Society

Thursday

The Spectator

A poll of the people

The Need For A Poll Of The People, 2 August 1919: ‘It is not to be wondered at that during the anxious public discussions about nationalisation, proposals should have been made that the great issue should be decided by means of a Referendum or, as we prefer to call it, a Poll of the People. It is noticeable that this suggestion has received support in quarters where the Poll of the People has not hitherto been favourably considered. The idea seems to be that an exceptional and very grave problem might be solved by exceptional means. Of course, as old and strong advocates of the Poll of the People, we are

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Gisborough Priory

Gisborough Priory was founded in 1119, although the gothic chunks which remain of it today — including the grimly magnificent east end — date largely from the 13th century. A fire had destroyed much of the original building. It has great antiquity, then, nestled on the northern edge of the North York Moors in the market town of Guisborough, within spitting distance of (still, just about) industrial Teesside. The place has always had a certain resonance for me, not least because it adjoins the graveyard of St Nicholas Church, which was an important venue for somewhat brusque and pragmatic courtships when I was an early teen. Late at night, in

Lionel Shriver Lionel Shriver

All money is dirty

Whitney museum: no space for profiteers of state violence // dismantle patriarchy // warren kanders must go! // supreme injustice must end // we will not forget // choking freedom is a crime // enough // greed is deadly // humanity has no borders // we grieve the harm… If that array of posters paving the entrance to New York’s Whitney Museum of American Art hasn’t plunged you into such an insensate catatonia that the print has blurred, here’s the drill. For months protesters have been campaigning to have Warren B. Kanders, the museum’s vice chairman, who’s already donated $10 million to the institution, removed from the board. Eight artists

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Is ‘turbocharging’ the new code for Keynesian crisis spending?

‘Turbocharging’: sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Two weeks ago, I noted that our incoming PM had deployed this power-word — with its subliminal reminder of his pedal-to-the-metal reputation as the former motoring correspondent of GQ — to describe what ‘free ports’ would do to regional economies. Since then, it has clearly been scrawled on Dominic Cummings’s Downing Street whiteboard: Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak were also bandying it around this week. In one sense it just seems to mean ‘energising’; in another, I suspect it’s a synonym for something no free-market cheerleader for the new cabinet would ever admit is a good thing: a

Ross Clark Ross Clark

An alternative route

Just 48 hours before the conclusion of the Conservative leadership contest, Allan Cook, chairman of HS2, wrote to the government to confess that the costs of the project could rise from the current projection of £56 billion to as much as £86 billion. Given that Boris had already announced that he is to review the project, it was pretty much akin to a condemned prisoner writing a letter of confession. The Prime Minister is not fond of doomsters and gloomsters who pooh-pooh things for the sake of it, and as we know is partial to the odd vanity project. More-over, he seems as fond of trains as he is of

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Remainers, Leavers, post-imperial dreamers

Our involuntary responses know us better than we know ourselves. As I left King Charles Street in Whitehall last week and passed under the archway into the great court of the Foreign Office — and before I knew where it came from or why — an old and familiar feeling inhabited me. Dejection. This is where I started my working life as an administrative trainee, and those two years were a wretched time: a gradual understanding stealing upon me that I had no talent for this job. This courtyard was the opening scene of my every working day. It struck misery into my soul then, and 45 years later it

Lucy Vickery

To bee or not to bee

In Competition No. 3109 you were invited to submit a short story entitled ‘The Last Bumble Bee’. The buff-tailed bumblebee, Bombus terrestris, was once voted Britain’s favourite insect, and this challenge seemed to strike a chord, inspiring stories that ranged from the topical to visions of a near-future of drone pollinators and enforced entomophagy. The winners earn £25 each. As B. came buzzing over the common, he noticed that he was alone. Where were his erstwhile friends? he wondered idly. They seemed to have packed up their hives and vanished, although some, he realised, had switched sub-genus, and were describing themselves as rumblebees, jumblebees, even zomblebees. Very discombobulating. Were they

Wednesday

Joanna Rossiter Joanna Rossiter

Prince Harry and Meghan’s made-to-measure morality

Prince Harry’s revelation that he intends to only have two children for the sake of the planet is woke politics at its worst. As his critics have readily pointed out, if he truly believes that having fewer children will save the planet then why not stop at one child? As much as Harry might like us to believe that his decision comes at a great personal cost, he has simply adopted an ethical stance that best suits his lifestyle. This made-to-measure approach to morality is everywhere these days: from so-called ‘flexi-veganism’ to the long-haul flights enjoyed by some supporters of Extinction Rebellion. It enables people to signal virtue without having to change very

Spectator Club

August Restaurant of the Month

Bokan was designed to make the most of the striking views. Panoramic floor-to-ceiling windows flood all levels with daylight and paint an incredible picture of all London’s major landmarks. The cityscape is further brought into the venue through the use of antique mirrors, ensuring that no matter where you are, you will always experience an unparalleled view. Indulge and dine amongst industrial dockyard sophistication whilst admiring captivating views of London’s skyline. Bokan 37 is an elegant yet relaxed fine dining restaurant with an emphasis on natural, sustainable food sourced from the UK’s most dedicated farmers and food producers. A warm, inviting and relaxed dining experience with menus that will take

Tuesday

Christopher Snowdon

How Canada failed to smash the cannabis black market

I had forgotten how much I disliked cannabis until I found myself under its influence, in the rain, trying and failing to find Toronto’s Union Train Station so I could get to the airport and go home. The plan had been to enhance my mood for a long journey, floating back to the UK in a higher state of consciousness. In practice, I just got confused, wet and was lucky to make my flight. I had intended to purchase the kind of low-THC, high-CBD weed that disappeared from Britain’s black market when skunk took over in the 1990s. Put simply, THC is the psychoactive component that gets you high but

Monday

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

The curious reaction to a niqab-wearing homophobe

Are we allowed to criticise the niqab yet? This question crossed my mind as I watched that viral clip of a niqab-clad woman hurling homophobic invective at a Pride marcher in Walthamstow in London. Surely now it will become acceptable to raise questions about this medieval garment (banned in several Muslim countries) and about the views and attitudes of those who wear it? On one level, the footage of the niqab-wearering lady spouting anti-gay hate wasn’t very surprising. Shocking, yes, but not surprising. It’s not as if someone who covers themselves from head to toe in archaic black cloth (which, as Qanta Ahmed has said, is not in the least

Saturday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Beech’s sentence is an overreaction – the real blame lies elsewhere

I don’t blame Harvey Proctor for having scant sympathy for his ludicrous accuser, Carl Beech. I think it’s entirely right that Beech be sent to prison – or some other secure institution – for a while. But eighteen years? It’s more than most murderers get. Isn’t it the case that while Beech without doubt deserves punishment, the real blame for Operation Midland lies elsewhere? Specifically, with the politicisation of our police force and with those who, for similarly political reasons, were gullible or malevolent enough to support Beech in his litany of utter absurdities. Beech is a deranged fantasist. He certainly needs some sort of treatment. But that sentence seems

Lucy Vickery

Spectator competition winners: ‘No milksop this, the Tories’ favourite son…’ (remaking Milton)

For the latest challenge you were invited to provide a sonnet with the following end rhymes (taken from Milton’s Sonnet 20, ‘Lawrence of virtuous father virtuous son’): son, mire, fire, won, run, re-inspire, attire, spun, choice, rise, voice, air, spare, unwise. Milton was the most political of poets, and many of you followed his lead. Elsewhere, Sergey Trukhtanov and Joe Houlihan submitted fine homages to Conan-Doyle, and David Shields, Martin Elster, Jenny Hill and Tim Raikes also stood out. Props to clever John O’Byrne, who made his entry using first lines of Shakespeare sonnets (changing the final word to fit the brief). The winners, printed below, are rewarded with £20

Friday

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

With Tracey MacLeod

34 min listen

Tracey MacLeod is a broadcaster and food critic, known for hosting the BBC’s The Late Show and for regularly guest starring in Masterchef. She is friends with Helen Fielding, who based the character of Jude from Bridget Jones on MacLeod. In this special edition of Table Talk, brought to you live from the sofas of Latitude Festival, MacLeod talks about her life through food. Presented by Lara Prendergast and Olivia Potts.

Thursday

Raymond Keene

no. 564

White to play. This is from Giri-Mamedyarov, ­Croatia 2019. White is a piece down and needs a dramatic continuation. What did he play? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 30 July or via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk. 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 Bh8 Last week’s winner Sergio Petro, Upton-by-Chester, Cheshire

The Spectator

Letters | 25 July 2019

Rose is the right choice Sir: Every Wednesday for the past nine years, it has been my privilege to attend the lunchtime Eucharist services in the Parliamentary Chapel, conducted by the Speaker’s Chaplain Rose Hudson-Wilkin. These routine acts of worship are not public, but are attended by parliamentary staff, MPs and peers. Central to them are Rose’s homilies and prayers, which are spiritual life-support to those of us who serve and navigate our increasingly fraught politics. I did not recognise the person described by Ysenda Maxtone Graham in her article (‘Kent’s new Rose’, 20 July) and noted with some concern the author’s emphasis on perceived political agendas, which we are

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 25 July 2019

Home Boris Johnson became Prime Minister after being elected the leader of the Conservative party by its members, with 92,153 votes to Jeremy Hunt’s 46,656 and a turnout of 87.4 per cent. Philip Hammond got his resignation as chancellor of the exchequer in before he could be sacked, as did David Gauke as justice secretary and Sir Alan Duncan as a Foreign Office minister. Plots were afoot to undermine Mr Johnson’s promise to leave the European Union by 31 October, with or without an agreement. David Frost, a former chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association, was appointed to the job of liaising with the EU over Brexit, relinquished by

Taki

High life | 25 July 2019

Serifos He went away to fight and the war lasted ten years. He missed his wife but he didn’t worry one bit. She was in love with him and she was known for her virtue. (Those were the days.) Sailing west he stopped in Serifos, a beautiful but rugged island in the Cyclades. Soon he had a problem, a very serious one, and his name was Polyphemos. The Cyclops was a baddie and was about to slay the Greek crew and eat them when Odysseus speared him in the eye, the only eye the giant had, and that was that. The Cyclops’s throne is still here in the shape of

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 25 July 2019

‘So what are your plans?’ said our gentle, civilised Airbnb host over a tray of tea and cake to welcome us into their perfect home. I outlined the highlights of our prospective three-day literary tour. ‘The Augustus John exhibition at the Salisbury museum; the Henry Lamb at Poole; Hardy’s cottage. And if we have time the Barley Mow on the Wimborne Road where Evelyn Waugh wrote Decline and Fall.’ ‘My word, you are a cultured couple,’ he said, half-humorously. ‘Oh, we’re so cultured it’s ridiculous,’ I said. The Augustus John exhibition was wonderful. (So was Salisbury’s museum.) Michael Holroyd’s biography of John, then his pictures, were the spark which inspired

Susanna Gross

Bridge | 25 July 2019

Bridge isn’t a game you can get good at quickly. It takes years to reach a reasonable standard — far longer if you don’t practice continually. Of course, some people get there quicker than others. Claire Robinson is one of them. I first met Claire about four years ago; she’d only been playing for two or three years — a novice in bridge terms — and I was struck by how good she already was. Since then, we’ve teamed up a few times and she just gets better. What really makes the difference is that she was a dedicated poker player (and casino dealer) before taking up bridge. So she’s