Society

Wednesday

Melissa Kite

AA is turning away the very people who need it most

‘If AA wants to make its meetings safe, then maybe it should ban alcoholics,’ said the builder boyfriend and I had to admit, he had cracked it. There was me getting all wound up about why more and more of the meetings in Surrey won’t let the bricklayer in because of his criminal convictions and a vaguely expressed malaise about his liking for the ladies, and it was actually quite simple. In this new age of safeguarding, it’s clear that the only way you could make Alcoholics Anonymous into an organisation that passes muster for all the corporate compliance big charities either have to or want to do is by

The Spectator

Who has lost the most money in human history? 

Billion-dollar losers Sam Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old founder of FTX, saw his wealth plummet from $16 bn to zero when the company collapsed. Other big fortunes lost: – Masayoshi Son, founder of Softbank, lost paper wealth of around $70 bn (in today’s money) during the dotcom crash of 2000-2. The company later floated and now he is reckoned by Forbes to be worth $22.8 bn. – Yasumitsu Shigeta, founder of mobile phone company Hikari Tsushin, lost a paper fortune of $42 bn in the dotcom crash, but thanks to a partial recovery in shares he is now worth $3.4 bn, says Forbes. – John Rockefeller, the oil magnate and America’s richest man

Philip Patrick Philip Patrick

The problem with Ronaldo’s betrayal narrative

Cristiano Ronaldo has almost certainly played his last game for Manchester United after an ‘explosive’ interview which ‘the whole world’s talking about’ (Piers Morgan’s words). ‘The biggest star that football has ever seen’ (Piers again) spills the beans on his cruel and incompetent employers in a two-part interview to be broadcast tonight and tomorrow. Fans will be left wondering how much is hype and where the truth and blame resides. Many will see a star in decline Ronaldo’s complaints range in seriousness from gripes about the food at Man U (no improvement since his first stint) to more significant criticism about the running of the club and its lack of

The Spectator

Letters: Camilla should not be called ‘Queen Consort’

Zero sense Sir: Ross Clark’s article (‘Hot air’, 12 November) neatly sums up some of the fallacies of the net zero target. Electricity generation currently fulfils about 20 per cent of the UK’s total energy demand – of which at best 40 per cent is covered by wind, solar, and hydro: i.e. 8 per cent of total energy demand is fulfilled from renewable sources. Are we really expected to believe that in the next 27 years electricity generation from renewables will grow 12.5 times – or from any source five times – and that the infrastructure will be put in place to deliver it? James Fairbairn Oxford Thank you, Jeremy

Laurie Graham

Elf and safety: are child protection guidelines killing Santa’s appeal?

Santa Claus is coming to town. I know this because I recently spent an evening gift-wrapping empty boxes to decorate his grotto at an upcoming Christmas fair. With most of my grandchildren now in their teens, it’s been a while since I endured the grotto experience and I was interested to know how such a thing is managed in 2022. How does one navigate between overbearing safeguarding guidelines and the jaded palate of today’s pre-school sophisticate? Is it even worth the bother? Father Christmas must nowbe accompanied at all times byone or more vigilant adults  Like anyone who volunteers for a role that will place them in the company of

Jeremy Clarke

How to make the perfect fry-up

Catriona went to England and Scotland for ten days. The last thing she said to the lean and slippered pantaloon as he stood on the doorstep to wave her off was: ‘Please eat healthily, darling.’ Pretty much the first thing I did after I’d watched her disappear down the path and rubbed my hands together was to peel, salt and boil a kilogram of spuds. I monitored them carefully and removed the pan from the heat at the point where a little pressure on a sharp knife was needed to penetrate right to the middle. The dear thing had left the fridge crammed with nature’s bounty, including sealed containers of

Douglas Murray

The delicious fall of Sam Bankman-Fried

Dame Edna Everage says one of life’s most precious gifts is the ability to laugh at the misfortunes of others. You may lament this instinct, yet we all harbour it. New Yorkers are especially prone when it comes to property envy. Every couple of years, it feels like, a skyscraper goes up in the city that is significantly taller than the previous very tall new skyscraper. Each time one does, the only thing that goes higher than the tower’s residences is the cost of purchasing them. So with what rapture do New Yorkers read about the misfortunes these buildings go through. Oh, the thrill of learning that they sway in

Joanna Rossiter Joanna Rossiter

Just Stop Oil aren’t like the suffragettes

What do Just Stop Oil protesters have in common with the suffragettes? Their antics of blocking motorways and chucking tomato soup at famous paintings might lead you to think there are few parallels. But Helen Pankhurst – great-granddaughter of Emmeline – thinks they do share some common ground. Both groups, Pankhurst suggests, are on the right side of history. In an article for the Guardian, she claims that ‘the climate crisis is a feminist issue’. ‘I have absolutely no doubt that in 100 years’ time (climate activists) will be seen as the real heroes,’ she says. Like Just Stop Oil, the suffragettes targeted museums, sports events and public buildings to raise

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Why we should pray for crypto’s survival

Note to self: don’t sound smug about the sudden collapse of FTX – the Bahamas-based crypto exchange whose valuation has been zapped from $32 billion to zero – because however much it plays to I-told-you-so instincts about the mug’s game of crypto, the episode may herald a wave of wealth destruction that’s the last thing the financial world needs when there’s already so much bad stuff going on. Still, smugness is a strong temptation here – and what could be more provoking of that sentiment than a photograph in the Daily Telegraph of Sir Tony Blair and Bill Clinton on an FTX-badged stage alongside the firm’s 30-year-old founder Sam Bankman-Fried in

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

Sam Bankman-Fried and the twilight of the ‘Effective Altruists’

Crypto whizzkid Sam Bankman-Fried has come a cropper. His $16 billion (£13 billion) fortune vanished overnight last week after FTX, the crypto exchange he founded, collapsed. What makes the tale of his rise and fall fascinating is that Bankman-Fried wasn’t in it for the money. Well, not in the normal way. Bankman-Fried is (or was) the poster boy of the Effective Altruism (EA) movement: a group of rational philanthropists who use their time and money in the most efficient possible way. That might involve becoming a banker, or crypto king, in order to earn millions, or in this case billions, so that they can give it away. Bankman-Fried fell in with the EA crowd during his time studying physics at MIT, and decided to

Taki

Meet the most influential brain in China

New York The LNG king Peter Livanos, an old and good friend, has sent me a very informative write-up about China. Peter knows as much as anyone what’s cooking behind what used to be known as the bamboo curtain, and he’s put me right about China when I’ve been wrong about the place in the past. For any of you unfamiliar with shipping terms, LNG stands for liquefied natural gas, something that costs a hell of a lot to carry over water. As a result, the ships that transport LNG cost even more than a hell of a lot to construct. I remember my father talking about building an LNG

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

Inflation hits 11.1 per cent

There had been quiet but growing optimism from some economists that inflation in Britain was nearing its peak as the CPI headline rate had fluctuated slightly – in and out of double digits – over the past few months. But that optimism was put on pause this morning when the Office for National Statistic revealed that inflation rose by a full percentage point from September, taking CPI to 11.1 per cent on the year last month. CPI is at its highest level since 1981, and above the Bank of England’s most recent prediction for where inflation would peak. Meanwhile, real-terms wage increases are failing to keep up with price hikes.

Tuesday

Svitlana Morenets Svitlana Morenets

Third wave of Russian shelling blitz begins in Ukraine

A third wave of Russian missile attacks consisting of approximately 100 shells was launched against Ukraine today. Kyiv has taken a direct hit, with three blocks of flats on fire in the district of Pechersk in the city centre. Other explosions have also been confirmed in Lviv, Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytsky, Zhytomyr, Kryvyi Rih and Rivne, and some cities have been cut off from electricity. Critical infrastructure and power plants appear once again to be Russia’s main target. The Ukrainian government has already declared that emergency power cuts must be implemented across the whole country. Most of the missile hits have been reported in central Ukraine and the north of the

Alexander Larman

Harry and Andrew are out in the cold

King Charles has announced, to mark his 74th birthday, that he will be asking Parliament to amend the Regency Act to increase the number of counsellors of state who can conduct official public business while the monarch is overseas or otherwise indisposed. He has asked that it now include his sister, Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, and his younger brother, Prince Edward, the splendidly named Earl of Wessex and Forfar. It represents a generous spirited recognition of the services that Anne and Edward have undertaken for decades, often with little gratitude or reward: springtime for the Princess and Prince. It is, however, very much winter for two existing counsellors of

Kate Andrews Kate Andrews

UK workforce falls, vacancies at 1.23 million

The workforce has not sprung back. According to the latest labour market figures, released by the Office for National Statistics today, the UK workforce is falling, not rising. Employers may be crying out for workers but the number in employment fell by 52,000 in the three months to September, twice what was expected. This was due to a remarkable drop of 249,000 in September alone. Meanwhile, job vacancies still stand near the record high, at 1.23 million – about twice the average seen in the past decade.  Unemployment, by formal definition, has fallen: a dip of 0.2 percentage points on the quarter, down to 3.6 per cent. Very few people seeking

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

Who is Boy George to look down on Matt Hancock?

Matt Hancock’s ongoing humiliation in the I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! jungle is bad news for lots of people, not least his long-suffering family and his mortally embarrassed children. His constituents in West Suffolk, who can watch their right honourable representative eat kangaroo penis (but probably not expect a reply to their letters), are also missing out. Hancock’s decision to head Down Under has also put paid to his dreams of a return to the cabinet. But there is one winner in all this: Boy George. Hancock’s appearance on the ITV show has allowed his fellow jungle celebrities to take a moral high ground. None of us

Monday

Matthew Lynn

The decline of the London stock market

There is plenty for anyone in Paris to feel smug about if they happen to look across to the other side of the English Channel right now. France has been able to watch British prime ministers come and go with almost comical regularity. It can supply everyone else with electricity from its nuclear power stations if they ask nicely enough. And it is about to watch its football team cruise to defending its crown at the Qatar World Cup. But there is one more that will make the French especially pleased. Paris has just overtaken London as Europe’s largest stock market – and the UK has only itself to blame. 

Joanna Williams

Matt Hancock has united Britain

Some people deal with failure better than others. Matt Hancock, it seems, has spent the past three years trying to get over losing his bid to be leader of the Conservative party. But good news! Finally, Hancock has found solace. Upon being declared leader of the I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here jungle, he told his campmates his new position ‘more than makes up for’ his previous loss. Hancock has, yet again, attempted to explain why he is in the game show jungle. ‘What I’m really looking for is a bit of forgiveness,’ he declared. Whether that was forgiveness for discharging Covid-patients into carehomes, preventing people visiting dying

Sam Leith Sam Leith

Would the real Matt Hancock please sit down?

‘Politics,’ as the old quip has it, ‘is showbusiness for ugly people.’ That quote was minted in the good old days when there was, at least implicitly, some clear blue water between the two things: it intended to draw an arch point of comparison between two quite different spheres of activity. Politics was momentous, solemn, and consequential; showbusiness was vain, silly and inconsequential. The quip points to a sneaking sense that, secretly, those in the former realm were actuated by less high-minded concerns.   These days, there is less and less sense, either among the general public or the practitioners of either art, that any such distinction exists. Both are now simply vehicles to attain the infinitely fungible currency

Sunday

Julie Bindel

Rebel Wilson and the problem with surrogacy

When the Australian actor Rebel Wilson announced the birth of her daughter Royce Lillian, she added the small detail that she had been born by a ‘gorgeous’ surrogate. Wilson expressed her gratitude to the woman who had carried the child for nine months before giving birth to her: ‘Thank you for helping me start my own family, it’s an amazing gift. The BEST gift!!’ A child is a human being, and obviously not a ‘present’ – although Big Fertility would have us think differently. Wilson, who had tried IVF three times without success, said that her desire to have her own baby was ‘overwhelming‘. So overwhelming that she thought borrowing