Society

Thursday

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

Fieldfare

2396: Reader…,

Unclued lights are a set of literary 40s. Their creator is hidden in the grid and should be shaded. Elsewhere, ignore one accent.   Across 1    How ducks eat, billions in valley (6) 7    In college, record time to take degree (6) 11    Garden visitor, immature female, tiny size (10) 13    Cleave small, timid mammal (5) 14    Freeman’s compliance with new role (5) 15    Awaiting insurance, ripped off? (7, two words) 18    To live right by waterfall is capital (6) 19    Reject a tough fish (4) 22    Won’t stay to the end in rough pub (6) 24    So a Mister may become Misters (9) 25    Man enlisted in the back

Peter Burdin

Buhari vs Abubakar: who will win the Nigerian presidential election?

This weekend’s presidential election in Nigeria is becoming a cliffhanger worthy of a Nollywood movie, even before the decision to delay the election just five hours before the polls were due to open. In the early hours of Saturday, as most Nigerians slept, the country’s Independent National Electoral Commissions (INEC) decided to postpone the presidential elections by a week. They cited logistical reasons, including fires, bad weather, and difficulties distributing voting materials. However, in reality it appears to be incompetence on a gross scale. Yet Nigerians will tell you that this is nothing new. In 2015, the elections were delayed by six weeks due to the security threat posed by

Chris Duffey & Aimé

More than human

Every ten to 15 years there is a technology breakthrough that really changes what it means to be human. The internet, mobile phones, social media and, most recently, AI voice assistance: all of these amplify the human experience. And with each technological game-changer we go through much of the same series of questions and anxieties. We worry both that it’s all too much, and too little. With the recent advances in artificial intelligence we leap ahead to the existential dangers, and at the same time wonder whether there aren’t more pressing issues to discuss: healthcare, climate change, education, the economy. Well, they are pressing issues — but AI has an

The Spectator

to 2393: Monster Mash-up

HORROR FILM (1D) ACTOR (15) BORIS (10) KARLOFF (26), né PRATT (21A) died on 2 February 1969. Most famous for THE (7A) MUMMY (37), he was also in HOWARD HAWKS (1A)’s SCARFACE (24).   First prize M.J. Wilson, Forward Green, Stowmarket Runners-up David Henderson, Almonte, Ontario; Hugh Aplin, London SW19

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The law and Shamima Begum

Shamima Begum, the jihadi bride seeking to return to Britain, represents an awful problem for the UK – but isn’t she our problem and shouldn’t we deal with her under our own justice system? How, morally, can we strip her of UK citizenship and dump her on Bangladesh, which she has never visited? James Forsyth’s argument yesterday resonated, especially amongst Tories who agree with him that depriving her of a passport looks like taking the easy way out. I’ve been struck by how many ministers also accept that citizenship deprivation is a pretty bad option – but they think that, in the circumstances, the other options are worse. Here’s how

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Why the crackdown on cash makes me uneasy

Banks are trying to change our ways. Our own recently wrote to tell us that it will no longer send us cheque books unless we positively demand them. And now a battle is beginning to close down cash machines. It is reported that there are none at all in Stoke; and when I accosted an ATM in St James’s this week, it flashed up a message saying it would close in three days’ time. I suppose this is because having cash is becoming like smoking — a slightly furtive and discreditable minority occupation. We tap, so far fewer machines are needed. It makes me uneasy. In theory, there is no

Kristian Niemietz

Why we shouldn’t let the left forget its support for Venezuela

If there were a modern remake of the TV series Fawlty Towers, it would probably contain an episode called ‘The Socialists’, in which the one-liner ‘Don’t mention Venezuela!’ would become a running gag.   Mentioning Venezuela in the presence of a self-described socialist is considered boorish and impolite these days. Yes, a lot of people on the left have said foolish things about Venezuela over the years. But do we have to hold that against them forever? And why does this matter anyway? We live in Britain, not Venezuela. If ‘Venezuela-mania’ had no domestic policy implications, and if there were no wider lessons to be learned from it, I would sympathise

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

A drive to change lives

Welcome to The Spectator’s Economic Disruptor of the Year Awards 2019, sponsored by Julius Baer. We’re waiting to hear from entrepreneurs in every business sector across the UK who are eager to tell us how their products are bringing radical benefits to consumers in terms of price and choice. We’re looking for disruptors who can make an impact nationally and globally. Meanwhile, we’ll be presenting inspirational stories about the people behind the UK’s fastest-growing entrepreneurial ventures. In the first of the series, Martin Vander Weyer meets Virraj Jatania, whose low-cost banking app Pockit was the overall winner of our 2018 awards.  Virraj Jatania doesn’t need to be an entrepreneur. He’s

Alex Massie Alex Massie

In praise of the Labour splitters

The first thing to note is that it’s not about policy. The not-so secret seven MPs who left the Labour party this morning have not changed their policy preferences. They have not become Tories. Nor have they even become liberals. They could, with little difficulty, endorse much of the Labour party’s 2017 manifesto without compromising themselves in the slightest. Because this break, this rebellion, this journey into exile, is not about policy. It is about character and values and so many of the other things the Labour party believes it holds dear to the extent it often behaves as though it thinks it owns a monopoly on these things. And

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

The shame of those siding with Shamima Begum

At last, having kept pretty shtum about it for the past few years, the virtue-signalling set has mustered up some sympathy for women caught up in the horrific Isis vortex. Unfortunately, though, their sympathy isn’t for the Yazidi women who were burned alive after refusing to become sex slaves for Isis jihadists. Or the Kurdish women who found themselves living under the brutal misogynistic yoke of the Isis empire. Or the Syrian and Iraqi women whose husbands and sons were beheaded for adhering to the wrong branch of Islam. No, their sympathy is for a woman who supported the movement that did all those things. Who provided moral succour to

Douglas Murray

The true cost of fake hate crimes

Some years ago I was introduced to one notion of how to tackle dishonest and insincere accusations of racism. It was not just that there should be a social cost to making a dishonest claim, but that the cost should equal that borne by somebody who is accurately and correctly identified as a racist. Without such a disincentive there is no reason (other than decency and honesty, which may sometimes be in short supply) for people not to level such accusations insincerely in order to beat away any and all critics. Since Monday night I have been wondering, amid much else, whether some similar aspiration could be encouraged regarding hate

Roger Alton Roger Alton

Whatever happened to the glory of the Cup?

And so we say farewell to the round of 16 in the FA Cup, traditionally a viscerally thrilling process that embodies what we romantics like to think of as the glory of the Cup. With eight matches over four days, there was a lot of dross that all felt much worse for being spread so thinly. It began with Watford grinding out a dreary and just-deserved win at QPR on the Friday and ended with a thumping for Chelsea from the new, all-smiling United outfit. In between, only the mighty efforts of Newport County, at home to Manchester City at a terrible Rodney Parade pitch, held the interest. And the

Wendy Cope

Poet’s Notebook | 21 February 2019

At the end of January, I had the honour and pleasure of being on Desert Island Discs. I liked Lauren Laverne and enjoyed talking with her. Afterwards I wondered if I’d been careful enough about what I said. Had I made a fool of myself? As the transmission date approached I was anxious. I told hardly anyone about the programme, in the totally unrealistic hope that people wouldn’t notice it was on. But it was OK. A few things I was worried about had been cut in the edit. The post-broadcast feedback has been amazing. I’ve been on the radio quite a lot over the years. Sometimes I’ve had a couple

James Delingpole James Delingpole

The story behind my naked video

It was a bright Sunday afternoon and I was harmlessly at my desk, minding my own business, when from the other end of the house I heard the screech of a thousand cats being boiled alive in oil. ‘Why did he do it? WHY??’ a female teenage voice wailed, half plaintive, half accusing, all righteous fury. It was my daughter’s — and evidently I’d been rumbled. So why exactly had the poor girl’s embarrassing father chosen to film a naked video of himself and then post it up on YouTube for the entire world to see? Well the main one, fairly obviously, was as a satirical response to Victoria Bateman,

Laura Freeman Laura Freeman

Clucking hell

‘Last fling before the ring.’ ‘Buy me a shot, I’m tying the knot.’ ‘Keep calm and bridesmaid on.’ If you find yourself on a train to Brighton, Paris or Amsterdam with a group of women in T-shirts bearing the above slogans, change carriages. You are about to witness Jen’s hen in full prosecco-and-Pringles feather. On the lash, off the leash, bonded together in squealing sisterhood for one night only. If only it were for one night. The hyper-inflation that has seen weddings go from church and breakfast to three-day wonders now extends to the hen. Away we go to Lisbon, Barcelona, Marbella on a dawn flight in matching hoodies and

Lucy Vickery

Writer’s block

In Competition No. 3086 you were invited to submit a poem about the difficulty of writing a poem.   In a far-larger-than-usual entry, A.H. Harker’s punchy couplet caught my eye: I’m stuck. Oh ****.   Elsewhere there were nods to Wordsworth, Milton and ‘The Thought Fox’, Ted Hughes’s wonderful poem about poetic inspiration. The winners below earn £25 each for their travails. I struggled with my verse time after time, Yet somehow I could never make it work. It scanned quite well, but there’s no use pretending My couplets had a satisfactory finish.   The words at their conclusion never matched; They would not rhyme, however hard I rubbed My

Wednesday

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

The shame of those siding with Shamima Begum | 20 February 2019

At last, having kept pretty shtum about it for the past few years, the virtue-signalling set has mustered up some sympathy for women caught up in the horrific Isis vortex.  Unfortunately, though, their sympathy isn’t for the Yazidi women who were burned alive after refusing to become sex slaves for Isis jihadists. Or the Kurdish women who found themselves living under the brutal misogynistic yoke of the Isis empire. Or the Syrian and Iraqi women whose husbands and sons were beheaded for adhering to the wrong branch of Islam. No, their sympathy is for a woman who supported the movement that did all those things. Who provided moral succour to