Society

Thursday

Sofia Svensson

Putin is bound to get the last laugh over the Salisbury poisoning

What was Vladimir Putin playing at? Earlier this month, he sent Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov on to state television to say they were not spies at all, just tourists who had travelled 3,000 miles to see Salisbury Cathedral while staying in the wrong city. Exposing them in this way would mean it would only be a matter of time before it emerged that Boshirov was, in fact, not who he claimed he was. Unsurprisingly, Boshirov is actually Anatoliy Chepiga: not a sports nutritionist but a decorated GRU Colonel. He was awarded Hero of the Russian Federation, Russia’s highest state award, which was most likely handed to him by Putin

Linden Kemkaran

The delights of divorce

Looking around at my immediate group of female friends I notice a marked difference between the seven or so of us who are married with kids, and the three who have left their husbands and are going it alone. Guess which group appears to be more content? Yes, it’s the divorcees. I have been a long term, close up observer of the lives that my newly single friends carve out for themselves and I have to say, I’m envious. The Sunday Times finds that 53 per cent of women report that they are “much happier” post-divorce. This does not surprise me. Once the initial split has occurred (interestingly in my

Colin Greenwood

Frozen in time

In May 1845, HMS Erebus and her sister ship HMS Terror set sail for the Arctic, never to be seen again. Erebus, named after a Greek god of darkness, was herself cast into oblivion for the next 170 years, until she was found in 2014, by sonar, submerged off the Arctic coast of Canada. Immediately after her disappearance, ten years and £28 million (in today’s money) were spent looking for her. It was during a golden period for British exploring, between the end of the Napoleonic Wars of 1815 and the Crimean War of 1854, with a Royal Navy that had shrunk from 145,000 men to 19,000. Instead of fighting

The Spectator

to 2375: 2

Unclued lights are MOONS OF (1A) SATURN (9), which are OTHERWORLDLY (2).   First prize Don Young, Shaw, Oldham Runners-up Samantha Pine, Poole, Dorset; Michael Debenham, Shrewsbury, Shropshire

Cindy Yu Cindy Yu

Introducing ‘Spectator Radio’: a new podcast, every day

Six years ago, the Spectator began podcasting. Why? For fun, really. Our writers were always being invited to comment on national broadcast shows, and so we thought, why not create our own? It’s been a big success. We started with ‘The Spectator Podcast’, which now has over 30,000 listens each week. We launched Coffee House shots, our political podcast, in 2016 – and then made it daily when Theresa May announced the snap election last year. People seemed to like it so we just kept going. Last year, Shots was listened to over four million times. We now have podcasts on topics ranging from politics to culture, literature to religion, and

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

2018 finalists lunch – London and The South

This week we gathered in the elegant dining room of our sponsor, the private bank Julius Baer, to meet the regional finalists from London and the South for The Spectator’s Economic Disruptor of the Year Award. Our host was David Durlacher, chief executive of Julius Baer International, and with him were Tracey Reddings, the bank’s head of front office, and half a dozen colleagues. Our guests represented seven of the ten regional finalists. Each was asked to talk informally, for five minutes, about their business’s potential for disruption and growth. Here’s some of what we learned. Carwow is an online platform that ‘takes the hassle out of new-car buying’ from

Jonathan Miller Jonathan Miller

What is motivating Macron’s self-destructive Brexit position?

As France prepared to go to the polls in the Spring of 2017, it was already probable that Emmanuel Macron would become president, and that would not be good news for Brexiting Britain. That anybody was shocked that Macron led the autodafé of Theresa May at the European council in Salzburg last week is therefore itself shocking. Most appalling of all is that Mrs May walked straight into it. After he was elected president of France on the seventh of May last year, aged 39 3/4, Macron proclaimed his role model to be Jupiter, king of the gods. And by Jupiter! With his enormous parliamentary majority, subservient government, crushed opposition,

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The dreadful state of British politics

Conference season always shows our political parties at their worst. It would be a kindness if these things were not televised. These dungeons cannot withstand the intrusion of too much daylight. On the other hand, some things are evident. Chiefly, it is now beyond clear that Brexit has broken both parties. More than that, it has overwhelmed a hopelessly overmatched political class that plainly lacks the ability to make sense of the Brexit fiasco and, just as pertinently, the courage to look reality in the face. This government – this hopeless government, I should say – is kept alive by only one thing: the impossibility of the opposition. In turn,

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

J.K. Rowling and the darkness on the left

You rarely come across a character in modern literature like Jimmy Knight. He’s a racist, but that’s not what makes him a novelty act. racists, after all, are deplored everywhere in the culture industry, from Hollywood to Pinewood Studios. Of this racist, however, his ex-wife says: ‘I wouldn’t trust him if it was anything to do with Jews. He doesn’t like them. Israel is the root of all evil, according to Jimmy. Zionism: I got sick of the bloody sound of the word.’ Knight is also a misogynist, a type which is once again a familiar figure in contemporary fiction. But when his girlfriend cries out after he hits her,

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Why is no one sticking up for marriage?

I took part in a debate organised by the Times this week about reform of our divorce laws. Well, I say a ‘debate’. There wasn’t much of that. Not much in the way of dissent. The four other panellists, who included a government minister, all wished to liberalise our divorce laws. And it was chaired with great impartiality by Sir James Lawrence Munby, who was until recently the president of the Family Division of the High Court of England and Wales. He made a stirring ten-minute speech on why we need to liberalise the divorce laws. Yes, it was like one of those exquisitely balanced Newsnight debates, then. The audience

Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland

Clever websites only make the market dumber

A month ago I wanted to travel to Bath for a 60th birthday party. From Kent, this either involves a Tube journey to Paddington or traversing the south-western stretch of the M25, where — in the rare moments you are not in stationary traffic — you have the even worse experience of driving over 10,000 misaligned slabs of ribbed concrete. But deep in my hippocampus, I remembered seeing a train to Bath on the departures board at Waterloo. This would let me travel from Seven-oaks to Waterloo East, avoiding the Tube. I looked online, but the website denied all knowledge of such trains. It told me to take the Underground

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Clerical error

Next month the Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary will be released from prison, having served just half of his five-and-a-half-year sentence. He was jailed for his role in encouraging Muslims to join Islamic State. At the time of his sentencing in 2016, the judge described the hate preacher as ‘calculating’ and ‘dangerous’. The Justice Secretary, Rory Stewart, echoed that verdict earlier this month, calling Choudary ‘deeply pernicious’ and a ‘destabilising influence’. His views remain the same; his status as a martyr — at least in the eyes of his followers — is assured; and his hatred of Britain is more ferocious than before. He will emerge as a greater menace than

Bruce Anderson

Right as rain

‘The doors clap to, the pane is blind with showers / Pass me the bottle, old lad, there’s an end of summer.’ The paraphrase was justified, for the weather was doing its best to reinforce Housmanic gloom — although the scene through the windowpanes was best described in Scottish, not Shropshire. There is a Scots word, dreich. It may not be quite onomatopoeic, but roll it round your mouth and you will get the message. We certainly did. Before us was a sodden lawn festooned with dead leaves. A few weeks ago, they would have been resplendent in dancing verdancy. More recently, it would have been a stately golden brown, the colour

Lionel Shriver Lionel Shriver

What’s wrong with hearing #MeToo men’s side of the story?

‘There are two sides to every story’ is an aphorism you don’t hear often lately. Ask anyone amidst a family row: most stories have more than two sides. But in the take-no-prisoners world of #MeToo, there’s only one side. All women are victims and all women are truthful. Any man who’s had a shadow of doubt cast on his sexual behaviour since his first wet dream at 12 is deserving of permanent social and professional banishment and is forever forbidden from saying a word in his own defence. As the editor-in-chief of the respected New York Review of Books found out. Ostensibly Ian Buruma resigned, but resignation over your own

Lucy Vickery

Holiday hell

In Competition No. 3067 you were invited to provide a tale of travel misery on behalf of a well-known traveller from the fields of fact or fiction.   The seed of this assignment was a column in the Observer called My Crap Holiday, which invited readers to share travel horrors: inclement weather, devil children, oven-like bedrooms, Arctic bedrooms, wardrobe–like bedrooms — you get the idea.   I had high hopes of this one but it clearly failed to light your fire, producing only a modest haul of entries. D.A. Prince’s Lucy Honeychurch was thoroughly hacked off with Florence: ‘If it wasn’t Cousin Charlotte twitching at every imagined slight and petty

Red Rock

A growth industry: Film investment is on the rise in the UK

SPONSORED BY In the past decade, British film and television has been attracting large audiences and positive attention from critics. Analysts are confident that the UK can increase its global share of the entertainment market but, in order to fulfil is potential, British film and television needs financing. Founded by Gary Collins, Red Rock Entertainment aims to attract investment to the UK entertainment industry. More investment means British filmmakers can become more ambitious, hiring globally recognised actors, commissioning cutting-edge scripts and expanding the range of what’s possible with special effects. With strong investment, we can help produce British film and television that’s capable of delighting audiences all over the world.

Wednesday

Roger Kimball

The reason the UN hates Donald Trump

President’s Trump’s magnificent speech at the UN yesterday will have had special resonance for anyone supporting the cause of Brexit. Brexit is not primarily about the UK leaving the European Union. It is rather about the reassertion of British sovereignty. It is only because of the EU’s childishness that British sovereignty must entail a severing of ties with the EU. British patriots want their country back. They are open to all manner of dealings with the EU — trade, friendship, travel — but as a free and unencumbered partner, not as a vassal. Similarly, Donald Trump yesterday asserted American sovereignty, and he did so frankly, like a man talking to

Tuesday

Spectator Money

Best Buys: Notice savings accounts | 25 September 2018

Notice accounts tend to offer better rates of interest, but you do have to notify your bank or building society before you take out your money. So, if you don’t need immediate access to your funds, they can be a good option for savers. Here are the best ones on the market at the moment, from data supplied by moneyfacts.co.uk.

Dominic Green Dominic Green

Life ‘n’ Arts Podcast: Knight of the Living Philosophers

In this week’s Spectator USA Life ‘n’ Arts podcast, I’m casting the pod with Sir Roger Scruton, the knight of the living philosophers. Of course, Scruton is more than a philosopher. He has written widely and well on subjects as various as wine and Wagner, fox-hunting and free trade, and he has three new books out this month. The philosopher has Conservatism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition. The musician — there are two pianos at hand in Scruton’s study — has an essay collection, Music as an Art. And the fiction writer has his second collection of short stories, Souls in the Twilight. One of the pleasures of talking

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The probation crisis could totally undermine the government’s domestic abuse law

It has long been accepted in Westminster, including by those who were actually in the Ministry of Justice when it took place, that the privatisation of the Probation Service hasn’t worked very well. That’s putting it mildly, as today’s report from HM Inspectorate of Probation shows. The report found that in seven out of 10 cases, private probation companies were providing ‘inadequate’ protection for victims of domestic abuse when their abusers return to the community. Probation officers were handed impossibly weighty workloads of up to 60 cases each, and the implications of this were that fewer than a third of offenders were referred to what are known as ‘perpetrator programmes’