Society

Thursday

Susanna Gross

Bridge | 23 July 2022

I was very sorry to learn of the death of the legendary American player and author Eddie Kantar – he was still writing articles with such youthful vigour that I had no idea he was 89. Kantar was considered to be the greatest player-teacher-writer of all time. The clarity of his writing, combined with his self-deprecating humour, brought him legions of fans from across the world. I have an entire row of his books on my shelves – including classics like Complete Defensive Play and Bridge For Dummies – which I’ve been thumbing through for 20 years. As the English player John Cox put it: ‘To many of us, his

Robin Oakley

Horse racing’s invisible heroes

President George W. Bush used to quote his fellow Texan Robert Strauss who famously declared: ‘You can fool some of the people some of the time, and those are the ones you need to concentrate on.’ Listening to the economic arguments of most of the candidates for the Tory leadership last week, they clearly take a similar view. If it’s honesty you want, stick to horse racing. In Newbury’s baking heat last Saturday, Grocer Jack, an expensive 700,000-guinea purchase from Germany for Prince Faisal bin Khaled, led all the way at a sometimes extravagant pace to win the Listed bet365 Stakes by nine lengths in the hands of Tom Marquand.

Taki

In praise of Spectator readers

Michael Beloff, QC and past president of Trinity College Oxford, has just had his memoir reviewed in The Spectator, and it brought back memories. Here’s this really good man, the type who does the work, believes in the system, plays by the rules and subscribes to the old graces of courtesy and politeness, but the sort we never read about. Instead, what is shoved down our throats are today’s politicians selling their snake oil on TV, or those untalented but self-entitled celebrities boasting about themselves, and the ultimate horrors, of course, the profoundly ignorant woke brigade who block free speech. I can’t remember how long ago it was that I

Wednesday

The Spectator

The heatwave shows the lockdown instinct is still alive

Trains were running even more slowly than usual. Schools were closed again. Offices were empty. No one would deny that Monday and Tuesday were on the warm side, at least by British standards. Even so, there was something more alarming than the temperature: how quickly the authorities started to close down society – and showed that the lockdown instinct is still very much alive. The Met Office, a body that has turned from fairly comical to slightly sinister in recent times, started advising everyone to stay at home. The unions asked for schools, offices and transport systems to be closed down. There were no trains north out of King’s Cross

Tuesday

Robert Tombs

What Netflix’s RRR gets wrong about the British Raj

Netflix is promoting a new pseudo-historical blockbuster. RRR, which stands for Rise, Roar, Revolt, is an Indian film which has been playing to packed houses at home. Those expecting the usual Indian crowd-pleaser featuring magic, romance, stiff-upper-lip male heroism, and improbably gory violence will not be disappointed. RRR is set in the 1920s, when India was still in the British empire. The villains are British. No surprises there. But the portrayal of the two main British characters, ‘Governor Scott’ and his wife, is unusually nasty and at the same time amazingly silly. Among other incidents, the Scotts kidnap an Indian child and try to murder the mother. Hapless Indians are brutally

Monday

Raquel Rosario Sánchez

Why feminists like me are backing Badenoch

Kemi Badenoch is the surprise candidate in the Tory leadership contest. Badenoch was, until a few weeks ago, a relatively lowly minister in Boris Johnson’s government. Now she stands a credible chance of becoming the next prime minister. Her success in facing down her Conservative rivals has catapulted her into the limelight. But for feminists like me who campaign for sex-based rights her impact on the leadership contest isn’t entirely unexpected. Why? Because unlike her rivals like Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, Badenoch knows the answer to a simple question: what is a woman? Of all the candidates, her support of sex-based rights, including single-sex spaces and services, makes her stand out

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Whisper it, but we’re allowed to enjoy the heatwave

It was with some trepidation that I set off into the hills of Pyrenees Orientales on Saturday. The temperature was forecast to rise to 37°C by the afternoon – a level that is lethal, according to British news sites, even if you are sitting around in the garden. Apparently, today and tomorrow’s heatwave is going to kill thousands of Britons.  The heatwave is just the latest manifestation of our own public authorities’ obsession with doom Was I going to end up being recorded in the local French newspapers as the foolish Englishman who perished after going out in the midday sun? I needn’t have worried. I didn’t see many people at

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

The heatwave green hysteria is out of control

If you find yourself wondering over the next few days why it is so swelteringly hot, I have an answer for you. It’s because of rich people. It’s because of those wealthy elites with all their gas-guzzling vehicles and reckless holidaymaking. It’s their fault you’re sweating on the Tube. This infantile claim really is being made, and by supposedly serious politicians. Labour’s Richard Burgon, over on his Instagram account, is wringing his no doubt sweaty hands over the filthy rich folk who apparently landed us in this weather apocalypse. ‘As we face 40C temperatures and the first ever Red Extreme Heat Warning, remember this climate crisis is driven by the

Friday

Christopher Snowdon

The anti-drinking lobby’s twisted logic

In 2018, the Lancet published a study from the ‘Global Burden of Disease Alcohol Collaborators’ which claimed that there was no safe level of alcohol consumption. This was widely reported and was naturally welcomed by anti-alcohol campaigners. The BBC reported it under the headline ‘No alcohol safe to drink, global study confirms’. (Note the cheeky use of the word confirms, despite the finding going against 50 years of evidence.) The study wasn’t based on any new epidemiology. Instead, it took crude, aggregate data from almost every country in the world, mashed it together and attempted to come up with a global risk curve. As I said at the time: The

Alexander Larman

What is Elon Musk up to now?

Did Elon Musk ever intend to buy Twitter, or was it all another piece of showboating from a man apparently addicted to the spotlight of publicity? After he announced last Friday that he was walking away from the $44 billion deal that he had previously agreed, Twitter has sued him. A lawsuit angrily states that ‘Having mounted a public spectacle to put Twitter in play, and having proposed and then signed a seller-friendly merger agreement, [Mr] Musk apparently believes that he – unlike every other party subject to Delaware contract law – is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value, and walk away’.

Thursday

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Why the Pope’s ‘Synod on Synodality’ has become a joke

25 min listen

The Catholic Church is half way through a two-year consultation exercise that will culminate in a ‘Synod on Synodality’ in the Vatican next year. A synod on what? Don’t worry if you’re confused. No one in Rome seems to be able to define synodality, either. What will the world’s bishops discuss? Probably not the figures revealing how many Catholics have taken part in this exercise, because they’re acutely embarrassing. The English and Welsh bishops couldn’t even get 10 per cent of Mass-goers to take part in a consultation process that many observers suspect has been shamelessly rigged by Pope Francis’s bureaucrats. And in Belgium, a country where some six million

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

As the NHS shut down, the wealthy chose to die at home

Since January, some 22,000 more Brits have died at home than would be expected in a normal year. These so-called excess deaths at home had stumped doctors and left GPs calling for an investigation. The causes remain unclear but a study published today offers the first clues to what’s going on. The study, funded by Marie Curie, found that deaths at home increased sharpest in the most affluent areas during the pandemic. While excess deaths occurred in all groups, in England there were 33 per cent more at-home deaths than pre-pandemic in the least deprived areas. Meanwhile, deaths in the most deprived areas grew just 21 per cent. In Scotland the

Gavin Mortimer Gavin Mortimer

Was the Queen right to give the NHS the George Cross?

During a ceremony at Windsor Castle on Tuesday, Her Majesty the Queen bestowed the George Cross on the National Health Service. The Prince of Wales was in attendance, as were a select group of ‘health leaders and workers’ from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The honour was announced last year, when the country was still flush with excitement from the successful vaccine rollout and a whiff of the Covid equivalent of the ‘Blitz Spirit’ still remained. Twelve months on and that spirit has evaporated. Boris Johnson, the Glorious Leader, has been overthrown, the NHS is in a ruinous state with a care backlog of 6 million patients and rising.

The Spectator

What’s the hottest it’s ever been in the UK?

Hot hot hot The Met Office said temperatures may hit 40˚C on Sunday, which would be the highest ever recorded in the UK. The current record of 38.7˚C was in Cambridge Botanic Garden on 25 July 2019. The lowest ever temperature of -27.2˚C was recorded in Braemar, Aberdeenshire twice: once on 11 February 1895 and on 10 January 1982. Source: Met Office Cutting remarks Former chancellor Lord Lamont warned Tory leadership candidates not to enter a ‘Dutch auction’ over promising tax cuts. Here are the cuts they have proposed so far: Nadhim Zahawi £43.4bn Jeremy Hunt £39bn Liz Truss £38.4bn Tom Tugendhat £19.8bn Penny Mordaunt £4.8bn Rishi Sunak £0bn Kemi

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

My Tory leadership race fantasy game

‘Black swan’ theory, developed by the writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb, refers to unexpected events that have extreme consequences but are rationalised afterwards by pundits who say ‘That was always going to happen.’ Covid was a big one; Putin’s war on Ukraine another. It’s in the nature of global events that there’s always a dark-feathered disruptor lurking somewhere, waiting to make its presence felt. Right now, it just might be hidden in reports of protestors in Zhengzhou, capital of China’s Henan province, demanding their money back from four local banks that suspended withdrawals in April. Runs on small banks are not unknown in China; nor is embezzlement by corrupt managers. The

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

The lost art of letterheads

One of the pleasures of the letters from unhappy ministers to the Prime Minister last week (though not, presumably, for the recipient) was the assortment of letterheads from Whitehall departments we saw in the papers. One was from Nadhim Zahawi, on HM Treasury writing paper. It’s a fair bet that most of Mr Z’s communication these days is by email or text or WhatsApp. Yet when it came to calling for Boris Johnson to resign, nothing would do but a letter with the Treasury insignia to indicate that the writer was staying where he was. There are so few opportunities nowadays to show off a letterhead that they have become

The Spectator

Letters: In defence of Boris Johnson

Boris’s legacy Sir: It is grossly unfair to assert that Boris Johnson’s legacy was the lockdown (Leading article, 9 July). His chief legacy was, of course, Brexit, followed by the crushing of Corbynism, the world-beating vaccine rollout, and his leading role in supporting Ukraine against the Russian invaders. Not a bad tally. Most European countries, though not Sweden, imposed lockdowns of varying lengths and severity, on the advice of scientists and with overwhelming public support. Governments were on a learning curve when the vicious virus struck. Johnson’s government made mistakes, but got most of the big decisions right. We all know about Johnson’s flaws, but he was a remarkable prime

Susan Hill Susan Hill

Home remedies are good for us – and the NHS

Today’s medical treatment for major ills is unrecognisable, in sophistication and efficacy, from anything available during the immediate post-war period. We all live longer, pain is far better controlled, and antibiotics save lives – though fewer than they once did because of the cavalier way they have been overused. I did not take any at all until I was 20, and that was penicillin prescribed by a dentist. My children were brought up on it. But I am not sure we are better off for minor conditions. Ambulances are demanded for what only needs a sticking plaster and it is estimated that more than half of those waiting five hours

Mary Wakefield Mary Wakefield

Parents must resist Stonewall’s gospel

I think by now it’s becoming horribly apparent to parents of every political persuasion that we can’t sit out the culture wars. You might call yourself progressive, loathe the Tories, but still… the ideological tide is rising, and when it laps at your own child’s feet, everything changes. It becomes impossible to ignore the fact that gender activism these days isn’t about gay rights or even trans rights, it’s not about being inclusive, it’s about presenting utter nonsense as plain fact. A generation of children are being fed a distorted version of reality. In particular they’re told that there’s no such thing as biological sex, that there are no born

George Osborne

Boris’s final days in No. 10

‘So what did he say?’ I asked the ministerial friend who went to tell Boris last week he had to resign. ‘Well, he told me a long story about a relative of his who got caught up in a planning dispute, barricaded himself inside his house and the police had to come in force to drag him out. I think it means he’s not going quietly.’ At one level, politics is unpredictable; but enduring political rules apply. Boris told me years ago that while he wasn’t a team player, he could be a good team leader. For all his infectious optimism, it turns out that’s not possible. Downing Street will