Society

Thursday

Victoria Lane

Spectator Competition: It’s a match

For Competition 3385, with Valentine’s Day looming, you were invited to submit a passage in which one well-known character from literature goes on a date with another. There was a very full inbox, with enough excellent entries to fill weeks’ worth of competitions. It’s tempting to think that some of these imaginative pairings would have real potential. Lady Chatterley’s Mellors rendez-vous’d once with Lorelei Lee and twice with Clarissa Dalloway: it was hard to choose. Sadly I had to disallow Mrs Mala-prop’s encounter with Revd Spooner (‘too late, I understood what he’d meant by a “nosy little cook”’). Her other date was with Holden Caulfield (‘Golden Cornfield?’). There was a

Cheesecracker

2689: Annus Impuratus?

Eight unclued lights (two of two words) advise solvers ‘3D 38A is 9D, 32D 32D-17A, when 6A 44A 31D’. Across 1 Don’t at first knock small amount of liquid (Scotch) (4) 12   Last, as do picture capture and future exposure (6) 13   What’s in deadly new compound (8) 14   Burn short jacket (5) 15   Judge almost misrepresents village’s case (7) 18   Off-and-on, His self-ease dwells in Man, say (5) 19   Camp male holds note (6) 20   Yeats is beginning to study complex sort of writer (8) 21   Anxious, sons taking lead in cushy job (8) 25   Legally levied estate, half of which in red? (9) 27   Overcharge copper

The Spectator

2686: Poem VIII – solution

The poem is ‘Say not the struggle nought availeth’ by Arthur Hugh Clough. The final words are SUN CLIMBS SLOW, HOW SLOWLY, BUT WESTWARD, LOOK, THE LAND IS BRIGHT. The other two extracts are DUPES (25A) and THE FIELD (22). CLOUGH (3) was to be shaded. First prize Will Snell, London SE10 Runners-up Mike Conway, Grimsby; P. and A. Hoverstadt, Heatley, Cheshire

Toby Young Toby Young

The trouble with criminalising ‘Islamophobia’

When I first heard that Angela Rayner had been tasked with creating an advisory council that will draw up an official definition of ‘Islamophobia’, I assumed it was another poisoned chalice handed to her by No. 10, particularly as Dominic Grieve has been suggested as the chair. Is that the same Dominic Grieve who was leader of the awkward squad in the Commons and spent three years doing everything in his power to thwart Brexit? He’s bound to make the Deputy Prime Minister’s life just as miserable as he made Theresa May’s. If I wanted to see Rayner off as a leadership challenger, this is precisely the kind of crap

Olivia Potts Olivia Potts

The time-poor woman’s perfect chocolate cake

Isn’t it awful that the older you get, the more you know yourself? It’s supposed to be a good thing, attributed to wisdom, experience and a deeper understanding of our place in the world around us. But good lord, self-awareness can be a cruel mistress. I have realised that my greatest culinary goal is simply unachievable. You see, I long to appear effortless. This is true throughout my life, but particularly so when it comes to cooking. Every time I invite friends round for lunch or dinner, I resolve that this is the time when everything will not only be easy but, crucially, I will make it look easy. That

Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland

Has email destroyed decision-making?

The discourse around ‘flexible working’ has degenerated into a narrow debate over whether people come into the office on three days of the week or four. But this risks distracting us from a more interesting question: do people work better in parallel or in series? When the pandemic hugely accelerated the adoption of video-calling, many people took to comparing the quality of meetings carried out via video with those conducted face to face. In general, they divide into two camps: those who believe that there is no substitute for meeting in person, and those who concede there are some disadvantages to meeting on a screen, but suggest these are far

Mary Killen

Dear Mary: Should I admit to being a Donald Trump supporter?

Q. This may sound ridiculous but I have an issue with the Big Issue seller near me. I am in that street several times a day, and he is usually waving and smiling and holding the magazine up at me. He even tried to make me buy a second copy of the Christmas issue, though he knew I had already bought it from him. He said something about wanting to buy his children chicken, which seemed like emotional blackmail. I find I now avoid the street if he is there and go a longer way. I saw a friend’s husband giving him £5 and not bothering to take the mag

Bruce Anderson

The best way to approach sake 

We were discussing civilisation, as one does, and its relationship with cuisine. Pasta in Italy, paella in Spain, the roast beef of Old England; wurst in Germany, burgers in the States –though with those latter examples we are moving away from the concept. What about Japan, a complex society which is full of paradoxes? For three-quarters of a century, the Meiji Restoration was the most successful revolution since the Glorious Revolution itself. It was part of a process which opened Japan to western influences and vice versa. Rather as in the UK, ancient forms were preserved, which helped to ensure social stability during a period of rapid change. Japan often

Dot Wordsworth

‘Loved ones’ are everywhere at this time of year

‘My heart will melt in your mouth,’ said my husband gallantly, unwrapping some leeks from a copy of the Sun which bore this suggestion: ‘Create a special Valentine’s Day message for a loved one with this decorate-your-own gingerbread heart, £2, new in at Morrisons.’ Loved ones, even dogs and cats, are fair game for hearts at this time of year. The astrologer Russell Grant warns Pisces about ‘a loved one’s wellbeing weighing on your thoughts’. At other times, loved ones are dead, the phrase being used without irony in broadcast reports of air disasters, war and inheritance tax. It annoyingly presumes that all relations who die are loved. The Oxford

Richard Madeley

I’m torn on capital punishment

There’s no statute of limitations on reporting a government minister’s embarrassing oops-a-daisy. It’s no good them doing a duck-dive, hoping that by the time they resurface everyone will have forgotten all about it. I remember after the Salisbury poisonings in 2018, Gavin Williamson, who was defence secretary at the time, appeared genuinely thrown when I brought up his Vicky Pollard-like comments about the Kremlin (‘Go away and shut up!’) in a live TV interview a few weeks later. I think it’s fair to say the exchange that followed wasn’t his finest hour. So it was when Rachel Reeves appeared on Good Morning Britain last week. It was the Chancellor’s first

The Spectator

Britain could learn from Trump’s approach to foreign policy

The Foreign Secretary describes his approach to diplomacy as ‘progressive realism’. One can legitimately ask what is progressive about a closer accommodation with the slave-labour-deploying Leninists of Beijing or what is realistic about ceding the UK’s sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to China’s ally Mauritius. But David Lammy seems happy in his work. His choice of words serves to give an updated gloss to what most observers would readily recognise as the Foreign Office’s traditional approach – appeasement of our enemies and embarrassment at anything which appears to be a reminder of our colonial past. Whatever the aptest description of this government’s foreign policy, it is fair to say Donald

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Shoplifting surges, Trump eyes Gaza Strip and Norway’s government collapses

Home Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, flew to Brussels for an EU summit, sought a ‘reset’ of relations and had celeriac soup and sea bream for dinner. AstraZeneca dropped plans to invest £450 million in a vaccine manufacturing plant in Speke, Liverpool, blaming the government’s ‘final offer compared to the previous government’s proposal’. Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that she supported the expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport; she had already backed a third runway at Heathrow and the reopening of Doncaster Sheffield airport. Water bills in England and Wales will rise to an average of £603. Some councils will be allowed to raise their tax by

D. J. Taylor

The exquisite vanity of the male sports writer

A good place to catch the highbrow sports journalist in action is the ‘Pseuds Corner’ column of PrivateEye, where he (and it’s always a ‘he’) regularly appears. Here you will discover that to contemplate Manchester City’s mid-season loss of form is ‘like sitting in Rome in 410 and watching the Visigoths pour over the horizon’, warm to the spectacle of Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk ‘striding about the place like the 17th Earl of Egham with a quiver of pheasants over one shoulder’, or learn that the mothers of the former Everton manager Sean Dyche and the French national coach Didier Deschamps both worked in the textile industry, which may explain

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Well done to the Channel 4 halfwits

The number of people arriving here in small boats has increased since Sir Keir Starmer was elected Prime Minister on 4 July last year. The 20,000 figure was passed in December. Perhaps the increase is a consequence of these disparate individuals yearning to live in a country in which Angela Rayner is the Deputy Prime Minister. Or maybe they have noticed that one of the great cabinet posts has been conferred upon David Lammy and they think to themselves – goodness, these guys are taking affirmative action to absurd levels. We can’t go wrong here. Either way, the numbers seem to be up and the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, continues

Dan Hitchens

The assisted dying bill is becoming a car crash

Kim Leadbeater has described her assisted suicide bill as ‘potentially one of the most important changes in legislation that we will ever see’. For Leadbeater and her allies, it is an attempt to make the law merciful: to give relief to those who want to control the manner of their death. But there is another, darker way to see the Leadbeater bill, and last week at the bill committee we got a glimpse of it. The committee stage was meant to reassure the doubters. At second reading, MPs were told that if the vote – just 18 days after the bill was published – seemed rushed, there would be plenty

Wednesday

Joanna Williams

Wes Streeting’s war on NHS diversity doesn’t go far enough

When America sneezes, Britain catches a cold. Luckily for us, we have Wes Streeting on hand with the tissues. Within days of Donald Trump signing an executive order putting a stop to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programmes across the US government, our own Health Secretary has diagnosed the NHS as suffering from a similarly bad case of DEI-itis. There are ‘some really daft things being done in the name of equality, diversity and inclusion’, Streeting declared this week. There are ‘some really daft things being done in the name of equality, diversity and inclusion’, Wes Streeting has declared Speaking at an event on Tuesday organised by Macmillan Cancer Support, Streeting

Alexander Larman

Meghan Markle’s tone-deaf wildfire video is hard to stomach

The recent fires in California have had many tragic effects. Many have lost their homes, possessions and livelihoods, and it has been a stark reminder that even the wealthy and privileged are not immune from a truly awful, life-changing event. Regrettably, however, the disaster has attracted a small but vocal number of people who ostensibly have offered their time and resources to provide much-needed assistance – but in reality seem more interested in creating #content to share on their social media. It is easier, for the sake of our collective mental health, to think as little about Meghan Markle as possible Meghan Markle, predictably enough, belongs to that category. There

Mary Dejevsky

Can our justice system handle cases like Lucy Letby’s?

Could Lucy Letby, the UK’s most notorious child-murderer, be innocent? The question has rumbled on ever since her convictions for the killing or attempted killing of 14 babies while a neo-natal nurse at Chester Hospital. It is a question that was given more substance this week by a panel of specialists, whose evidence forms the basis of an application from her lawyers to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which could allow an appeal.  The matter of Letby’s guilt or innocence is not the only question raised by this case, however. Another, which has so far lurked mostly in the background, concerns nothing less than the quality of the English judicial

Tuesday

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

The voice coach row reveals how Keir Starmer will come unstuck

The news that the Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the adenoidal android, has employed a voice coach is simply astonishing. ‘I’ll take no lectures from the party opposite,’ is one of Starmer’s most well-worn sentences. At least now we know who he will take lectures from: actress Leonie Mellinger, star of The Winters Tale and the BBC’s Bergerac, who has been helping Starmer find his voice. ‘The transformation,” she says, “has been enormous.’ Really? Even after receiving years of tuition from the classically-trained actress, Starmer’s droning voice still send me to sleep. Starmer seems to see the rules as things for lesser mortals to follow, but for a smartypants like him