Society

Nordic noir

Anyone mildly interested in the second world war probably knows two things about our wartime alliance with Norway, following its invasion by Germany. One is the great Christmas tree that appears in Trafalgar Square every year, a gift from the Norwegian government in recognition of that alliance. The other is the daring raid to sabotage the Norwegian heavy-water plant essential to the German attempt to build an atomic bomb, an operation subsequently filmed as The Heroes of Telemark. But few are likely to know that the idea of an annual tree gift probably originated with two Norwegians manning one of the many SIS coast-watching stations in occupied Norway from which

to 2437: Sketchy

The unclued lights are PAINTING terms.   First prize Martina Fabian, Bourne End, Bucks Runners-up Phillip Wickens, Faygate, West Sussex; A.H. Harker, Oxford

Donald Trump has just blown up his goal of isolating Iran

A blood red flag was raised over the Jamkaran mosque in the Iranian holy city of Qom last week, one normally reserved to commemorate the death of martyrs. This time, it was intended as a call to arms. ‘We have unfurled this flag so that all [Shia] believers in the world gather around it to avenge Qassem Soleimani’s blood unjustly shed,’ said the mosque’s leader. In Tehran, there were calls for bloody retribution for the air strike that killed Iranian general Soleimani — and everywhere, talk of all-out war. If it was also intended to strike the fear of Allah into the hearts of Iran’s Sunni Arab enemies, it certainly succeeded.

Britain after Brexit: it’s time to decide on our place in the world

‘Global Britain’: a phrase that provokes mockery and even indignation. As an alternative to EU membership many consider it impossible and worse, undesirable. Are we capable of true independence, or is this an illusion? Does ‘global Britain’, as its bitterest critics accuse, draw on imperial nostalgia and nationalistic arrogance? Or is it a rational response to a changing world? It is certainly not a new response. Britain has been a global player since the 1730s. Since the early 1800s we have had to be: with a population of 14 million we were no longer able to feed ourselves, and Britain’s enemies looked forward to the day when it would starve.

Fight fire with fire: controlled burning could have protected Australia

 Sydney By modern standards, my grandfather would probably be considered an environmental criminal. To clear land for his farmhouse in north-eastern Victoria — and for his milking sheds, pig pens, chicken sheds, blacksmith shop and other outbuildings — he cleared hundreds of trees. And he cleared thousands more for his wheat fields, cattle paddocks and shearing sheds. Old man Hobbs would probably be found guilty of cultural appropriation, too, because he adopted the Aboriginal method of land-clearing. He burned all of those trees. He also established fire-delaying dirt paths through surrounding bushland. This was once standard practice throughout rural Australia, where the pre-settlement indigenous population had long conducted controlled burns

Ben Schott: I’m Tony Blair’s brother (according to Google)

The globe (Golden and otherwise) has rightly fallen h-o-h for Olivia Colman who, before The Crown, The Favourite and Peep Show, had an early role as Bev in the ‘Bev-Kev’ ads for AA insurance. But I was there at the very beginning, when she starred opposite her husband-to-be in a 1995 Cambridge production of Alan Ayckbourn’s Table Manners, directed by the incomparable Kate Pakenham. I was in charge of the sound and lights, which weren’t very elaborate, given the 80-seat Corpus Playroom could be lit with a 100-watt bulb. But I did have one minor creative triumph. Act one, scene one opens in an empty dining-room in late afternoon, and I persuaded Kate

My clash with Cameron

MPs have a standard approach to political biographies, which falls into three phases: first, preliminary gossip about what will or won’t (always a lot more interesting) be in it; second, mildly salacious enjoyment of the usually tepid leaks and excerpts in the press beforehand; and third, once the book comes out, the inevitable furtive rummaging through the index to see if they get any mentions. Stage three is hardly restricted to MPs, of course: William F. Buckley famously sent Norman Mailer a book with ‘Hi Norman’ inscribed in the index, knowing Mailer would look there first. But I hadn’t got near stage three with David Cameron’s autobiography when my indefatigable

Steerpike

Watch: Mark Francois begs for Big Ben to bong as Brexit begins

At present, it seems like the bells of the Elizabeth Tower will remain silent at 11pm on 31 January, as Britain leaves the EU. Although the new Speaker Lindsay Hoyle vowed at the end of last year to not block Big Ben ringing on Brexit day, an attempt to legislate the matter, by amending Boris Johnson’s Withdrawal Agreement Bill, failed this week. Currently the clock tower is undergoing restoration and so only rings on special occasions, such as New Year’s Eve. But one MP has not given up the fight for Big Ben to bong for Brexit. Today the Conservative MP Mark Francois stood up in the House of Commons to extoll

Isabel Hardman

Why Hague and Jolie’s sexual violence scheme went wrong

If you needed an illustration of why short-termism in politics is a very bad thing, look no further than the report from the Independent Commission for Aid Impact today into the UK government’s preventing sexual violence in conflict initiative. This is more popularly known as William Hague and Angelina Jolie’s drive to end rape as a weapon of war, and garnered huge attention when the pair launched it back in 2012. Their aims were noble: to bring to justice those using sexual violence in conflict, to prevent such crimes from happening in the first place and to reduce stigma for survivors. But the report from the ICAI on whether those

Ross Clark

Are over-insulated homes causing more heatwave deaths?

As we know, carbon emissions are going to have to be eliminated in the coming decades to prevent us suffering from fire, flood, tempest and plagues of locusts. But in one important respect is the cure actually worse than the disease? That’s the surprising implication of a statement on deaths from last year’s heatwave by Bob Ward, the Director of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change at the London School of Economics. In response to figures suggesting that there were 892 excess deaths between last June and August, a period which saw the highest temperature ever recorded in Britain, he said: ‘Tragically, many of these deaths are likely to

Patrick O'Flynn

Harry and Meghan have placed the Queen in an impossible position

In the Queen’s Christmas message, she observed that 2019 had “felt quite bumpy” at times. Her implication was that a new year could well bring happier, more stable times. Unfortunately for Her Majesty, it isn’t how 2020 is panning out. The pseudo abdication of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex from the Royal Family, just in time for the early evening TV news yesterday, will come as a bitter personal blow to the Queen. It also presents the monarchy with a problem that may come to dwarf even the terrible ongoing publicity about Prince Andrew’s friendship with the late Jeffrey Epstein. Harry and Meghan’s announcement came, we are told, despite

Steerpike

Barry Gardiner: I can win a general election

Will Barry Gardiner enter the race to become leader of the Labour party? The Shadow international development secretary certainly thinks he has what it takes. Following reports last night that he was mulling a shock late entry into the leadership contest, Gardiner appeared on Victoria Derbyshire’s BBC show this morning, live from Abu Dhabi, where he was on a trade trip. The interview didn’t exactly go smoothly. Asked by Derbyshire what he could bring to the table as leader of the Labour party that his fellow candidates lacked, Gardiner responded: ‘I can win a general election’ – not exactly a vote of confidence in the current crop of contenders. Gardiner

Stephen Daisley

Can anyone stop the SNP’s drive for independence?

Nicola Sturgeon’s reshuffle of her Westminster team is more than a post-election shake-up of the Nationalist front bench. For one thing, it represents a shift to the next generation. Mhairi Black (25), who became something of a political superstar upon her election in 2015, has been promoted to Scotland spokeswoman; freshly elected Stephen Flynn (31) is suddenly shadowing the chief secretary to the Treasury; David Linden (29) will head up housing and local government policy; and Amy Callaghan, the 27-year-old who unseated Jo Swinson in East Dunbartonshire, will lead on pensions. The SNP has a wealth of talent coming up and is giving them their first step on the ladder.

Melanie McDonagh

The puzzling thing about Harry and Meghan’s big announcement

Let’s not get carried away. The Queen’s younger grandson may be decamping to North America with his lovely wife and baby but the Queen herself is very much in business; life goes on. It may certainly have been odd, not to say ill advised, for this headstrong couple to have announced their departure from Britain without a by your leave to anyone, including the Queen, but that does seem to be their modus operandi, all the while professing regard for the royal tradition in which they will be raising baby Archie. Personally, I haven’t felt that life has been greatly diminished by the absence of the couple for the last

Katy Balls

The Labour candidates the Tories are worried about

When a Labour politician or aide stops to chat in the corridors of parliament these days, they only have one question: which leadership candidate would the Tories fear most? The government majority of 80 means it would be hard for even the most talented Labour leader to land a House of Commons victory in the coming years, yet he or she would still have the potential to change the dynamic of this parliament — and disrupt the Tories’ hope for the 2024 election. Right now the leadership candidates are focusing not on hurting the Tories but on wooing the MPs, trade unions and members whose support they need to win.

Rod Liddle

This bungling Iranian regime is a threat only to the Iranian people

If this is the start of the third world war, as some quivering liberal commentators seem to believe, then my suspicion is that it will be over quite quickly, such is the majestic impotence of our opponents. I realise it is unwise to underestimate one’s enemy, but come on. In the immediate aftermath of the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, a couple of cheap rockets were lobbed in the direction of the US embassy in Baghdad — they missed, succeeding only in causing a handful of casualties including, presumably, similarly foam-flecked anti-American residents, i.e. people on their own side. A day or two later at least 50 people