Society

Thursday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Drought in Europe, property crisis in China and barristers and binmen strike

Home Inflation would reach 18.6 per cent by January and the energy price cap £5,816 in April, according to a forecast by Citi, the investment bank. An annual National Grid exercise simulating a gas supply emergency has been extended from two days to four in September. Workers at Felixstowe, Suffolk, Britain’s biggest container port, handling 48 per cent of traffic, went on strike for eight days. Strikes by Scottish dustmen spread from Edinburgh. Barristers belonging to the Criminal Bar Association voted to go on an indefinite strike in England and Wales after their demand for a 25 per cent increase in pay for legal aid work was denied. A man

Robert Gore-Langton

Why I donated a kidney to a stranger

One year ago I walked into an operating theatre, dressed in a tiny surgical nightie. Over the next three hours, through various keyhole incisions in my belly, my left kidney was cut from its pillow of protective suet and extracted from below the belt line. The kidney was rinsed through, put on ice and boxed up. It was then zoomed by car from my Bristol hospital to Birmingham, where a surgical team was waiting with a prepped male patient. Over the next few hours, the kidney was plumbed into the groin of a man whose name I still don’t know. He was in his forties and extremely ill. That evening

Douglas Murray

Salman Rushdie and a question of power

Whenever a terrorist attack occurs, like the recent attempted assassination of Salman Rushdie, our society falls into the usual platitudes. The attack gets condemned, by most people. The ideology behind the attack is fudged so that it becomes as non-specific as possible. What almost never gets any time in the discussion is the question of answers. It is easy to say ‘We must never give in to terror’ or ‘We must defend the right to free speech.’ But personally I like to get more specific than this. Imagine if you were the UK government, say, and had some power actually to do something about it. That brings me to the

John Connolly John Connolly

Cow attacks are no laughing matter

One of the worst things about being attacked by a cow is that no one takes it very seriously afterwards. My partner Claire and I found that out the hard way after a walk in Devon. We were making our way through a large field on a public footpath, heading towards a herd of cows milling around a stile. Most were ignoring us, but one seemed different – larger and more malevolent than the others. It began to stare intensely at us, and as we carried on, it started to walk slowly in our direction. Hoping it might be a curious cow, rather than an aggressive one, we branched out

Rachel Johnson

Yoga has become a hot cultish mess

Ommm… are you in the lotus position? Then I’ll begin. The studio was literally Hades, four industrial heaters blasting in each corner. We were crouching on our knees, sweat dripping, foreheads to the floor. It was a weekday morning. Then our instructor said the six words I can never unhear. ‘Flower your anus to the sky,’ he ordered all the middle-aged WFH men in shorts and yummy mummies in crop tops in this crunchy-granola bit of north-west London. He jutted his rock-hard buns heavenwards as an exemplar of the uttana shishosana pose or, as I prefer to call it, ‘kneeling’. When did the lines blur and yoga become a hot

Lawrence Osborne

The argument that found its way into The Forgiven

I moved to Bangkok ten years ago in order to be in a place where nothing happens, where no one knew me and where nothing cost very much. A decade on, after a military coup, running street battles between protestors and soldiers, a ceaseless social life and costs reaching about the same levels as Brooklyn, I have retained at least one of my original reasons for leaving New York: radio silence relative to events in my far-off ‘career’ on the other side of the world. This month my novel about Hong Kong, On Java Road, came out, and so did the film version of an earlier novel, The Forgiven. The

Nick Robinson

Why political interviews matter

She’ll never do it. She’d have to be mad. Why take the risk? That’s what everyone said when I announced at the end of my BBC1 interview with Rishi Sunak that we were still hopeful that Liz Truss would also agree to a half-hour in-depth conversation in prime time. Well, guess what? She has agreed and will come into Broadcasting House just a week before most people expect her to move into No. 10. Too late to have any impact on the result, say the cynics. That ignores the fact that 10 to 15 per cent of the Tory selectorate will not, I’m told, vote until the last minute. More

The Spectator

What the Tory leadership rivals haven’t discussed

In just over a week, Britain will have a new prime minister. No one can say that the 160,000 or so Conservative party members who will have made the choice have been deprived of exposure to the two candidates. The leadership race has dragged on for longer than a general election campaign, with endless televised hustings and public appearances. The process is supposed to be a training ground, testing candidates on their answers to all the toughest questions that will confront them in government. But in this respect it has failed. High tax is a symptom of a wider problem: big spending. Unless spending changes, any tax cut will be

Janet de Botton

Bridge | 27 August 2022

Do we need complicated bidding systems to reach the best contracts? The Portland Club (men only) operates a no conventions at all policy, which most of its members don’t stick to if they are playing outside tournaments. Some however treat ‘natural’ bidding with a fervour bordering on the messianic. One such was the ghastly Demetri Marchessini. The first time I played Biarritz, some 20 years ago, he had hired a super professional team; he partnered French world champion Paul Chemla and their teammates were Tony Forrester and Tom Townsend. Natural methods only obvs. On the second day Tony and Tom bid and made 4♠ after a 1NT opening. DM questioned

The Spectator

2567: Stop! – solution

The unclued lights (including the pairs at 2/14 and 12/36) are names of organ stops which Brewer calls ‘music in themselves’. First prize C.R. Haigh, Hassocks, West Sussex Runners-up Richard Foden, Vésenaz, Switzerland; Michael Pigden, Barnet, Hertfordshire

Mr Magoo

2570: Short story

The unclued entries comprise two authors and a work of fiction, attributed by one author to the other. Each author occupies two unclued entries. Four of the unclued entries are two words each.   Across 1 Tea service that needs to be done again for villa (6) 7 Remote republic gets peace from Spain back (6) 13 Automated assistant hailed – they’re high (5) 16 Crazy French soul gets title there (6) 20 Repelling germ, throws away rubbish (7) 21 Shiny metal wheels covering start of trip (6) 22 Neither alternative accepted by Russian denial (3,3) 24 Undertaker perhaps fixing marble around this person (8) 26 Security agent (4) 27

Lucy Vickery

Spectator competition winners: cosy crime with a topical twist

In Competition No. 3263, you were invited to submit a short story, written in the style of a cosy mystery novel, with a topical twist. Subcategories in the wildly popular ‘cosy mystery’ genre include animals, crafts and hobbies, and culinary (Toast Mortem/Butter Off Dead) – all of which elements featured in a top-notch entry. Honourable mentions go to Sylvia Fairley’s Knit-and-Natterers and to Bill Greenwell’s twist on the Wagatha Christie case. The winners, printed below, are rewarded with £25 each. The tranquil Sunday afternoon in Cumberby was disturbed only by cricketing sounds. A huge six narrowly missed Miss Patchworth, cycling to the pillar-box with a poison-pen letter before going to

Luke McShane

No. 717

White to play. Gormally–Claridge-Hansen, British Championships 2022 Black’s last move, Ra8-a7,was a fatal mistake. Which move won the game for White? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 29 August. 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…Rg3! 2 Qxg3 Rxf1+ 3 Kh2 Ng4+ 4 Kh3 Rh1+ 5 Kg2 Rg1+ wins. But not 1…Qc8 2 Rf3! and White survives Last week’s winner Aaron Milne, Northwich, Cheshire

Luke McShane

A week in Torquay

Hats off to Harry Grieve, who took clear first place at the Chessable British Championships which concluded in Torquay last Sunday. I am in awe of the courage he showed in the final round game, against the international master Matthew Wadsworth. Grieve set the tone in the opening, sacrificing rook for bishop, but gaining long-term compensation. Wadsworth reacted well, but let his advantage slip, whereupon Grieve doubled up his investment. After several hours’ play, they reached the murky position shown below. Matthew Wadsworth–Harry Grieve Chessable British Championship, Torquay 2022 50…Qb7 The mate threat on b1 forces White’s hand. 51 Rxd3 cxd3 52 Qc3 Qa6 53 Qb3 Ke4! This move looks

Sam Ashworth-Hayes Sam Ashworth-Hayes

Crime is being decriminalised

In February Joshua Carney, a man with 47 previous convictions, was released from prison early on licence. Five days later, he forced his way into a Cardiff house, locking a terrified woman inside. Her screaming woke her 14-year-old daughter upstairs. Carney raped both daughter and mother in front of each other. On Monday, Carney was jailed for ‘life’; he will be considered for parole in ten years, at the age of 38. The core principle of British justice isn’t public safety. If it was, Carney would never leave prison. This isn’t about the preservation of liberty; the threat of crime is a far greater constraint on the average person’s freedom

Wednesday

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Is Harry Styles ashamed of being straight?

Celebrities used to dread being outed as gay. Now they seem to dread being outed as straight. Consider Harry Styles. The poor fellow seems to live in constant fear of being exposed as a boring old heterosexual. Mr Styles, the current king of pop, dances around questions about his sexuality. It’s ‘outdated’ to define your sexuality, he says. We shouldn’t have to ‘label everything’, he insists. Why should you have to go around clarifying ‘what boxes you’re checking’, he said to an interviewer. All right, mate – they only asked about your sexuality. There’s a palpable defensiveness in young Harry’s comments on sexuality. Only it’s the polar opposite of the

Sergey Radchenko

Daria Dugina has become a martyr for Putin

There was something menacing yet vaguely absurd about the Tuesday memorial service held to commemorate the life and fascist times of the prominent ultra-nationalist Daria Dugina, the daughter of the Kremlin propagandist Aleksandr. The 29 year old Daria Dugina, who died in a car explosion on August 20, was put on display in an open coffin, with guards wearing black and red armbands by her side. The sombre attendees filed past. In attendance were Duma deputy and the far-right clown Leonid Slutsky, best known for having been accused of sexual harassment, Dmitry Kiselyov, who has long promised to turn America into a nuclear wasteland, and even the former thief and ‘Putin’s chef’

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Are Russian sanctions working?

Soaring gas and electricity prices are giving us an idea of the cost of imposing sanctions on Russia – a cost which may be worth bearing if it helps to defeat Russian aggression, but a cost nonetheless. But how complete and effective are the sanctions? Trade figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) today reveal that Britain, at least for now, has achieved one of its chief objectives: it has weaned itself off Russian oil and gas. In June there were no imports of fuels from Russia. In the 12 months to February, by contrast, 5.9 per cent of Britain’s crude oil imports, 24.1 per cent of our

Andrew Tettenborn

Britain doesn’t need a public holiday to remember the slave trade

A fair number of episodes in the history of this country are frankly best forgotten. The last thing to do with them, one might have thought, would be to memorialise them with bank holidays. Giving people in Britain a day off to mark, say, Cromwell’s harrying of Ireland in the 17th century, or the starting of the Boer War in the interest of corporate capital in the 19th, would at the very least raise eyebrows. Yet yesterday, on Unesco’s International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade, black studies academic Kehinde Andrews suggested exactly this in respect of one such event: namely, our involvement in slavery. There was, he