Society

Thursday

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Poor Cathy Newman is the prisoner of the age

Almost eight million people have now watched Cathy Newman’s Channel 4 News interview with Jordan Peterson. This figure must be unique in the history of Channel 4 News online. Only a few minutes were broadcast on the original news programme, but Channel 4 then put out the full half-hour on YouTube, perhaps miscalculating the effects of watching the allegedly ‘transphobic’ Canadian clinical psychologist whose book 12 Rules for Life is selling out. I think what the majority of the eight million appreciate is that Peterson’s performance is noble. He attempts a clear exposition of his views about the differences between women and men. Despite every effort by Cathy Newman, he succeeds. Her

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Domestic abuse is undergoing the same revolution as mental health

Over the past ten years, mental health has gone from being one of those problems that no-one liked to talk about to something politicians tussle over to show they are the most committed. There is still a stigma floating around certain conditions, and people are still struggling to access the basic treatment that they need. But it is clear that society is growing better at understanding these illnesses – and is becoming angrier that there is not better provision for caring for them. That same slow shift is now starting with domestic abuse. Like mental illness, its victims have often been dismissed as either being flawed or in some way

Roger Alton Roger Alton

Knighting Wiggins so early was just asking for trouble

The incomparable Roger Bannister, whose passing marks the end of our links with a vanished age of sporting innocence, could have been knighted in 1954, such were his achievements in that year. He was eventually knighted 21 years later, in 1975: he could have been knighted for services to medicine or athletics, or both. We have started to play fast and loose with knighthoods. Bradley Wiggins and David Brailsford were both knighted at the end of 2012, the year of the London Olympics and Wiggo’s epic win in the Tour de France. Not looking such a bright idea now though. Wiggo and Brailsford are perfect examples of the rule that

Aidan Hartley

Wild life | 8 March 2018

Laikipia Off Madagascar the other day the Indian Ocean gave birth to a little storm called 11S. As its gyre turned clockwise over the sea, 11S gained momentum until it was a huge vortex of thunder and lightning christened Tropical Cyclone Dumazile. Like a naughty lover yanking away the shower curtain so that everything in the bathroom is sprayed with hot water, Dumazile pulled the entire weather system of mainland Africa eastwards. The effect was to suck the clouds from the steamy jungles of Congo’s river basin across the equator and dump their entire contents over our farm in highland Kenya. There was I enjoying the dry season. ‘How’s the

Nigel Andrew

The Katherine Mansfield House

One of the more surprising attractions of Wellington, New Zealand’s small but perfectly formed capital city, is what might be described as England’s farthest-flung literary shrine — the Katherine Mansfield House. The author’s birthplace and childhood home, this modest house in the relatively plush suburb of Thorndon is open to the public — and who could resist the allure of a building described by Mansfield as ‘that awful cubbyhole’, ‘the wretched letter box in town’ and ‘that horrid little piggy house which was really dreadful’? She also described the place as ‘dark and crowded’. Dark it still is, and horribly crowded it must have been. In the five years the

Robert Service

The Russia problem

Mischief and mayhem work better for Russia than steady cooperation with the western powers. This at least is what the Kremlin leadership decided a decade ago, after Putin had accommodated the American wish for an Uzbekistan base for its Afghan war only to find that President George W. Bush continued to criticise him for the brutal way he brought Chechnya to heel. From then onwards he searched for a different frame for foreign policy. This meant reaching out a hand of friendship to China and other developing countries. It licensed Russia’s ministers, especially those responsible for national security, to be as rude as they liked about America. It spelled out

Judith Green

The real war on women

How hard is it for women to talk freely about sex, gender and the law? Not very, I used to think. I’d heard about a few no-platforming incidents on campuses, where speakers including Germaine Greer were blocked from appearing because of their views. What I hadn’t realised was just how far the problem has spread. In the past few months, I’ve discovered firsthand that political debate is narrowing for everyone — and that fear and intimidation are being used increasingly to curtail free speech. I am one of a small group of women who get together to discuss proposed changes in the law on sex and gender. We’re called Woman’s

Harry Mount

Two nations

Last month, a 17-year-old business student of Somali extraction, Abdikarim Hassan, was knifed to death outside a corner shop, 70 yards from my home in Kentish Town, north London. At that very moment, in a parody of middle-class life, I was having dinner with friends, playing bridge in my flat. Less than two hours later, and less than a mile away, another youth of Somali extraction, Sadiq Aadam Mohamed, 20, was slashed to death with a samurai sword. That same evening, a mile and a half from me, a 17-year-old survived a stabbing and a 24-year-old was attacked, suffering non-serious injuries. Two people have been charged in connection with the

Mary Wakefield Mary Wakefield

Girls should be taught how to spot a wrong ’un

We are becoming a nation of older mothers. The average age at which a woman has her first child is now 30, a fifth reach 45 without having a baby and the usual busybodies are in a flap. The government, which had anyway decided on compulsory relationship classes, thinks the answer lies in more of the same. If we only explain to 11-year-olds how hard it is to conceive at 40, the creep towards geriatric motherhood can be reversed. Expect your small daughter to bring home fertility awareness posters designed in PSHE, perhaps papier-mâché models of a deteriorating human egg. The busybodies aren’t wrong to worry. I first set about

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

The populist revolution has only just begun

Why aren’t children called Roger any more? I wondered this when reading about the sad death of Sir Roger Bannister. Coincidentally, the evening before, my young daughter had been watching The Great Escape and most of the Englishmen in it seemed to be called Roger. The only time you hear the name is in early episodes of Midsomer Murders, the ones produced before they were forced to have black people being killed in a ludicrous fashion alongside the whites, to demonstrate our commitment to equality. It does have an awkward connotation with sex — but then it always did, Roger having been a slang word for penis right back to

Lucy Vickery

Six plus

In Competition No. 3038 you were invited to provide a (longer) sequel to the six-word story ‘For sale: baby shoes, never worn’.   Long before Twitter, so legend has it, Ernest Hemingway crafted this mini masterpiece in response to a bet that he couldn’t write a novel in half a dozen words. This turns out to be a load of old cobblers — at least according to Frederick A. Wright who, in a 2012 essay, concluded that there was no evidence that Papa was responsible for the story. In fact, versions of it had been in circulation from 1906 (when Hemingway was seven years old).   Regardless of who wrote

Wednesday

Spectator Money

The best and worst pension providers of 2017

How do you go about choosing a pension plan? For many of us – especially if you are part of a workplace pension – it’s something you tend to just accept. Bearing that in mind, the recent research done by Portafina into the response times of various different pension providers might make you think twice about simply accepting whichever pension scheme comes your way. While the most responsive Defined Contribution pension providers took a relatively short time to provide basic information needed to advise clients ­(just over a week), the worst performing schemes took over five weeks to provide similar information. When it comes to Defined Benefit (Final Salary) schemes, the

Misha Glenny

The targeting of Sergei Skripal might have been McMafia, not the Kremlin

We think of spy swaps as being thoroughly and always unscrupulous, but there actually are rules of the road. There is a protocol between the two intelligence agencies, a sort of honour among thieves. That’s why it’s very odd to see somebody like Skripal, being targeted like this. And until we have some forensic evidence – and proper circumstantial evidence – it’s premature to accuse the Russian government of having been involved. It does seem that Skripal was involved in something: likely to be something to do with his stock-in-trade – which is the exchange, the buying and selling of information. And when you do that, you sometimes work with unscrupulous

Stephen Daisley Stephen Daisley

Is shortbread unpatriotic? Some Scottish nationalists think so

Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, was a red-baiter of such ferocity he made Joe McCarthy look like Julius Rosenberg. There was almost no one in 1950s America Welch did not accuse of allegiance to the Soviet Union. His crusade reached its apogee as only it could with a 1958 tract naming President Dwight Eisenhower as ‘a dedicated, conscious agent of the Communist conspiracy’.  Scottish nationalism has arrived at its Robert Welch moment by declaring shortbread unpatriotic. The buttery biscuit went from beloved confection to traitorous treat after a nationalist, on a trip to Germany, spotted Walkers Shortbread being sold in a Union Jack tin. She posted a

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Does the BBC think northerners starved under the Tories?

Why does almost every BBC programme have to turn into lefty propaganda? For the past few Tuesday nights, there has been a reality TV show on BBC2 called Back in Time for Tea, featuring a Bradford family whose house is transformed into a time capsule – they have ate, slept, worked and entertained themselves one decade of the 20th century at a time. It was a rather good programme for the first few episodes, showing them grappling with old technology and having to eat period food which, in one or two cases, left them bewildered as to how anyone could possible consume such stuff. It was also rather educational –

Tuesday

Danny Al-khafaji

How the ‘safe space’ culture breeds violence on campus

Not even twenty minutes had passed into the discussion between guest speakers Carl Benjamin and Yaron Brook at King’s College London before free speech was suppressed. Swarms of violent protestors stormed the lecture theatre, with masks and bandanas, hurling verbal abuse and inciting physical attacks. We were faced with a chilling demonstration of contemporary fascism. I was chairing the discussion, at King’s College London, ironically devoted to free speech and Ayn Rand’s Objectivism. The speakers had different angles, and the audience were invited to make up their own mind. Although for some, rational debate was not the aim. A large bang announced their arrival. Around thirty came through the back

Bob Seely MP

Why the Kremlin likes using poison 

As 66-year-old former Russian Military Intelligence Colonel, Sergei Skripal, and a companion lie critically ill in a Salisbury hospital. The familiar question is asked: is this another Russian assassination attempt? We don’t yet know if Col. Skripal was deliberately targeted, or by whom – the cause of his illness may be entirely innocent – but either way, poisoning appears to be the weapon of choice for Russian-sponsored murders in the UK. Why is that? Poisons are versatile and flexible. They suit Russia’s newly redeveloped forms of aggressive, covert warfare. They can be ambiguous. A shooting leaves intent and very possibly evidence, but poisoning may leave no trace. How many people

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Morally bankrupt sport fans will forgive any abuse

The death of Zac Cox is more than a horrible industrial action but a metaphor for modern sport: the scale of its corruption and the readiness of  its fans to tolerate the intolerable as long as we are entertained. Mr Cox was 40 and working on a World Cup stadium in Qatar when a catwalk collapsed underneath him. He fell 130 ft and didn’t stand a chance. To the authorities he was a nobody, and his death was an embarrassing inconvenience. A report into the accident was completed within 11 days, but the firms building the stadium did not pass it on to his family in Britain. One of the

Will Heaven

Our violent and squalid prisons need a dose of Victorian reform

This morning the new Justice Secretary, David Gauke, delivered one of those keynote speeches about prisons. You know the sort: half an hour in front of a crowd of ‘stakeholders’ at a convenient London location. It’s increasingly hard to take such occasions seriously. Not only are we on the sixth justice secretary since 2010 – meaning it will be a miracle if Gauke is in post in 12 or 18 months’ time – but it’s only 78 days since the last newly appointed one, David Lidington, gave his own keynote speech about prison reform. When ministers are sentenced to a spell at the Ministry of Justice, they know they’ll be