Society

Thursday

The Spectator

Who will have more informants: the Stasi or Covid marshals?

Information overload The government’s plan to put ‘Covid wardens’ on the streets to enforce the new rule against more than six people meeting in public has been likened to the practice of the East German Stasi relying on mass informants. How many East Germans worked on behalf of the Stasi? — According to historian Helmut Mueller-Enbergs, 620,000 Germans acted as informers during the 51-year history of East Germany, including 12,000 West Germans. — When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, 189,000 East Germans were Stasi informants, just over 1 per cent of its 16 million population, and one in 20 Communist party members. Back in business? In which sectors is

The Spectator

Letters: In defence of seagulls

China’s covered Sir: If Charles Moore had contacted the BBC, rather than conducting a fruitless Google search, we would have told him we run three China bureaux — in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong — and that our three mainland correspondents are backed up by production and administrative staff locally. In Hong Kong, we have a team for the BBC’s online Chinese language service. We would have outlined our agenda-setting, and award-winning, reporting on the Uighurs over the last two years, as well as other major issues such as Covid and the situation in Hong Kong. We would have highlighted our BBC2 three-part series on President Xi. And we would

Mary Killen

Dear Mary: how can I avoid my friend’s awful favourite restaurant?

Q. Almost a year ago I attended the funeral of my godfather — a bachelor and distant relation whom I had seen increasingly infrequently. When I offered my condolences to his brother, he mentioned that godchildren had been very well catered for in the will and that as an executor he would be in touch with me in the coming months. I have heard nothing since. I really didn’t expect anything from the will and don’t need the money, but am simply curious about what has happened. Do I somehow raise this with the brother or just let it lie? Mary, I would greatly appreciate your advice on this awkward

Sarah Whitebloom

How many care homes are to blame for Covid deaths?

Cases of coronavirus are on the rise again inside care homes. Last week, Public Health England reported that 35 care homes had ‘infection incidents’ linked to Covid. And an internal Department of Health memo suggested that ‘satellite tests’ — which mainly take place in care homes — were picking up an estimated 1,100 new cases every day. This is extremely worrying for the most vulnerable people in our society — almost half of Covid deaths in the UK, more than 19,000, have been in care homes — but especially worrying when you look at the care regulatory system presided over by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). As far as I

Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland

Have big cities had their day?

About 15 years ago I noticed a few surviving chattel houses in Barbados and wondered what they were. As it turns out, they were an ingenious solution to an age-old problem. These tiny yet exquisite buildings, with barely room for a bed, chair and stove, owe their origins to the abolition of slavery. Though a plantation owner was obliged to pay a wage to freed slaves, he retained ownership of the land. A form of pseudo-slavery emerged, where workers were charged rent more or less equal to their pay (like workers under 30 in London). The ingenious response was to build houses light enough to be portable. You could then

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

JK Rowling’s fundamental mistake

I had my first doubts about Lord Hall, the former director-general of the BBC, when he addressed a group of us BBC editors back in about 1999 in his role then as head of news. A pleasant, emollient man, he revealed that he was thoroughly enjoying reading the second Harry Potter book, which had recently been published. Grow up, Tony, I thought to myself. Get yourself some Dostoyevsky for Christ’s sake. Snobbish it well may be, but I can’t take seriously an adult displaying such infantile predilections (and this goes for those grown-up admirers of Philip Pullman). Harry Potter was a big sensation at the time. I remember being on

Laurie Graham

Why I’ve given up on handbags

I have given up handbags. Men may think this a trifling thing. Women will understand it was not a painless decision. In my adult life I had rarely left home without a bag. Sometimes just a small clutch bag, but more likely a bucket bag which hung, with the weight of a Yorkshire terrier, from my shoulder. I have a dent in my collarbone to prove it. Then came Covid. You may remember that obsessive hand-washing was the first thing asked of us. It preceded social distancing, mandatory masks and the proscription of everything that makes life enjoyable, and though I’m not a herd animal I did give some thought

Jeremy Clarke

Why French car-boot sales are good for my mental health

Hairpin bends in a stony forest. Downhill. Steep, then steeper. Smooth frictionless tarmac. I’ve got the car barely under control. A narrow bridge over a ravine. Single file only. A van hurtling uphill. A recessed drain — unavoidable. Bang, crash, wallop. The car continues but feels mortally wounded. We limp to a passing place 50 yards further down the hill and I cut the engine. I get out and inspect the damage. A back tyre is as flat as a dab. It’s not my car. I open the boot hoping to uncover the requisite tools and spare wheel. Jack, spare wheel, warning triangle — present. Excellent. Wheel brace? Unfortunately not.

Melissa Kite

The WFH community are finally walking their own dogs — with terrible consequences

Every time I get on a horse I have to face the likelihood that a dog, or pack of dogs, will have me off. This issue of idiot dog owners walking their dogs for the first time now they are working from home is a situation that has developed since Covid but as far as I’m aware, no government guidelines have been issued to deal with it. Traditionally, dog owners in the idiot class don’t walk their dogs themselves, delegating that to a dog walker who collects the dog in a van and drives it to a place where it is walked with a load of other dogs. Either that,

Susanna Gross

Bridge | 19 September 2020

My friend Ollie Burgess has just made the bold move of quitting his job in Manchester, and moving to London to manage the Young Chelsea Bridge Club. Ollie is a fantastic player, as well as being popular and dynamic — exactly what’s needed. The YC is much loved by its members, but its numbers have been dwindling in recent years. It would be a huge shame if it ever closed, not just because it attracts such a high standard of player, but also because it has a long and rich history. It first opened its doors in 1968, and for decades enjoyed a reputation as the best and most exciting

Taki

What Barbara Black’s choice of friends says about her

Gstaad I’m not usually nonplussed, but this is very strange: the memoir of Barbara Black, the wife of my good friend Lord Black, simply doesn’t make sense where certain people she writes about are concerned — persons I happen to know well. The list is not long, and I’ll start with David Graham, her third and extremely rich husband who was the biggest bore I have ever met — and believe you me, I’ve met a few in my long life. Out of kindness, no doubt, she fails to mention what a terrific bore he was (he was also the cheapest man I’ve ever come across; he’d be dead before

Luke McShane

Changing the rules

Nothing courts us so nimbly as technology. Perhaps the chess computers have already won you over — I am dazzled by the riches they have revealed. For a jaw-dropping sense of wonder, try playing over a forced mate in 549 moves. Still, many yearn for a simpler time. A time when the mysteries of chess were plentiful, but studying the game ‘by hand’ yielded steady nourishment. A time when chess engines had not yet tempted us with their very own tree of the knowledge of good and evil. These days, that tangle of variations and verdicts is irresistible, but who can look at their own play without a sense of

Luke McShane

No. 622

Black to play. Jones–McShane, London Chess Classic 2019. Last year I played two games of no-castling chess with Gawain Jones, each of us winning one. Here, Jones has won a pawn, but his pieces are scattered. Which move won me the game? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 21 September. 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…Rf5! threatens h6-h5 mate. 2 Nxf5 exf5+ costs the queen.Last week’s winner Tim Watkin, Oxford

Pabulum

2475: Poem VI

Unclued lights are ten words taken from a poem quoted in ODQ. The poet’s name (two words) will appear diagonally in the completed grid and must be shaded. Across 1 Raise a fuss about street urchins (8) 11 Mercury, say, in the sky (7) 12 Joanna shrinks following advance of insects (5) 13 Musician’s fine whenever accompanying royalty (5) 15 Bug and grub infesting section of plants (7) 17 Conceivably producer of fine service tree (4) 19 Drink last short (5) 23 Room behind marble corridor (8) 24 Old hat £100,000, it’s restored by feather-dresser (7) 26 Nucleus of inert noble gas (6) 28 Arab in search for head of

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: new laws, illegal mingling and bungled tests

Home At one minute past midnight on Monday, new laws came into force prohibiting households in England increasing their numbers to more than six either at home or in the open air, not passed by parliament but imposed by statutory instrument by the Home Secretary under the Public Health Act 1984. The laws had been given the name ‘Rule of Six’ by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister. Mingling was singled out for censure. Wales and Scotland had their own variants, principally exempting children from the count. People in Birmingham, Sandwell and Solihull were banned from meeting anyone not part of their household; parents complained that this prevented grandparents looking after

Hadley Freeman

The Oscars’ self-defeating identity politics

I moved to this country from the USA 30 years ago and this year I’ve finally understood why: it was to spare myself the more self-defeating elements of America’s identity politics. Last week, the Oscars announced diversity guidelines, at least some of which films will have to fulfil to be considered for an Academy Award, such as that the film must ‘centre on women, LGBTQ people, a racial or ethnic group or the disabled’. Yet nowhere in these guidelines is there acknowledgement of one of the biggest predictors of quality of life in the US and, indeed, everywhere: social class. Going by the Oscars’ new rules, the 1988 Eddie Murphy

Dot Wordsworth

How a ‘back’ gets confused for a ‘bat’

My husband may not often be right, but he had some cogent criticism of the much-quoted words of Geoffrey Howe at his resignation in 1990: ‘Rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease only for them to find, the moment the first balls are bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain.’ As my husband remarks, it is no easy task to break a bat and conceal the deed from the opening batsmen until they are already at the crease. No matter. Cricket does inspire figures of speech, and one is ‘off his own bat’. You’ll often hear it as ‘off his own

The Spectator

Labour’s identity crisis

On the face of it, there could scarcely be better conditions for a revival of the Labour party. Even before the Covid crisis, a generation of young people were struggling to earn as much as their parents did at their age. The housing crisis remains unresolved, prices are higher than before the pandemic. The Tories are borrowing far more than they can afford and there will soon be a reckoning — with tax hikes, austerity or both. Unemployment will soar as the furlough scheme is unwound. But much of the left’s energy is being wasted in marching down the cul-de-sac of identity politics. For activists, the summer has been spent

Charles Moore Charles Moore

How to beat cancel culture

One of the most extraordinary features of the ‘cancel culture’ is how well it works. All decent people hate it, but it happens. Why? The key is speed. The bosses of big businesses, universities, quangoes, museums etc. are absurdly frightened by the sudden ambush. Some once-exalted alumnus or benefactor is ‘revealed’ on Twitter as having got money from slavery or worked for the British Empire or used a rude word in 1895. Out comes a petition against him, accompanied by a bit of spray-painting and a shouty demo, and he’s done for. In 99 per cent of the cases, the ‘revelation’ is not new, the alleged evil has been known

Ursula Buchan

Thanks to Covid, village shows are withering away

I measure out my summer in invitations to judge classes of flowers, fruit and vegetables at local village shows. The flower-show calendar is as changeless and as adamantine in its continuity as the high days and holy days of the Christian liturgical year. Or rather it was. In the past, as I have prepared to set out to one of these shows, armed with my RHS Horticultural Show Handbook, schedule of entry classes, tape measure (to assess the longest runner bean) and gardener’s knife (to cut into a beetroot’s bloody heart), I have sometimes thought how pleasant it would be to stay at home in my own garden, for judging