Society

Wednesday

Catriona Olding

Life with Low Life: my happy years with Jeremy Clarke

‘Am I gonna die today, Treen?’ I kissed his cheek. ‘Darling, your oxygen, blood pressure and pulse are fine and you’re a good colour. Since you woke up you’ve had a poached egg on toast, plain Greek yoghurt with berries, granola and maple syrup, a Snickers bar, a piece of fruit cake, a baked fresh mackerel with tomatoes and a Mini Magnum. It’s two o’clock – if you do die it’ll be from gluttony.’ Jeremy was modest, kind, passionate and loving. He was a great laugh and a terrific dancer. We had a blast This was early May. Jeremy, paralysed from the chest down, was attached to three syringe drivers for

The Spectator

Is it possible to live without a bank account?

Of no account  Nigel Farage claimed that his bank has told him it will be closing his accounts, without giving him a reason, although he suspects it is because of his political views. Is it possible to live without a bank account? – According to the Financial Conduct Authority, there are 1.3 million adults in Britain who are ‘unbanked’. – A third of them do not want to have a bank account, sometimes because they have got into trouble with debt in the past. – There are 7.45 million ‘basic’ bank accounts designed to offer essential functionality for handling payments, without offering credit and other services. Around the houses How

Christopher Howse

Open and shut case: the evolution of windows

Upstairs rooms in new houses are likely to be darker because building regulations now demand they should be at least 3ft 6in from the floor. Given the stingy heights of rooms these days, this reduces the glazed area. The regulators are worried about window safety. ‘Is there a plague of people falling out of them?’ asks Nicholas Boys Smith of the Create Streets pressure group. He answers himself: ‘Of course not.’ There are two ideas of a window, if the history of words were to be believed. The English language sides with the notion of a vent: ‘wind-eye’ in origin. It’s not only for Anglo-Saxon sparrows flying into mead-halls; the

Peter Jones

What would the Athenians have made of Daisy Goodwin?

Daisy Goodwin, a 61-year-old married novelist and TV producer, has alleged that ten years ago she was molested by Daniel Korski, and said she felt ‘entirely justified’ in describing the alleged incident a decade later. She claimed that other women had come forward with ‘very interesting stories’ on the topic. What would the Athenians have made of this? An Athenian woman was a precious asset, supplying children for battle but, being too weak to fight, denied political decision-making. She was integrated into society within the family unit, with female friends and vital religious functions, and certainly holding views of her own (as Homer’s epics make clear). In the eyes of

Ivo Dawnay

How my brother-in-law Boris got me cancelled

Nigel Farage and I don’t have too much in common beyond liking a pint and a cigar. Yet I now discover a link: we are both PEPs, or ‘politically exposed persons’. Such a handle may not be a total surprise to Nigel. (He may not have been surprised, either, when Coutts said that it had closed his bank account simply because he didn’t have enough funds.) But it certainly was to me – especially as I found out from an official at the bureau de change in the baggage hall of Mexico City airport. As I proffered a couple of grubby $100 bills to change to pesos, I filled in

The Spectator

Letters: Prigozhin is the model of upward mobility

Prigozhin’s example Sir: Educationalists and policy advisers have long been concerned with identifying alternative routes of upward social mobility. The career of Yevgeny Prigozhin provides an illuminating example of precisely this (‘Crime and punishment’, 1 July). Instead of spending years swotting away at A-levels and business studies degrees, Yevgeny opted for hands-on commercial experience by running a hotdog stand in a big city. He was quick to recognise the value of physical fitness in the pursuit of ambition by engaging in regular training at a local gym. Networking was always high on his agenda, and he soon became close friends with an employee of the state intelligence agency who eventually

Susanna Gross

Bridge | 8 July 2023

I always look forward to seeing what Team Black are wearing when I go to international bridge tournaments. Their captain, Andrew ‘Bertie’ Black (founder of Betfair), picks a new team shirt for every event. At the recent European Transnational Championships in Strasbourg, they wore grey flat caps and Hawaiian shirts adorned with palm fronds. For next month’s World Transnationals in Marrakech, Bertie has already chosen a set of matching kaftans. My all-time favourite shirts were emblazoned with images of Einstein. But however much good cheer their outfits spread, don’t be lulled into lowering your guard – they are some of England’s very best players (David Gold and Tom Paske to

Aidan Hartley

The beauty of Boran cattle

The Farm, Laikipia Outside the nightjars were calling and a zebra brayed in the valley. The constellations were still bright as the dogs all piled into the Landcruiser with me for the drive out to the yards. During two years of drought we’ve been unable to sell cattle, which have cost us a fortune in hay, silage and feed. After the rains came at last in April, green grass sprouted across the farm until the pastures waved like wheat on the plains, fattening the livestock and returning life to the way it used to be. At the crush I busied about the scales as cowhands arrived, twirling their cattle sticks

Melissa Kite

The Co-op can keep its no claims discount

When I received an email from the Co-op telling me they had made a mistake with my car insurance, and I was owed money, I should have been pleased. I was not pleased. I was terrified. The letter included a reissued no claims discount of nine years, instead of the no years they had reduced me to, which was why I moved to another company. Lumbered with this Johnny-come-lately apology, I now had to contact my new insurers and try to explain the whole darn nightmare all over again. There was a crackle from the space station before she called out that I could email it to ‘customer sauces’ And

Taki

The pleasure and pain of reading

Gstaad There are lurid rumours circulating around this Alpine village that an international literature symposium has taken place, with some of the richest and more recent arrivals demanding that the arch suspect behind the alleged outrage deny it or else. ‘Say it ain’t so, Joe,’ screamed a nightclub freak at the suspect right on Main Street. The suspect’s name, incidentally, happens to be Thomas Gommes. Now I am the first to admit that reading can be a dangerous waste of time, especially when there are great mind-expanding shows to watch on large and small screens such as Batman, The Masked Marvel, Godzilla vs. King Kong, and other similarly spiritually uplifting

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Douglas Murray eviscerates the case for historical apologies

As America celebrated 4th July yesterday, it appears not everyone over the pond was keen to celebrate the country’s Independence Day. Picking up on the news that some Black Americans choose to mark Juneteenth (held on 19 June to celebrate the end of slavery) instead, panellists on Piers Morgan’s TalkTV show turned to debate. The Spectator’s very own Douglas Murray made an appearance, and was firm in shooting down the case for making historical apologies for the slave trade. Responding to Paula Rhone-Adrien who suggested there was value in present day leaders apologising for the painful legacy of slavery, Murray responded: ‘Well, it’s a kind of grievance competition. Your guest

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How Enoch Powell helped make the NHS

Who are the giants of the NHS? Just off Central Lobby in Parliament is a bronze bust of Aneurin Bevan, the man who set up the health service in 1948. I have a rose named after him growing in my garden. When Britain marks the 75th anniversary of the health service today, Bevan’s name will be everywhere as the man who gave this country taxpayer-funded, state-organised, universal healthcare.  The name you’re less likely to hear is Enoch Powell. Few even know that this Conservative politician was minister for health. Few know much more than one line of one speech, which he knew would ‘go up like a rocket’, and which

Tuesday

Joanna Williams

Why are high street banks teaming up with Stonewall?

Pride month is over but my local bank still has its rainbow-striped window display firmly in place. The LGBTQ+ theme continues inside with rainbow bunting galore. If you’re lucky enough to spot a member of staff, they’ll be wearing a rainbow lanyard and possibly a pronoun badge to boot. Today’s revelation that most high street banks are signed up to Stonewall diversity schemes will shock no one. Long after organisations such as the BBC, the Department of Health and even some universities, cut ties with the LGBTQ+ advocacy group over impartiality concerns, banks are still there, dutifully doling out money to Stonewall for the privilege of following its dubious guidance.

Charlotte Eyre

Why did a police officer tell me I was ‘hot’?

Poundbury in Dorset looked beautiful as it prepared for the King’s arrival. Gardeners were sprucing up flowers; painters were hurrying their ladders into vans; security officers and policemen were positioned on every street corner. But my encounter with the men tasked with keeping us safe left me feeling deeply uncomfortable. I was there with my 12-year-old daughter and mother and we took up a prime position outside the Monart Spa, where the King was to unveil a plaque. My daughter clutched a bunch of flowers so tightly that it lost most of its petals.  As His Majesty greeted the crowds, police officers made their way along the queues of people, straight-faced

Robert Lyman

No soldier should have been above the law in Afghanistan 

The public inquiry into alleged SAS war crimes in Afghanistan hears fresh evidence this week. Lawyers representing Afghan families argue that up to 80 civilians may have been victims of ‘summary killings’ by UK special forces between 2010 and 2013 in night raids in search of Taliban fighters.  The inquiry has led to some debate about how possible it is to uphold the rules of war in a messy, overseas conflict. These quandaries are nothing new. When Lance Corporal George MacDonald Fraser’s Border Regiment were fighting through central Burma in April 1945, Fraser admitted that when they got into the swing of fighting, killing the Japanese was fun. ‘It was

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

The mortgage pain is going to get worse

When the average two-year fixed mortgage hit 6 per cent last month, panic started to set in. For the 1.3 million homeowners set to renew before Christmas, many would now be facing interest payments three times higher than what they had originally paid. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt immediately called a meeting with lenders and customer representatives to formalise safety nets, including repayment holidays and moving people over to interest-only payments.  But this was always set to be the start – not the end – of mortgage pain. Today we learn from Moneyfacts that the average five-year fixed-rate mortgage has also now passed 6 per cent.  The last time five-year fixed rates

Matthew Lynn

Will Threads tame Elon Musk’s Twitter?

We will need tighter regulation. We will need new laws and controls. And we will have to organise boycotts of advertisers to bring it into line. Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter, and started to try and make the liberal-left’s favourite mouthpiece slightly more balanced, not to mention slightly more profitable, there have been endless demands to stop the libertarian billionaire from changing anything about it. Politicians such as the American democratic senator Amy Klobuchar have called for more content moderation and harsher punishment for spreading hate speech. Last October, the EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton taunted Twitter, saying ‘In Europe, the bird will fly by our European

Jawad Iqbal

Aussie cricketers have nothing to apologise for

The world of cricket suffers from an unjustified moral superiority complex. This explains the periodic howls of outrage when a player or team is caught acting in a manner summed up by the phrase ‘it’s not cricket’ — a catch-all sentiment that purports to speak of some higher purpose than just winning. The self-appointed cricket purists really need to put a sock in it The latest example is the overblown reaction to the Australian cricket team’s controversial stumping of Jonny Bairstow when the England batsman appeared to believe the ball was not in play during the final day of the second Ashes test. Even Rishi Sunak couldn’t resist the temptation

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Don’t be fooled by profiteering banks

What a handy distraction it makes for the banks to stand accused of closing down accounts held by Nigel Farage and others on the basis of their political views. It is a distraction because otherwise the big banking story this week would be a meeting between the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the large banks to discuss just why savings rates have failed to keep pace with mortgage rate rises. According to Moneyfacts, the average rate of a two year fixed-rate mortgage has climbed to 6.4 per cent. Meanwhile, savers with instant access accounts have to make do with a measly 2.4 per cent. That is a yawning gap which