Society Archives

Sunday

23 Jun 2019

The service station problem: it’s becoming impossible to correct a mistake

My first award for intelligent design this week goes to Dublin airport for displaying a sign which reads ‘Lounges. Turn back. No lounges beyond this point.’ It may seem like a trivial thing, but it takes a rare intelligence to think in this way. It’s one thing to put up a sign that says ‘Lounges, this way’. But it takes nous to think ‘yes, well and good, but what happens if people see the first sign but miss the second one?’ In all likelihood, they would end up walking 500 yards in the wrong direction, as I nearly did. Signage and wayfinding are mostly designed for people who never make

Friday

21 Jun 2019

Lara Prendergast

With Tom Parker-Bowles

28 min listen

Lara and Livvy talks to food writer Tom Parker-Bowles about his mother’s roast chicken, prep school gruel, and why, as a food critic, he still loves McDonald’s. Presented by Lara Prendergast and Olivia Potts.

Fraser Nelson

Job vacancy: a researcher for The Spectator

The Spectator is growing – and hiring. We’re looking for a researcher for fact-checking, data reporting and editing news for our daily emails. We’d like someone who can find a story in figures, perhaps someone familiar with Google Analytics (or capable of learning about it). The advantages: no two days in the office will be the same, you’ll be working with a tight and brilliant team of about a dozen journalists in our Westminster office. There will be a wide variety of editorial tasks: the job would suit someone with energy, eagerness to learn and – crucially – an eye for accuracy. The full-time post would report to John O’Neill,

Damian Thompson

Why is big business so fanatically liberal?

This week’s Holy Smoke podcast is about the hypocrisy of ‘woke’ capitalism. Netflix, Disney and other corporations are both ruthlessly capitalist and ruthlessly liberal – at least when it comes to America. They’re throwing a fit because there’s been a conservative and Christian backlash against gruesome late-term abortions. They’ve also become risibly obsessed with Pride month and openly contemptuous of just one religion: Christianity. But their liberalism is conveniently moved to the ‘trash’ folder when there’s a chance of making money in communist or Islamic dictatorships. I’m joined by Tim Stanley of the Daily Telegraph and Fr Ben Kiely, a leading defender of persecuted Christians. It’s a feisty discussion in

John Connolly

Mark Field suspended after Mansion House incident

Number 10 has confirmed that Mark Field has been suspended from his position as a Foreign Office minister, after he used force to remove a climate protestor from a banking event at Mansion House last night. Video footage of the incident showed Field grabbing a female Greenpeace protestor before escorting her from the building. The activists, dressed in red ballgowns, had gatecrashed a speech by the Chancellor Philip Hammond at a City of London event, to protest against climate change. In this longer version of the video, you can see the woman apparently posing no immediate threat as she passes behind Mark Field. He marches her out of the room

Thursday

20 Jun 2019

The Spectator

Letters | 20 June 2019

Eco opportunity Sir: As a North Sea oil engineer now working on the UK’s ‘green’ energy transition, I believe Ross Clark (‘Greener than thou’, 15 June) raised many valid points but missed out on the major opportunities for the UK economy. Irrespective of what we believe to be the extent of climate change, other key factors are changing rapidly. Who will want to drive their own petrol car when they can summon an autonomous vehicle at the click of an app? And with the global population rising, the total energy demand continues to soar. In the UK, leaps in technology have led to major investment and seen energy generation costs

The Spectator

Barometer | 20 June 2019

History of hustings Why are hustings called by that name? — The word ‘hustings’ is derived from an old Norse word for ‘house of assembly’. In English it was applied to the court held by the Lord Mayor of London in Guildhall, and also to the wooden platform on which the court was held. It was later applied to the meetings at which election candidates used to be publicly nominated. — The process involved a show of hands which gave candidates an idea of the support they might expect were a poll to be held. Candidates with little visible support would often withdraw, with the result that a candidate would

Raymond Keene

Fortune’s wheel

The elite tournament at Stavanger in Norway has resulted in yet another victory for the world champion Magnus Carlsen. The format was unorthodox in that draws were replayed as so-called Armageddon blitz games. In such cases White has more time but any draws count as Black wins. Classical wins count as 2-0, whereas Armageddon wins count as 1½-½. The random factor is therefore very high and I doubt that the format will catch on. Final scores (out of a possible 18) from Stavanger were: 1. Carlsen 13½; 2= Lev Aronian and Yu Yangyi 10½; 4= Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So 10; 6 Ding Liren 8½; 7= Viswanathan Anand and Maxime

Raymond Keene

no. 559

Black to play. This position is from Grischuk-Anand, Altibox (Armageddon game), Stavanger 2019. How does Black break White’s resistance? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 25 June 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 Bg7+ Last week’s winner Bruce Annat, Honley, West Yorks

Taki

High life | 20 June 2019

Bellamy’s and Oswald’s are the two best restaurants in London. They are owned by two friends of mine — both gents, both English — and the service and food are as good as it gets. And it don’t get better, as they say in Chicago. Last Friday I got off the plane and went straight to Bellamy’s, where the owner Gavin Rankin, Tim Hanbury, annually voted father- and husband-of-the-year since 1980, and Charles Glass, left-wing author and right-wing bon vivant, were waiting. Vodka, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, beer and brandies followed. Living in Gstaad does for the mind what cocaine does for the libido. The last conversation I had back home was with

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 20 June 2019

I walked in out of the rain, dripping, and sat down beside the fire on the primitive high-backed settle. ‘Is this OK?’ I said to the guardian. ‘Yes, you’re allowed to sit on the furniture, none of which is original,’ she said. She was a small woman in her fifties, radiating an attractive combination of reverence and humility. The log fire smoking quietly in the fireplace was a wonderful, essential touch, I thought. The slow tick of a grandfather clock and the rain squalling against the windows emphasised the silence of the cottage parlour. The cob walls, painted the colour of diluted pig’s blood, were a yard thick. There was

Melissa Kite

Real life | 20 June 2019

‘Take a seat,’ said the prospective lodger as we stood in my dining room. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t understand,’ I said. ‘Perhaps you’d like to sit down while we discuss things,’ he said, producing a folder which he waved at me. Something was wrong here, even I could work that out. ‘Discuss things? What things?’ I asked, backing up a bit because he was a big fella — 6ft something, lanky, with long unkempt hair that made him look like a premiership footballer after a bad night out. He advanced towards me with his folder. I backed into the dining-room table. The builder boyfriend was going to go mad. He

Robin Oakley

The turf | 20 June 2019

Boris Johnson, Remainers might like to be reminded, does sometimes change his mind under pressure. Some years ago, as editor of The Spectator, he dropped the then weekly Turf column, as he told me, ‘to provide more room for politics at the front of the magazine’. Fortunately for me, so many readers protested at its absence that he reinstated it, although on a fortnightly basis. That is why sometimes, given the necessary interval between copy submission and publication, there cannot be coverage that might be expected, as with Royal Ascot this week. At next year’s meeting, one thing will have changed: the newest event on the Royal Ascot card, the

Janet de Botton

Bridge | 20 June 2019

Here we go again. The ninth European Bridge Championships are upon us, this time taking place in Istanbul. Hundreds of Europe’s bridge elite (and many from further afield) descended for some or all of the tournaments, even though it is usually torture. Four years ago in Tromso there was the Portaloo scandal (don’t ask) and two years ago in Montecatini there was the not insignificant problem of an ambulance arriving in mid-session to revive some poor old biddy (not me) who had fainted from the extreme heat and lack of AC. As we landed in Istanbul, I braced myself for the worst but got a pleasant surprise. There are indoor

Toby Young

Cooking up offence comes at a price

Something rather wonderful happened last week for those of us who have been the victims of a public shaming — as I was at the beginning of 2018 when some people dug up some sophomoric tweets I’d sent ten years earlier. The jury delivered its verdict in a lawsuit that a bakery in Oberlin, Ohio had brought against the neighbouring liberal arts college for defamation, infliction of emotional distress and tortious interference. In brief, students and staff at Oberlin College engaged in a long campaign to brand the local business as ‘racist’, inflicting a terrible toll on its reputation, and the jury sided with the plaintiffs. The story begins on

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 20 June 2019

Q. One of the members of our book club is particularly nosy and gossipy. I like this woman, but when it was my turn to host I had the lunch in our barn to pre-empt her snooping in the house. As soon as the barn loo was occupied, however, she began squirming and told us all she was desperate for the loo herself and couldn’t wait. Would I mind if she popped into the house? She took about ten minutes to come back (and she had her mobile with her, no doubt taking pictures). I was very cross with myself for having fallen for this trap. But how could I

Dot Wordsworth

Doggo lingo

Doggy sounds childish. ‘How much is that doggie in the window?’ asks the popular song. (The song title used the spelling doggie, being American, though Britain enjoyed a cover version by Lita Roza in 1953, the same year as Patti Page’s original.). Doggo sounds cooler (like daddy-o in hep talk), but in the strange world of internet image-sharing it goes with a sentimentality which would shame the nursery. The internet has said ‘Aaah’ (or in America ‘Aaaw’) to cute cats, but people post pictures a-plenty of cute dogs. One Twitter account, WeRateDogs, has 8.13 million followers and simply tweets photos of dogs with a caption and a rating out of

The Spectator

Portrait of the Week – 20 June 2019

Home Boris Johnson was well ahead in the parliamentary stage of the contest for the leadership of the Conservative party, gaining 126 of the 313 votes by MPs in the second ballot, with Jeremy Hunt second at 46 (and Dominic Raab knocked out). He had declined to take part in a Channel 4 debate, and was represented by an empty podium before an audience purporting to be floating voters. The most memorable metaphor of that debate concerned bin bags. Rory Stewart said: ‘I was trying to cram a whole series of rubbish bins into the rubbish bin.’ He had meant to say ‘a whole series of rubbish bags’, but the

Doc

2413: Sign here please

The unclued lights are of a kind, verifiable in Brewer. Across 11 Oil-well cap adjusted as ornamentation (10, two words) 13 Some entertainer, dynamic, but socially inept (5) 14 Horseman’s additional clause (5) 15 Half-scores I have in short are nerve-racking (7) 18 Wicket that is most unplayable for a batsman? (6) 19 Jack’s heard something in church (4) 22 Len rummaged in the locker with gusto (6) 24 O, Gorblimi — it’s a mess — it’s a tangle (9) 25 Cross beams? (5, hyphened) 26 Cycling clubs arrived in holy city (5) 28 Sirocco winds in the middle of summer — small world! (9) 30 Grievance of pastor

Rod Liddle

We’ve been Rotherhamed

I think we need a new source of ultimate evil for people taking part in political discussions, because Godwin’s Law has been outreached of late. Mike Godwin, a US attorney, correctly identified that every political debate online will, eventually, end up with someone being likened to Adolf Hitler. ‘Eventually’ was the key word — but that was in 1990. Nowadays the arguably controversial Austrian politician is invoked at the outset of discussions, and after that there’s nowhere left for people to go to display their contempt for whoever it is they’re speaking to, or about. Both Brexiteers and Remainers are like Hitler. Leftists and Tories. We’re all like Hitler, immediately,