Society

Wednesday

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The apotheosis of Starmerism

To celebrate this week’s 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the European Movement has launched a ‘powerful intergenerational film’ which, it says, ‘exposes Brexit as the biggest threat to peace since the 1994 ceasefire’. The film contains ‘true stories of how… Europe’s mission, commitment and hope for a peaceful future transformed Northern Ireland, changed the course of history and inspired the world’. Not a lot of people know that. Even fewer know that ‘the only organisation with the courage and commitment to… win the Battle for the Soul of our Country – is the European Movement.’ Mere raving? Such thoughts are not a million miles from EU/US orthodoxy. In

The Spectator

King Charles and a tale of two coronations

The United Kingdom is one of the last countries in the world to host lavish coronation ceremonies. Europe’s new kings and queens keep these events low-key, whereas the British monarchy continues to be marked by splendour and mass popular appeal. This time last year, there were 3,874 applications for road closures to mark street parties to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee. A coronation is, of course, far more historic. Yet with just three weeks to go, there have only been 274 street party registrations. In many ways, the disparity is understandable. Elizabeth II had built up huge personal affection over a lifetime’s service. There was also a strong unspoken sense

The Spectator

China vs Taiwan: how do their military forces measure up?

Conditions of carriage The King and Queen will travel to and from the coronation in a carriage which boasts heating and electric windows. Are these uncommon luxuries? Popular Mechanics magazine in the US reveals that the King is not alone in expecting mod cons in his carriage: even the Amish employ various modern technologies in their horse-drawn buggies. Their $8,000 vehicles have had brakes since the 1960s, originally salvaged from scrapped Volkswagens. Now, 10% have disc brakes. Most have bodies made from fibreglass and all those in use in Ohio and Pennsylvania have headlights and tail lights by demand of state legislation. Many also have interior lights, usually powered by

John Rutter

How to prepare a musical feast fit for a King

Years ago, as a penniless young musician, I sometimes played the organ at weddings and learned a bitter lesson: the congregation hadn’t come for the music. I was used to concert audiences who listened attentively and rewarded pleasure received with appreciation given, and it came as a shock to discover that wedding congregations chattered or nipped out for a ciggie during our lovingly rehearsed anthems, failed to join in the hymns and allowed their infants to howl – though once I had become a parent I grew more forgiving of this. Words of appreciation afterwards were rare. Thus I resign myself to expect scant public attention to be paid to

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Doctors on strike, Labour on the attack and Tupperware in trouble

Home President Joe Biden of the United States visited Northern Ireland, shook hands with party leaders, talked with Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (though not about a trade agreement), and went on to the Republic of Ireland, for the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. The accountancy firm Johnston Carmichael resigned as auditors to the Scottish National party. Its decision coincided with a police search of the SNP’s headquarters in Edinburgh following the arrest and release without charge of Peter Murrell, the party’s former chief executive and the husband of Nicola Sturgeon, who was the SNP leader and first minister. Tony Danker was sacked as

Adrian Wooldridge

The new elite: the rise of the progressive aristocracy

In the pre-modern world positions in society were largely inherited. Some people were born with saddles on their backs and others booted and spurred to ride them – ‘The rich man in his castle / The poor man at his gate / God made them high or lowly / And ordered their estate’, in the words of the Victorian hymn. The meritocratic idea was the dynamite which blew up this view of the world and provided the materials for the modern era. But its reign is threatened as never before. The 1960s and 1970s brought a wave of attacks on the meritocracy, starting with criticisms of the workings of the

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

The police are a law unto themselves

The journos weren’t very impressed with Nicola Sturgeon’s house. Never mind the plod staring like morons at her barbecue or heaving out sacks of half-completed pools coupons to their summer marquee on the front lawn – the southern hacks were more interested in the paucity of this real estate. Her house was, we were assured, ‘modest’ and ‘humble’ and ‘unfashionable’, and most damningly of all, a ‘new-build’. Actually, not most damningly of all – that would be ‘on a new-build estate’. They were clearly appalled that it wasn’t a Georgian rectory in three acres of manicured lawns with a cottage garden, or that it didn’t have a basement kitchen-diner. It

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

The rise of rowdy theatre audiences isn’t a surprise

The incident at Manchester’s Palace Theatre last Friday night at the close of a performance of the musical version of The Bodyguard – audience members singing loudly over the showstopping final number ‘I Will Always Love You’, being manhandled out by security, the show actually being stopped, and police called – has led to lots of chat about etiquette in auditoriums. We are told that rowdy audiences are becoming more of a problem, with a similar incident the week before at Bat Out Of Hell in London, and a new campaign from the theatre union Bectu against anti-social behaviour in theatres.   It occurs to me that these particular alarums and incidents came about

Dot Wordsworth

What’s the difference between ‘tax evasion’ and ‘tax avoidance’?

I used to avoid paying tax. I opened an Isa for my pitiful savings, for example, to avoid tax on the interest. But now I daren’t say I avoid tax because HMRC is encouraging people to report me for it. ‘Report tax fraud or avoidance,’ is the headline on a public-service government website. ‘Report a person or business you think is not paying enough tax or is committing another type of fraud,’ it urges. In the past, it seemed clear. The Oxford English Dictionary says: ‘tax avoidance n. the arrangement of financial affairs so as to reduce tax liability within the law. tax evasion n. the reduction of tax payments

Mary Killen

Dear Mary: What’s the best response to a patronising man?

Q. I have some fairly new friends who very generously invited me to stay with them in Turkey. They told me who would be coming and I was slightly dreading meeting up again with one man I haven’t seen since we were much younger. He was always patronising and a bit misogynistic, and – as I was to discover – is even more insufferable now he has become successful. Everyone was lying by the pool and he asked me what I was reading. When I showed him – a fairly undemanding classic novel – his comment was: ‘Gosh, well done!’ I was infuriated but the only responses I could think

The Spectator

2597: A Couple – solution

The couple were VICTORIA (23, 36, 37, 45) and ALBERT (2, 9, 17, 20, 46). 7 was the link. First prize Kenneth Allen, Riddlesden, W. YorksRunners-up P. and A. Hoverstadt, Lymm, Cheshire; Christopher Bellew, London W6

Mr Magoo

2600: Pulling power

The unclued entries share a definition. Elsewhere, ignore an accent. Across 1    Chap primarily revered among classic characters (5)12    Barrow dropping us with United in gallery to cause a commotion (10)13    Put a stop to women leaving a vessel I cast off (9)14    Fine for Cantona? (4)15    Deli stir fluid to make liquid again (8)17    Said learned Cockney was criminal (5) 21    German soldier refuelling without English going over (11)24    Like a fox taking ages to release bird (3)26    Illness passed quickly, they say (3)28    Fruit from bitter plant perhaps initially cut back (7)29    Pill with pillbox, say, in Alberta’s place (8,3)33    Take two cities to arise periodically (5)35    Doctor, I

Toby Young Toby Young

How to mobilise the police

I wasn’t surprised to hear that six police officers raided a pub in Essex after a customer complained about the presence of 15 golliwogs on display behind the bar. After placing the dolls in evidence bags, the officers told the pub’s owner that they were investigating a possible ‘hate crime’. Needless to say, you’re lucky to get a visit from a single officer if you report a burglary in Essex, let alone six. In 2018-19, just 5 per cent of residential burglaries reported to Essex police resulted in someone being charged or summoned to court. It appears that the only way to get a full complement of officers to investigate

Lucy Vickery

Spectator competition winners: odes to unglamorous vegetables

In Competition No. 3294, you were invited to provide the first 16 lines of an ode to a turnip or another similarly unglamorous vegetable. This assignment was prompted, of course, by Thérèse Coffey’s suggestion that we respond to shortages in salad vegetables by embracing the turnip. But I also had in mind the wonderful odes of Pablo Neruda, which celebrate the commonplace: onions, lemons, a piece of tuna in the market.  In a witty and well-made entry, echoes ranged from Pindar to Keats. Commendations to Hunter Liguore, Ann Drysdale and Richard Spencer. The winners earn £25. Thou staunch, unrivalled beet of bulk and brawn,Thou offspring of the fecund, fertile soil,Long

Gus Carter Gus Carter

The colourful history of the green man

All hail our pagan King! The time has come to lay down your crosses and take up the bough of oak. Britain is to return to the old ways – at least if you are to believe the conspiracy theorists, who were distressed to see, on the bottom of the coronation invitation sent out last week, the face of a green man staring back at them. His eyes are bright, his mouth exudes fronds of ivy – the green man calls to us. Depending on your particular view of the world, his inclusion is either an affront to Christian decency or a jolly salute to our monarch’s peculiarities. The green

Luke McShane

No. 747

White to play. Volokitin-Kallai, Hungarian Team Ch 2018. Volokitin’s next move was a crushing blow. What did he play? Be careful – there are a couple of false trails here. Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 17 April. 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… Rxf2+! 2 Kxf2 Qh2+ 3 Kf1 Bh3+ 4 Ke1 Qg1#. Not 1…Qh3+ 2 Kg1 Rxf2 3 Qb2+ Rf6 4 Ne4 and White survives Last week’s winner Sam Morton, Newport-on-Tay, Fife

Luke McShane

Question of sport

Is chess a sport? Naively, I once considered that to be a philosophical question. Physical strength or dexterity – nope. Feeling of exertion and elevated heart rate – yes, at least if you’re doing it with soul. Global competition and recognition – yes, emphatically. It was no accident that Louis Vuitton’s ad campaign last year pictured Messi and Ronaldo playing chess. A better question would be ‘Does chess deserve government funding?’ For a game with obvious cognitive, educational and cultural benefits, the answer ought to be an unequivocal yes, and in a great many countries, including within western Europe, the game does indeed receive meaningful government support. Alas, in the UK

Steerpike Steerpike

Listen: BBC reporter caught out by Elon Musk on Twitter hate speech

Earlier this week, Elon Musk caused a fit of the vapours inside Broadcasting House when his social media site labelled the BBC Twitter account as being ‘government funded media’. The Beeb insists it is ‘publicly funded’ – even though not paying the licence fee is a criminal offence backed by the state – and duly kicked off about the change. As a result of the kerfuffle the BBC’s North America tech reporter, James Clayton, was granted a surprise interview with Musk yesterday, which took place at Twitter’s HQ in San Francisco and broadcast live on Twitter Spaces. Mr Steerpike wonders if the BBC might have regretted not being able to have editorial

Peter Jones

The Scottish solution to the refugee crisis

Refugees and asylum seekers are always with us. In the ancient world too, exiles, criminals, refugees, sometimes whole communities were on the move. There were three main conventions in place to help them. For an individual there was the act of supplication. If you knelt before someone – no Greek would willingly wish to appear so helpless – perhaps touching their knees, you would expect to be offered hospitality. Likewise, if there was a shrine nearby, putting yourself in contact with that would make you inviolable under the gods’ protection. Finally, one could appeal for asylum, derived from the ancient Greek word meaning ‘freedom from seizure’. There were even bilateral