Society

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 15 November 2018

Hearts as well as heads Sir: Simon Jenkins suggests we should stop remembering and start forgetting about the first world war (‘Don’t mention the war’, 10 November). His beef is with artists in particular, claiming that art ‘drenches history in emotion’. He prefers to read history books. No one would argue against history books, but surely it is not a question of either/or. Artists tell a story in a different way from historians, often to a different audience. They can move people to want to find out more: to look in the box of letters in the attic, to find out about their family connection to the war, to think

Raymond Keene

Paradise mislaid

World champion Magnus Carlsen missed several chances to win with black in the first game of his title defence, currently continuing in London.   A black win right at the start is by no means ultimately a match winner, but is rather like breaking serve in the first set of the Wimbledon final.   Alexander Alekhine, in 1927 against José Capablanca and again Vassily Smyslov in 1957 against Mikhail Botvinnik, both went on to seize the supreme title after black wins in game one.   In this case, Carlsen built up a dominating position after some highly original opening strategy and an inspired temporary pawn sacrifice and now came the time to

Raymond Keene

no. 532

Black to play. This is a variation from Carlsen–Caruana (Game 2), London 2018. White has forked the black bishop and queen. How should Black react? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 20 November 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 Qh5 Last week’s winner Ray Fisher, Buxton, Derbyshire

Toby Young Toby Young

Academics who dare not speak their names

When I first read about plans for a new academic periodical called The Journal of Controversial Ideas, I got the wrong end of the stick. Fantastic news, I thought, particularly when I saw the distinguished group of intellectuals behind it. They include Jeff McMahan, professor of moral philosophy at Oxford; Peter Singer, the well-known Australian philosopher; and Francesca Minerva, a bio-ethicist at the University of Ghent. An authoritative magazine bearing the imprimatur of these distinguished free-thinkers is a great way to persuade other, less celebrated academics to stick their heads above the parapet and publish essays that dissent from groupthink. Then I spotted an important detail: all the material will

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 15 November 2018

Q. A difficult couple of our acquaintance always object to other guests at dinner and can be very rude to them. In consequence, we have fallen into a pattern of dining at each other’s houses in London, just the four of us. They are sticklers for what they see as correct behaviour. Last week, however, we were told, the day before we were due to host, that they had a friend staying the night; could they bring him along? This was someone I vaguely knew, but had not seen for 20 years, and someone my wife has never met. Neither of us desired his company. I suggested perhaps we choose

Tanya Gold Tanya Gold

Nova kosher

Tish is a new grand café in Belsize Park, north London, but kosher. There are not really enough Jews to fill a kosher restaurant in London, and they tend to fall into dust, like the ten tribes, and the temple. 1701, the unwise and subtle restaurant by Bevis Marks synagogue, has gone; Bloom’s in Golders Green has gone, too. Most British Jews aren’t kosher because chicken without butter isn’t worth having, even if you do believe that bushes speak and people want to kill you. Mostly, the food will kill you. But not always. The north London restaurant most favoured by Jews is Oslo Court, which is actually a specialist in

Dot Wordsworth

Gammon

In the annual dictionary wars to nominate words of the year, in the hope of attracting publicity, Collins has made single-use its first choice for 2018. But of more interest is its second choice: gammon. It is used by Twitter trolls and other supporters of Momentum to signify ‘a male, middle-aged and white, with reactionary views, especially one who supports Brexit’. His face resembles ham. Collins said that in Nicholas Nickleby (1838), ‘Dickens used the word gammon to describe a large, self-satisfied, middle-aged man who professes an extreme patriotism in large part to disguise his essential selfishness and corruption’. I’m afraid the people at the dictionary have completely misunderstood what

The Spectator

Portrait of the Week – 15 November 2018

Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, defended a 500-page technical draft of the agreement on withdrawal from the European Union. She met immediate opposition from the Democratic Unionists, from Jacob Rees-Mogg and from Boris Johnson. Mr Johnson’s brother Jo (a Remainer) had earlier resigned as a minister, calling Mrs May’s handling of Brexit a ‘failure of British statecraft on a scale unseen since the Suez crisis’. The BBC reported that several cabinet ministers had expressed doubts about her Chequers plan back in July. Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, insisted that Brexit could not be stopped, but Keir Starmer, Labour’s shadow Brexit secretary, said the option of a new referendum was

Taki

High life | 15 November 2018

New York A little Austrian count was born to my daughter last week in Salzburg, early in the morning of 9 November, becoming my third grandchild. Through modern technology, I was flooded with pictures of a blond, fuzzed and pink baby boy less than a day old. The mother of my children, who was flying in from Gstaad, did not make it on time, which was just as well. Like most women, she tends to overreact where babies are concerned. Unlike us tough guys, who tend to hit the bottle and celebrate instead. And speaking of the fair sex, Lionel Shriver is some columnist, the best American writer by far,

Jeremy Clarke

Low life | 15 November 2018

The monument to this French village’s war dead is a plain white stone block with the head of a grizzled old French infantryman chiselled on top. His big capable hands are gripping the block’s edge, as though he is peering intently over the parapet of a trench. On Sunday we assembled around him to honour the 53 local men, from a population of 1,800, who lost their lives in the first world war. Schoolchildren queued at a microphone to sing out their names. A ladies choir sang a plangent song about Verdun. The state bell tolled for 11 minutes. The major made an interminable speech in the rain. Everybody sang

Melissa Kite

Real life | 15 November 2018

Left at the Dementia Café, right at the Sleep Office, past the Spiritual Care Centre… This was my journey through the ground floor of my local hospital until I came to the physiotherapy department where the Calf Stretching Education Group was being held. Hospitals are very different places nowadays from the forbidding buildings of my childhood where doctors and nurses in starched uniforms used to attempt to cure people. Now they host Costa Coffee shops and M&S mini food halls and art exhibitions along the walls, which you peruse in spite of yourself as you pass these marvellous new departments. You wonder what happens at the Dementia Café and the

Susanna Gross

Bridge | 15 November 2018

It’s no surprise that so many bridge players are computer programmers or systems analysts; it’s an ideal game for those who excel at logic and puzzle-solving. But at the highest level, a strong imagination is what really gives you the edge. Certain players have an extraordinary ability to visualise their opponents’ cards, put themselves in their shoes, and then persuade them to go wrong. It’s a rare gift that elevates the game almost to an art form. Artur Malinowski, the manager of TGR’s rubber bridge club, is one such player. During a recent high-stake game, he pulled off this coup against two formidable opponents, Robert Sheehan and Gunnar Hallberg: Robert

Pabulum

2385: R and R

The theme is two historic people who were contemporaries. Unclued lights give their forenames, places of birth and death and occupations. A geographical feature (5) linking the two will appear in the completed grid and must be shaded. Elsewhere, ignore an apostrophe. The solutions at 22 and 27 share the same two unchecked letters.   Across 4    Harmless wag recast an economic principle (11, two words) 11    Eating away, in love indeed with empty oarsman (7) 14    Sarah acquires seemingly good old watch (5) 16    Papa gets behind in river race (5) 19    Many ships fighting lass boards (7) 21    Strange duke whipped lasher (4) 24    Insect sting upset (4)

Harry Curtis

Which MPs backed May’s Brexit deal and who has vowed to vote it down?

Theresa May spent three hours on her feet in the Commons defending her Brexit deal. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister’s perseverance did little to persuade her parliamentary colleagues to back her plan. It was an hour before any Tory MPs publicly supported the PM. A total of 135 MPs spoke during the debate – and only 15 came out in favour, compared to the 109 MPs who vowed to vote the plan down when it comes before Parliament. The debate, where May spent as much time turning to her own benches as to the opposition, confirmed what we already knew. The chances of this deal making it through the Commons in a few

The Spectator

to 2382: A pointed remark

The quotation is 10/11/39. Remaining unclued lights are all daggers.   First prize G. Snailham, Windsor Runners-up Lynne Gilchrist, Willoughby, New South Wales; Kevin Bentley, Anglesey

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How close are we to 48 letters of no confidence in Theresa May?

So, where are we? There is now an open effort to get the 48 letters required to force a vote of no confidence in Theresa May. Personally, I don’t think it is a racing certainty that this succeeds. The ERG WhatsApp group has had some influential people urging caution, and telling people not to put their letters in. But if the letters do go in, the risk is greater to Mrs May than conventional wisdom has it. In the privacy of the ballot box, I think a decent chunk of the payroll would vote against the Prime Minister. Interestingly, one minister who is agnostic on the deal told me that

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Jacob Rees-Mogg says Theresa May on course to face a confidence vote

Theresa May is on course to face a confidence vote according to the Conservative party’s arch-Brexiteers. Senior members of the European Research Group today publicly called for her departure. After Dominic Raab’s resignation this morning, members of the group of Eurosceptic backbenchers gathered in the committee room corridor to discuss their options. Brexiteers were seen raising their hands in what appeared to be a vote. While not everyone present agreed a vote was the answer, a significant number said they had sent their letter to 1922 committee chair Graham Brady. That includes Simon Clarke – the Tory MP who previously publicly retracted his – and Jacob Rees-Mogg who has helpfully

Alasdair Palmer

The stop and search race myth

When I was working as a speech writer in the Home Office, under Theresa May, one of her special advisers told me that she wanted to give a statement to parliament on the police’s use of stop and search. Part of the motive for doing this, he explained, was political: stop and search is a policy which consistently alienates members of the black community. I was told that it would help the home secretary’s standing with Afro-Caribbeans if she made a statement that was critical of the police’s use of stop and search. The grounds would essentially be that the tool was racist, or at least used by the police

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

The real reason atheists want to be on Thought for the Day

Oh God. Or maybe not. There’s a letter in the Guardian today from assorted unbelievers asserting their right to a place on Radio 4’s God slot, Thought for the Day. ‘It’s time for the BBC to open Thought for the Day to humanists. Religion doesn’t hold a monopoly on ethical worldviews. Humanists… make sense of the world through logic, reason and evidence, and always seek to treat others with warmth, understanding and respect…’ Etc. It’s signed by Sandi Toksvig, Julian Baggini, the philosopher, agony aunt Virginia Ironside and Peter Tatchell. Plus 29 others. Consider folks. Is there a gap in your life that comes from not hearing enough of Sandi