Cheer up Boris, the French still like you

If, as many are predicting, the wheels are about to come off Boris Johnson’s premiership, few world leaders will be as indifferent as Emmanuel Macron. He and the PM have rarely seen eye to eye. 

It may very well have been more than just a coincidence that Johnson yesterday declared Britain was ‘open for business’ just as France’s full vaccine pass came into force. The contrast is clear, as the Prime Minister surely intended. While Britain — or at least, England — is emerging from the Covid crisis, France, has in place some of the most stringent restrictions in the West. Masks remain mandatory outdoors and adults without three jabs to their arms can do little other than shop for groceries or go for a walk in the park.

But while Macron imposes on the French what some liken to China’s social credit system, his arch-enemy Johnson used a visit to a hospital in Milton Keynes on Monday to declare that ‘things are starting to get better’. By way of illustrating his bullish assessment, the PM said that ‘to show the country is open for business, we will see changes that people no longer have to take tests if they are double vaccinated’. From 11 February, double-vaccinated holidaymakers will no longer be obliged to take a Covid lateral flow test on returning home.

Johnson was reportedly described as a ‘clown’ by the French president in November, a description that probably resonates among some of the Tory backbenchers. Nonetheless, for all No. 10’s travails, the fact remains that England is a beacon of liberty in an increasingly authoritarian Europe.

On Sunday, 50,000 angry demonstrators from across the continent gathered in Brussels to protest against the ongoing restrictions. The rally turned violent with police officers attacked, over 200 protesters were arrested, a handful of whom were from France.

That in itself won’t trouble Macron’s government which, in recent days, has doubled down on its rhetoric towards those refusing to have their three jabs. Last week the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin accused some protesters at an anti-vaccine pass march in Paris of giving the Nazi salute, an accusation that was soon disproved by footage showing the crowd were innocently clapping in unison. It was an embarrassing gaffe for a government that last year set up a commission to counter fake news.

Of more concern to the President will be the opinion poll at the weekend that revealed he has lost four approval points this month, his sharpest fall since 2021. His boast that he wanted to ‘piss off’ the unvaccinated has not been well received, a vulgarity unworthy of a President of the Republic.

Criticism is growing of Macron’s handling of the pandemic and awkward comparisons are increasingly being drawn between life in France and life in Britain. A centre-right senator, Loïc Hervé, used a radio interview at the weekend to praise Britain’s acceleration out of the restrictions, as did Dr Gérald Kierzek, who declared Macron’s vaccination strategy ‘an error’. In contrast, he said Britain has for a long time been the ‘reference’ in dealing with Covid, particularly the Omicron variant.

Florian Philippot, the leader of the right-wing Patriots party, is another with a penchant for championing la belle vie in Britain. ‘So while the UK lives totally normally, in France we’ve just announced that from 16 February we’ll finally be able to eat standing up in the restaurant,’ he said last week in response to the government’s timetable for lifting some restrictions. ‘What madness!’ The current law permits patrons in bars and restaurants to eat and drink only if they are seated.

To the Elysée’s credit, there have been no partygate scandals to inflame public opinion à la Johnson. This appears to be an administration that obeys its own rules, no matter how absurd or authoritarian. That may be due to Macron’s ascetic personality, the antithesis of the Bacchanalian Boris. One of the contributors to a coruscating biography of the President published last year was François Baroin, the Minister of Finance under Nicolas Sarkozy. He described Macron as a man ‘who has no friends, no children, no hobbies’.

This explains why Macron has never won over the French, why his approval rating has throughout his presidency remained constant at 25 per cent. One in four French think he’s marvellous, whatever he does; the rest find him either contemptible or a conundrum, an austere man with no apparent joie de vivre.

On the other hand, a poll last summer revealed that the French — particularly the working-class — were far more smitten with the ‘eccentric’ Johnson. Macron has never enjoyed such favour. He is not a man of the people. He distrusts the people, which is why France remains closed for business.

Inside Operation Save Boris

Will Boris Johnson still be Prime Minister in a year’s time? It’s the question that haunts Johnson’s closest allies. After news broke on Monday evening of another lockdown event in the form of a birthday celebration in Downing Street when social gatherings indoors were banned, Johnson is once again on the backfoot. With MPs frustrated by the damaging drip-drip nature of the leaks, Johnson doesn’t just need to survive Sue Gray’s report into partygate, he also needs to show his party he can change.

When the latest allegations emerged, Johnson loyalists such as Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries were quick out the blocks to say this event simply amounted to cake in the office (even if the Prime Minister’s interior designer Lulu Lytle also managed to drop by) and therefore is less serious than the other allegations. In the wider parliamentary party, however, it has soured the mood further. Those who already want Johnson out take it as further evidence he should go while MPs on the fence are annoyed by the simple fact there is another allegation they have to fend off. ‘When will it end?’ was one minister’s response. 

Given Gray already knew of the event, it is not expected to delay her report into parties which is still expected this week. Once that report is out, Johnson’s supporters are braced for the possibility that the 54 letters threshold could be reached and that a confidence vote would follow quickly after. Despite the latest allegations, there is cautious optimism among Johnson’s team. They say that anger among constituents over partygate appears to be cooling slightly — with other issues such as cost of living coming up.

What’s more, the wider operation to save Johnson is getting up and running. A shadow whipping operation by Johnson’s allies — including Nigel Adams, Grant Shapps, Andrew Griffith and Connor Burns — has been set up. Shapps has brought back the spreadsheet system he used to keep track of Johnson’s supporters in the leadership campaign. Shapps was able to predict the exact number of Johnson supporters in that 2019 race. 

On Monday, around 70 supportive MPs met remotely to discuss Johnson’s position with former whip Chris Pincher, who argued that ousting Johnson could lead to a snap election given the Prime Minister’s successor would need their own mandate in order to lead successfully. Another figure involved in the save Johnson operation says that over 100 MPs want to actively help shore up support.

Where there is greatest concern is the part that comes after a confidence vote. Not only could Johnson find himself in a significantly weaker position even if he wins it, he will also need to show he is changing how he operates. After the report comes out, MPs expect Johnson to shake up his No. 10 team. They want that to go further than civil servants and extend to his political operation. 

Since entering 10 Downing Street, Johnson has struggled to find a set up that works for him: Vote Leave took too much control for his liking and since the departure of Dominic Cummings it has been unclear which No. 10 aides are in charge. MPs complain that the current advisers won’t tell the Prime Minister when he is making a bad decision. As I reported last week, there’s talk of Tory election guru Lynton Crosby taking a No. 10 role or a figure like David Canzini, an ally of Crosby, coming in to restore discipline. 

Those who could face the axe include his principal private secretary Martin Reynolds and chief of staff Dan Rosenfield. Johnson is also under pressure to recharge the Whip’s Office and work to bring those MPs currently isolated back into the fold. ‘What the Prime Minister thinks counts as a significant change could be different to what the party thinks,’ says one senior Tory. 

Johnson is alleged to have once told Dominic Cummings that he prefers a chaotic office to one in which a specific adviser or faction has too much control: ‘The chaos means everyone will look to me as the man in charge.’ This is why, for Johnson’s biggest supporters, getting him through a confidence vote is just the first step in a much wider effort to shore up Downing Street. 

There’s life beyond the tie

I love wearing ties. I like to match the colour or pattern of it with another aspect of my ensemble. I have a navy and grey basket weave tie from E. Tautz that goes well with my navy basket weave tweed sports jacket and grey flannel trousers from the great Terry Haste. Or my navy and red regimental tie by Ralph Lauren with my navy pinstripe suit (again by Terry Haste) and red socks. I am one of those sensible sorts that doesn’t like to wear a shirt and jacket without a tie. I think just like going on a well-meaning protest or voting, there is something life-affirming about the perfect dimple created just beneath the knot of the tie. What with our much decommissioned, out of office lives these days, is its perceived stuffiness heading the way of the spat?

It may be described by some as a colonial noose, but truthfully it’s much more than that, it is a cultural and social signifier that the person or place you are interacting with is taken seriously. Well, that is if you’re British. Italians approach wearing a tie in exactly the same way as not wearing a tie. Their louche, relaxed attitude to sartorial matters, dubbed ‘sprezzatura’, means there is no symbolism attached to the wearing of a tie. They could be going to a wedding or doing the weekly shop. Alas in Britain, the tie is seen through the prism of class which is part of the reason why the liberal end of private member’s clubs, namely Soho House, will ask you to remove your tie on entry if you were bourgeois enough to show up wearing one in the first place. That being said it is not necessarily the best place for tips on tie-less sartorialism.

Also, here you cannot get more incongruous than wearing a tie when working from home. The casualisation of work precedes the pandemic, with dress-down Friday getting the ball rolling and John Bercow relaxing tie rules for no conceivable purpose, but may have made him feel better about how he treated Commons staff. Now that flexible working is taking hold, flexibility also applies to presentation across the board. It’s perhaps improper to ask for figures that show a correlation between productivity and wearing a tie but I will let common sense steer your good judgement. Suiting doesn’t seem to be disappearing anytime soon, with tailors making positive noises about the post-lockdown times we are in, and ready-to-wear has seen a marked rise in sales of suits. This can be less down to Zoom meetings and more to the fact that we can now go out and we don’t want to do so in our tracksuits.

It’s not all bad news though, alternatives are emerging from the woodwork. In the Financial Times How To Spend It magazine a few weeks ago, Nick Foulkes, the most elegantly dressed man in Britain and certainly the most authoritative on classic style wrote about the neckerchief or cravat. From Charvet in Paris to Drake’s and New & Lingwood in London, they are all seeing strong sales for alternative neckwear such as these. To be fair, tailoring has softened too, with fewer customers buying just suits and opting for separates and more adventurous (and versatile) garments. Wearing a tie with these may at times be incorrect but throw in a cravat and that rounds it off nicely. I had a jacket made recently (guess who by) with a Loro Piana jersey material, which has beautiful patch pockets and other tailoring signatures but it’s a jersey weave so feels like a cardigan or sweater. You could wear literally anything underneath and tow that line of comfort and formality perfectly.

There are home remedies also that don’t require you to press reset on your wardrobe. Often it is the shirting rather than the top layer that helps if you don’t want to wear a tie. The denim shit is the most appropriate example. David Gandy has been known to wear a tie with a denim shirt but he’s the Great Gandy so can do whatever he likes. Us laymen need to know our limitations when styling, and the denim shirt is hard to style with a tie. Oxford button-downs are also much better to wear without a tie than a dress shirt. Another solution is to wear a sweater in between the shirt and jacket. This is definitely what I’d call ‘academic chic’, as much as one would like all academics to dress like Indiana Jones, one must be realistic. A dark sweater and lighter jacket are a great combination with a blue or pink shirt. Safari shirts/jackets are not to be worn with a tie and beautiful shawl lapel cardigans are better worn with an open necked shirt too (a cravat would work well here just FYI).

While eschewing the tie is neither inevitable or advised, the caveat is that there are plenty of avenues to explore that keep a gentleman in good and elegant condition. The Spectator has quite rightly understood the concern that many of us have about his and have the good sense to equip you for the impending drama. Throw in a Swaine Adeney Brigg umbrella, a Partagas Lusitania and a pair of Gaziano & Girling tassel loafers and life will begin to make much more sense.

The London property hotspots most likely to gain value

The preponderance of publicity over the last 24 months exhorting Londoners to abandon ship has left some areas of the capital looking like relative bargains or at least lagging behind widely hyped price rises elsewhere in the UK. Indeed, the average property price in Cambridge is now higher than that of the capital.

Anecdotally, the stress of moving under duress has meant a significant number of those recently ‘lost’ have now returned to areas like Wandsworth, Hammersmith and Fulham. Many buyers have rented for a time in order to attempt a rural purchase before deciding to return. According to data from propertymark, there were an average of 29 buyers for every available property in December, meaning many house searches no doubt ended in vain. Wandsworth, Hammersmith and Fulham all saw quite an uptick in value last Summer – having been flat for a number of years. Much of this restoration has been fuelled by returnees requiring proximity to parks and houses with gardens, which these areas provide in abundance. 

The picture is further confused, however, by survey evidence from Moveable that 38 per cent of London residents are now planning to rent for longer in the city in order to buy in the sticks, with 41 per cent of respondents actively planning to buy in the next 12 months.

Are the less obvious areas going to see the same rises despite the continued trend for leaving the city? Since the research suggests that many are holding back from buying in the capital, there could be a window to grab a bargain before some semblance of normality returns. There’s certainly a marked contrast in the city with the countryside where stories of gazumping proliferate. For those willing to look seriously at London, this could be the first time in years that you may feel you’re operating in a buyer’s market.

There would seem to be plenty of properties in Lambeth and Southwark to attract buyers priced out of West London or those looking for an investment. Both boroughs haven’t seen such a quick return to growth; the average value of semi detached houses is around 28 per cent lower in Southwark and Lambeth than Hammersmith and Fulham with average flat prices a full 33 per cent lower. There’s much potential for capital growth and genuine bargains – and, during a time of inflation, bricks and mortar are a good hedge if you can root out the right mortgage deal.

If I was looking to invest some money, perhaps with a view to passing property to offspring in years to come, a flat with some outside space or within reasonable walking distance of a park, would make a lot of sense. 

Further afield, you could look at anything near the new Crossrail terminals – both Ealing and Harold Wood are attractive suburbs with plenty of green space who have already seen an uptick in interest as a result of the planned line. You are spoilt for Green Space here – Ealing Common, Walpole Park and Lammas Park form a great tryptych of parks – and easy access West out of London make this a good bet too. Pre 2015 there was a CrossRail bump but since then nominal prices have hardly moved, so it looks to provide good value in the current market.

Further East on the map Harold Wood stands out, with great road links and the CrossRail bonus – more bang for your buck too. With a similar bump to Ealing now passed, the new focus on housing to the East of London could yield an even better medium term return.

Whatever it is that tempts you, only a fool would bet against the longterm value of owning property in the Capital.

Properties for sale now

£750,000 6-bed family home in Bartholomew Drive, Romford, RM3, Harold Wood

£499,950 2-bed flat in Ealing Common

£750,000 2-bed flat in SE1, a stone’s throw away from the Thames

A £550,000 2-bed apartment in Herne Hill

Boris Johnson’s lockdown birthday

‘Wait for Sue Gray’ has been the mantra on every ministers’ lips these past few weeks. But with just days to go before the senior civil servant is due to deliver her findings on ‘partygate’ how much longer can that line continue to hold? For this evening ITV have dropped yet another bombshell: Boris Johnson had a birthday party during lockdown in June 2020 despite rules forbidding social gatherings indoors. 

Up to 30 staff celebrated in the cabinet room where his wife surprised him with a cake, with Lulu Lytle — the designer who was doing up the Prime Minister’s flat at the time — among those who came down to the party. Turns out that redecoration might have cost Johnson a whole lot more than £112,000…

Just a week before the party, the PM told the country ‘meeting inside other people’s homes — that remains against the law.’ Millions rearranged their birthday that summer — including, er, the Queen with whom Johnson will presumably enjoy yet another awkward meeting soon. When confronted, Downing Street admitted the party this afternoon, saying:

A group of staff working in No 10 that day gathered briefly in the Cabinet Room after a meeting to wish the Prime Minister a happy birthday. He was there for less than ten minutes.

ITV report that later on that same night, family friends of the Johnsons partied upstairs in the PM’s flat. This is denied by the No. 10 team who say: ‘This is totally untrue. In line with the rules at the time the Prime Minister hosted a small number of family members outside that evening.’

Does this mean Sue Gray will have to expand her inquiry further? Steerpike wonders if this means yet more delays, as Johnson scrabbles around to save his sinking premiership.

Gavin Williamson’s new gig

With his Whips’ Office in crisis, how Boris Johnson must be wishing he’d kept Gavin Williamson in government. The former Chief Whip was praised for the political intelligence operation he ran during both the 2016 and 2019 Tory leadership elections when he helped secure victories for Johnson and his predecessor Theresa May. Now though Gavin – or Sir Gavin, as he is reportedly set to become – is left lolling on the backbenches, defending himself against attacks from Labour defectors about the methods he employed while in office.

Still, the ex-Education Secretary clearly sees his former brief as his calling, given his desire to educate the public on his work in politics. For Mr S has spotted that the poor man’s Francis Urqhart is now signed up for the after-dinner circuit, joining up with Chartwell Speakers in a paid, part-time role where he will be undertaking between eight to ten engagements a year. His profile is yet to appear on the site, where fellow Tories Jeremy Hunt and Matt Hancock are among the many ‘premium’ names listed. Lucky punters all across the country will soon get to hear what inspirational words can be gleaned from the man who as Defence Secretary told Russia to ‘shut up and go away.’

Will Gavin be bringing his pet tarantula Cronus along too on such occasions? Mr S looks forward to finding out.

The Church of England’s diversity mission has gone too far

Is the Church of England on a mission? It should be, of course. But it appears to have confused its purpose of preaching the gospel with seeking to make itself more representative. From now on, at least ten members of the House of Bishops, part of the General Synod, must be from an ethnic minority. This will help create a ‘church that truly embraces people of global majority heritage at every level of its life,’ says the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell. 

But it’s hard to reconcile Cottrell’s words with those of Paul to the Galatians:

‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.’

For the Christian, skin colour should make no difference in spiritual terms. The enlightened Anglican hierarchy of the 19th century certainly understood this. In 1864, the church braved controversy and appointed its first black bishop, Samuel Crowther. An ex-slave freed in 1822 by the Royal Navy’s West Africa squadron, Crowther was jointly presented to the Archbishop of Canterbury for consecration by a colonial prelate and the bishop of Winchester. While his appointment was historic, it owed nothing to his skin colour. Yet, to borrow the words of Martin Luther King, the House of Bishops’ new scheme risks judging people on the colour of their skin, not on the contents of their heart. There is no doubt the initiative is entirely well-meaning. It will, it is said, make church leadership more representative. But it is still worryingly wrong-headed, and needs to be fought hard.

A church, which very creditably opposed apartheid in South Africa – and many of whose members called out overt racism here in the 1950s and 1960s – is making a serious mistake in setting up what is essentially an official non-white constituency within the Anglican communion. To make matters worse – and while this was surely not the aim of those who dreamed up this plan – it seems to carry an implicit suggestion that non-white Anglicans are not just as capable of arguing about theology and church government as others and need special help to get their view across. Both these developments should have any decent worshipper, white or non-white, up in arms.

In a church’s governing body, by all means it is right to ask that all shades of spirituality or theology – liberal and conservative, high church and evangelical, and so on – be able to have their voice heard and be represented. But whatever the position with secular governments, it is not the function of a church to be representative of – or promote the interests of – other secular social groups, whether denominated by politics, social class, or race.

Ironically at a time in the liturgical year traditionally associated with prayers for church unity, we have here a suggestion that the church as an institution should become explicitly race-conscious. It’s as if one’s spirituality somehow varies according to a person’s ethnicity or tribal origin. But this is exactly the kind of thought that Christianity has always opposed. 

A great deal of religion two thousand years ago was indeed depressingly particular; it was perfectly normal for your acceptability as a worshipper to depend on your ethnicity, position or allegiance. Christianity was as radical as it was – and as attractive – precisely because it turned this view on its head; it openly defied orthodoxy by drawing no distinction at all between those whom it sought to proselytise. 

Whatever an average worshipper in a socially-distanced pew may think, these days the talk in General Synod, and on bishops’ benches, is not so much about making the world conform to God’s law as ensuring God’s law as interpreted by the church fits in as neatly as possible with secular trends. Activism aimed at social justice, anti-racism, human sexuality, or whatever, now largely trumps matters of the spirit. 

About 60 years ago Michael Wharton, writing the Peter Simple column in the Daily Telegraph, saw a development of this kind coming. You may remember his caricature Dr Spacely-Trellis, the go-ahead Bishop of Bevindon, who habitually referred to Jesus’s disciples as his staff of trained social workers. 

The antics of the House of Bishops in calling for things to be seen through the prism of race are not what we should expect from any religious body. But they are exactly what you would expect of a coven of social workers in the Stretchford conurbation. What was a joke in the 1960s is, to the church’s discomfiture, now depressingly real.

Watch: Blow for Boris as Treasury minister quits

Some rare fireworks in the House of Lords this afternoon. Lord Agnew, the minister responsible for Whitehall efficiency, has just resigned his ministerial posts after he told peers he was unable to defend the Treasury’s record. Responding to an Urgent Question by Labour, he strongly criticised the UK government’s ‘lamentable track record’ in tackling fraud in a flagship state-backed coronavirus business loan scheme. 

The bounce back loan scheme handed out £47 billion, of which £4.9 billion was fraudulently claimed, the Business department estimates. It has a target to recover just £6 million from organised crime over three years. It’s the sheer waste here – billions of taxpayers’ money wrongly handed out – that led to Agnew’s resignation.

In a six-minute speech to peers, Agnew quietly but politely damned the Treasury by claiming the department ‘appears to have no knowledge or little interest in the consequences of fraud to our economy or our society.’ He bemoaned how ‘arrogance, indolence and ignorance freezes the government machine’ and there is a ‘penny of income tax waiting to be claimed if we just woke up’ to the costs of fraud. Ooft.

No doubt aware of Boris Johnson’s current difficulties, he said that this was not an attack on the PM but added: 

‘I hope that as a virtually unknown minister beyond this place, giving up my career might prompt those more important than me to get behind this and sort it out’. 

He concluded what might be the most politely worded resignation of all time, by saying ‘thank you and goodbye’ and walking off to applause from across the chamber.

Mr S suspects the drama in the Commons won’t be so gentlemanly come 12 p.m on Wednesday for PMQs.

Boris’s partygate troubles mean a welcome dilemma for Starmer

The last time a Conservative government was in the midst of a crisis like partygate, Labour had a choice. Should it stick or twist? Should it passively allow Conservative voters, who had kept the party in power for more than decade, to drift away from John Major, thanks to his troubles over the economy, ‘sleaze’ and the EU, hoping they would remain with Labour come a general election? Or should it make a bold and positive case for why they could actively support Labour? 

Both approaches held dangers. Under John Smith, Labour opted to let nature take its course. At the time, it was described as a ‘one more heave’ strategy. It had merit: the party was, after all, riding high in the polls and was about do well in both the 1994 European and local elections. Smith’s death however saw a decisive change of course: the new leader Tony Blair believed the party had to convince voters of Labour’s merits to prevent any return to the Conservatives, going so far as to announce it was now ‘New Labour’.

Today Keir Starmer faces something of a similar choice. For the first time in his two years as leader he looks secure. The Corbynites are fading away, retreating into their Twitter redoubts. More importantly, thanks to partygate exposing Boris Johnson as a pretend populist, Labour enjoys an unprecedented poll lead. This promises to see almost all of 2019’s lost Red Wall seats return to the party: these are places where Conservative thinker James Frayne believes voters’ ‘guiding value’ is ‘fairness’.

Thanks to his last reshuffle, Starmer now has a shadow cabinet team well-equipped to exploit Johnson’s troubles; the party’s media game has also improved in recent months. Under Rachel Reeves, in particular, Labour has come up with clever and popular policies like an energy windfall tax to nail the currently benighted government. But will this short-term focus be enough? The danger is that once Johnson goes and his successor caps energy prices and delays increases in National Insurance, voters will drift back to the Conservatives.

Such fears have led some Labour supporters to say that Starmer needs to complement this exploitation of a government adrift by outlining a coherent and attractive long-term vision for the country. To be fair to him, he has attempted this on a number of occasions. But thanks to Covid, Johnson’s apparently hegemonic lead, and his own muted rhetoric, Starmer largely failed to make an impact. Now, Johnson’s problems mean he has another chance to make a first impression.

He could do worse for inspiration than read Labour’s Covenant, produced by Labour Together, an organisation that is trying to unite members from across a divided party around a common programme. Much of what it proposes will, in fact, be familiar to Starmer. His speeches have argued that the country needs a new start, that the Covid crisis has lifted a veil on what needs to be done, and that Britain must embrace ‘a future that looks utterly unlike the past’. Starmer’s Labour seeks to build a Britain devoid of the inequality and insecurity which marked the last ten years or so, and which left the country unprepared for the pandemic and ill-equipped to face its economic legacy. 

But Labour’s Covenant wants Starmer to go further. It calls on the Labour leader to build on his rhetoric to ensure that the social bonds weakened since the 2008 financial crash – and exposed by Brexit – are strengthened through a recalibrated role for the state and market. It also wants a new reciprocal relationship between government and society. If some of its ideas and proposals will be familiar to those who worked with Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn it is also in effect calling on Starmer to do what Johnson promised in 2019: to Level Up. Thanks to partygate many voters are now coming to realise that, for Johnson, Levelling Up was just a neat phrase; words from a leader shown to have betrayed their trust.

Up to now, Starmer has struggled to find the words and concepts that convincingly define what his Labour party stands for. As Eric Morecambe might have put it, the Labour leader has been speaking all the right words, but not necessarily in the right order. This was partly because his intended audience wasn’t listening. It was also because many in his own party were intent on shouting him down. Thanks to Boris Johnson, however, he now has a platform to get his message right, and Labour’s Covenant can help him finesse that message, a message many Britons have been waiting for since at least 2008.

Entitled motorists have ruled the roads for far too long

Last week it was ‘operation red meat’, designed to recapture wavering Tory voters. This week something very different: changes to the Highway Code are coming into effect, which threaten to upset the not-insignificant number of car owners. Sure enough, the Alliance of British Drivers, the trade union for Mr Toads, has complained bitterly. Responding to a new clause reminding that cyclists and pedestrians have the right to use any part of the road, the Alliance complains: ‘This is a recipe for anarchy and accidents. It is unworkable. Greater clarification is needed as it appears to give pedestrians total control over the entire road network.’

More sanguine voices might conclude that actually, the changes to the Highway Code are a good idea, long overdue, and will challenge the sense of entitlement felt by many motorists. You see it all the time, drivers hooting at pedestrians because they have the temerity to walk along a stretch of road that has no pavement, thereby making an incursion into a space which they perceive to be wholly reserved for motorists. Then there are those who bawl at cyclists who have exercised their right to ride in the road rather than in a joke cycle lane obstructed by lampposts and bus shelters.

At last, the Highway Code appears to have caught up with standards of behaviour that would be treated as normal in any other sphere of human activity, by calling for ‘those who can do the greatest harm to others to have a higher level of responsibility to reduce the danger’. In other words, HGV drivers have a higher responsibility towards safety than car drivers, who in turn bear more responsibility than cyclists, who in turn have greater responsibility than pedestrians. This, according to the Alliance, will ‘create or exacerbate resentment and ill feeling between different classes of road user and may lead to irresponsible attitudes by cyclists and pedestrians’. More likely it will simply remind motorists who are driving a two-tonne vehicle that they have a duty of care to try not to mow down a child who runs into the road — even if, of course, children shouldn’t be running into the road.

Hoorah, too, for the new rule that states motorists driving into side roads must give way to pedestrians crossing those roads. It will greatly civilise the streets, making it a lot more pleasant to walk around. No one set out to turn our towns, cities, villages and rural roads into dangerous hellholes. It just happened as motorists assumed the right to highways which were never designed for motor traffic. It was the exercise of raw power: drivers of motor vehicles lording it over the rest of us because they could.

Motorists do have plenty of reason to gripe about current government road policies: smart motorways (which give broken-down motorists a brief taste of what life feels like for many people who live beside busy roads) and excessive fines for minor incursions into bus lanes and box junctions etc. But there is nothing unreasonable about the changes to the Highway Code, which are merely a small rebalancing in the relationship between motorists, cyclists and pedestrians — and an example of how Conservative governments can and should promote civilised values.

Serpentine swimmers slap down Matt Hancock

Oh dear. As part of his comeback tour, Matt Hancock is trying every trick to aid his post-Gina rehabilitation. There has been talk of a self-justificatory book, cringeworthy Twitter clips of him doing meet and greets, an appearance at the Capital Jingle Bell Ball in a dreadful turtleneck, backbench interventions and even talk of him mounting a leadership bid. But it seems one of Hancock’s stunts has backfired somewhat, after the master of the breast stroke was last week spotted taking a dip in the open-water swimming site of the Serpentine.

For while Hancock, a guest of member and fellow former minister Lord Bethell, was keen to milk the conveniently-placed photographer’s snaps for all they were worth, members of the Serpentine haven’t taken too kindly to their club being used to launder Hancock’s reputation. First, the committee fired off a sternly-worded tweet just hours after the former Health Secretary was seen frolicking in the water, declaring that ‘Serpentine swimming is strictly for members only, and no guests permitted.’ And now the group has doubled down, issuing a lengthy reminder to those wild swimming lovers about who is and isn’t allowed in their pool.

In a letter to members, it refers euphemistically to ‘recent events’ resulting in a ‘need to review our health and safety procedures to meet and exceed the expectations of us laid down by The Royal Parks within our licence.’ It claims that the committee has no ‘option but to rigorously enforce the club rules’ and ‘enact our disciplinary process for those members who are not able to comply.’ Among these include a reminder that ‘without advanced approval from our committee, professional photographers are not permitted in the “beach area”‘ – the area of course where Hancock was spotted.

It closes by stating that ‘we all share a joint responsibility and duty to cherish and protect our club’ asking wild swimmers to ‘call out behaviours that fall outside the spirit or rules of our club.’ It concludes by stating that ‘the committee is resolute that we will not, and cannot, tolerate members that behave in a manner that jeopardises the very existence of our club.’ Ouch. Yet another great British institution facing ruin thanks to Matt Hancock and his ambitions. 

Who will win the battle for ‘based’?

Earlier this week, a pair of right-libertarian journalists announced the launch of their new site, BASEDPolitics. All hell promptly broke loose on right-wing Twitter. In the first editorial for their new site, co-founders Brad Polumbo and Hannah Cox define ‘based’ as ‘upfront, on point, or rooted in true principles.’ That fits pretty well with my understanding of the term, but it leaves something out.

That ‘something’ accounts for the pushback they received from the post-liberal, national conservative crowd. According to them, libertarians like Polumbo and Cox are nothing more than Koch-funded shills who fight for tax cuts and weaker antitrust laws while drag queens read to our children. They are not ‘based’ and have no right to refer to themselves as such.

‘Our culture is not your costume,’ one popular right-wing Twitter personality quipped. Sohrab Ahmari, an American Conservative editor who advocates for ‘political Catholicism,’ tweeted ‘I’m never using ‘based’ again, now that these corporate schmucks have appropriated it.’

Ahmari also threw in some disparaging comments about Polumbo’s ‘gigantic’ head and Cox’s ‘tackily overspilling décolletage’ as they appeared in the announcement graphic.

I asked Polumbo (full disclosure: he and I are both affiliated with Young Voices) whether he expected this kind of reaction. Here’s what he had to say:

Oh yeah, we anticipated pushback from the very-online nationalist crowd. I’m not particularly bothered by it, although some of it has been ad-hominem and juvenile, and that’s pretty pathetic, fan behaviour. We won’t stoop to that. But the pushback is kind of the point. The nationalists want to redefine what it means to be conservative so that it resembles big government, socially conservative Elizabeth Warren economics more than Ronald Reagan. We still believe the future of the Right should be rooted in free markets, individual liberty, the Constitution, (and) limited government.

The term ‘based’ originated as slang for being high on crack. Perhaps there’s some connection with ‘freebasing’, or smoking cocaine. From there, the term’s definition expanded to cover all the strange and erratic behaviours typically associated with ‘crackheads’. A modern equivalent might be to say someone is ‘trippin’’ or “’tweakin’’. These don’t necessarily mean the person is under the influence of psychedelics or meth, only that they’re acting like it. ‘You’re crazy,’ spoken either with total dismissiveness or with a hint of admiration, would convey the same meaning.

‘Based’ began to take on its current connotation with rapper Lil B the Based God, who released his first album, Based Boys, in 2007. According to Lil B, ‘Based means being yourself. Not being scared of what people think about you. Not being afraid to do what you wanna do.’

According to one online dictionary, the term, now a ‘signal of power and swagger,’ became associated with the online right in the 2010s as a synonym for ‘politically incorrect’. Donald Trump was ‘based’ because he was willing to say things that annoyed the libs and then laugh at their outrage.

‘Can you believe OrangeMan said X?!’ the outraged soycuck shrieks. ‘Lol, based,’ the gigachad responds.

It seems to me that at this point, an earlier definition of ‘based’ unrelated to West Coast drug culture began to influence the term’s use by the new right. ‘Based’ retained its sense of the manic, un-self-conscious energy of Trump’s Twitter, but it also took on the the sense of being ‘based on’ or ‘based in’ something older and sturdier than the endless flux of liquid modernity. Éric Zemmour is based. So is Viktor Orbán. Jailing pornographers, seizing the assets of the Ford Foundation, and going to Latin Mass with your nine kids and tradwife are all based. On the darker corners of right-wing Twitter, Rhodesia, Mussolini and overt expressions of sexism are also ‘based’.

The prevailing definition of ‘based’ sits somewhere near the intersection of troll and trad.

Polumbo told me he’s fully aware that he’s going against the usual meaning of the term: 

‘While not our only mission, a crucial part of our project is to explicitly combat the nationalist conservative movement in a substantive and ideas-based way. We are redefining what it means to be ‘based,’ whether they like it or not. Freedom is based. Catholic integralism and other forms of lite-theocracy are authoritarian and un-American.’

The post-liberal response, of course, would be that right-libertarianism, like progressivism, is a dominant ideology masquerading as a scrappy resistance. They are two faces of the same beast called liberalism. They divide the world between them: freedom in the boardroom and freedom in the bedroom.

I’m not nearly the libertarian Polumbo is, but I’m not a fully convinced post-liberal yet either. I think wokeness is a far greater threat than socialism. At the same time, I worry that any sort of post-liberal political project could lead to tyranny. The levels of social conservatism and, frankly, religiosity it demands simply don’t have enough buy-in to win national elections.

Imagine the average Joe Rogan listener. Not the alt-right white nationalist monster sketched out in thinkpiece after thinkpiece, but the representative of the American median, the ‘barstool conservative’. He’s economically agnostic, an admirer of entrepreneurship who distrusts large corporations. Socially, he’s slightly to the left of centre. The idea of giving puberty blockers to kids freaks him out, but he has no interest in outlawing gay marriage or no-fault divorce. He’d be more likely than Polumbo to support trade protectionism and breaking up big tech, but Ahmari would have a hard time selling him on porn bans and blue laws.

Polumbo and Cox are betting that this voting bloc will be more open to Friedrich Hayek than to Thomas Aquinas. Their plan seems to be to stan capitalism while casting wokeness as a collectivist distortion of individual liberty rather than its natural outgrowth. It’s possible, they promise, to combat the excesses of progressivism — to be ‘based’ — without throwing out many of the fundamental assumptions of American politics and culture.

It might work. If their attempt to reclaim ‘based’ succeeds, we’ll know it has.

When will Johnson discover his fate?

As concerns rise in government over the possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, Boris Johnson is facing problems both abroad and domestically. The UK is withdrawing staff from the British embassy in Ukraine while ministers are attempting to manage expectations over how far the government will go in the event of an incursion — with a military response viewed as very unlikely. But back home, this is viewed as the week that could decide the Prime Minister’s fate over partygate. 

While there is still no confirmed date for the publication of Sue Gray’s report into alleged Downing Street parties, the hope in No. 10 is that it will come mid-week. The Prime Minister will be given advanced notice — and a chance to go through it — before a summary is made public. Johnson’s advisers had hoped that it will reach them by Tuesday evening, allowing Johnson to make a statement to the Commons on Wednesday. However, given the report has been delayed numerous times, it has the potential to be pushed back. Notably, Dominic Cummings has given Gray evidence today – the former Downing Street aide had been expected to be the last person she speaks to. 

As for the contents of the report, the scope of the inquiry has been widened out once again. This time to include allegations of social gatherings in the Downing Street flat. Two senior government aides — Henry Newman and Josh Grimstone — are reported to have visited the flat several times during lockdown. The duo weren’t working in Downing Street at the time and are close friends of Carrie Johnson. The defence is that these were work meetings. There are also reports that police officers have now given evidence. 

Where will it all lead? There is a hope among Johnson’s closest allies that MPs are calming down and are less likely to try to oust the Prime Minister than in previous weeks. A shadow whipping operation has been set up — including Johnson allies Nigel Adams, Conor Burns and Grant Shapps — to shore up support for the PM in the event of a confidence vote. But the mood remains low. A lot of the 2019 intake are upset over their treatment by No. 10 last week over the so-called ‘pork pie plot’; meanwhile payroll MPs are agitating privately while backbenchers are going public with grievances over the current operation. All this makes any vote rather unpredictable.

Where next for ‘party Marty’?

Westminster is gearing up for ‘Sue Gray week’ as the top civil servant is due to finally release her long-awaited findings into ‘partygate.’ There’s been much speculation as to how bad the forthcoming report will be for Boris Johnson and his gang, with both political appointees and civil servants expected to be implicated. TheTelegraph reports that Downing Street police officers have been interviewed about what they saw on the nights in question while the Sunday Times claims that Johnson’s former aide Dominic Cummings will be grilled today.

While Mr S awaits the publication of the report’s findings with interest, it’s clear that one or two people’s careers in Whitehall have already been badly hit by the claims which emerged in recent weeks. Chief among them is Martin Reynolds, the PM’s Principal Private Secretary (PPS). He was the hapless mandarin who sent the incriminating 20 May 2020 email to 100 civil servants to ‘Bring your own bottle’ and ‘make the most of the lovely weather’ in the Downing Street garden. This was at the height of the first national lockdown when the rest of the country was banned from meeting more than one other person outdoors. Not surprising then that Mr S was told that the fun-loving civil servant’s new nickname in Westminster is ‘party Marty’.

Reynolds has already featured in far more press reports than he otherwise would have liked, with one suggesting he was being lined up as the ‘fall guy’ for the whole debacle. The Sir Humphreys of SW1 prefer to operate in the shadows, meaning he is expected to be moved, whatever Gray reports. One option being explored is to hand Reynolds a senior diplomatic role, possibly at ambassador level, given his credentials. Prior to joining the No. 10 operation, he was Ambassador to Libya, having previously done stints as Foreign Office and as Deputy High Commissioner in South Africa. Such a role would also make the best of Reynolds’ hosting skills, given that organising drinks parties is a core function of these jobs.

So, where next for ‘party Marty’? Sadly past indiscretions and the fact that most top jobs have recently been filled mean only a ‘mid-level ambassadorial role’ is likely. The plum posts of China, America, India, Saudi Arabia and Russia don’t look likely for various reasons. Suggestions instead include a ‘middle-sized European state’ or somewhere further afield, such as Singapore. Couldn’t get much further than the Co-Op on the Strand. Unfortunately for Reynolds, David Cameron’s former aide Ed Llewellyn has just nabbed one of the best European gigs as the newly-named Italian Ambassador, while both Germany and France have both been filled in the past 14 months. 

Mr S has done some digging and Hungary, the Czech Republic and Turkey all seem like obvious candidates, given that their current ambassadors will all be over the age of 60 this year. Sadly, the ambassadorship to Brazil was filled just a year ago, preventing us from the spectacle of seeing Reynolds lead the samba down the Copacabana, swilling Caipirinhas like Westminster Tesco wine. One diplomatic source suggested that a posting to the famously abstemious nation of Pakistan could be likely. Talk about a change of scenery. In Afghanistan meanwhile there is only a Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of the UK Mission there – could Reynolds be a more permanent posting?

After the chaos, drama and farce of the past two years, dealing with Islamist fundamentals might be a welcome break for the embattled PPS.

The WFH bubble has burst

We would work over Zoom. We would all exercise on our Peletons. We would order in organic vegetable boxes, stream live shows, and network globally from our kitchens. At the height of the pandemic, with most of the major economies locked down, a group of work-and-live-from home companies boomed. And yet, right now that is starting to turn. The headlines might be dominated by stories of a stock market crash. In fact, however, something else is happening. The WFH bubble is bursting.

There are a whole series of reasons why the stock market has turned very wobbly this month. Inflation is soaring and central banks, led by the Federal Reserve, are about to raise interest rates to control that. Russia is poised to invade Ukraine, destabilizing the continent, and sending energy prices through the roof. President Biden’s attempt to tax and spend his way to growth has turned into a dismal failure. There is plenty to worry about.

And yet, the market is also getting crushed by the falls in some very specific stocks. Almost all the pain is concentrated on the Nasdaq. The tech heavy index has declined 12 per cent this month, on track for its worst January on record. Unless there is a swift bounce back, January will be its worst month since October 2008. Within that it is the WFH stars, all of which soared during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, that are getting hammered. Peloton, which makes upmarket exercise bikes, is down 30 per cent over the last month. Netflix is down 35 per cent, as subscriptions stall (hardly helped by a second series of Emily in Paris — I mean does anyone really want their pension fund to largely depend on Lily Collins). Zoom is down 20 per cent. The list goes on and on.

It isn’t hard to work out what is going on. With the pandemic ending, it turns out that we quite like going out and about. Companies are starting to demand that their staff get back to their desks. The restaurants, clubs and gyms are staying open. The travel industry is opening up again. Meanwhile, the zero Covid fanatics who seem to believe everyone should stay at home until all diseases have been eliminated are in retreat, while political leaders are finding the courage to open up economies whatever the ‘science’ tells them.

During lockdown, a whole series of companies were wildly over-hyped, with business models that assumed the world had changed forever, when it was only a temporary crisis. Some of those will survive and some won’t. But most will simply turn out to be niche players in an economy that is returning to normal, and not the dominant businesses of the 21st century. True, the stock market will survive the bursting of the WFH bubble — but there will be a lot of pain on the way.

Downflood: the Good Ship Boris is sinking

In Sebastian Junger’s book The Perfect Storm, there’s a near-matchless description of how big boats go to the bottom. ‘The crisis curve starts out gradually and quickly becomes exponential,’ Junger writes of a boat wallowing and taking on water in a big sea:

The more trouble she’s in, the more trouble she’s likely to get in, and the less capable she is of getting out of it, which is an acceleration of catastrophe that is almost impossible to reverse… If there’s enough damage, flooding may overwhelm the pumps and short out the engine or gag its air intakes. With the engine gone, the boat has no steerageway at all and turns broadside to the seas. Broadsides exposes her to the full force of the breaking waves, and eventually a part of her deck or wheelhouse lets go. After that, downflooding starts to occur. Downflooding is the catastrophic influx of ocean water into the hold. It’s a sort of death rattle at sea, the nearly vertical last leg of an exponential curve.

This seems to me to be the stage at which Boris Johnson’s premiership has arrived. Other metaphors present themselves — going broke gradually rather than all at once; feeding frenzies and so on — but this one best captures that quality we now see, where each successive wave makes the impact of the next wave more disastrous. There’s a game-theoretical aspect to Tory regicide, or any loss of power — what in another context has been called the ‘tipping point’. At first, letters will trickle in to the 1922 committee: it’s a brave or principled person who risks coming at the king and missing. But for a second-tier potential assassin, the more knives are already out the more likely you are to plunge yours in; and the fewer and less vigorous will be those defending the target.

Each news cycle sees the good ship Boris battered broadside by yet more waves. Sue Gray’s inquiry, though it may well be the pretext or occasion for the boat finally going to the bottom, now seems to me almost irrelevant to the question of whether it will: if he looks like he’s going down, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. She may well uncover things we don’t already know, but it’s hard to imagine her report is going to change the complexion of the things. Backbenchers are going to be more interested in their job prospects come the next election than in whether there’s proof positive Martin Reynolds was warned in writing, and in turn warned the PM in writing, that a trestle-table full of crisps in the Downing Street garden might be in contravention of the rules he made. 

Little more than a week ago, the dwindling band of Prime Ministerial partisans were trying to spin the idea that if Sue Gray failed to recommend the PM’s defenestration (which, of course, she could hardly be expected to — that wasn’t her remit) that would be him ‘exonerated’ and they’d wriggle through. Unless they are stark mad, or Grant Shapps, they will surely by now know that dog won’t hunt. We’re in the territory of politics, here, not law — though law may of course come later.

And ‘but Sue Gray’ doesn’t cover the many other angles of attack. The PM’s defenders have inadvertently supplied some of the most damaging ones. For most of a week now we’ve been reading allegations of potentially criminal misconduct by the malevolent Baldricks of the government’s whipping operation. Gavin Williamson (of course it would be him) is accused on the record of threatening to punish an MP’s constituents by withdrawing public funds from a local project if he voted the wrong way.

A dozen MPs are said to have reported being blackmailed by the whips. Downing Street’s line that they will refuse to investigate until presented with the evidence will likely prove as irrelevant as Sue Gray: the chairman of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee is already taking his evidence directly to the police. 

Now Nusrat Ghani alleges, flabbergastingly, that she lost her ministerial role on the grounds of her ‘Muslimness’. I confess that one gave me pause. Is it really plausible that a government Chief Whip, in a party already on the defensive over accusations of Islamophobia, would have said out loud that a Muslim minister was getting the sack because of her faith — even were that the case? It’s almost unimaginable (and the chief whip, Mark Spencer, denies that anything of the sort took place) though there again we’ve learnt by now not to underestimate the ineptitude of this crowd. Still, what was said, what was understood, what was thought and what was insinuated may not matter all that much in the end. The wave is already on deck.

It’s worth noticing that in Ghani’s account of it she kept quiet at the time because she was warned she risked being ostracised by colleagues and having her career destroyed. I don’t mention this to deprecate her: there’s every reason you might make the calculation that you can do more good in the long run by swallowing a personal injury to stay on the inside of the tent. It’s the sort of calculation a grown-up politician might make (and she says that at the time she did raise the matter directly with the PM in private, only to be given the brush-off).

I mention it, rather, because it seems to show that at this stage she knows, and they know, and we all know, that there’s no long-term advantage to keeping in with Mark Spencer and Boris Johnson. Not only has power drained from the people once in a position to threaten her political career; but that we’re in a news environment where there is no danger of her claim being buried or shrugged off. The blood is in the water, the sky is dark with chickens coming home to roost, and — sploosh! — that sound you hear is downflooding.

Secret France: the hidden havens worth discovering

Vive la France! Our beloved Gallic neighbour has reopened its borders to the casual tourist once more and, as travel slowly yawns its way back to something resembling normalcy, it is the perfect time to hop across the channel.

France, in my half-French-totally-unbiased opinion, is never a bad idea. The diversity of the country is staggering – offering you undulating valleys dotted with vineyards, luxurious beach breaks or quaint Provençal villages; the eternal allure of Paris and majestic snow-capped peaks. But why not discover its lesser known enclaves? Seasoned Francophiles may like to take this opportunity, after a miserable time apart, to discover hidden France. So, here are my top suggestions of the best secret regions to discover…

Alsace

Historically one of the most contested regions of France, Alsace (now officially within the Grand-Est) has oscillated between French and German control for years but wears these conflicting influences well. Here, you will find the best of both cultures pleasantly intertwined. There is sumptuous French gastronomy (Munster cheese and soupe a l’oignonare particular highlights) and picture-perfect Germanic villages, with Alpine roofs and rustic architecture clustered around Medieval courtyards that will make you feel you have stepped back in time.

The landscape here is verdant and impressive, cut through with the Rhine river that serves as the border with Germany. Lose yourself in the breath-taking scenery of the parc naturel regional des vosges du nord, or pop by to a vineyard to try one of the region’s famous Rieslings. There are absorbing, charming cities, like Colmar, whose old town is a chocolate-box treat, or captivating Strasbourg, with its soaring Gothic architecture. You really are spoilt for choice in this criminally overlooked gem.

Limousin

Bear with me here. Yes, this sparsely-populated area of France gives its name to a famous breed of cattle and yes, beef is this region’s claim to fame. But Limousin is more than just your next steak haché. This unspoilt sector of France is a wonder that actually contains some of the country’s most beautiful historic towns and unfettered grassy plains. Its landscape is breathtakingly idyllic, sitting as it does atop the massif central, with rolling hills, river valleys and dense woodland.

Limousin is perfect for a sun-dappled rural escape. You can stroll through endless sleepy mediaeval hilltop hamlets which are all near-perfectly preserved, from Solignac and its 12^thcentury church to Collanges-la-Rouge, famous for its distinctive red brick buildings and its accolade as one of the most beautiful villages in France. You could also try Limousin’s city break offering: Limoges. The capital of French porcelain, it has an excellent cathedral, great culinary delights and a gorgeous Art Deco station Gare de Limoges-Bénédictins, which, with its frescos and bell tower, is worth a visit in its own right. Though, I recommend visiting in summer, when you can arrive via the old-fashioned Chemin de Fer Touristique Limousin- Périgord steam train.

Savoie

Part of the larger – and more diverse – regions of France, the Auvergne-Rhône Alps, Savoie is a charming section of the country, known for its alpine splendours and thermal spa towns. Besides the heavy hitters of the region – the famous les 3 vallées ski destination – there are myriad lesser-known delights to be found here, trust me.

There is the chic, underrated spa town of Aix Les Bains, which has everything you could want – from wonderful restaurants and a 12^thcentury royal burial ground in an alpine abbey to mountain bike and cross-country ski trails on nearby Mont Revard. Or you could try the stunning mountain town of Chambéry, which is full of chateaus, abbeys and other historical landmarks (check out its famous elephant fountain) as well as being as prime location for the tipple of the region: vermouth.

Picardy

Like many border areas of France, Picardy owes much of its influence to its neighbour. In this case, it is Belgium and the long-armed reach of the Netherlands. Here, the landscape is flatter and the towns more like Amsterdam than the Hausmann grandeur of Paris. The most well-known site of interest – the Somme- lends Picardy its most sombre, if significant claim to fame, but the region is much more than the misery of the trenches.

There is the gothic grandeur of Soissons, one of France’s oldest towns, which is replete with antiquity dating back to the Roman invasion. Nearby Beauvais and Senlis offer similar slices of Gallic history, the latter the home of the early French monarchical dynasties, and the former a cathedral town tantalisingly close to the town of Chantilly, famed for its divergent treats, from lace and cream to classic horse racetracks and a gorgeous forest. But perhaps the key feature of Picardy is Amiens. A pretty river town with Amersterdam-esque canals, it is famed as the home of Jules Verne (and now a museum in his honour) as well as the site of Northern France’s largest Christmas market.

Corsica

You should never forget Corsica, though all-too-many do. This mountainous Mediterranean island lies southeast of the French mainland and the coast of Italy, and is brimming with a joyous blend of Southern French and Tuscan influences. There is a wealth to see and do on this island; from some of the world’s most beautiful mountain hikes and coastal trails, to the cultural heritage of Corsican towns and villages, which bear witness to the island’s fascinating past. Make sure to visit the capital, Ajaccio, birthplace of one of France’s most famous sons: Napoleon.

Being an island, there are, of course, endless options for beach trips, including Corsica’s most famous, and most beautiful; Palombaggia. Here, you can sit back and enjoy some local delicacies, like the pork-liver sausage figatellu and the famous ‘Cap Corse’ apéritif produced by Mattei, and wonder why you ever overlooked France’s island paradise.

‘To a wine lover, it was like taking a call from God’ – remembering Anthony Barton

In 2014 I received a mystery phone call. It came from a French number but the voice sounded like a patrician Englishman from another age. It was a voice that you can imagine following into battle: ‘Hello, it’s Anthony Barton here’. You might not know the name but to a wine lover, it was like taking a call from God. Barton, who died this week at 91, was the man behind Châteaux Léoville Barton and Langoa Barton, and his family were Bordeaux aristocracy.

I was writing a book about the history of the British and wine, and had sent a message to the information at Langoa Barton email expecting at best to hear back from a PR representative, as had happened at Lynch-Bages. Instead, Anthony phoned me out of the blue. He told me that he was intrigued by my book and indeed had read something I’d written in the Spectator on fluffing a blind wine tasting that had greatly amused him.

He suggested that my wife and I come and have lunch at the château one day. I was nearly speechless that he had personally contacted me but later learned that this was entirely in character. He was generous with his time and disliked the increasingly corporate world of modern Bordeaux. So one day in 2015 we found ourselves turning up in a taxi at the gates of Château Langoa Barton.

The property had been in the family since 1824 when it was bought by Hugh Barton. His grandfather was Tom ‘French Tom’ Barton who came to France from Enniskillen in 1722 and founded a wine dynasty. In partnership with a Frenchman, Daniel Guestier, the family became one of the most powerful forces in Bordeaux. They sold the merchant business Barton & Guestier in the 1960s but held on to the Langoa Barton and sister property Léoville Barton.

Despite being in France for hundreds of years, like many Anglo-Irish families, the Bartons retained their roots, sending their children to school in England and holding British, and later Irish passports. Along with the firms like Nathaniel Johnston & Fils, and other northern European merchants, they created an English-speaking community who played tennis and cricket, and set up clubs like proper English gentlemen. They ran the city’s wine trade until the arrival of the multinationals in the 1960s.

Anthony Barton came across as every foreigner’s idea of the perfect Englishman but he was in fact Irish, born in Country Kildare, and educated in England. He came to work for his uncle Ronald at the age of 21. Apparently it wasn’t the easiest relationship, he told me that he was badly under-paid and found it very difficult to keep up the kind of lifestyle he wanted. Anthony moved in a fast set, close friends with Antony Armstrong-Jones, and is rumoured to have had a fling with Princess Margaret.

Ever the diplomat, I decided not to ask hi about the alleged affair when we sat down to lunch with Anthony and his Danish wife Eva. They made a striking couple, she poised and chic, and Anthony at 85 still ridiculously handsome with leonine hair and a glint in his eye. He was dressed in a blazer and cravat and was very pleased that I was wearing a tie, saying that it was sad that nobody wears ties anymore. They both seemed particularly taken with my glamorous Californian wife and were keen to hear how we met.

Before lunch, we sat at a low table piled high with books so we could barely see each other and drank vintage Pol Roger. Most Bordeaux châteaux are used for corporate entertaining, but Langoa-Barton was a family home complete with toothbrushes sitting in a cartoon tumbler in the bathroom.

Then it was time to eat. I can’t remember much about the food, only that it was gloriously old-fashioned, no al dente vegetables here. It was served by a recalcitrant staff member in slippers, clearly he’d been with the family a long time as he and Anthony bickered amiably about the serving of the wine.

There was no wine talk, until, perhaps something of a faux pas, I asked him about what we were drinking and he challenged me to guess the vintages which I got hopelessly wrong. The two reds were both from Leoville Barton: a wild rather hedonistic 1982, a hot vintage and the last made by his uncle; and then the classical perfumed 1986, pure Medoc magic.

According to Anthony’s daughter, Lilian Barton-Sartorius, who showed us around the property before lunch, wine making was pretty primitive in Ronald Barton’s day. When Anthony took over following his uncle’s death in 1983, he revamped the cellars and vineyard practices, and turned the underperforming estates into some of the finest in the Medoc. Decanter magazine named him ‘Man of the Year’ in 2007. In some vintages Leoville Barton, a second growth, outperforms its first growth neighbours, but he was immune to the sort of over ambitious pricing that made Bordeaux a byword for greed in the 2000s.

Despite, or perhaps because, he came from such an illustrious line, Anthony maintained an amused distance from the world of wine. The strange Bordeaux system where wines pass through various middlemen before arriving in shops meant that he had little to do with his eventual customers. Which was how he liked it. He made the wines he wanted to make, charged what he thought he should, and they sold, that’s all that mattered. Château Langoa Barton was not open to the public.

The wines were so good that I wanted to take notes but thought this might have been another faux pas. So we just enjoyed them quietly while Anthony and Eva regaled us with stories. I remember one in particular about how during the second world war, a group of German soldiers arrived to requisition the château. They were confronted by the fearless cook who told them that it was the property of a neutral, Irishman Ronald Barton. The cook herself was Irish and waved her passport at the Germans and amazingly they went away. Ronald Barton, in fact, had a British passport and was fighting with the Free French at the time.

It felt like one of those lunches that could have gone on all afternoon, but we had a plane to catch back to England and Anthony needed a lie down. He was already ill when we met. In fact, he informed us he had nearly cancelled lunch but had rallied that morning. There was something that affected his balance but not even the most expensive American doctors had been able to explain what it was or treat the symptoms.

I was hoping it would be the start of a beautiful friendship but after he emailed me to say that my book had arrived I never heard from him again. I later learned that his health declined quite rapidly since our meeting in 2015 but that recently he had been happy to see his granddaughter get married.

Anthony and Eva had two children, Lilian and Thomas. Sadly Thomas died in a car accident but happily Lilian, her husband and their children now run the business so the family legacy seems safe for the foreseeable future. And yet Anthony Barton’s death does seem like the end of an era. He was the last of a particular breed of Anglo-Irishmen who once ran the Bordeaux wine trade. I feel fortunate to have met him and had a glimpse into a world that has now almost completely vanished.

Dominic Raab: ‘Serious consequences’ if Russia invades

Dominic Raab – ‘Serious consequences’ if Russia invades Ukraine

The Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab took to the TV studios this morning after another turbulent week for the government. Perhaps the most pressing issue on the agenda is deciphering the motives of Vladimir Putin, as a reported 100,000 Russian troops envelop Ukraine’s eastern border. Trevor Phillips asked Raab what was being done in the West to try and face Putin down as the icy Ukrainian winter threatens to heat up:

There will be very serious consequences if Russia takes this move to try and invade, but also install a puppet regime… It will involve a range of financial and economic sanctions.

There will be ‘full transparency’ around Sue Gray report

So-called ‘Partygate’ has already wrought considerable damage on the Prime Minister’s reputation, and it may yet have even more stark consequences for his premiership. On Sunday Morning, Raab batted away Sophie Raworth’s questions about if the government was preparing for a vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson’s leadership. However, he promised that the government would not try to hide any damaging aspects of the Sue Gray inquiry into the matter, which is expected to be published early next week:

There will be full transparency around this, so that people can see, and actually we would welcome that transparency. We need to learn the lessons.

Nusrat Ghani ‘should make a formal complaint’ over Islamophobia

Raworth challenged Raab over the allegation made by the Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani that she had been sacked from her job as a whip in 2020 because she was a Muslim. The Sunday Times has reported that Ghani was told at the time that her ‘Muslim woman minister status was making colleagues feel uncomfortable’. Raab said that the party took the matter ‘very seriously’:

There can be no discrimination… in the Conservative party… She should make a formal complaint… That’s when the procedures kick in.

Emily Thornberry – Putin will ‘take advantage of any disunity’

The Shadow Attorney General Emily Thornberry joined Trevor Phillips, who also asked for her analysis of the situation in Ukraine. Thornberry said that Labour would be backing the government on this issue, and urged them to make use of creative sanctions to crack down on wealthy Russians in the UK who have links to Putin’s regime:

We have to… [make] sure that in Britain, we stand unified against this threat. Because in the end, Putin will take advantage of any disunity and any weakness that we show.

Nicola Sturgeon – Referendum still on course for 2023

The First Minister of Scotland surprised no one by telling Raworth that work towards another independence referendum was still ongoing, and could still take place within the blink of a political eye:

The preparatory work… is underway, and we’ll determine the precise date for introducing that legislation in due course… That referendum [will be] before the end of 2023. Nicola Sturgeon says “the preparatory work… is underway” to hold an independence referendum before the end of 2023 The First Minister says she hopes Scotland is on the “downward slope” of Omicron, which “clears the way” #SundayMorning https://t.co/Lj4JMkBAec pic.twitter.com/X3olNpfWUg— BBC Politics (@BBCPolitics) January 23, 2022

Vadym Prystaiko – Ukraine is ‘prepared to fight’

Phillips spoke to the Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK, Vadym Prystaiko, who had a very direct message concerning the gravity of his country’s situation:

Very unfortunately, we are prepared to fight. We are gathering our forces… but we are not that well equipped for a long fight with the Russians. “We are prepared to fight”.Ukrainian ambassador to the UK Vadym Prystaiko says his country is prepared to defend itself but admits it’s not “well-equipped for a prolonged fight with the Russians”.#Phillips https://t.co/T9mK8F9oiq📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 pic.twitter.com/7pbut1NmPT— Trevor Phillips on Sunday (@RidgeOnSunday) January 23, 2022

Science Museum axes slavery exhibits

An iconoclastic spirit has swept much of Britain’s institutions over the past two years. Just last month Mr S revealed that a painting of a fictitious scene from the American Civil War had been removed from Liverpool University’s library, despite it having hung there for decades. And it seems the university is not alone in its efforts, with Steerpike discovering that London’s Science Museum has removed no fewer than eight exhibits for historical or political insensitivity reasons.

Among the items are three objects from the vast collection of pharmaceutical entrepreneur Henry Wellcome, including two nineteenth century slave whips and a German man-catcher which pulled riders off horseback. All were removed after curatorial work uncovered that their provenance was uncertain, with the museum also claiming that the way they were displayed did not enable any contextualisation of the items. 

The other items were five model boats. They formed part of a series which used an ‘outdated’ interpretative approach first introduced in the 1931 Childrens Gallery at the museum. It showed the models in an ‘evolutionary’ sequence, moving from ‘primitive’ to more sophisticated designs. Among them included a sculpture of a Norse Whale-boat, a canoe hollowed from a tree trunk and a dug-out canoe with its sides and ends built up.

A spokesman for the museum told Mr S: ‘Our curators regularly research items in the collection, including those on public display, refreshing exhibits in light of this research to ensure our museum remains up-to-date and relevant for our visitors. As part of this ongoing curatorial work, objects are sometimes added to or removed from display.’

Steerpike looks forward to checking again in a year’s time to see which exhibits are next to be axed.