Society

Thursday

Peter Jones

How the ancient Greeks tackled treaties

Israel and Hamas signed a ceasefire agreement. Though the ancients would have employed oaths, the practical ancient Greeks often ensured there was a flexibility about them: the real world might intervene. For example, treaties between city-states were agreed between opposing generals. Hostages were exchanged, oaths sworn and the terms of the treaty widely inscribed on stone and bronze pillars, but it was citizens who oversaw the treaty’s maintenance. In a Greek democracy, however, there was no saying how, under the influence of different leaders, policy might change and annul a treaty at a stroke. Then again, though treaties could be sworn to last forever, ‘circumstances’ were very unlikely to remain

Douglas Murray

The hard truth about Britain’s soft power

How hard is your soft power? According to David Lammy, Britain’s soft power is so strong and underrated that he has decided to set up a ‘soft power council’ to show just how hard we are. Put aside such details as waste and futility for a second. Surely there is something rather embarrassing about boasting about such things? It reminds me of the phrase ‘muscular liberalism’. A person may define the political concept of muscular liberalism. He may even be described by others as a ‘muscular liberal’. But no one should go around declaring themselves to be such a thing, without expecting to be greeted with a chorus of ‘I

Toby Young Toby Young

Beware this terrible new AI email feature

A friend of mine got a nasty shock last week after a Google Meet call, thanks to a new AI function that he was unaware of. On this occasion, the consequences were quite funny, but on another day his failure to get his head around this new technology could have ended his career. Had the AI continued to transcribe the call after the other two had left – and sent it to them? We’re all familiar with the poor sod who hits ‘reply all’ when responding to an email and accidentally copies in precisely the person whom he doesn’t want to read it. I’ve done it myself. I’ve also heard

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

Gossip is good for you… so I’m told

The Pope hates gossip. In his Christmas message to his Vatican advisers last year, Francis warned that it is ‘an evil that destroys social life’. It’s not the first time he’s attacked rumour-spreading. He once compared gossips to terrorists because ‘he or she throws a bomb and leaves’. The Holy Father’s condemnations are of particular concern for me because I was recently accused of being a ‘notorious gossip’. I vehemently reject the charge, of course, but if it were true, at least I’d be following a proud journalistic tradition. In fact, if it were not for gossip, this very magazine might not exist. The original Spectator’s founders, Joseph Addison and

Roger Alton Roger Alton

Can anyone stop France in the Six Nations?

Winter’s almost done and spring’s on the way. We can tell because the Six Nations is about to muscle into view – with the battle of the world’s best national anthems as Wales meet France at the Stade de France on Friday evening. This year’s tournament could be even better than last year’s, but we always say that – and if France live up to some of the rhapsodic predictions the whole thing could go flat as a wet weekend in Calais as Les Bleus romp to a runaway victory. Some pundits have been advising the other five nations to send out for white flags ready to run up the

Mary Killen

Dear Mary: How do I guide my godmother to buy me better wine?

Q. When is the cut-off date for wishing people a happy new year and asking if someone had a good Christmas? I’m finding it increasingly difficult to stay civil. – L.G., Fosbury, Wilts A. 14 January is the cut-off date for wishing people a happy new year. The Church itself puts an end to Christmas officially at Candlemas on 2 February, so it is absurd to persist in mentioning it beyond this weekend. Bear in mind that these well-wishers mean no harm. They are usually just stuck for something more interesting to say. Q. We have bought a house in Somerset, but the council requires the bins to be placed

Rachel Johnson

What I can’t tell you about Lamu

Lamu Ever since we arrived on the syrupy, sweltering Swahili coast – where else would your Best Life columnist be in the dead of winter? – I’ve been writing this in my head, and this was going to be the running order. This succulent island paradise has long been re-colonised by celebrities, princes and make-up moguls First, colour. The cream scoops of the dhows racing the channel between Shela and Manda islands, teak masts tipped at a rakish slant; sundowners at Peponi after a long swim in the mangroves; the Lamu dawn chorus, an ear-splitting stereo of the 5 a.m. call to prayer and the frantic hee-hawing of donkeys; the

Melissa Kite

My turbulent flight with the hen do crew

‘Oggy oggy oggy!’ shouted the Italian flight attendant over his intercom, and all the hen party ladies on the plane squealed with delight. I’m a nervous flier, so as I strapped myself into my seat I was already hyperventilating. It was not ideal that I was sharing my flight from London to Cork with a hen party and a head steward who was acting like he was off his rocker. The blonde girl in the seat next to me was giggling and shouting to her friends, and jumping up and down in her seat. I was about to tell her she really was going to have to stop doing that

Dot Wordsworth

Is it a ‘perigee-syzygy’ or a ‘supermoon’?

My husband was so delighted with the new-found term perigee-syzygy that he kept repeating it, until the syllables merged into his regular breathing and he fell asleep in his chair. The compound word means what the vulgar press call a supermoon. A syzygy is the lining-up of the moon, Earth and sun, producing a full moon (or a new moon, which is invisible because only the far side is illuminated). The perigee is when the moon is nearest the Earth (its furthest being the apogee). The distance varies because the moon orbits the Earth in an ellipse. The funny-looking word syzygy, used in English since the 17th century, merely comes

Luke McShane

Instant grandmaster

Fide, the international chess federation, awards a succession of titles on the way to grandmaster (GM) status – Candidate Master (CM), Fide Master (FM) and International Master (IM). These are significant milestones which usually represent years of effort, so it almost never happens that a player can ‘jump’ to grandmaster level without first becoming an IM. But 16-year-old Xue Haowen from Shenzhen, China is one of the rare exceptions. At the outset of the Hastings Masters, which began in the days after Christmas, Xue was seeded sixth, but he had no title, and his rating was based on just a handful of international events in the past few years. But to

Robin Oakley

From the army to Folly House: the story of Jamie Snowden

It is around 3 a.m. in Northern Ireland in the early 2000s as two British soldiers share a dank ditch waiting for the dawn. ‘What will you do when you leave the army, Sir?’ asks Corporal Jordan Wylie. ‘I’m going to train racehorses,’ says Captain Jamie Snowden. ‘And I’m going to make some money and send you a horse to win the Grand Military Gold Cup.’ As an in-demand amateur rider starting with point-to-points at 16, Jamie had already won Sandown’s trophy for services riders. At Sandhurst in 2002 on a day when his platoon were due to endure the rigours of gas attack training, he was booked out instead

Janet de Botton

Bridge | 1 February 2025

The English Ladies Team is one of the best in the world, winning numerous world and European titles. For the past 20 years, there has been a core group of extremely good, experienced players who continued to do brilliantly on the world stage. But for the somewhat lesser tournaments, most of the leading professionals are sponsored by a bridge-lover who wants to improve her game and perhaps earn an invitation to play for England in the Lady Milne Trophy (the women’s home internationals). Last weekend, the trials for the Lady Milne were held in London. Fourteen pairs took part, playing 130 boards, hoping to finish in the top three. Top

Luke McShane

No. 835

White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Sam Loyd, St Louis Globe-Democrat, 1907. What is White’s first move? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 3 February. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address. Last week’s solution 1…Ng4! wins. If 2 Rxe4 Qb6+! 3 Kh1 Qb1+ leads to mate, as does 2 Qd8+ Kg7 3 Rxe4 Be3+ 4 Rxe3 Qc1+ 5 Bf1 Qxe3+ 6 Kh1 Qf3+ etc. 1 Qxh6+ Nxh6 2 Rxe4 Nf5 wins. Last week’s winner Arjan Verdi, London SW19

Victoria Lane

Spectator Competition: Pinch punch

For Competition 3384, since this issue appears on the first of the month, you were invited to submit a short story featuring someone who is a slave to superstition. Every corner of the country used to have its own folkloric behaviours that have now been forgotten (one wonders why salt and mirrors and magpies etc stuck). These days individuals who use ritual to ward off misfortune are told they have OCD. Anyway, I was sorry not to have room for John O’Byrne’s story of Michelangelo painting the ceiling; David Silverman’s in which a man is cured of his hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia; Joseph Houlihan’s memoir of his Irish mother – and Janine Beacham’s entry

Doc

2688: 4 ÷ 4 = 8

The unclued four-letter solutions can be paired in a particular way to form the four remaining eight-letter unclued lights. Across 1 Burns searches thoroughly around Union Street (8) 5 Developed green, variable power (6) 10    Labour man’s entertaining turn (5,5) 12    Irish backing chorister on Venetian bridge (6) 13    New tune outside? (5,3) 16    Account of help sent back to railway (5) 17    US cocktail that’s pungent (7) 18    Sporting cry in match – touch and go, finally (5-2) 20    Sunday crossword for Tom, Dick and Harry (8) 25    Stiff paper, way-out neckwear? (3) 26    Game of bridge (7) 28    Movie buff reviewed Cain set (7) 29    Lengthen in both

The Spectator

2685: Scocourban – solution

The unclued lights (including the pair at 4 and 37) are former county towns of eight historic Scottish counties. First prize Eleanor Morrall, Coseley, West Midlands Runners-up Revd John Thackray, Ipswich, Suffolk; Tom Fanshawe, Wantage, Oxon

Loyd Grossman

I’m becoming too old to hold a Les Paul

My beloved 1967 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop guitar is now locked away until December at the earliest. For the past eight years, I have had the terrifying privilege of dragging my axe (as we guitarists call our instruments) on stage to perform in a series of Christmas gigs (as we musicians call such performances) with the celebrated prog rock band Jethro Tull. Ian Anderson, who leads the band, has for years generously staged a series of pre-Christmas concerts to raise funds for English cathedrals. Our 42 cathedrals are some of the greatest expressions of creativity, imagination and hope (more on that later) which our nation has ever produced. They are

Charles Moore Charles Moore

My message to the Trumpists

Social media benefit from creating continuous belligerence in politics. For them, Donald Trump is the perfect politician. As I wrote last week, I think he is doing exciting things and I feel relieved that Kamala Harris lost. But it is impossible to support everything Mr Trump says or does. He never regards himself as bound by what he has previously said, so why should his followers seek to justify each piece of Trumpery? Since his victory in November, I have noticed several otherwise intelligent friends, all of them men, going crazy-culty about the dawning era – defending, for example, the removal of the security detail of Mike Pompeo, John Bolton

The Spectator

DeepSeek’s cheap information comes at a high price for the West

This week, Chinese technology has shown the West the challenge it faces – ruthless, implacable and impossible to ignore. The unveiling of the Chinese artificial intelligence model DeepSeek has not only disrupted the business models of America’s tech behemoths; it has also shown that, in the race to develop the tools for economic hegemony, Beijing is set on supremacy. The launch of DeepSeek came just days before the CIA’s conclusion that, on the balance of probabilities, the Covid virus was incubated in a Wuhan lab – a man-made killer, not a product of nature’s evolutionary mischief. China stands revealed as a power bent on using science to secure not human