Society

From ‘Germany and the United States’, The Spectator, 15 May 1915: The questions that concern us now to the exclusion of all others are: What will the German answer be to Mr. Wilson? and To what action by the United States will Mr. Wilson’s Note lead? We take it for granted that Germany will not consent to abandon her submarine campaign against “unarmed merchant vessels carrying non-combatants,” for that would mean an entire reversal of her criminal policy at sea. She attaches enormous importance to that policy, and hopes by means of it ultimately to neutralize the existence of our Fleet. Besides, she has dipped her hands too deep in

Autism is being diagnosed all over the place right now. There’s been an explosion in the number of cases, we’re told. This could be something to do with better diagnostic tools, and it’s hard to argue that more media coverage of mental health isn’t a good thing. But the scientific community still know little about this mysterious condition and how and why it affects certain people. And that’s a problem for me, because – according to the textbooks – I have an ‘autism spectrum disorder’. I’m not happy with that label, so I feel perfectly entitled to ask: has the definition of autism become too loose, to the point where it has so many symptoms that you

When Liam Byrne departed from the role of chief secretary to the Treasury in 2010, he left a note for his successor which read that ‘there is no money’. The note went on to haunt the Labour party throughout their unsuccessful election campaign, with Byrne recently describing it as ‘the letter I will regret for ever’. Happily, Danny Alexander hasn’t followed suit. Greg Hands, the new Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has taken to Twitter to report that there is no handover note from Alexander: Given that the beleaguered Liberal Democrats currently have enough obstacles facing them, it’s probably for the best.

In this View from 22 podcast special, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and I discuss the beginnings of David Cameron’s new Cabinet and how the ministers announced so far demonstrate the Prime Minister’s reticence to shake the boat. Does Michael Gove’s new role at Justice show he’s repaired his relationship Cameron? Will Mark Harper manage to keep the Tory backbenchers in step with Downing Street? Plus, we look at the runners and riders in the Labour leadership contest and why Chuka Umunna and Andy Burnham are the early favourites. You can subscribe to the View from 22 through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer or iPhone every week, or you can use the player below:

From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 8 May 1915: Mr. Lloyd George opened his Budget on Tuesday. We have dealt with it at length elsewhere, and will only say here that “for the present” he proposes no new taxation. Later in the year, however, the whole fiscal problem will have to be reconsidered. If the war lasts till September we shall have a net deficiency of £516,346,000 to make up. The increase of indebtedness, actual and prospective, is very great and very serious, but it is nonsense to talk of it meaning “absolute ruin” and of our being crushed to the earth. A hundred years ago, when the value

It is 70 years since Britain celebrated Germany’s unconditional surrender and the arrival of victory in Europe. Prime Minister Winston Churchill hailed ‘a victory of the great British nation as a whole… against the most tremendous military power that has been seen,’ and he asked ‘when shall the reputation and faith of this generation of English men and women fail?’ It has not yet; and today we remember the freedoms for which they fought and died, which we exercised yesterday. In its 11 May 1945 issue The Spectator‘s leading article was on at ‘The Challenge Ahead’ in the wake of Germany’s defeat: GERMANIA fuit—Germany is a thing that was. The assertion

This week I continue with my analysis of Nigel Short’s recent animadversions upon the differences between the male and female brain and his opinion that women cannot match up to men across the chessboard. The great German poet Goethe once described chess as ‘a touchstone of the brain’; he wrote this, in fact, in the persona of a female character, Adelheid, in his play Götz von Berlichingen.   The brainiest person I know is a female triple PhD from Dubai, Dr Manahel Thabet, who is capable of expressing herself in equations way beyond my comprehension. The predominance of male chess players is, in my opinion, not the result of differing