Society

Saturday

Kathryn Porter

The mistakes that led to the UK’s energy crisis

Our energy market has not looked this bleak since the Winter of Discontent in the 1970s, a period seared into the memories even of those of us that are too young to actually remember it. For the past year, the chaos has been building, with rising gas and electricity prices, scores of failing suppliers, subsidies for just about every part of the market, and the prospect of, if not blackouts, then energy rationing this winter. We’re told that the market is ‘broken’, that energy companies are ripping us off with profit maximising behaviours, that price formation in the wholesale markets is ‘frankly ludicrous’, and that Putin’s evil war in Ukraine

Danny Shaw

Firearms officers feel they have been let down by the Met

At 2.30 in the afternoon on September 22, 1999, Harry Stanley left the Alexandra pub in Hackney, east London, with a blue plastic bag containing a table leg that had been repaired by his brother. Unbeknown to Stanley, someone in the pub had called the police to report ‘an Irishman with a gun wrapped in a bag’ and minutes later, 100 yards from his home, two armed officers arrived. They challenged the 46-year-old (who was in fact Scottish) before firing two shots. He died instantly. Five years later, a jury at the second inquest to be held into Stanley’s death returned a verdict of ‘unlawful killing’ and the officers involved,

Robin Ashenden

When the Ceausescus came to tea

Anyone still in any doubt about the lengths to which Queen Elizabeth II was prepared to go in the line of duty might consider the hideous company the role at times foisted on her. In 1991, she had to clink glasses with Zimbabwean dictator Robert Mugabe, and 20 years earlier had dined with Ugandan despot Idi Amin (though she later privately vowed to hit Amin with a sword if he dared to gatecrash her Silver Jubilee). But perhaps none of these grisly encounters was as gruelling as having to host Romanian tyrant Nicolae Ceaușescu and wife Elena on a three-day state-visit, complete with Palace quarters, in 1978. Though a domestic

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

The esoteric creed of King Charles

Our new king is not, by normal standards, an important intellectual. But it would be churlish to dismiss his thinking as insignificant. Normal standards do not apply to a man who has spent his life earnestly preparing for a grand mythical role. Some princes have little trouble ignoring the religious aspects of monarchy, instead getting on with hunting, polo, or charity work. But young Charles was a sensitive soul, the sort who struggles to forge an identity. He had intellectual curiosity and a high idea of himself. Charles has shown a real capacity for melancholic detachment, self-scrutiny, angst. That’s not the whole story: as his leaky-pen petulance reminds us, he

Andrew Doyle

How the culture war became a crusade

In February 2020, I was invited on to the BBC’s The Big Questions to debate the topic: ‘Is wokeness the new religion?’ I had already anticipated that mine would be the unfashionable view, and so I steeled myself in advance for the inevitable onslaught. This being a British daytime television show, the onslaught took the form of audible grumbles and a few raised eyebrows. One of my fellow panellists expressed her dismay that we were discussing this topic at all, which is akin to accepting an invitation to a birthday party and then complaining about the bunting. Finding myself drawn into the whataboutery, I agreed that I would much rather

Friday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Can Mark Rowley successfully reform the Met Police?

The awful news that two police officers were stabbed in London this morning is an example of the challenges facing the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner Mark Rowley. As I say in the Times today, he must deal with low morale in the Met, a lack of public confidence in the force and a rising sense of lawlessness. David Spencer, a former Met officer who is now at Policy Exchange, has written an interesting report on what Rowley can do to turn things around. Its main argument is that the attempt by the Met to create a ‘strategic centre’ has failed and it needs to return to neighbourhood policing as the

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

For the state funeral mourners, the endurance is part of the ritual

The queue snakes for miles along the South Bank. Thousands of ordinary people are giving up hours of their time to spend a moment with the Queen’s coffin as it lies in state. Few mourners are dressed up. One or two wear suits and black ties. Some carry flowers. There’s the odd veteran with his polished medals on display. Mostly they’re the type of people you’d see outside a Waitrose car park in a market town. No one jumps the queue, which would be easy to accomplish, but that’s not the point. A public display of endurance is part of the ritual. Victoria Street is closed to traffic. Opposite the

Debbie Hayton

The moment that showed the madness of gender ideology

Homosexuality was legalised in England and Wales 55 years ago. The Sexual Offences Act 1967 permitted homosexual acts between two consenting adults over the age of 21. Arguably that – and subsequent liberalisations – really only benefited men; sex acts between women were never criminalised. But what does it mean to be a lesbian in 2022? This week Kate Harris – a lesbian and co-founder of the charity LGB Alliance – broke down in court under cross-examination from a male barrister. Michael Gibbon KC, counsel for the charity Mermaids, put it to her that ‘lesbians can include someone who is a woman as a result of gender reassignment.’ That statement

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Could Putin still trigger nuclear war?

The world is facing the prospect of its first nuclear attack since the US Air Force dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Yet that horror arouses little fear or outrage. The possibility that a cornered Putin will use ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons to punish Ukraine for humiliating the Kremlin remains a nightmare most can live with. Paranoia about nuclear conflict haunted the Cold War of the 20th century. Today our tolerance of the intolerable appears higher. The vast mass of people don’t care to think about it. Policy elites believe that no one who looks at Ukraine with seriousness and compassion believes that they have done all

Peter Hunt

King Charles should let Harry back into the fold

First, it was a flagpole. Back in 1997, inside the Windsor bubble based at Balmoral – where the priority was two princes whose mother had just died – it made complete and utter sense for no flag to fly at Buckingham Palace. Protocol dictated one didn’t have the Union Jack at half-mast at the institution’s headquarters. Those mourning Diana, Princess of Wales, and those writing the newspaper headlines didn’t give a fig for protocol. The passions being displayed on the streets of London prompted headlines such as ‘Show Us You Care’ and ‘Where Is Our Queen? Where Is Her Flag’? And in the end the tabloid keyboard warriors delivered a visible

Alexander Larman

Why Harry has been allowed to wear his military uniform

P.G. Wodehouse once wrote that ‘it is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.’ Much the same might be said of Prince Harry, whose ability to bear grudges – and to make it clear, publicly, why he is doing so – has been displayed with remarkable consistency over the past couple of years. When he isn’t suing the British government for not allowing him to bring his own private security to the country of his birth, he’s railing against the iniquities of his family to Oprah Winfrey or giving angry public speeches in which he denounces whatever ills he has found in

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

The inconvenient truth about France’s forest fires

Montpellier Last month the Prime Minister of France, Elisabeth Borne, visited the south-west of the country to offer her support to firefighters tackling a series of large forest fires. It was also a good opportunity to broach a subject close to her heart. ‘More than ever,’ she warned, ‘we must continue to fight against climate change and to adapt. A new plan for adapting to climate change will be put out for consultation at the beginning of the autumn’. Borne isn’t alone in connecting the forest fires that have ravaged much of France this summer to climate change. Newspapers such as Liberation have also linked the two. Last week the

Thursday

Lisa Haseldine Lisa Haseldine

Wagner Group exposed recruiting Russian prisoners for Ukraine

The Wagner Group thrives in the shadows, but now its founder has been caught on camera: recruiting prisoners from a Russian penal colony for the war in Ukraine. In the video, Yevgeniy Prigozhin paces about a large group of prisoners, giving them the hard sell on joining the Russian war effort. He offers them a deal: six months of service in return for a pardon for their crimes. But, should they arrive in Ukraine and refuse to fight, they will be considered deserters and shot. ‘The war is difficult,’ he says; the pro-Kremlin group has used ‘more than two and a half times’ the amount of ammunition used by Soviet

Sean Thomas

What the live-streamed lying-in-state says to us

In 2002 I attended the lying-in-state of the Queen Mother. I did it as part of the grand old British tradition of faintly annoying all your left-wing friends. I also thought it might be an interesting dollop of history-in-the-making. How right I was. Along the South Bank, round midnight, I joined the queue – quite drunk, I admit, but I was hardly alone in this. For two hours the jolly, chatty queue: a BBC screenwriter’s ideal mix of creeds, ethnicities, ages, jobs, disabilities, achievements, motivations, politics. A surprising number were definitely socialists. We swapped jokes, advice, stories; we shared sweet royal anecdotes, filthy royal gossip, pleasant ham sandwiches. And a

Matthew Lynn

It’s time to scrap the cap on bankers’ bonuses

Critics say that scrapping the cap on bankers’ bonus will encourage a return to excessive risk taking. It will provoke retaliation from the European Union, they warn. And perhaps, worst of all, it could prove fatal politically, rewarding a few rich Tory friends while the rest of the country struggles with the cost-of-living crisis. Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng will get lots of criticism if, as predicted, he does decide to bin the cap in his upcoming financial statement. Even so, he should ignore the naysayers. It will certainly be a controversial move. The controls on City bonuses were imposed right across the EU in the wake of the crash of 2008/2009. These

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

In defence of Rangers’ royal tribute

Ibrox stadium, home of Rangers football club, saw a powerful tribute to the late Queen last night before the team’s Champion’s league game against Napoli. There was a minute’s silence, then an enormous tifo covering the entire Broomloan stand was revealed (of the Union Jack with the late Queen in silhouette in the middle). The national anthem was played on the public address system joined lustily by the capacity crowd. It was stirring stuff. But Ranger’s tribute to the Queen defied Uefa’s general rules for pre-match ceremony and came after their specific request for an exception had been turned down. And this means the club could now be in hot

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Why is the BBC using Paddington to remember Her Majesty?

Here comes Paddington – again. Earlier this year, to celebrate her platinum jubilee, the Queen agreed to be filmed taking tea with Paddington in a sketch whose final punchline was a joke about marmalade sandwiches. Her Majesty told the bear she always carries one in her handbag, just in case.  On film she was excellent, unshowy, watchable but not predictable, with an obvious knack for comedy. The short film was doubtless inspired by the Queen’s acclaimed performance alongside Daniel Craig, as James Bond, during the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics. But there’s a big difference between a British spy and a Peruvian bear. The BBC has succumbed to bear-mania

Cheesecracker

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  22 5 42 14 25 31: 29-40, 10-26.   Across 1 Hidden by grass, squad joined after separation (8) 9 Most of scenery framed by brainbox movie maker (10) 16 Will’s interest in America essentially sprang (6) 17 Region outside northern stadium (5) 18 Dread being tense after fringe cut by bishop (5) 20 Severity when ditching mum’s gear (7) 24 Perhaps Washington satisfied with just having left out minutes (7) 28 Way to replace first two elements of obscure drawing together (7) 33 Old architect initially bought retail supply (7) 37 God, Times having run slightly advanced (5) 38 Sing greeting, getting led out (5) 39 See horse,

Andrew Parker Bowles

Her Majesty’s enduring love of dogs and horses

In 1995, Her Majesty was heard to remark that the worst aspect of the Parker Bowles divorce was that she had got Danny back. Danny was a corgi given to Camilla and me by the Queen in the early 1990s. She had previously given us a corgi called Windsor Flame who was wonderful, intelligent and brave. Danny had none of these qualities. He was short in looks, legs and temper. After the divorce he returned to Windsor, where he spent the rest of his life, very happy, in the care of Mrs Nancy Fenwick, who was unofficially the keeper of the Queen’s dogs. I came to realise how much the

Olivia Potts Olivia Potts

The ultimate chicken pie recipe

Laurie Colwin wrote: ‘No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.’ It is one of my favourite quotes about cooking, mainly because it feels true: everything you cook is informed by other dishes, those that you’ve cooked, those that you’ve tasted or read about, the successes and the failures. In quiet moments of kitchen solitude, it is reassuring to know that there is an army of cooks behind me, each offering their experience, their recipes and books, a hand to hold when I