Society

Thursday

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

English people should be proud to fly the flag for St George’s Day

You know what day it is? That’s right, St George’s Day, England’s own. Except he’s also patron of Georgia, Portugal, Venice, Malta, Ethiopia, Serbia (one of them) and Lithuania. Plus the Boy Scouts. And I am told, of syphilis sufferers. A happy feast day to you all. George is that excellent thing, a saint who’s both national and international. He was venerated in England since before the Norman conquest; his feast day on this day was celebrated since 1244. He was popular during the Crusades, being a soldier saint; from 1399 he was venerated as England’s patron saint. And in the century before the Reformation, the day was the occasion

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Have the churches been betrayed by their bishops?

23 min listen

Last week I was sent a copy of a devastating 7,000-word letter accusing the Catholic bishops of England and Wales of grossly mishandling the coronavirus crisis by lobbying the government for a complete shutdown of their own churches, even for private prayer. The author called herself (or, more than likely, himself) ‘Fiona McDonald’ – and used a heavily encrypted email service in order to avoid being tracked down.  McDonald claimed that the bureaucrats of the Bishops’ Conference were sending out misleading and even untruthful messages about the church lockdown, claiming that it was forced on them by the government. It quoted a letter from Richard Moth, the Bishop of Arundel

Taki

Writing my High Life column made a man of me

As Cole Porter might have said, only second-rate people go on and on about their inner lives. Self-analysis, according to Cole, is the twin of self-promotion. Yet in this 10,000th issue of the world’s oldest and best weekly, and in my 43rd year of writing High Life, I have to admit to a bit of both of the above. So before any of you retreat into laptops and mobiles, some nostalgia is called for, starting in the spring of 1977. Many of the writers back then sent in their longhand-written copy via messenger, paid for by The Spectator. I used to type mine and slip it under the door at

Mary Killen

Dear Mary: How can I stop my friends spreading coronavirus conspiracy theories?

Q. Several of my friends and family members have moved on from dark thoughts concerning 9/11, the Kennedy assassination and other major events, and now seem convinced that coronavirus is another conspiracy, this time by the Chinese against the western powers. I say that’s unlikely, as it started with them infecting their own people. I would really like them to stop peddling such fake news, but how can I get them to do that without spoiling my good relationships with them?—P.B., Tadworth, Surrey A. Humour them by first listening sympathetically, then sighing resignedly as you reflect that it’s such a shame that these interesting ideas are always put out there

David Butterfield

The Spectator’s archives are full of surprises

The Spectator now has now reached a milestone unmatched in the global press, by becoming the first magazine to publish a 10,000th issue. To do justice to the history of the world’s oldest weekly magazine is a complex, perhaps even foolhardy task. Having spent the last three years piecing together its past, I can confirm that half a million multi-columned pages demand energetic trawling and patient sifting. For most of its life, The Spectator has been more a newspaper than a magazine. Until the Second World War its first pages were occupied exclusively with summarising the previous week’s events. So the historian’s focus falls instead on the comment pieces that

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: The Queen turns 94, Captain Tom raises £27m and Harry and Meghan block newspapers

Home The number of people with the coronavirus disease Covid-19 who had died in hospitals by the beginning of the week, Sunday 19 April, was 15,464, compared with a total of 9,875 a week earlier. Two days later it was 16,509. But the number of people in London in hospital with Covid-19 fell for seven consecutive days and there were plenty of empty beds. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, was reported by colleagues to be worried that relaxing lockdown measures too soon might lead to a second spike in the outbreak. Supplies of personal protective equipment were reported to be falling short; a delivery of 84 tons, including 400,000 gowns,

The Spectator

Who else has made history at Captain Tom Moore’s age?

Oldies and goodies Captain Tom Moore, 99, raised more than £26 million by walking 100 laps of the garden of his old people’s home. Who are the oldest people to have achieved various feats? — Yuichiro Miura climbed Everest aged 80 in 2013.— Dr Fred Distelhorst climbed Kilimanjaro at the age of 88 in 2017.— Mike Cross, 60, is the oldest person reported to have walked to the South Pole, in 2003. Buzz Aldrin visited it (and fell ill there) at the age of 86, but he was flown there as a tourist. Long gone to press This is The Spectator’s 10,000th issue since first publication in 1828, making it

Peter Jones

A happy hebdomaversary to The Spectator

The Spectator’s 10,000th hebdomaversary (hebdomas, ‘a group of seven’: a weekly cannot have an anniversary) will surely be celebrated with the same enthusiasm that units of a thousand evoked in the ancients. But for them a thousandth-year celebration had to be symbolically significant. That required careful manipulation of dates. For example, the really big moment in both Greek and Roman history was the Trojan War. Greeks produced nine different dates for the fall of Troy, one of which was 1334 bc. That was the choice of Alexander the Great, who a thousand years after that date (334 bc) began his invasion of Asia, repeating and confirming Greek superiority over Asian

Jeremy Clarke

Vodka, kaolin and morphine: my welcome drinks at The Spectator offices

In 2001, aged 44, I was hired to write a weekly column for this august paper, and for the first time in my life there was a London door on which I could knock or ring, at any time of the day or evening, and be welcomed in. And what a door! To walk along the Regency terrace sun trap of Doughty Street in Bloomsbury on a summer evening, then breeze through the open door of number 56, and to know that the people to be found inside were the funniest, cleverest, most unsnobbish collection of individuals, and that booze was the second language, was a dream come true. I

Toby Young Toby Young

If you really want to lose friends, start a magazine

I’m more impressed than most that The Spectator has racked up 10,000 issues, because I used to be a magazine publisher myself and I know just how hard it is. In 1991 I co-founded the Modern Review with Julie Burchill and Cosmo Landesman and appointed myself its first editor. Our motto was ‘Low culture for highbrows’ and we ran long, scholarly essays by intellectuals and academics about popular icons like Madonna. I remember one particularly good piece by David Runciman, now a politics professor at Cambridge, called ‘Wazza mazza wiz Gazza?’ about the footballer Paul Gascoigne. Among the magazine’s more dubious achievements was publishing the first ever article by Will

Tanya Gold Tanya Gold

Fare game: life as The Spectator’s restaurant critic

A fictional Spectator restaurant critic called Forbes McAllister appeared on Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge. He was played by Patrick Marber and was obviously based on Keith Waterhouse — bow tie, mad eyes — even if Waterhouse was never the restaurant critic at this magazine. McAllister was on TV to show off Lord Byron’s duelling pistols ‘and a lock of his stupid hair’. He bought them to annoy Michael Winner, then restaurant critic at the Sunday Times. ‘Are you entirely motivated by hatred?’ Partridge asked McAllister. It was his best ever question. ‘Yes, I think I am,’ said McAllister. ‘Rather perceptive of you. I hate you.’ Partridge then

Dot Wordsworth

How ‘furlough’ became mainstream

In July, in its ‘Guess the definition’ slot, next to the day’s birthdays, the Daily Mail asked its readers to plump for the correct meaning of furlough. Was it a) a second swarm of bees in a season; b) a pole across a stream to stop cattle; c) a soldier’s leave of absence? I think the second swarm is called an after-swarm or piper. The government has published a whole document on water-gates to stop cattle. (You can get a £240 grant if the wood used is peeled and tanalised.) These are backwaters of life, but furloughing has become mainstream. Furlough was used before the present emergency. I remember in

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The secrets of The Spectator’s success

Although I once edited this paper, and have written for it for almost 40 years, I did not know that it is the oldest magazine in the world. I learn this from 10,000 Not Out, David Butterfield’s short but scholarly new history of the paper from its foundation in 1828 to today. I wonder why it has survived. Here, more or less at random, are aspects emerging from the past 10,000 issues. • The paper began with ‘News of the Week’ and continues — in much crisper form — with ‘Portrait of the Week’ to this day. From time to time, this has been dropped, but the paper has mysteriously

Janet de Botton

Bridge | 25 April 2020

The Alt Invitational is the online tournament that is attracting some of the best players on earth. When the whole world is on lockdown, nothing can take the place of the American nationals or the World Bridge Games, but Paul Street (Canadian sponsor) had an idea: invite eight strong teams to compete over five days, in a series of tournaments, and stage it not in a huge conference hall but on BBO. Nobody need leave home. My team played in the second one — three days of qualifying and two days of finals — and we won! Here is a hand from the final where I feared I had blown

Luke McShane

FantasticStar beats MagzyBogues

‘I’m just completely collapsing in these games… unbelievable.’ World Champion Magnus Carlsen didn’t hide his anguish after losing a game against Alireza Firouzja, the 16-year-old who went on to defeat him 8.5-7.5 in an online blitz match last week. It was a dream final for the Chess24 website’s ‘Banter Blitz’ knockout tournament. Carlsen is the reigning World Blitz champion in over-the-board play. Firouzja, originally from Iran but now living in France, is an exceptional talent, and a serious candidate to succeed him in the future. He is still inexperienced in elite classical tournaments, and was convincingly beaten by Carlsen at the Tata Steel tournament in January. But in online speed

Luke McShane

No. 601

Black to play. Sjugirov–Carlsen, Chess24 Banter Blitz Semi Final. In this wild position, Carlsen’s next move put the result beyond doubt. What did he play? Answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 27 April. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1…Qg3+! 2 Rxg3 hxg3+ 3 Kg2 (3 Kxg3 Rxg5#) Rh2+ 4 Kxg3 (4 Kf1 g2+) Bf4+ 5 Kg4 Rxg5 mate.Last week’s winner Richard Craven, Montpelier, Bristol

Lavatch

2454: 17 Across

Thirteen unclued lights are of a kind (all singular, not plural) and confirmed in Chambers. 17 across gives the puzzle’s title (three words). Collins confirms 42A and the OED confirms 5D. Across 1 What artists do wrong to extend (7, two words)6 Sailor – another in sea is absorbed (7)14 Maybe king rejected skill in hymn (6)15 Clashed with officer and deserted shielded by number of Germans (8)16 Returned reward for judge (4)21 Advertiser tore off after concert (8)23 Mathematician from Italy is easing off (6)25 British engineer smuggles cases for weapons (8, two words)27 Two thirds of Bible book in assembly (8)30 Remark shifting energy of the mind (6)34

The Spectator

The case for trusting the public is stronger than ever

Our Plan is entirely new, comprising – 1. The whole News of the Week: selected, sifted, condensed and arranged as to be readable throughout. 2. A full and impartial exhibition of all the leading Politics of the Day. 3. A separate Discussion of Interesting Topics of a general nature, with a view to instruction and entertainment at the same time. 4. A Department devoted to Literatures… 5. Dramatic and Musical Criticism. 6. Scientific and Miscellaneous information. — R.S. Rintoul’s announcement of a new weekly, July 1828 In the history of publishing, no magazine has ever printed a 10,000th issue. Until now. The Spectator is unusual not only in that it

The Spectator

Letters: The joy of balconies

The closing of churches Sir: Stephen Hazell-Smith is quite right in writing that churches should re-open (Letters, 18 April), however the issue is now more fundamental. Recent weeks have demonstrated a crisis of leadership in almost every aspect of national life, excluding the Queen, who has exercised a spiritual leadership made necessary by the failure of bishops. The closing of churches may be seen as a defining moment in the life of the Church of England. As the Archbishop of Canterbury broadcast from his kitchen on Easter Day, impervious to the damage his ‘leadership’ has caused, many Anglican clergy and people I know looked to the image of the Pope