Society

Tuesday

The Spectator

Why England industrialised first

Was the industrial revolution a product of downward social mobility? That’s the argument of a forthcoming book by the American historian Gregory Clark. His thesis is that as the rich had more children that survived than the poor, the population of England was by 1800 overwhelmingly made up of the descendants of the economic upper classes of the Middle Ages and that as the children of the rich spread throughout society so did the attitudes and values that make people wealthy. As he puts it, “Thrift, prudence, negotiation and hard work were becoming values for communities that previously had been spendthrift, impulsive, violent and leisure loving”. Clark posits that this

The Spectator

The state of Basra

The Washington Post this morning has a sobering account of the situation on the ground in Basra. The paper reveals that the US government has expressed concerns about the impact of the British pull back on the rest of Iraq at the highest levels to the British. While a senior US intelligence official tells the Post, “The British have basically been defeated in the south”.  All of which makes the government’s desicion to refuse to facilitate asylum applications from 91 Iraqi interpreaters who have worked with British forces in Basra all the more shocking. The Times is surely right that these brave folk should be welcomed to this country with open

Monday

The Spectator

Things you shouldn’t reveal on Facebook

If you’re the daughter of a presidential candidate who already has political problems because of his complicated family life it doesn’t help if you reveals on your Facebook page that your supporting another candidate. The only silver lining for Rudy Giuliani is that his Harvard undergrad daughter Caroline (pictured with her mother and Rudy’s second wife) is backing Barack Obama and not another Republican.  Hat Tip: Ben Smith

The Spectator

Another Rumsfeld blunder

Abu Ghraib was a shameful episode and Don Rumsfeld, true to obstinate form, never seemed to grasp quite how much damage it had done America. But what is equally revealing is the careless way that Rumsfeld disclosed the name of the whistle blower, Joe Darby. Dabry recounted the story in the Sunday Times: “Five weeks later I was sitting in the dining facility in Camp Anaconda in Iraq when a press conference came on that was the live feed from the congregational hearings about Abu Ghraib. There was an announcement that secretary Rumsfeld was thanking me for turning in the photos and allowing the investigation to go forward – thanking me by

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Miles off

‘Food miles’ is one of the new eco buzz phrases and makes people think that buying local food is inherently better for the environment. But an op-ed in the New York Times today flags up some new research that shows this is not the case when you consider all the energy used in producing the food not just the amount of CO2 emitted while transporting it. Here’s the key point about what the researchers discovered: “they found that lamb raised on New Zealand’s clover-choked pastures and shipped 11,000 miles by boat to Britain produced 1,520 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per ton while British lamb produced 6,280 pounds of carbon dioxide

Sunday

The Spectator

America looks for a first spouse

One of the most notable features of the 2008 presidential race is the amount of attention being lavished on the spouses of the candidates. Just today we have a New York Times interview in which Judith Giuliani responds to a scathing Vanity Fair profile of her and pieces in the Washington Post and Newsweek looking at the role of Fred Thompson’s wife Jeri (pictured) in his campaign. You can come up with lots of reasons for all this interest in the other halves of the candidates. Obviously, there’s the Bill factor with the fascination with him and the Clinton marriage spilling over onto the other candidates and their wives. There’s

Saturday

The Spectator

Letters to the Editor | 4 August 2007

Sir: Graham Lord (‘Is it a tough ask to speak proper English?’, 28 July) gives a clue to the increase in use of bad English when he points out that recent immigrants from eastern Europe speak our language much better than many of our own young people do. English lessons Sir: Graham Lord (‘Is it a tough ask to speak proper English?’, 28 July) gives a clue to the increase in use of bad English when he points out that recent immigrants from eastern Europe speak our language much better than many of our own young people do. The reason is that the incomers have been taught by people who

Robin Oakley

Ascot shows its class

The late Jim Callaghan told a few of us one day about life in the House of Lords after being an MP in the Commons. ‘In the Commons you wonder if you’ll survive the next election. In the Lords you wonder if you’ll live until Christmas.’ On his first day in the Lords, the Whip detailed to show him round stopped him after an hour or two and said, ‘Jim, you’re making two mistakes. You’re going too fast and you pass every lavatory.’ We are all in danger of rushing things too about the new Ascot. Yes, the sightlines are not perfect, although £10 million has been spent on improving

Taki

Dog days of summer

On board S/Y Bushido Sailing away from St Tropez, I felt a bit like Lot; I asked the wife to take one last look, but Alexandra, alas, remained unsalty and very much in command. Portofino was the next stop, probably the most beautiful of tiny ports anywhere in the Med, green and very much up and down rather than sideways. I got off and began to climb a small path snaking around grand villas to the top, passed the magnificent Hotel Splendido, where once upon a time I took a German countess for a dirty weekend, and she came down with the flu, leaving me alone in the bar talking

Jeremy Clarke

Homicidal urges

During the wettest July since records began, I was completely dry. As usual, not drinking made me angry and withdrawn. As usual, I had homicidal urges and couldn’t read. And, as usual, cleaning and polishing was the only way I could distract myself. I cleaned and polished the floors, windows, furniture, tools, ornaments and, of course, the car. Three coats of polish had the bonnet of the car reflecting the blackening sky like a mirror. This afforded me a momentary glimmer of satisfaction. Later I valeted the car inside and out using old favourite aerosol cosmetic valeting products such as Alloy Bright, Back to Black and Dashboard Shine. My aim

Roy Hattersley

View from the high ground

It was, I think, Governor Winthrop, one of the founders of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, who said that politicians must think of themselves as a house on a hill. I have never been sure if he meant that they had the advantage of being ‘looked up to’ or the problem of being constantly visible to voters on the plains below. The last couple of weeks have, however, left me in no doubt about the benefits of literally occupying the high ground. The rain, which has swamped the road to junction 29 of the motorway, has passed us by. It has fallen in great quantities. That was only to be expected,

Mary Killen

Dear Mary | 4 August 2007

Q. I was recently a weekend guest at a very large house. A series of unfortunate incidents meant I arrived at the house with no cash to leave for the cleaner at the end of the weekend. There were no cashpoints for miles around and to ask my host to drive me to one would have, I know, annoyed him. Although I stripped the bed myself and made sure the room was spotless, I fear it did not make up for the lack of wonga. Should I send the money now by post? Was there anything else I could have done at the time? E.W., Kensington A. You need not have

Dot Wordsworth

Mind your language | 4 August 2007

After al-Qa’eda’s no. 2 said that Britain would be attacked for knighting Salman Rushdie, Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Saanei chipped in on Sky News: ‘When your Queen awards Salman Rushdie and turns him into a knight, what do you expect? This is a blasphemy.’ After al-Qa’eda’s no. 2 said that Britain would be attacked for knighting Salman Rushdie, Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Saanei chipped in on Sky News: ‘When your Queen awards Salman Rushdie and turns him into a knight, what do you expect? This is a blasphemy.’ I’m not sure that the significance of knighthoods is better understood in Iran than the title ayatollah is in Britain. This Grand Ayatollah likes

Tamzin Lightwater

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody | 4 August 2007

Monday I can’t take much more of this. Even Daddy says I need a holiday and our family motto is ‘Don’t Make a Fuss’ (it sounds better in Latin). It’s just unbearable, non-stop horridness. Every time we think we’ve got on top of it another Dipwig (Deeply Irrelevant Person With Grudge) comes crawling out of the woodwork to have a go at poor Dave. I wouldn’t mind but they’re all complete losers. At least DD has come out fighting for us. He’s on a major military discipline metaphor high. He addressed the morning strategy meeting and it was really exciting. Lot of talk about something called the Maginot Line and

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 4 August 2007

Enoch Powell once said to me, ‘I love the humbug of the English. I worship it. But I reserve the right from time to time to point it out.’ Enoch Powell once said to me, ‘I love the humbug of the English. I worship it. But I reserve the right from time to time to point it out.’ I thought of this last week when I took part in Radio 4’s Any Questions?, set up in the nave of Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire. The programme always has a ‘warm-up’ question before it goes live, and this time it was something to do with travel. Jonathan Dimbleby, the chairman, then asked the

Dom Joly

Diary – 4 August 2007

I’m in Canada, three hours north of Toronto, up in the great wilderness. I’m in Canada, three hours north of Toronto, up in the great wilderness. Well, wilderness with lattes if I’m being totally honest. I’m on Lake Joe, one of the three Muskoka lakes that are a little bit to Toronto as are the Hamptons to Manhattan. I’m ‘cottaging’, which always sounds a tad George Michael until you hastily explain that everything on a lake in Ontario is termed a ‘cottage’, from humble log cabins to huge Kennedy-like complexes. It’s worse in Quebec where they call them ‘chateaux’ whatever the size — very nouveau, very French. For my sins

Peter Jones

Ancient & modern | 04 August 2007

Apparently Gordon is planning another tax raid on savings, this time life-insurance companies which have ‘too much’ money in reserve against rainy days. After his last pension raid, this will not be a popular move. The Romans can help him solve the problem. Apparently Gordon is planning another tax raid on savings, this time life-insurance companies which have ‘too much’ money in reserve against rainy days. After his last pension raid, this will not be a popular move. The Romans can help him solve the problem. Roman finances under the emperors had two destinations: the Aerarium and the Fiscus. Into the Aerarium went the revenues from empire and from established

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Reasons for Mr Cameron to be cheerful

Gordon Brown will not holiday abroad this summer. Not for him the allure of a Tuscan palace or the sunbeds of Sharm el-Sheikh. The Prime Minister has instead created perfect happiness inside his home in Fife: a room wired up to the 10 Downing Street computer system where he can monitor the government he now controls. He intends to do nothing else this month, save for a quick visit to the south coast. Besides, he already seems well on his way to his main summer destination — the implosion of the Conservative party. In the space of a few weeks the opinion polls have turned around, and Labour has a

Frank Keating

Snap shots

Always keen to buff up its romantic aura, Lord’s this summer inaugurated a ‘tradition’ by nominating a different cricketing notable to toll the umpires’ bell before each day’s play. Always keen to buff up its romantic aura, Lord’s this summer inaugurated a ‘tradition’ by nominating a different cricketing notable to toll the umpires’ bell before each day’s play. At last week’s Test an old friend did the honours, fittingly because ace snapper Patrick Eagar was covering his 300th Test, an astonishing mark: OK, commentator Richie Benaud has covered (or played in) more than 500 Tests, and Times eminence Johnny Woodcock over 400, but for a freelance photographer paying his own way,

Lucy Vickery

Ode worthy

When I set this assignment I was thinking of Pablo Neruda and his odes to subjects as apparently mundane as a lemon, a tomato and ‘a large tuna in the market’.You didn’t go in for food, but animals featured strongly in the entry, as did buildings — Sixties architecture, in particular. Some strayed into unsavoury territory, musing on pubic hair and other unmentionables. Martin Parker made me smile with his meditation on the marvels of the she-baboon’s bum, which might not be everybody’s cup of tea but is clearly a thing of beauty to the amorous male of the species: ‘So, here’s to the she-baboon’s Technicolor bum,/ and its promise