Society

Wednesday

Melissa Kite

Canine manners have gone to the dogs

‘Do you want me to put my dog on the lead?’ shouted the woman on her phone, as she came towards me on the woodland path, her huge hound bounding ahead. It was not a polite question. It should have had ‘or what?’ on the end of it. Dave leapt into action and grabbed the lodger’s trouser leg. But the trouser pulling soon gave way to licking People not calling their dogs in and making them behave is normal. To be aggressively asked to state my dog etiquette preferences as an unruly, slobbering beast gains ground on me was a new one. I wanted to shout: ‘No! It’s fine! I

Taki

The changing face of the Eternal City

Rome To the Eternal City for the saddest of occasions, the funeral of the mother of Taki, 17, and Maria, 15, two of my four grandchildren. Assia was of noble birth and met my son John Taki at the Rosey school in Switzerland, where they both studied skiing and other such useful pursuits. They had a grand wedding at her ancestral home near Rome, and went off on their honeymoon on my boat with 12 of their friends. After the two children were born they separated but remained closer than they ever were while married. She fought for two years the ghastly leukemia that finally killed her at 41 years

Steerpike Steerpike

Newsnight’s bizarre NHS ‘birthday’ tribute

It’s the 75th anniversary of the creation of the National Health Service next week, which can only mean one thing: mass, ostentatious displays of affection for a creaking arm of the British state. Still, even Mr Steerpike was taken aback by how quickly our state broadcaster descended into bizarre jingoistic tub-thumping for ‘our’ NHS ahead of the anniversary. Last night the makers of Newsnight decided to capture the spirit of North Korea when they commissioned a children’s choir to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to the ailing health service on air. The Cambridge Children’s Hospital Choir did a lovely job of course, but was it really necessary for the Beeb to go

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

France erupts in violence after police shoot dead a teenager 

Much of Paris was a battleground on Tuesday evening as scores of youths rioted following the fatal shooting of a teenager by police. The 17-year-old, Naël (some reports spell his name as Nahel), was stopped by police at approximately 8.30 on Tuesday morning because of his erratic driving. According to reports, Naël had previous convictions for failing to stop at a checkpoint and driving without a licence. As two officers questioned the teenager through the window, the vehicle sped off and shots were fired. One hit Naël in the chest and he died at the scene.   Riot police were drafted in and at least 20 arrests were made; among

Niall Gooch

Does cricket suffer from ‘institutional racism’?

What a strange document the Independent Commission on Equity in Cricket (ICEC) has produced, in its ‘Holding up a mirror to cricket’ report. Rambling, explicitly political, antagonistic and poorly-argued, it ignores some obvious explanations for the ills it discusses, and fixates on irrelevancies. The authors situate their conclusions within the world of intersectionality and other well-worn academic buzzwords. This limits the usefulness of its conclusions because every problem is shoehorned into a particular framework, rather than being carefully considered on its own terms. Take, for example, the identification of a severe decline in cricket participation by black Britons. ‘Holding up a mirror to cricket’ ascribes this decline to various causes,

Tuesday

Austin Williams

When will the Tories get a grip on the post-Grenfell construction chaos?

It’s been more than six years since the Grenfell Tower fire killed 72 people and made many more homeless, yet the survivors – and families of those who died – are still waiting for answers. The Grenfell Inquiry, which launched a few months after the disaster, was meant to hold people to account, to question the management and design of high-rise buildings and to rebuild trust. Yet the only tangible results so far seem to have been the £70 million paid to an army of lawyers. The Inquiry has been labelled a ‘never-ending circus’ by the British-Nigerian novelist, Jendella Benson. It’s a description that is hard to disagree with. And while the

John Oxley

Prince William should house the homeless on his lands

The Prince of Wales has announced that homelessness will be his charitable focus while he awaits his eventual succession to the Crown. In an announcement this week, he pledged £3 million as the start of a lifelong commitment to tackling the issue, which will begin by funding ‘housing first’ schemes in six areas, taking the lead from Scandinavian approaches which aim to stop people falling between the cracks and sort them with accommodation before focusing on other issues in their life. There is a danger of being another wealthy man throwing money at a problem that others have already found impossible to solve It is a sensible choice for the

Monday

Alexander Larman

Where did it all go wrong for Harry and Meghan?

Even for those of us who are not well disposed towards the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, it is hard not to wish – occasionally – that they might catch a break. Yet apart from Harry’s well-judged and unostentatious appearance at the coronation, things have gone from bad to worse over the past six months for the couple. Tetchy High Court appearances; continuing estrangement with the Royal Family; and now the apparently total collapse of their wider media ambitions. Few falls from grace have been quite so swift. Anyone who listened to Meghan’s podcast – which has been canned by Spotify – will hardly be mourning its demise, any more

Simon Barnes

Why are killer whales attacking boats?

Orcas – killer whales no less – are on the attack. They have declared war on humanity. They are systematically destroying boats in uncannily coordinated attacks. They are taking revenge because White Gladis, an orca matriarch, was traumatised after being hit by a ship. The attacks began in the seas off Spain and Portugal but now they have spread to the North Sea. Is anyone safe? It’s clear that there are two stories being told at the same time. The first concerns the ethology (study of animal behaviour) of the odontocetes or toothed whales (including dolphins). The second is about the relationship between humans and nature. The two tales are

Saturday

Geoff Hill

A trophy hunting ban won’t save Africa’s wildlife

British rule over South Africa ended in 1910, but now parliament is busy with legislation that could have a devastating effect on its old colony. A landmark law to ban trophy hunting imports is making its way through the Lords. The Hunting Trophies Bill would prevent tourists importing animal skins, severed heads and carcasses of certain animals to the UK after shoots abroad. But the planned law has holes wide enough for a hippo to walk through. The crackdown may be well intended but it also betrays a lack of understanding about South Africa – and the trade many people, not least farmers, rely upon to survive. In South Africa, many farmers

Leo McKinstry

The self-delusion of ‘Bomber’ Harris

The scene in the German port was like a vision of hell. As the incendiary bombs rained down on Hamburg that hot summer evening, the centre of the city was engulfed by a conflagration so intense that it seemed to herald the Apocalypse. Trees were uprooted, buildings demolished, trains ripped from their tracks, roadways turned to boiling liquid. Thousands of people were asphyxiated or died of smoke inhalation as they sought shelter in underground cellars. Those who made it to rivers or canals fared little better, for the lethal heat continued to suck oxygen out of the air, while the fire was even spread across water surfaces by exploding oil tankers and the

Sean Thomas

UFOs or not – something is up

As famous capital cities of world-straddling superpowers go, Washington DC is somewhat disappointing. The grandiose urbanism is surely meant to resemble the boulevards of Paris, with the parks of London, but in reality the dreary post-modern/neo-classical bombast makes it looks like Tashkent married to Milton Keynes. A city that is planned to project power actually projects tedious, if reliable, stolidity.  But that, for my purposes, is the thing. Washington DC is nothing if not boring. And pompous. And self-consciously serious. And yet, over the last few years, months, even days, a story has been emerging, from this same ponderous city, which is mind-bustingly crazy, possibly world changing, yet often unnoticed or airily

Mark Galeotti Mark Galeotti

Putin faces challenge from his own creation

It took a characteristically long time for Vladimir Putin to respond to the coup-that-dare-not-speak-its-name launched by Yevgeny Prigozhin, but when his statement came, it was steeped in bitterness. And no wonder, for Prigozhin was essentially Putin’s creation, and we know that Putin’s greatest venom is reserved for those he considers traitors. An ex-con who moved into the hot dog business and then finer dining options, Prigozhin’s early restaurant business in 1990s St Petersburg was given a dramatic boost by the patronage of the deputy mayor, one Vladimir Putin. Prigozhin’s Concord business group expanded dramatically, moving first into supermarkets, then everything from real estate to advertising, but almost always on the

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Exiled Belarusian opposition calls for army to rise against Moscow

With Vladimir Putin facing armed insurrection from Prigozhin’s Wagner Group, the exiled opposition in Belarus has called for its military to assert independence from Russia. Valery Sakhashchyk, Opposition defence spokesman, has released a video where he addressed his countrymen and the 38th Airborne Brigade, which he once commanded and is regarded as still loyal to him. His video (and my translation) are below: ‘All thinking people understood that the Russian Federation was built on lies, corruption and lawlessness and that it will fall apart sooner or later. We are witnessing the beginning of the active phase of this process. We do not know for sure what will happen tomorrow. Perhaps

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

My dog has been cancelled by Pride

Bella is a three-year-old dog of indeterminate breed. I found her by the side of the road.  She is fearless, affectionate and cute, like many dogs, but her place in history is assured because as far as I can tell, she is the first dog in history to have been cancelled for failure to kowtow to Pride. It’s not her fault but mine. In this month of Pride, I received an email from Tractive, the Austrian company that manufactures GPS trackers for dogs, and that charges a monthly subscription so I can keep track of her on her daily excursions amongst the vines. It’s a smart system.  A small device

David Shipley

My battle with bureaucracy behind bars

On my first night in prison, I slept well. Perhaps the previous day’s stress and exhaustion played a part. Neither the thin rubber mattress, scratchy orange nylon blanket nor my feet hanging off the end of the bed stopped me falling into a deep sleep. Banging and shouting from other cells woke me a couple of times, but I soon slept again. When I woke, I felt surprisingly calm. My cellmate in HMP Wandsworth, Peter, seemed fine: stable, calm, not on drugs. And the bad thing I’d dreaded for years had finally happened. Here, imprisoned – sentenced to 45 months for fraud – I no longer had to torture myself

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

The French Connection and the trouble with streaming censorship

We are ten minutes into William Friedkin’s The French Connection and we’ve just seen our two heroes beat the shit out of a black guy. Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle (Gene Hackman) is a hard, cynical New York City police detective, a proto Dirty Harry who shoots first and asks questions never. His partner, Buddy ‘Cloudy’ Russo (Roy Scheider), is no less tough but more grounded, often having to pull Popeye back from the brink. They patrol an urban hellscape awash with drugs and crime and have identified the black guy (Alan Weeks) as a pusher. He earns his beating by pulling a blade and slashing Cloudy’s arm.  After they book him, Popeye chides

Friday

Sandy Rashty

The tragedy of Iraq’s Jews

Walk into my grandmother’s living room in north-west London, and you could be forgiven for thinking you had suddenly stepped into the Middle East. The coffee table is laden with treats, from homemade date-filled flatbreads to baklawa and nuts. Al Jazeera plays on the flatscreen, reeling off the latest news about the Israel-Palestinian conflict. In the corner of the room is a darbuka drum and my late grandpa’s backgammon set for anyone who fancies a game. In the kitchen there are two pots brewing: one making slow-steamed tea laced with cardamon, the other Arabic coffee ready to be poured into miniature cups. Unsurprisingly, my family are often here – along with the

Andrew Tettenborn

Brussels will regret its crackdown on Hungary’s migrant plan

Hungary, a magnet for numerous would-be migrants because of its 110-mile land border with Serbia, has taken its own steps to stem the flow. One is brutally physical: a twelve-foot razor wire fence. The other is legal. Three years ago, Budapest passed a law preventing anyone not already lawfully resident seeking asylum, except through nominated Hungarian embassies abroad, one of which was that in Belgrade. The application had to be made in person there: the embassy would then decide whether to issue a temporary travel document allowing entry to Hungary while the application was processed.  The object was entirely practical: requiring irregular entrants to leave Hungary in order to apply

Ali Kefford

The Titan deaths were utterly avoidable 

When the news broke that the Titan submersible was missing, naval experts immediately recognised that the chances of saving the lives of those on board were, realistically, tantamount to non-existent.  With rare agreement, they swiftly concluded that the kindest outcome for the five passengers would be that the submersible had imploded.  Hard-hearted as this may sound, their deaths were vastly preferable to the terrifying demise of gradually suffocating in a cold, inky darkness Ruptured parts of Titan’s titanium end caps found yesterday, mere metres from Titanic’s wreck, show that the vehicle did suffer from an abrupt, catastrophic hull collapse.  It may be that those on board were aware of a problem. But