Society

Saturday

Richard Ritchie

What would Enoch Powell make of Brexit?

On 22 December 1963, the Sunday Times published an article by Enoch Powell in which he had an imaginary conversation with Benjamin Disraeli. Here is my (RR) take on what Powell (EP) would make of Brexit: Enoch Powell: Have I been proved right, yet? Richard Ritchie: What did you have in mind? You made quite a few predictions. EP: On Brexit, of course. It’s still the supreme issue. Even more important than immigration, although I hear that the two are now often spoken of together. RR: Well, what’s interesting is that it was immigration that brought home to the British electorate what a loss of sovereignty means in practice. Until

Douglas Murray

Britain is not to blame for Shamima Begum’s radicalisation

Of all the points made on the case of Shamima Begum, the most relevant has been utterly absent. That is, who might actually be responsible for this appalling young woman being who she is and where she is. In recent days the government’s own extremism commissioner, Sara Khan, has made an uncommon set of interventions. In each of these she has insisted that Begum must return to the UK and that not doing so will ‘play into the hands of the extremists’. Some of us are becoming a little jaded about the number of things said to risk ‘playing into the hands of extremists’. Over the last two decades one

Louise Mensch

It’s time to delay Brexit

I’m for Brexit. As a Young Conservative in Wadhurst, I wanted to leave the EU. When John Major signed the Maastricht Treaty, I saw it as a betrayal of such massive consequence I briefly joined the Labour Party — and was later forced to confess this indiscretion to Tory associations up and down the country. As a student at Oxford, I joined the Campaign for an Independent Britain, and formed lasting friendships with like-minded undergraduates for whom sovereignty was the first principle of patriotism and politics; everything else depended on being able to govern our own affairs. I am one of those Conservatives who, like the grassroots, cannot understand why

Friday

Sofia Svensson

Can Ukraine’s election fix its broken politics?

Next month Ukraine goes to the polls in its seventh presidential election since it achieved independence in 1991. Five years on from Euromaidan, and the resulting Russia invasion, the country remains bitterly divided between pro and anti-Europeans. Yet, this will be the first election not to feature a powerful, pro-Russian force amongst the frontrunners. Although, of course, that isn’t to say Russia won’t be doing its best to influence the election – something the Ukrainians have become used to. As is often the case in this part of the world, an election isn’t really an election if the Kremlin doesn’t interfere. In its defence, Russia insists that it’s actually the West doing the

Matthew Scott

Sajid Javid should think again about Shamima Begum

This week the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, decided not to allow Shamima Begum to return to this country, stripping her of her British citizenship and arguing that she is instead the responsibility of Bangladesh. His decision to do so has not been universally popular, but others have argued that the UK should not go easy on the young Isis bride. Brendan O’Neill, in an article for the Spectator, said he has ‘been worried about the moral compass of the chattering classes for a while now… But even I have been taken aback by the sympathy for Begum. It points to a complete unanchoring of sections of the opinion-forming set from

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

The Spectator Podcast: can the Independent Group ‘short-circuit’ first past the post?

This week has been a relief from the usual Brexit conversations. The long talked about rumours of a centrist party have finally materialised, as eight Labour MPs and three Tory MPs defected from their former loyalties. Already, polls are in claiming that the Independent Group is more popular than the Lib Dems. But just how promising is its future? James Forsyth argues in this week’s cover article that even if they don’t get electoral success, they can still alter the face of British politics, just like the SDP and Ukip. On the podcast, Katy Balls talks to James and pollster Joe Twyman, Director at Deltapoll, as well as former Labour MP

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

It’s perverse to celebrate the cancellation of Amazon’s ‘HQ2’

My hopes of an invite from Jeff Bezos to the opening of Amazon’s proposed but now cancelled ‘HQ2’ at Long Island City in New York were slim, since I was thrown out of his existing Seattle HQ on the orders of the online giant’s PR police. But I disagree with rising-star Democrat congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who hailed the scrapping of the project as a victory for ‘everyday New Yorkers’ over ‘Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world’. It’s true that the way Amazon invited US cities to tender for the new complex with competing local tax breaks — while reportedly having

Thursday

Raymond Keene

Rock solid | 21 February 2019

This year’s Gibraltar Masters saw some surprising results at the top, chiefly the victory by the young Russian, Vladimir Artemiev, who netted £25,000. He came in ahead of a host of established grandmasters, including Levon Aronian, Vassily Ivanchuk, Michael Adams and Wesley So.   The winner’s style was marked by restless aggression with both black and white pieces. This week’s game shows him overwhelming a pre-tournament favourite. The notes are based on those by John Saunders in the official bulletin.   Artemiev-Nakamura: Gibraltar Masters 2019; Réti Opening   1 Nf3 Nf6 2 g3 d5 3 Bg2 e6 4 0-0 Be7 5 c4 0-0 6 b3 c5 7 Bb2 Nc6 8 e3

Raymond Keene

no. 542

White to play. This position is taken from Galinsky–Gunina, Gibraltar 2019. How can White finish off in this complicated position? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 26 February 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 … Rxb2 Last week’s winner Gideon Morrison-Wood, London N2

The Spectator

Letters | 21 February 2019

The breakaway seven Sir: ‘In both parties there are fools at one end and crackpots at the other, but the great body in the middle is sound and wise.’ One of the magnificent seven speaking this week? Well, the sentiment is surely present day, but rather they are the words of Churchill in 1913 trying to engineer a centrist national movement from ‘a fusion of the two parties’. In those days, it was the Conservative and the Liberal parties, but the history of the middle ground since then augurs poorly not just for the breakaway seven, but for those of us who feel disenfranchised by politics. We can argue who

The Spectator

Britain is working

At any other time, news that Honda intends to close its Swindon plant in two years’ time with the loss of 3,500 jobs would have been seen for what it is: a tragedy for those affected, their families and businesses it supports. But the story was used by both sides in the Brexit wars to prove their point. Certain Remainers saw it as proof of what leaving the EU will bring, while some Leavers were almost callous in the way they shrugged off the closure. When news like this is being exaggerated for effect, it’s hard to form a clear view of what’s going on. But through the fog, a

Taki

High life | 21 February 2019

Gstaad   It’s party time here. From the richest billionaires down to those impoverished souls with only a few million to their name, the joint is jumpin’. Last week one tycoon converted his mega chalet into a nightclub and the music boomed away all night. Everyone who attended turned into Beethoven after one hour, which improved the situation in a way. People talk such rubbish nowadays that it was a relief to point at one’s ears and shake one’s head. I did not last long. I’ve been deaf ever since. My son came home at 5 a.m. Next week we’ve got an Italian countess’s blast from the past. I hope

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 21 February 2019

To begin with it was mice. The house was overrun with them. She saw them out of the corner of her eye shooting across the room. Then they became bolder. Instead of running away they ran towards her, menacing her. So she set traps and laid poison. I’d come home and open a linen drawer and find a trap set in it or blue granules in a plastic tray. Then a mouse ran up her leg. Her brother, a farmer turned smallholder, has been waging war on rats and mice all his life. He keeps abreast of the literature and advances in rat-extermination technology. He advised deafening them with plug-in

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 21 February 2019

Home Seven MPs resigned from the Labour party and sat in the Commons (next to the DUP) as the Independent Group, or Tig. They were Luciana Berger, Ann Coffey, Mike Gapes, Chris Leslie, Gavin Shuker, Angela Smith and Chuka Umunna. The next day they were joined by Joan Ryan and the following one by three Tories, Anna Soubry, Sarah Wollaston and Heidi Allen. The Labour eight said they objected to anti-Semitism in the party, the security risk should Jeremy Corbyn become prime minister and Labour’s lukewarm attitude to a second referendum. Derek Hatton, who had been the deputy leader of the Militant-controlled council which set an illegal budget in Liverpool, was

Melissa Kite

Real life | 21 February 2019

‘Is it for your daughter?’ said the sales assistant as I pointed to an expensive skincare product. She had glided over to me looking concerned as I stood in the pristine shop dressed in muddy boots and quilted coat, a woolly pompom hat on my head and not a scrap of make-up on my face as usual. I dare say I smelt of horses and dogs, prompting her to glide more swiftly towards me than she might have done had I been odour neutral, or giving off a nice whiff of Chanel like the yummy mummies floating about the place. I’m not a yummy mummy. I’m not even a slummy

Susanna Gross

Bridge | 21 February 2019

Is it my imagination, or are we bridge players far more aggressive than we were a decade ago? I don’t mean our general behaviour — though that’s probably the case too. I’m talking about the way we bid. Finally, it seems, we’ve caught up with what the stars of the game have been doing for ages: fearlessly pushing opponents around when at ‘favourable’ vulnerability (green vs red). Such is the modern game: bid to the hilt and make them guess!   All this wildly aggressive bidding means that when we in turn are vulnerable, we often need to be far bolder than feels comfortable if we don’t want to be

Toby Young Toby Young

Been there, done that | 21 February 2019

I was 17 when the Labour party last split, in January 1981, and for a variety of reasons got quite caught up in the moment. It was partly because my father, the author of the 1945 Labour manifesto, was close to the Gang of Four — the original band of defectors — and was one of a hundred people named as supporters of the breakaway group in a full-page ad in the Guardian. But really I was just swept up by the general enthusiasm for the new party that seemed to affect vast swaths of the middle classes. If you recoiled from the economic policies of the Conservative government, which

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 21 February 2019

Q. I have given up drink except on certain occasions when it would be really rude to refuse. What’s the best way of telling kind hosts at parties that you’re not drinking, without causing their faces to drop with disappointment? I’ve tried accepting a glass and then not drinking it, but that means a wasted glass for the host. — F.R., Suffolk A. The disappointment swiftly evaporates when you flourish a can of something which looks exactly like alcohol, such as Pils Infinite Session craft lager (0.5 per cent), which you have brought with you. As long as you are faux-mirroring your fellow socialisers by drinking what looks like alcohol,

Tanya Gold Tanya Gold

Notting Hill misanthropy

A serious restaurant for serious times: the Ledbury in Notting Hill. It’s a good time to do it, as the dreams of the Notting Hill set crumple to dust and Jacob Rees-Mogg rides out in his stupid hats. It has sat in its former pub on Ledbury Road since 2005. It won — and has held for seven years — two Michelin stars. It has featured in the gruesome S. Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants List, which is, among other things, a rebuke to tap water. Its most interesting moment was during the riots of 2011, when the nation conspired to make David Cameron return from his summer holidays early. Annoying David

Dot Wordsworth

Interrogate

My husband sat in his usual chair, interrogating the contents of his whisky glass with his old, tired nose. In 20 years’ time that sentence may seem normal. To me it seems at best whimsical, perhaps arch. There’s a lot of interrogating at the moment, quite apart from the traditional kind by unpleasant policemen. Jay Rayner, in the Observer, said that he saw some people in a restaurant interrogate their plates. In the Guardian someone suggested we should ‘interrogate the things that make us want to drink too much’. In the Guardian again someone else declared: ‘It’s important to challenge and interrogate sexist beauty ideals, of course.’ Of course. These examples