Society

Thursday

The Spectator

Freedom to protest is not freedom to cause chaos

The concept of normality has been so disrupted over the past 18 months that the Extinction Rebellion protests — usually designed to stop people getting to work — are unlikely to have as much of an impact as they did. Even so, businesses which are trying to recover from the pandemic find themselves once again cut off from their customers. Bus routes are disrupted and commuters are impeded from getting to work — and for far longer periods of time than with traditional protests. The group appears to have acquired a new confidence thanks to a Supreme Court ruling in June which quashed the convictions of four protestors who obstructed

The Spectator

Letters: the West has failed Afghanistan

The blame game Sir: Like many who served in Afghanistan, I have watched with growing dismay the recent events unfolding in Kabul (‘Mission unaccomplished’, 21 August). I have also listened with growing frustration to the grand speeches of politicians, pointing fingers while distancing themselves from this tragic debacle. David Galula, the French military scholar well known for his counter-insurgency thinking, described the role of the military in such operations as providing a secure space for the legitimate government to work safely with the people. He accepted that the military could also be given other suitable and appropriate tasks but was very clear that they must never be in charge. These

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: the chaotic evacuation from Kabul

Home At the virtual G7 emergency summit that he was chairing, Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, urged President Joe Biden of the United States to prolong the evacuation from Kabul of Nato forces, nationals and dependants beyond 31 August. But the Taliban said no. Britain took 8,600 people out of Afghanistan in ten days, but Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said: ‘We won’t get them all out.’ Tony Blair, the former prime minister who had sent British forces to join in the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, said that America’s decision to withdraw had been made ‘in obedience to an imbecilic political slogan about ending “the forever wars”’. One person

Luke McShane

Remembering Evgeny Sveshnikov

There be dragons! What we now call the Sveshnikov variation of the Sicilian defence was, in the 1970s, largely uncharted territory, and viewed with deep suspicion. Its modern name immortalises the Russian grandmaster whose pioneering analytical efforts, and practical success, put the variation on the map. Evgeny Ellinovich Sveshnikov died on 18 August at the age of 71. After his graduation in 1972, Sveshnikov worked towards a PhD at the Department of Internal Combustion Engines in the USSR. But his career turned towards chess, and in 1976 he was part of the Soviet team which won gold medals at the World Student Team Championship. The following year he was awarded

Pabulum

2521: Leading question

Unclued lights can be arranged so that, preceded by ‘What is’, they form a question whose answer solvers must shade. Ignore a hyphen. Across 1 Matlows flying from atelier on fire in hacienda (11, three words) 11 Fish swimming again around noon (6) 13 First son wrestles with eighth (7) 15 A punch followed by a little uppercut later (5) 17 Priest is protecting aged trees (6) 18 Science journal grandchild takes (5) 20 Heartless Brummie tarnished silvery stuff (6) 21 Absurdist philosopher backs into tree (5) 27 Georgia, twisted girl, getting hot in hell (7) 29 Poor Marvin lacks money for alloy (5) 30 Character cycling with Chinese American

Lucy Vickery

Spectator competition winners: Villanelles after Elizabeth Bishop

In Competition No. 3213 you were invited to submit a villanelle whose first line is: ‘The art of [insert gerund of choice here] isn’t hard to master…’ Floating in the slipstream of Elizabeth Bishop were some fine entries, including those by Bob Trewin and Philip Roe, who earn honourable mentions. The winners take £30. The art of winning isn’t hard to master; Your errors can escort you to success. There is no better teacher than disaster.  Triumphs will come your way a little faster When Nike offers you that first caress. The art of winning isn’t hard to master.  The skills you gain from failed attempts will last a Lifetime.

Luke McShane

No. 668

Black to play. Geller–Sveshnikov, USSR Ch 1978. Geller’s last move, 34 Rb1-e1 looked clever, since Black cannot safely capture the queen. But Sveshnikov’s next move exposed a critical flaw in Geller’s idea. What did he play? Answers should be emailed to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 30 July. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address. Last week’s solution 1 Rh1 Qe8 2 Ke1 Qa8 3 Kf1 Qa6+ 4 Kg1 and Black cannot progress, since 4…Qc4 is stalemate. Last week’s winner Jon Pepper, East Grinstead, West Sussex

Alexander Downer

Prison island: Australia’s Covid fortress has become a jail

Australians have a reputation for rugged individualism, grit and competence. But when it comes to the pandemic, we have seen another side to my country: insecure, anxious and frozen by the fear of death from Covid. A recent global poll found that Australians more worried about the virus than any other western country. They have been scared witless by the hysteria of politicians, chief medical officers and the media. At first, Australia’s Covid strategy was hailed as a triumph: it had moved fast, minimised deaths and was on course to make enough AstraZeneca vaccine to double-jab the whole country. The route out seemed plausible: sit tight, vaccinate, then reopen. But

Mary Killen

Dear Mary: how can I matchmake two dinner guests?

Q. What is the best seating plan when you have a supper party where you are hoping to matchmake two of the single guests? If you put them next to each other, everyone will stare to see how they are getting on. Or is it better, when you move everyone next door, to have coffee and then say ‘Who hasn’t talked to who?’, and put them together then? -— A.E., Pewsey A. It is risky to wait till after supper. Smug marrieds may want to head to bed all too soon and if the crowd thins too much, the singletons may not have enough time to bond before they feel

Mike Daunt

Save our eels

The migration of European eels is one of the miracles of nature. They start life in the great deeps of the Sargasso sea in the north-west of the Atlantic ocean as tiny, flat creatures, like almost transparent willow leaves, which drift 3,700 miles on the Gulf Stream to Britain and mainland Europe. The journey can take more than three years. When they approach Europe they make their first metamorphosis into ‘glass eels’: thin rods, shorter than a finger, which are also virtually transparent. These in turn have their own metamorphosis into elvers, which are essentially tiny eels. They swim upstream, close to the bank to avoid the river’s current, and

Antonia Fraser

How would Jane Austen have fared at a book festival?

I’ve been to two of my favourite book festivals recently, Chalke Valley History Festival and Charleston, and the experience has set me thinking about festivals in general. If I could listen to a great writer — any great writer — at a literary festival, I think I would choose Anthony Trollope. He would probably go on and on, just as his books go on and on, but be highly engaging in exactly the same way. Still in the 19th century, I don’t imagine Jane Austen would be much fun at a festival — but I am quite sure she would have the sense not to accept. Sir Walter Scott would

John Casey

Meeting Ahmad Massoud, the Sandhurst graduate taking on the Taliban

The Taliban do not yet control all of Afghanistan. As most of the country fell to the Islamic militant group with terrifying speed, Panjshir valley, about 100 miles north of Kabul, leading deep into the Hindu Kush mountains, remained unconquered. It is now the last province beyond the Taliban’s control. While many Afghan politicians have fled the country, Ahmad Massoud — leader of the National Resistance Front, the anti–Taliban resistance in Panjshir — has decided with (perhaps) a few thousand followers to try to turn the valley into a final redoubt. He has vowed that if war breaks out, his rebels will fight ‘to the very last breath’. His pledge

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Is it cruel to eat fish?

It was a hot late evening on the Greek island of Tinos, and we were sitting at a quayside restaurant outdoors, enjoying a nightcap glass of ouzo. One or two other tables were still occupied by diners, all of them Greek. Foreign tourism is only slowly coming back but Greece has a strong internal holiday market, and Tinos, a lovely island, is only an hour or two by ferry from the mainland. A couple of children, small girls, were playing around the edge of the quay. The tranquil scene was now disturbed. The girls were looking in alarm at something under an unoccupied table. A big fish, beached, more than

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

The neocolonialist legacy of Tony Blair

The Americans may have pulled out, but luckily the Afghans have the world’s vibrant community of witches intervening to save them. A website for these practitioners of the black arts has devoted its entire attention to the Taliban. One witch commented: ‘It seems like the Taliban gets most of their power from Allah. If we hex Allah it should affect all of the Taliban. Can we hex Allah?’ Another witch, under the user name ‘i-follow-tiny-people’, reports she has made a voodoo doll of the Taliban leader and asks: ‘Any witches want to help me with curses?’ The new Afghan rulers’ days are surely numbered. Whatever magick the witches conjure up,

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The BBC exaggerates Britain’s importance in Afghanistan

This week, the media pressure was on the British government to extend the deadline for the evacuations from Kabul airport. The government had no power to do this unilaterally: it duly asked the United States, and was duly turned down. The issue was almost beside the point. It is doubtful, given the burning desire of so many to leave the country, whether a few more days of rescue flights would have done much to shorten the suffering queue of hopefuls. Each day is dangerous, so more days are more dangerous. Preoccupation with extension deflected attention from the key point, which is that all evacuation planning assumed that Kabul and its

Aidan Hartley

With tourists absent, the teeming marine life has returned to the sea off Malindi

Malindi, Kenya Beneath the Indian Ocean’s surface, I wondered if the pandemic had turned out to be a good thing after all. I swam among corals blooming more colourfully and with more diversity of reef fishes than on any dive I can recall since my childhood. On the high-tide line in front of our beach house on Kenya’s north coast, sandpiper feet and the claws of ghost crabs are becoming entangled in discarded blue face masks. This year, the tourists are mostly absent and the seafront nightclubs, restricted by curfew, are silent. But out here among the coral gardens, the teeming marine life, flaring with psychedelic colours, hints how swiftly

Taki

The Swiss are united by a common cause — making money

Gstaad When Gerald Murphy and Cole Porter discovered the French Riviera as a summer resort during the early 1920s, the swells and avant-gardes still spent the warm months in cool places like Deauville and Baden-Baden. I think of the deserted summer Riviera and how marvellous the place must have been when people like Picasso and Hemingway joined forces with Cole and Gerald and launched the resort to end all resorts. No longer. The place is now an overcrowded hellhole, expensive, dirty and dangerous, but not to worry. If the recent heatwaves continue and the temperatures keep climbing, soon we’ll be right back where we started, except this time it will

Mark Mason

Why men share trivia

It was halfway through lunch that something reminded my friend Marcus about Ray Charles and his plane. ‘Did you know he used to fly it himself?’ he asked the rest of us. ‘When it reached cruising altitude he’d insist on taking the controls. Obviously his passengers were terrified. They thought a blind man playing chess was one thing, but flying a plane? Someone asked him once why he did it. He said: “Because it’s mine.”’ This triggered a memory of my own. ‘It was the same with his car,’ I said. ‘One day he insisted on driving it. When his chauffeur tried to stop him, Charles said “Who paid for

Dot Wordsworth

The language of the victimhood war

Language is used in a weird way in the victimhood war, where those who see themselves without agency bravely speak their truth to power. Their truth cannot be negated merely by examining the evidence, for it derives from lived experience. The powerful are axiomatically guilty, and must be called out for their behaviour or behaviours, as the new usage puts it. They must then own or take ownership of the issue. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex found themselves victims without agency in the racist world of the royal family. During their interview with Oprah Winfrey, they spoke of conversations between the Duke and a member of the family about