Society

Sunday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Does Wes Streeting’s ten-year NHS plan amount to anything?

The Health Secretary is making a big fanfare about a cash boost in the Budget and a new plan to reform the NHS so that it becomes a more community-based, prevention-focused service. But at the moment, his plan for the health service is very much in nascent form: the government is nowhere near close to publishing it and is instead going to start asking for ideas from the public and healthcare workers.  Wes Streeting’s ministerial colleague Stephen Kinnock sketched out how this consultation would run when he spoke at The Spectator’s health fringe at Labour conference. He told us that there would be a lengthy ‘national conversation’ about what people

Ian O’Doherty

Ireland has become a hostile environment for Jews

Is Ireland the most anti-Semitic country in Europe? Most Irish people would vehemently disagree. But if you asked: ‘is Ireland the most anti-Israeli country in Europe?’ then many people here would actually take the question as a compliment. Hating Israel is not just acceptable in Ireland, it has become virtually mandatory. The latest evidence for this took place at a county council meeting in Dublin on 7 October, the anniversary of the Hamas pogrom. A Fine Gael councillor, Punam Rane, engaged in one of the oldest tropes in the book when she claimed that: ‘The entire US economy is ruled by the Jews, by Israel.’   Matters reached joyously absurd levels

Julie Burchill Julie Burchill

Nepo babies will never know the joy of making it on their own

Did you know that Bruce Springsteen’s son, Sam, is a fireman? Fireman Sam Springsteen. It sounds like a joke, but it’s not. Good on Sam: the child of a star, doing something useful for a living. Brooklyn Beckham-Peltz, the daddy of all nepo babies who has just launched his own brand of hot sauce, could learn a thing or two. Nepo babies, despite their apparent good fortune, will forever be one of life’s plus ones Beckham junior, son of David, might also take a leaf out the books of other celeb offspring who are doing something useful. The daughters of Richard Branson and Roger Taylor have both worked as doctors.

Robin Ashenden

John le Carré and the perils of resurrecting Smiley

Next week, a new novel comes out featuring George Smiley, John le Carré’s meek, mild, fiercely intelligent Cold War spymaster.  Karla’s Choice will be the tenth book where Smiley plays a central role, yet this time there is a difference. It isn’t le Carré, who died in 2020, telling us the story, but his son Nicholas Cornwell (under his usual pen name of Nick Harkaway).  Harkaway, determined to continue and build on le Carré’s legacy, said earlier this month that his father had given him permission to ‘write into this world.’ Following Silverview (a le Carré novel Harkaway finished for his father after the author’s death), Karla’s Choice, we’re told, is set in the period between The

Saturday

Lisa Hilton

Richard Dawkins, Nicholas Farrell, Mary Wakefield, Lisa Hilton and Philip Hensher

33 min listen

On this week’s Spectator Out Loud: Richard Dawkins reads his diary for the week (1:21); Nicholas Farrell argues that Italy is showing the EU the way on migration (6:33); Mary Wakefield reflects on the horrors, and teaching, of the Second World War (13:54); Lisa Hilton examines what made George Villiers a favourite of King James I (19:10); and a local heroin addict makes Philip Hensher contemplate his weight (27:10).  Produced and presented by Patrick Gibbons.

Julie Bindel

Is it time for feminists to turn to the Tories?

Should feminists like me hold their nose and team up with the Tories? It’s a dilemma many of those concerned about the transgender debate are wrestling with. Labour has spectacularly failed women when it comes to protecting their rights. The Green party seems more interested in protecting transgender rights than saving the environment. And the Lib Dems want to make it even easier for men to get government-issued certificates declaring themselves to be women. The Conservatives are hardly an enticing option, but are they the party that is best placed to speak up for women? The Labour party has spectacularly failed women In the July election, Labour had my vote

Gareth Roberts Gareth Roberts

The unspectacular joy of quiz shows

Quiz shows on TV – the kind you can join in with at home by shouting the answer at the screen, rather than panel games or tests of skill – seem to be surging with renewed popularity. At its peak last year, Pointless drew in over 7 million viewers, while The Chase averages 3 million viewers an episode and as recently as last week 3.8 million people tuned in to watch The Weakest Link. Although they’ve been an embedded fixture of television since its inception, quizzes with at least a component of general knowledge involved are taking up more and more of the schedules. A time-travelling viewer from the 70s

Friday

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

The Pope announces 21 new cardinals. Is he trying to pack the conclave?

26 min listen

This month Pope Francis announced that he’s creating 21 cardinals, and once again his list includes unexpected names that will baffle commentators who assume that he’s determined to stack the next conclave with liberals.  For example, Australia now finally has a cardinal – but he’s a 44-year-old bishop from the Ukrainian Greek Catholic diaspora rather than the actual head of the Ukrainian Church in Kiev. There’s also a new English cardinal who isn’t even a bishop, the Dominican theologian Timothy Radcliffe. He’s nearly 80, so will soon have to step down as an elector – but, believe it or not, one of the new cardinals is 99 and therefore old

Alexander Horne

What Robert Jenrick gets wrong about the ECHR

Last night, during his first debate with Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick was keen to highlight his flagship policy on exiting the ECHR, using it as a dividing line to emphasise his anti-immigration credentials. He pitched the question as ‘leave or remain’.  This is an unfortunate move on two fronts. First, leaving the ECHR is unlikely to have the practical effect he hopes in stopping the small boats, or combatting illegal immigration. Second, it risks looking like he is merely chasing the Reform vote and is uninterested in reuniting his fractured party. It risks misleading Conservative party members that there is some quick fix to this issue On the legal question, anyone who

Zoe Strimpel

The horror – and glory – of Sandbanks

In the showy harbourside enclave of Sandbanks, in Dorset, properties regularly go for upward of £7 million; one bungalow there recently sold for £13 million. Footballers and screen stars call it home. But there are two things money can’t buy when it comes to Sandbanks: sunshine and style. It’s a desperately cramped, traffic-ridden place Estate agents like to claim that Sandbanks is ‘Britain’s Palm Beach’, but on a rainy Thursday night in October it’s hard to see how. Over the next week, Britain’s priciest seaside community is expected to see a blend of torrential rain, light rain, and partial sunshine at temperatures roughly on par with those forecast for London. Some

Thursday

Limor Simhony Philpott

Yahya Sinwar’s killing is an immense victory for Israel

Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas and Israel’s top target in Gaza, has been killed by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). The Israeli Foreign Minister has confirmed that the Hamas chief was one of three terrorists killed in the Gaza Strip today. Early reports indicate that this wasn’t a targeted hit, but that Israeli forces came across Sinwar’s body by chance, after an IDF tank fired at a building in Rafah where ‘suspicious movement’ had been detected on an upper floor. A body resembling Sinwar was then spotted by IDF troops in the rubble. Sinwar clearly made a critical error The impact of his death cannot be underestimated. Sinwar has been the leader

Debbie Hayton

JK Rowling deserves a peerage

Kemi Badenoch has suggested that JK Rowling deserves a seat in the House of Lords. The Tory leadership contender said in an interview with Talk TV: ‘I don’t know whether she would take it but I certainly would give her a peerage’. Rowling certainly deserves credit for her tireless stand against the transgender madness. For more than four years, she has spoken out courageously, sometimes in the face of dreadful abuse, to say things that we once all knew to be true: that being a woman is far more than an assertion of a supposedly female gender identity. The Harry Potter author has been a key voice in a debate

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

The slippery slope of assisted dying

Critics of the Assisted Dying Bill have been warning for a while that it would lead to a ‘slippery slope’. Their fears are looking increasingly legitimate. The bill, introduced by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, had its first reading in the Commons yesterday. In the last few days, some of those with conditions that might not qualify under the proposed legislation are voicing their concern about not being included. Is there already a danger that the scope of the bill will be expanded to include them? The relationship between doctors and patients would change forever Sir Nicholas Mostyn, a retired judge, set up a feisty group of Parkinson’s sufferers who produce

Douglas Murray

The rise of anti-Elonism

You can tell a lot about a country by who it admires. I was pleasantly surprised some years ago to see a poll showing that the most admired man in the UK was Richard Branson. You may not love all his publicity stunts, or have liked the sandwich selection on Virgin trains, but that poll suggested the British public still liked entrepreneurialism and achievement. It seems mainly to affect people who have really never done very much with their lives I slightly dread a rerun of such a poll today, because I suspect that among the youth vote in particular the winner would be the person with the most perceived

Charlie Falconer and Charles Moore

‘Not all suffering can be relieved’: A debate on assisted dying

As Kim Leadbeater’s private member’s bill comes before the Commons, the former justice secretary Lord Falconer (who introduced a similar bill to the Lords) and The Spectator’s chairman Lord Moore debate assisted dying. ‘When people talk about the moral overreach of the state, they are blind to the fact the state is already there’ CHARLIE FALCONER: The law has effectively broken down. If you assist anybody to take their own life, you’re immediately guilty of an offence, irrespective of motive, and you can be sent to prison for a maximum of 14 years. Even the authorities no longer think that’s enforceable. The Director of Public Prosecutions, the chief prosecutor in

Luke McShane

Metacognition

Congratulations to Sir Demis Hassabis, who last week was awarded a Nobel prize for his work on AlphaFold, which uses artificial intelligence to predict the structure of proteins. Developed by DeepMind, AlphaFold belongs to the same family of work as AlphaZero, which revolutionised computer chess when it was released in 2017, and before that AlphaGo, which in 2015 was the first program to defeat a professional Go player. I had the honour of partnering with Hassabis for the Pro-Biz Cup at the London Chess Classic in 2021. Now CEO of Google Deepmind, at 13 he ranked second in his age group behind Judit Polgar. There is no doubt that his

Luke McShane

No. 823

Black to play. Dominguez-Shankland, US Championship 2024. Which move allows Black to escape perpetual check and win? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 21 October. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include an address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1…Kd3! 2 f7 c2 3 Kb2 Kd2 4 f8=Q c1=Q+ gives Black a big advantage. 1…b2+? loses to 2 Kc2 as did 1…c2? 2 Kd2! Last week’s winner Richard Green, Shalford, Guildford

Victoria Lane

Spectator Competition: Potato, potahto

Competition 3371 invited you to rewrite the lyrics of ‘Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off’ to be sung not by Fred and Ginger but by another mismatched pair. Trump and Harris cropped up the most, while Joseph Houlihan deserves a mention for his version (‘I’m a Zoomer, you’ve a Boomer’s/ Problematic sense of humour…’). Those below win £25. You are the Windsor, and I am the Markle;You bring the heirlooms and I bring the sparkle.The Windsor, the Markle, the heirlooms, the sparkle:Let’s show the world how to live!You like the Roller and I like the Caddy;The papers abhor me and say I’m the baddie.The Roller, the Caddy, the papers, the

Doc

2676: ITOX

The unclued lights become phrases, verifiable in Brewer, when their first (or, in one case, last) undefined word is added. One normal solution (also thematic in a way) includes the red and yellow names. Ignore all accents. Across 1               Players or cast, cast out – literally (6) 7               Cyndi Lauper release with live backing in retail outlet (3,3) 13            Hemmed in France in your lean-to (5) 20            When fats are added, maybe infiltrates any organic cyanide (7) 21            Contribute old money for monitor lizard (6) 22            Poor Irene by day is a sea-nymph (6) 24            Lecture about marks on Latinized alloy (8) 26            The beak’s US money (4) 28            Yoko’s

The Spectator

2673: All Saints – solution

The unclued lights are surnames of the twelve celebrities who bear the forename of the four patron saints of the British Isles. ANDREW 1A, 5, 36, DAVID 17, 31, 35, GEORGE 24, 28, 34 and PATRICK 21, 37, 39. First prize Wendy Atkin, Sleaford Runners-up Lewis Osborne, Newton Mearns, Glasgow; Neil Mendoza, Oxford