Society Archives

Friday

27 Jan 2023

Europe’s leaders are failing in their duty to keep people safe

Life in Europe is becoming increasingly precarious; a case of hoping it’s not your turn to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In a Salisbury court on Monday a 21-year-old Afghan with a long history of violence was convicted of the brutal murder of Thomas Roberts; on Wednesday, a Palestinian allegedly stabbed two people to death on a German train. That same day in Spain a Moroccan under a deportation order was arrested after a verger was killed with a machete and a priest badly wounded in two related attacks in the city of Algeciras. Meanwhile in France an Algerian and a Kosovan are in custody after two

Brendan O’Neill

Is Nicola Sturgeon a transphobe?

Is Nicola Sturgeon a transphobe? I ask because she has decreed that Isla Bryson, a violent man who identifies as a woman, should not be locked up at a women’s prison. And every woman who has said similar in recent years, every feminist who has said that no blokes should be allowed into women’s prisons, women’s domestic-violence shelters and women’s changing areas, has been horribly attacked by the right-on. They’ve been denounced as phobes, bigots, TERFs and worse. So is Sturgeon a bigot, too? Should she be cancelled? This is the disturbing story of the male rapist who says he is a woman. Scot Isla Bryson, whose birth name is

John Oxley

Why ‘Spotify dads’ are turning on the Tories

It’s probably never been cool to be a Tory. There will never be a Conservative youthquake – they are the unhip party, the unkissed party. Voting Conservative has always been a mark of being a bit older, a bit more settled down. Like a sensible saloon car and comfortable shoes, it was something you eased into when you acknowledged you were past the flush of youth. Now, however, the party is seemingly losing even that. New polling from Portland Communications shows the Conservative party is losing sway with the least cool demographic of all: middle-aged dads. On almost every metric, the party is in retreat, with its vote share among

Jake Wallis Simons

We must remember the unique atrocity of the Holocaust

At the heart of marking the Holocaust lies a conundrum. On the one hand, genocides happen all over the world, from Cambodia to Darfur. Each life lost is an equal horror; there can be no hierarchy of death. On the other, the attempted liquidation of world Jewry during the second world war was an entirely specific atrocity. It was an expression of mankind’s oldest hatred by the most advanced civilisation on Earth, using the most sophisticated science, technology, logistics and propaganda at its disposal. It was unique. It was about the Jews. Clearly, balance is required. But it seems in short supply. Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. My teenage children

Thursday

26 Jan 2023

Steerpike

Rod Stewart calls time on the Tories

Rod Stewart has been a Conservative supporter for some time – but no longer. The ageing rocker, who congratulated Boris Johnson after his landslide election win in 2019, says it is time for the party to move over and give Labour a turn. ‘This is a bad time for us in Great Britain – change the bloody government,’ he told Sky News viewers after phoning in during a discussion on the dire state of the NHS. Stewart described the cost-of-living crisis as ‘heartbreaking’ and suggested that Rishi Sunak’s government was failing: ‘I personally have been a Tory for a long time and I think this government should stand down now

William Nattrass

Novak Djokovic and the real reason many Serbs support Russia

Novak Djokovic is no stranger to controversy. A year ago, the Serbian tennis star was deported from Australia after failing to comply with the country’s covid vaccination rules. Organisers of the Australian Open are once again fighting fires relating to Djokovic. This time, it is Djokovic’s father, Srdjan, who is in trouble after he posed with supporters of Russian president Vladimir Putin outside the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. Djokovic senior was pictured with a man holding a Russian flag emblazoned with Putin’s face, and wearing a T-shirt printed with the pro-war Z symbol. In a video recording of the incident, Srdjan appears to say ‘Long live the Russians’. The Aussie Cossack YouTube channel,

Ross Clark

Could Britain cope without Taiwanese microchips?

So now we know what Britain’s great green economy looks like. First, the good news: construction of electric cars in Britain increased by 4.5 per cent in 2022 to 234,066 vehicles. Now the bad news: overall car production slumped to its lowest level since 1956, with just 775,014 units rolling off the production line. Britain may be leading the world when it comes to setting targets for decarbonisation, but it isn’t helping us to even maintain our manufacturing industry, let alone to turn us into a hotbed of ‘green growth’. The next government target to hit the industry is the Zero Emission Mandate, which will oblige UK producers to make

Rory Sutherland

The dwindling case for living in London

The recent debate around ‘levelling up’ may be missing something. I would argue that there is another way to consider geographical inequality – and, by this alternative measure, a levelling has been under way for more than 20 years. I’ve spent three decades working in advertising, so it’s unsurprising that I tend to view economic life through the lens of consumption. By contrast, mainstream economists tend to view disparities through the medium of earnings or wealth. To me, measures of wealth should include not only the quantity of money you have but the breadth of worthwhile options available in choosing how to spend it. Let’s put it another way. If

Terry Barnes

Who’s killing Australia Day?

Australia Day was once a big deal Down Under, but in recent years the annual celebration has been somewhat muted. Take the Australian Open, currently running in Melbourne. The organisers have dedicated days throughout the tournament for a range of causes: there has been a Pride day and a day celebrating indigenous art and culture. But although the semi-finals are being played today, on Australia Day itself, there will be no recognition of the country’s national day. ‘We are mindful there are differing views, and at the Australian Open we are inclusive and respectful of all,’ Tennis Australia said in a statement. Tennis fans aren’t the only ones missing out:

Julie Burchill

In praise of drunkenness

Europe, I’m told, is entering the age of the ‘sober-curious’. Curiosity is a wonderful thing; why, then, did hearing this make me want to drink whisky until I talk in tongues and pass out? I’ve had such a long and varied relationship with alcohol since we met when I was a shy provincial child. It’s been my naughty secret (12-16), partner in crime (twenties), dangerous obsession (thirties/forties), toxic bestie (fifties) – until, somehow, now I’m almost 64, it’s ended up as casual restaurant date, always welcome but never needed. I’ve done some dumb things on alcohol, but I’ll always believe that it gave me more than it took from me.

Bruce Anderson

The surprising joy of involuntary sobriety

I have just finished a sojourn with a curious twist. Readers of Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain will remember Hans Castorp, who set off to visit a cousin confined to a sanatorium in the Alps. Nothing went according to plan. The cousin fell into a sharp decline and died. Castorp himself was diagnosed as suffering from a lung ailment and spent the next seven years in the sanitorium. This ended only with a social, political and cultural upheaval, followed by a -conflagration. St Thomas’ Hospital is hardly the Alps. But I spent five weeks there, having expected a three-day sentence. A surgeon told me that it was one of the

Toby Young

Why I’m sleeping in the garden shed

Two and a half years ago, I wrote a column about how I’d started sleeping in my garden office. No, not because Caroline had kicked me out of the master bedroom, but because we were having the house rewired and the builders needed us to vacate our room at seven o’clock every morning. The move was supposed to be temporary, but I liked the arrangement so much it became permanent. Unfortunately it’s causing a few tensions in the marriage. Most wives who have had to put with their husband’s snoring for more than 20 years would welcome this set-up, but Caroline is a bit nonplussed. She doesn’t miss the nightly

Wednesday

25 Jan 2023

Alex Massie

‘Isla Bryson’ and the madness of Scotland’s gender bill

Adam Graham was four years old when, according to his own account of his life, he first began to suspect he might be transgender. ‘I was always hanging about with the girls and always doing make up’, he said. It was not until he was 29, however, that Graham began to openly identify as a woman, taking hormones and changing his appearance. By that time he had been arrested and charged with two counts of rape. It is incredible that the sensitivities of convicted rapists are now the subject of so much official sympathy in Scotland Appearing in court this week, Graham’s new – and putatively ‘real’ – identity took centre

Katy Balls

Rolling in it: the return of Tory sleaze

When Rishi Sunak stood on the steps of Downing Street to give his first speech as Prime Minister, he had a simple message: ‘This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.’ He wanted his premiership to move on from the scandal, mayhem and psycho-drama of his two predecessors. As Michael Gove later put it: ‘Boring is back.’ The government, he said, has an ‘utter determination to try to be as dull as possible’. But the Tory scandal stories that Sunak is so keen to avoid are not, it seems, over yet. His party chairman, Nadhim Zahawi, is reported to have had to pay a penalty of more

Charles Moore

The curious tale of Lady Hale

Has the German leopard at last changed its spots, now that it says it will release the tanks of that name? The Germany/Ukraine story has so far been another example of the former’s long-proclaimed desire to create a European Germany rather than a German Europe. In fact, however, the two phrases now amount to much the same thing. As with the single currency and with energy, so with war materiel: German power exceeds that of all continental rivals. But, by speaking about being so European, Germany has probably gained dominance more easily than if it had been more national in tone. It might now be more honest – and safer

The Spectator

Britain’s asylum crisis

Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, 21, an Afghan convicted this week of murdering a man in Bournemouth last year, had previously murdered two men in Serbia. He had also been caught drug-dealing in Italy. He had been allowed to stay in the UK despite doubts about his claim to be 14 years old (he was then 18) and was placed with a foster carer and enrolled in a secondary school. When his foster carer caught him carrying a knife, a social worker was sent to his home to give him a talk about the dangers of knives. The case of Abdulrahimzai shows just how easy it is to outwit our authorities. It tells

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Taxing times for the Tories, tanks for Ukraine and a giant Antarctic iceberg

Home Nadhim Zahawi, minister without portfolio and chairman of the Conservative party, was asked to explain how a penalty formed part of a £5 million tax payment he had made. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, asked Sir Laurie Magnus, his newly appointed ethics adviser, to examine whether Mr Zahawi had broken the code of conduct on ministerial behaviour. The appointment of Richard Sharp as chairman of the BBC was under review by William Shawcross, the Commissioner of Public Appointments, after it became known that in 2020, before his appointment, he had contacted Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, about an offer of a loan of £800,000 by Sam Blyth, an old friend

Freddy Gray

The truth about Joe Biden’s toxic docs? That’s classified!

If Britain’s great flaw is the class system, America’s might be its obsession with classifying official information. There’s a reason ‘that’s classified, sir’ is a stock phrase in so many Hollywood films. Americans tend to revere elite secrecy in the same way British snobs worship aristocracy. You can own lots of land in America and still be a hick. If you’ve gotten hold of sensitive state files, however – well, son, you’ve made it. This fetish for high-bureaucratic privilege might explain why Donald Trump took so many classified papers to his billionaire’s lair in Mar-a-Lago, much as a pirate might squirrel away treasure in a trove. Trump’s favourite film is

Joan Collins

My verdict on the Oscars line-up

Last Sunday in LA, we went to the cinema, where I’ve hardly been since Covid. I wasn’t expecting much from the film, as truly enjoyable and entertaining films have been thin on the ground recently. Regardless, I’ve always loved the whole experience of cinema-going, from handing over the tickets and finding your seat to the anticipation of watching the forthcoming attractions. But the trailers shown this time were mostly science-fiction – futuristic, computer-generated pot-boilers – and even though none of them probably cost less than £50 million, the previews left me cold… and deaf. I had to stuff tissue in my ears to muffle the booms and bangs. Ah, for those

Gus Carter

Does Britain need bison?

The Blean is just north of Canterbury. It’s ancient woodland – mentioned by a couple of Chaucer’s pilgrims – now managed by a conglomerate of well-meaning wildlife trusts and charities. Drive through a small industrial estate and past a garage and you’ll reach the visitors’ centre. Beyond that is bison country. Four wild European bison now roam the 50 hectares of woodland and scrub, merrily smashing through young birch trees and tearing up the earth. They have been introduced as part of a rewilding project. The latest, the first male of the herd, was brought over from Germany two days before Christmas. Rewilding is controversial and easily mocked. After all,