Society

Wednesday

Jonathan Ray Jonathan Ray

Wine Club: another Spectator scoop from Chateau Musar

Whoop, whoop, it’s another Spectator scoop! Mighty Ch. Musar of Lebanon has just released its latest – 2017 – vintage, and wily Johnny Wheeler has ensured that readers are the first in the UK to get their hands on it. This wine is not available anywhere else until Easter and, with Musar repositioning the brand (aka putting the price up a fiver a bottle), you won’t find it cheaper. If Musar’s your thing – and it’s certainly mine – do get stuck in. Yes, the 2017 Ch. Musar White (1) is an acquired taste but it’s one that I have most definitely acquired and trust you have/will too. It’s hard

Mary Killen

Dear Mary: Will sharing a bed ruin our friendship?

Q. I am a 29-year-old gay man. About four months ago I met a man at least 30 years older than me. We have become very good friends with many shared interests. I am certain that my friend (let’s call him ‘Tom’) has enjoyed the friendship as much as I have. It has been entirely platonic, even in situations where ‘something’ might have happened. We have often discussed making a trip to Paris (in particular to go to the opera). We had a very straightforward conversation about the cost of the trip and it is clear that I am to be his guest in April, for when the trip is

Toby Young Toby Young

When is a crime not a crime?

On Monday, Suella Braverman published draft guidance designed to rein in the police habit of recording a ‘non-crime hate incident’ (NCHI) against a person’s name whenever someone accuses them of doing something politically incorrect. You may think I’m exaggerating, but in 2017 an NCHI was recorded against Amber Rudd, then the home secretary, after an Oxford professor complained about her references to ‘migrant workers’ in a Tory party conference speech. NCHIs can show up on an enhanced criminal record check even though, by definition, the person hasn’t committed a crime. The concept first surfaced in guidance published by the College of Policing in 2014 and within five years 119,934 non-crime

The Spectator

2593: Capital Development – solution

1A, 7A, 18A, 40A, 46A and 47A are all on the new Elizabeth Line, which appears in the grid when 25A, 26A and 27A are entered correctly. First prize  Nick Huntley, DarlingtonRunners-up  John Fahy, Thaxted, Essex; Heather Weeks, London SW1

Fieldfare

2596: Charades

Unclued lights provide three definitions each of a whole word and of its two syllables. Solvers should highlight the word where it appears on this page. Across 1    In clinic came up against a barman (7)6    Walker and cyclist on stone (7)12    Polishes round back of altar in hallowed places (7)14    Bird in casserole with two eggs? (5)15    Stitch up salmon (5)17    Not good, arguing about old Eurasian languages (6)19    A label: ‘Pierce immediately’ (2,1,6)21    Cattle pens leak regularly, I fume (7)24    Nurses aim to treat swellings (9)26    Metal and its symbol to use finally in somewhat decadent period (6,3)29    A pain when my monarch is put out of African land (7)32   

Lucy Vickery

Spectator competition winners: the Lord’s Prayer as a sonnet

In Competition No. 3290, you were invited to recast the Lord’s Prayer as a sonnet. The late Frank Kermode reckoned that any schoolboy can write a sonnet, but this challenge was a deceptively simple one; as Nick MacKinnon observed: ‘the Lord’s Prayer is very efficient’. Nonetheless, it drew a large and witty haul, in which some competitors chose to put more of their own spin on the original than others, making a pleasingly varied entry. Jennifer Zhou, Ann Drysdale, John Wood, George Simmers, David Silverman, Lachlan Rurlander and Simon May stood out, but the £20 prize goes to the seven below. Our Father, Sister, Mother – gender-freecelestial deity, by all

Charlie Walsham

Will the BBC own up to its Covid impartiality failings?

As Gary Lineker resumes his duties as the BBC’s highest-paid employee, it is worth appreciating that one of the Corporation’s greatest strengths is that its own journalists are willing and able to criticise the organisation in their coverage without professional repercussions. The broadcaster’s many critics should recognise this self-flagellation for what it is: a vital demonstration of transparency. Unfortunately, having worked at the heart of BBC News throughout the pandemic, I have learned that this readiness to admit errors publicly only extends so far. Impartiality should be the starting point of everything BBC News does. Instead, editors are working backwards when it comes to Covid. They are skewing contemporaneous coverage

Luke McShane

No. 743

Black to play. Ponomariov-Dragnev, Serbia 2023. Which move allowed Black to seize his chance on the queenside? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 20 March. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1 Rf8+ Kxf8 (or 1…Kg7 2 Rf7+) 2 Bh6+ Ke7 3 Bg5+ with a perpetual check. Last week’s winner Gladys Chadwick, Walton, Warrington, Cheshire

The Spectator

How often do banks fail?

Eyes on the ball Viewing figures for Match of the Day rose by 500,000 when Gary Lineker was suspended from the show for tweeting about the government’s asylum bill and his fellow pundits walked out on strike in support.  – First broadcast on the then new BBC2 on 22 August 1964, the show was initially controversial not because of the views of its presenter Kenneth Wolstenholme but because football clubs feared it would discourage fans from attending games.  – They need not have worried: the first episode, featuring highlights of Liverpool vs Arsenal, attracted just 20,000 viewers.  – Viewing figures rose sharply, however, after England won the World Cup in

Luke McShane

Varsity match

The great tradition of the Varsity match rolls on, ringing in the 141st edition earlier this month at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall, London. Oxford were slight favourites, but the match finished on a knife edge. The game on board 2 was particularly hard-fought, with both sides having winning chances at different stages. This diagram shows the position after the advance 56 f4-f5, with Jan Petr (Cambridge) playing White. Striving to win the game, he has advanced his pawn to f5 instead of capturing the pawn on d3 (which led to a straightforward draw). Jan Petr (Cambridge)-Emil Powierski (Oxford) Varsity Chess Match, March 2023(See left diagram) White’s move

Gus Carter Gus Carter

Sexual politics is damaging young men

Masculinity has been in crisis for as long as anyone can remember. The usual explanation is that post-industrial society doesn’t much care for brawn. We’re all office dwellers now, mutely churning out spreadsheets for other spreadsheet producers. The theory makes sense as far as it goes. But something else has changed much more recently: a rejection of the very concept of masculinity. The polling company YouGov found that just 8 per cent of people have positive views of white men in their twenties, by far the lowest of any ethnicity or age group. Males are routinely presented as inherently dangerous, aggressive and animalistic, incapable of controlling their own instincts. You

Douglas Murray

The overuse and abuse of ‘fascism’

I would be very happy if I never had to hear the name Gary Lineker again. He was a vague presence in my childhood thanks to his playing the game of football and his advertising of a brand of delicious, obesity-inducing crisps. But after more than a week in which his name has dominated every news bulletin, I have serious Lineker-fatigue. I feel as one might had we just had a fortnight of discussion and talk of the collapse of major institutions due to a political view expressed by Russ Abbot. To speak plainly, I do not care to hear the views of a retired footballer or crisp-seller on the

Ivo Dawnay

Tbilisi is a tinderbox

Never judge a country by its airport road. Georgia’s, from international arrivals to the heart of Tbilisi, is impeccable. The George W. Bush highway (yes, really) is smooth asphalt, with chic electric cars humming down avenues, punctuated by spanking new Lukoil petrol stations with fuel at dirt-cheap prices. It is impeccably clean. And when you reach the parliament building downtown, they have almost finished clearing up the detritus from three consecutive nights of protests, rubber bullets, tear gas and riot police. Tbilisi’s highway was built during the country’s most recent economic sugar rush, when a good-looking young president, Mikheil Saakashvili, was in his brief but glamorous heyday. As a Kennedy-esque

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Why shouldn’t BBC staff express opinions?

There was a kind of peak BBC Radio 4 moment last week when the network put on a play called Bess Loves Porgy. As you might have guessed, this was a rewrite of Porgy and Bess, the twist being that Porgy was a black, disabled grime rap artist in south London. I hope it went down well with the millions of black, disabled grime rap artists in south London who are listeners to Radio 4. The network was, in the same week, continuing its serialisation of Georges – ‘Testament’s bold new adaptation of Alexander Dumas’ tale of racial intolerance’. They are absolutely obsessed with racism at R4, in a kind

The Spectator

Letters: The problem with celebrity TV presenters

Channel anger Sir: I fear that in your leading article (‘Our duty to refugees’, 11 March) you find yourself in the same bind as the Labour party and at odds with majority opinion in the country. While people in the UK are vexed by the Channel crossers, this is only because it is the most obvious example of the failure of the political class to control immigration as a whole. The population of the UK is increasing fast: this is almost wholly as a result of immigration. Despite government propaganda about the necessity of migration to ensure an adequate supply of labour to support an ageing population, it remains very unpopular.

Peter Jones

The classical case for Stanley Johnson’s knighthood

Boris Johnson wants to give his father a knighthood. How very classical of him! Xenophon said that it was ‘the mark of a man to excel his friends in benefaction and his enemies in harm’ and no one was more of a friend than a man’s father. This mantra to do good to your friends and harm to your enemies was endlessly and publicly repeated (so litigation between family members and injustice against a relation caused great embarrassment). But how did one make friends beyond parents and kinsmen? Mutual benefit was the answer, the argument being prudential. Pericles argued that Athenians stood out from the crowd in this respect: ‘We

Cosmo Landesman

Confessions of a class tourist

Pundits writing for a young audience are always telling readers to ‘stop pretending to be working-class!’ and stop ‘fetishising the working class’. They seem more angered by the imitation of class than the iniquities of class itself. Singer Lily Allen and the rap star Yungblud have both been denounced on Twitter for – to paraphrase E.P. Thompson – the faking of the English working class. Personally, I don’t understand the fuss. For most of my youth I pretended to be working -class – and so did most of my middle–class mates (sorry, friends). And we were not alone. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the voices of youth all sounded working–class,

Mary Dejevsky

What striking doctors don’t like to admit

The more junior doctors have tried to justify their three-day withdrawal of labour over the past week, the more damage, or so it seems to me, they have done to their cause – whatever that cause may be. On the final day of their strike – in pursuit of a 35 per cent pay rise – reports are piling up of cancelled operations, postponed cancer treatments and more people pushed towards the private health sector.  Some of the striking doctors’ work is apparently being covered by consultants – to which I, and no doubt many others, would say: bring it on. For years, consultants have delegated far too much of

Susanna Gross

Bridge | 18 March 2023

Imagine you’re at an auction. As it begins, you turn to the other bidders and, with a few short words, scare them into remaining silent. Moments later, the hammer falls and you pick up a complete bargain. In real life, you’d need to use outright threats to stop people bidding. Not so in bridge – it happens all the time. It’s the power you wield when you’re ‘at favourable vulnerability’ – in other words, when your opponents are vulnerable and you’re not. Being at favourable means you can bid far more pre-emptively and aggressively than your opponents: you have less to fear from the double card. I’ve never forgotten the