading comparisons. Take this Michael Wilbon column for instance: Excuse me, but Roger Federer’s recent stretch of dominance, impressive by any historical standard for tennis, doesn’t come close to Tiger’s. Winning a tennis tournament requires beating six opponents, not the field. Tiger doesn’t ever have the luxury of having another opponent take out, say, Mickelson

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

520 abortions every day

I would have missed this ONS study had it not been to the very last line in the Guardian’s story about the number of over-40s giving birth. “In other findings, conceptions outside marriage increased from 47% to 56%,” it said.  Now, I’ve blogged before about most births (amongst non-immigrants) being outside marriage this year for the first time, but it turns out it has long been true for conceptions. One figure too grim for newspapers to print: of the 866,000 conceived in Britain in 2006, just 78% made it to the maternity ward. Our abortion rate is 22%.  The ONS study doesn’t include miscarriages or illegal abortions, thus magnifying the

Wednesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Klansmen for Barack?

Mike Crowley has a very droll piece in this week’s TNR on how white supremacists seem a) resigned to a President Obama and b) relatively OK with that. It’s a testament of sorts to Hillary Clinton that, by virtue of her cartoonish image as a leftist man-hating shrew, she manages to arouse more vitriol among white supremacists than a black man. Meanwhile, white racists absolutely despise John McCain for his support of George W. Bush’s immigration reform plan, which they view as a dire threat to America’s European-based culture. “I don’t think Obama will be any more negative for the United States than Hillary or John McCain,” explains [David] Duke.