Society

Saturday

Richard Orange

Winemaker to the maharajas

It’s not often your host has passed up dinner with Mick Jagger and the Maharaja of Jodhpur to take you to his country house for the weekend. But that’s what Rajeev Samant, the pioneer of India’s wine craze, lets slip as we begin the long drive north from Mumbai to his Sula vineyard. Samant has come a long way since he drove a battered old Fiat up this road in the early 1990s to become a farmer on a patch of his father’s land — a gigantic risk for a young man who’d just chucked in a lucrative job in California’s Silicon Valley. ‘Every day I thank my lucky stars,’

Lucy Vickery

Dickens on Dickens

Competition No. 2526: Mixed messages   You are invited to submit a newspaper article from the health pages which reveals that something previously thought to be bad for you has been found to boost longevity. Maximum 150 words. Entries to ‘Competition 2526’ by 2 January or email lucy@spectator.co.uk. In Competition No. 2523 you were invited to submit a review of one of Charles Dickens’s novels written by a character from another Dickens novel. The most frequently occurring bylines by far were those of Ebenezer Scrooge, Gradgrind, Wilkins Micawber and Alfred Jingle. I couldn’t read the Jingle entries without hearing the voices of Ken and Kenneth, the ‘Suits you, Sir’ tailors

Frank Keating

Lords of the ring

Another big fight on Saturday in Vegas: Britain’s welterweight Ricky Hatton vs the accomplished American Floyd Mayweather. Victory for the four-square brickhouse banger from Manchester will, you see, have him headline-hailed back home as Britain’s finest ever — totally preposterous, of course, as were the ditto hosannahs hurrahed from the hillsides just a month ago for the talented Welsh middleweight Joe Calzaghe. Prizefighting has been awash with hyperbole ever since Kid Cain won the decision against Sugar Ray Abel all those biblical aeons ago. I’ve crossed the pond for quite a few bloody late nights down the years and I admit that on days like today I still miss the

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

The teddy bear teacher was released from prison too soon

So the mop-headed ingenue teacher Gillian Gibbons has been released from her torment in Sudan without being horsewhipped or banged up for too long. The Scousers — Ms Gibbons is from Liverpool, naturellement — had insufficient time to organise a candlelit vigil for her or a minute’s silence at Anfield, but they did manage to festoon lots of railings with yellow ribbons and bouquets from the local garage. The world, you might think, never changes. The Sudanese government — arguably the worst administration on earth — can now bask in the knowledge that they are deemed by the West to be compassionate and conciliatory. The charges against Ms Gibbons —

Christopher Thompson

‘Zimbabwe is like a flipped coin in the air’

It’s summer and the purple flowers on the jacaranda trees have begun to bloom, but they’re little comfort to Zimbabweans in the middle of a dire economic crisis. You can tell it’s bad here because even the death of Ian Smith last month did not arouse much hostile comment. The domestic consensus is that Mugabe has managed both to follow in Smith’s tyrannical footsteps and to wreck the formal economy at the same time. This is Africa’s breadbasket turned basket-case and though the first EU-Africa summit in seven years starts this week and there are presidential elections in March next year, no one sees much prospect for change. It’s true

Archie Bland

A choice of first novels | 8 December 2007

Rarely has Nietzsche been taken so literally as in Ron Currie’s God Is Dead (Picador, £12.99), wherein the deity adopts the form of a Sudanese refugee woman called Sora, and is blown to physical and metaphysical bits by a Janjaweed bomb. Just before He dies, He wishes for someone he could pray to. That’s chapter one. Thereafter, everything goes to pot. In lieu of any religious ideology to fight over, war breaks out between the adherents of evolutionary psychology and postmodern anthropology. Africans worship the omniscient dogs that picked at Sora’s corpse; Americans adore toddlers, ‘tangible, blameless, and as cute as all hell’; the government struggles to keep people from

Friday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

You mean you still like rugby here?

Rugby blogging: Warren Gatland has coached in the English premiership, the Super 14 and been Ireland’s coach. And he’s still surprised that people in Wales think being Welsh coach is a big deal? New Wales coach Warren Gatland says he has been surprised by the level of media interest his first week in charge has attracted. The 44-year-old revealed the scrutiny has been far greater than anything he has ever experienced in his native New Zealand, another hot-bed of rugby. “I suppose I’ll just have to come to terms with the level of interest and media interest in the game,” he said. This is odd. The intense pressure that comes

Alex Massie Alex Massie

If you only see one documentary this year…

Public Service Announcement: the news that the CIA has taken to destroying videotape of its interrogations depresses but does not surprise. It also reminds me that you really ought to see Alex Gibney’s new documentary Taxi to the Dark Side when it is released in January. It’s a dispiriting, devastating indictment of the Bush administration’s detention and torture policies that have done so much* to destroy the United States’ reputation around the world (as well as, of course, increasing the dangers faced by captured US servicemen). Anyway, loony tunes conservatives will be able to ask why the Academy Hates America whe the movie is, as I’d bet it will be,

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Way We Live Now…

Christmas relationships, courtesy of DCist: A Christmas tree lot on Wisconsin Avenue at about 9 p.m.: A busy, attractive, professional, unmarried couple in their early 30s who are clearly still in their work clothes. Guy to tree-seller: “We’ll take this wreath.” Tree-seller to couple: “Don’t you want a Christmas tree?” Couple awkwardly look at each other. Girl: “We can’t commit to that right now.” Picture of old-time DC tree-sellers from here.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The economic storm clouds gather

I’m not superstitious, but if I was Gordon Brown I wouldn’t take much comfort in tonight’s figure for the one-month LIBOR interbank interest rate. It’s an ominous 6.66% – having fallen just 0.09 percentage points since the 25-point cut in Bank of England base rate. The more important three-month LIBOR is down a paltry 3 points to 6.61%. This is the market bank rate which will affect our mortgages: it is what matters. And its not going anywhere fast. Ray Boulger from John Charcol has just talked me through it. Most mortgage lenders are just ignoring the BoE rate cut, he says. Egg has today cut its Standard Variable Rate

Matthew Dancona

Why teaching nonsense makes sense

There is more than enough dumbing down in modern education without seeing it where it doesn’t exist. The new Ofsted report complaining that under-11s are being taught too much Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll and Spike Milligan is especially wrong-headed. For a start, it is impossible for anyone of any age to have too much Milligan: a meaningless phrase. Secondly, the report is leadenly illiterate in its approach to nonsense poetry: as Noel Malcolm explains in his excellent book on English nonsense, there is a rich strand in our nation’s literature that flows from a sense of the absurd and a crazy experimentalism with language. More to the point, this sort

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The Jewish Chronicle on how they got the Abrahams interview

The Jewish Chronicle calls to explain further following my earlier post. Jenni (with an i – my apologies) had heard Abrahams might be at the dinner and had set out to corner him. But the interview in question was not that night. It had come in dribs and drabs. “We had several conversations with him,” says Richard Burton, the managing editor, as they were trying to pin him down: notes through door and everything. And during these conversations (which Abrahams may not consider to have been a formal interview, but there you go) they jotted down his comments. And woosh: today’s exclusive.  So who will hear from Abarahams next? A

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Dinner with Abrahams

Amidst all this mystery about the Jewish Chronicle’s interview with Abrahams, an interesting aside springs to mind. I am told that Abrahams was a late arrival to the Anglo Israel Association dinner at the Savoy on Tuesday. For a laugh, they pointed him in the direction of all the hacks – including one Jenny Frazer from the JC. You can imagine her delight: a boring work night out had just got a lot more interesting.   Now, if this were me I’d chat away to Abrahams as casually as I could then rush off to the loo and jot down what he said. Ms Frazer this morning told CoffeeHouse that

The Spectator

The struggle takes many forms | 7 December 2007

Nick Robinson has a great little story about when Gordon Brown’s photo shoot with  the fashion photographer David Bailey. My favourite story of the week comes from the studios of David Bailey where the daddy of all photographers was taking pictures of the PM for the magazine GQ. “Do you use ever use digital instead of film?” asked Brown’s right hand woman Sue Nye. “Nah” drawled Bailey “digital’s like socialism – it flattens everything out and makes everything the same”. Bailey’s laughter at his own joke was met, I’m told, by an explanation that that’s not really what socialism was… Well at least the Labour left will be glad to

Thursday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

GOPolycephaly

I’m not quite sure why this hasn’t received more attention, but didn’t Mike Huckabee just propose an alliance with Rudy Giuliani to take down Mitt Romney? Seems like it to me. Let’s go to the Youtube Debate transcript: I am Joseph. I am from Dallas, Texas, and how you answer this question will tell us everything we need to know about you. Do you believe every word of this book [the King James version of the Bible]? Specifically, this book that I am holding in my hand, do you believe this book? Cooper: I think we’ve got a question. Mayor Giuliani? Huckabee: Do I need to help you out, Mayor,

Alex Massie Alex Massie

What an embarrassment!

Mitt’s Mightiest Fan, K-Lo, on the speech: I think a non-talking-head American watching the speech might be embarrassed at the thought that any American might be asked to prove he’s qualified to be president despite his religion. Really? What if the candidate were a Scientologist? Or a Jehovah’s Witness? Or, shudder, a Muslim? I think most Americans would demand to know more about that candidate’s religious views in those circumstances. I think Kathryn would too. Equally, it seems entirely proper that Huckabee’s belief in Creationism be weighed when assessing his candidacy. If you believe religious faith is a necessary condition for the Presidency – and clearly many people, including K-Lo

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Better than a chaffinch, I suppose

Mike Huckabee might not be ready for prime time. Here he is on national security: During the Cold War, we had hawks and doves, but this new war requires us to be a phoenix, rising reborn to meet each new challenge and seize each new opportunity. Really, governor? Yes, really: When the sun rose on September 11, we were the only superpower in the world; when the sun set that day, we were still the only superpower, but how different the world looked. During the Cold War, you were a hawk or a dove, but this new world requires us to be a phoenix, to rise from the ashes of

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Will the rate cut work?

“Interest rates are cut for the first time in two years, so does that mean we can spend more this Christmas?” so runs the headline from Radio One’s Newsbeat. As so often, it cuts to the chase. The million dollar question is how will lenders respond to the rate cut? How much clout does the bungling Bank of England have? For most of the last 20 years we have assumed a direct relation: base rate cut means lower mortgages and store-card rates.  But after the summer credit crunch, the BoE is losing credibility and clout. “It’s been running a ‘how not to” guide for monetary policy’ as one appalled banker

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Ukraine’s Iron Lady

With today’s news that Yulia Tymoshenko, one of the key figures in the Orange Revolution, is set to return as Prime Minister of the Ukraine, it is well worth re-reading the interview that Allister Heath did with her in May last year. What’s particularly interesting–apart from her saying that Margaret Thatcher is her role model–is the tough line that she takes on the question of Russia and her country’s energy independence.