Society

Thursday

21 Jun 2018

Real life | 21 June 2018

Every day in every way we are paying for more and more. I realise this increasingly. Things we took for granted as free are added inexorably to the list of things we are charged for. And now we have rural parking charges, by which I don’t mean we are going to be charged for parking outside a village shop. Sleepy little One Stops have been on viciously policed meters for years now, as we all know. I mean parking outside a deserted wooded area while you walk your dog. Very soon, there will be no such thing as a free walk, or a free picnic. In Surrey, where I reside,

Robin Oakley

The turf | 21 June 2018

On the famed Whitsbury gallops, as corn buntings and stonechats fluttered from the fence posts, a dozen of Marcus Tregoning’s team were stretching nicely. The sun reflected from the chestnut flanks of the filly Viva Bella. The handsome head of Moghram, a muscular Sir Percy colt owned by Hamdan Al Maktoum, stood out against the blue sky above the lush downland where horses have galloped since the 1880s. It called for poetry, not prose. But at Whitsbury you are never very far away from history either. In the spacious main yard, with its thatched roof, riders used to get their orders from Sir Gordon Richards. In Major’s Yard, further down

Janet de Botton

Bridge | 21 June 2018

Ostend has been host to hundreds of bridge players representing their various countries in the European Teams Championships. The ten-day marathon across three disciplines (Open, Women and Seniors) has two functions: first, to find the gold, silver and bronze European medallists, and second, to select the top eight teams (out of 33) who will go to next year’s World Championships in China. It finished on Saturday evening; Norway took gold on the last board, Israel received silver having led all day, and all three England teams qualified and will be going to China. Yippee! The surprise teams, certainly unknown to me, were Hungary and Russia. Hungary stormed into the top

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 21 June 2018

Home Theresa May, the Prime Minister, said that spending on NHS England would increase by £20 billion a year by 2023. Some of the money would come from economic growth and a ‘Brexit dividend’, but more would come from taxes to be announced by the Chancellor at the next budget. Paul Johnson, the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said that the divorce settlement with the EU and Britain’s commitments to replace EU funding had already accounted for ‘all of our EU contributions’ for the next few years. The government said the use of medicinal cannabis was to be reviewed. The announcement followed publicity for Charlotte Caldwell, whose son

Dot Wordsworth

Iteration

‘They should say, irritation, not iteration,’ exclaimed my husband as a voice on the wireless spoke about men’s fashion and the promise of ‘a new iteration of softer suiting’. Suiting in itself is a comical word when found outside the technical pages of Tailor and Cutter. In that respect it belongs to the same family as trouserings, which P.G. Wodehouse (already convinced that trousers are inherently absurd) liked to deploy. Bertie Wooster often referred to evening-wear trouserings. Similarly, the determinedly humorous Owen Seaman, born over an artificial-flower shop, and editor of Punch from 1906 to 1932, cheered up a parody of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam with lines like ‘We

Mary Killen

Your problems solved | 21 June 2018

Q. Being professionals in trade, we find ourselves increasingly being asked by friends, who could well afford to use our services, how to achieve certain things. They know we depend on these skills — which have taken years to learn and perfect — for our livelihood. What do you suggest is the best way to put them in their place and, without being overtly rude, avoid these situations? — Name and address withheld A. Try something along these lines. Wearing an affectionate smile, respond to their opening gambit of ‘Can I pick your brains…?’ by saying: ‘That should be the title of my autobiography! Do you know, you’re the third

Toby Young

This junk study proves nothing about helicopter parenting

An academic paper by a group of child psychologists caused a stir earlier this week. ‘Helicopter parenting is bad for children,’ was how the Times reported it, and other news outlets summarised it in the same way. Here was proof, apparently, that wrapping your children in cotton wool and limiting their exposure to risk is bad for their emotional development and can lead to problems at school, as well as difficulties in later life. A few years ago, when I was in the first flush of fatherhood, I would have leapt on this study as confirmation that my laissez-faire attitude to parenting was more effective than the more hands-on approach

Raymond Keene

Altibox

Fabiano Caruana has won the elite Altibox tournament ahead of world champion Magnus Carlsen. This result might appear to give a promising boost to Caruana’s prospects for his world title challenge to Carlsen, which is due to take place in London in November. Alas, that is not the case. It is true that Caruana triumphed by a narrow margin over the champion in the main event, but in their individual clash it was the Norwegian who once again gained the laurels. This outcome further extends Carlsen’s already impressive lead over Caruana in their individual tussles. Carlsen therefore remains firm favourite to retain his title at the chess summit. Carlsen-Caruana: Norway

Raymond Keene

Puzzle no. 511

White to play. This position is a variation from So-Carlsen, Norway Chess 2018. The world champion suffered a reverse in this game. How would So have concluded here? Answers to me at The Spectator by Tuesday 26 June 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 … Nf3+ Last week’s winner T.C. Venugopalan, Huddersfield

Lavatch

2364: Frolicsome Threesome

2/11/12 is a four-word quotation in Chambers. Remaining unclued lights (all appropriate to the language the quotation is in) are three sets of three words of a kind, each set suggested by one word of the quotation. One unclued light associated with the whole of 2/11/12 must be highlighted. Across 1 A wimp inhales air, awfully tired (8) 8 Filch penny with trick (4) 13 Car-maker drops Sierra for a month (5) 15 Hiding in animal food, strike a toad (7) 17 The drink’s kept cold around services (4) 18 Middle Eastern city right for silk (5) 19 Lodge again in hotel backing on river (7) 23 Setter, pop idol,

Michael Hann

I can’t wait for England to be knocked out of the World Cup | 21 June 2018

On Monday evening, I watched a man in a smart shirt and trousers put his friend in a headlock while bellowing at the top of his voice. In the central London pub I was in, guttural roars filled the room; the floor shook with people jumping up and down. A few minutes later and a few hundred yards away, people – well, overwhelmingly men – flooded on to Tottenham Court Road to stop the traffic and share their emotions with drivers. They didn’t just hail them from the pavement; they stepped in front of cars until they decided each driver had witnessed enough of their ritual. This happened because Harry

Gareth Kime

to 2361: Snoot

The unclued lights are anagrams of the names of Scottish towns. Dalry (12), Dundee (14)), Brechin (27), Kelso (1D), Peterhead (8), Inverness (21D), Gretna (30D) and Elgin (34). The title is an anagram of TOONS (Scottish towns). First prize J.R. Evans, Caversham, Reading Runners-up Michael Moran, Penrith, Cumbria; Don Young, Shaw, Oldham

Cindy Yu

How does the housing crisis threaten a Tory government, and how can they fix it?

In Britain today, home ownership rates stand at a 30-year low. More and more families with young children are renting, while recent research from the Resolution Foundation found that one in three millennials are unlikely to ever own their own home. At the same time, Britain ranks fifth on infrastructure spending when compared to its G7 counterparts. How can the government solve problems in housing and infrastructure, and how can the private sector help in the fix? M&G Prudential brought together a group of politicians, economists and fund managers to determine the strategy, going ahead, at a recent Spectator roundtable. Fraser Nelson, Editor of the Spectator, chaired the roundtable. He

Cindy Yu

The Spectator Podcast: the Diversity Trap

In recent days, Lionel Shriver has been in trouble. Her criticism of the publishing industry’s diversity drive has led to her marked as a racist and even dropped from a literary judging panel. She argued that ethnic quotas harm rather than help diversity – is she wrong? As Robert Mueller’s investigation continues, several dodgy links to Britain have surfaced that could bring down Trump. And last, in the age of MeToo, is sex becoming sexier? Find out at this week’s Spectator Podcast. Do quotas help or hinder racial equality? That’s the big question we’ve been asking at the Spectator recently. Since we published Lionel Shriver’s critique of Penguin Random House’s

James Kirkup

Why are women who discuss gender getting bomb threats?

Last night, some women got together in a room to talk about law and politics and sex and gender. The meeting, in Hastings, was organised by a group called A Woman’s Place UK, which is concerned about the way politics and public debate is developing with regard to the legal rights of transgender people and women. This stuff is complicated and, to many people, obscure. I’ve written about these issues quite a bit here, and while quite a lot of people seem keen to read about the transgender debate, I’m under no illusions that this has broken through into wider public consciousness. Most people, I suspect, haven’t really engaged with

Lucy Vickery

#MeToo lit

In Competition No. 3053, an assignment prompted by Anthony Horowitz’s reflections on creating female characters for his latest Bond novel, you were invited to provide an extract from a well-known work that might be considered sexist by today’s standards and rework it for the #MeToo age. Highlights in a thoroughly enjoyable entry included Brian Allgar’s Constance Chatterley instructing Mellors in the importance of foreplay, Paul Freeman’s recasting of Orwell’s antihero as Weinstein Smith and Hugh King addressing the gender stereo-typing in The Tale of Peter Rabbit. The worthy winners, printed below, earn £20 each. ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’; Well, frankly, Will, I’d rather you did

Rory Sutherland

Gastropolitics give us food for thought

An Iranian friend of mine recently brought me some gaz from Isfahan. Commonly known as Persian nougat, gaz is perhaps the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. The only thing to avoid is learning how it is made. Pistachio nuts are mixed with ‘honeydew’ collected from the angebin plant of the Zagros mountains, a sticky white substance often believed to be the manna of the Bible. It sounds glorious. That is until my friend told me that honeydew is not the sap of the plant — but is exuded from the anus of an insect which feeds on it. So one of the tastiest things on the planet turns

Bruce Anderson

That woman’s got me drinking

It is enough to make a man turn to drink. On a distinctly non-abstemious day, I was sitting in one of my favourite places on earth. It is not a great garden, merely a characteristically English one: roses, benign verdancy and the joyous sunshine of gentle summer. My dear friends have just finished restoring their late medieval house. It is not a great house, merely a classically English one. Chillingham Castle, the Wakefield family’s seat in Northumberland, which resplends in grandeur, was described by Walter Scott as bearing the rust of the Barons’ wars. This place, by contrast, is more a case of the gentle patina of manorial peace over

Jonathan Ray

Wine Club 23 June

Readers will, I’m sure, remember the excellent Merlot-rich Sang du Sanglier from Ch. de Fayolle that we offered here with FromVineyardsDirect recently. Well, crikey, the 2016 Ch. de Fayolle Blanc (1), its sister wine, is every bit as toothsome. A blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Sémillon (just a bit) from low-yielding, naturally farmed, herbicide-free vineyards in Bergerac near Bordeaux, it’s crisp, clean and refreshing. The Sauvignon gives a lively touch of citrus, grass and herbs while the Sémillon adds depth, character and a certain roundedness. A white Graves of this quality from down the road would be twice the price. £9.95 down from £10.95. And if classic, beautifully made, artisanal

William Cook

New Jersey

When my American friends invited us to stay with them in New Jersey, my 13-year-old daughter was thrilled. She’d never been to the States before, and she couldn’t wait to see Manhattan. I had to break the news to her that there were no skyscrapers where we’d be staying. Plainfield, New Jersey, is an easy commute from New York City, but it feels like a world away. Clapboard houses with star spangled banners: this is the real America. You’d never know Penn Station was just an hour away by train. I took my daughter into NYC, and we did all the touristy things proper travel writers look down on: we