Society

Friday

James Kirkup James Kirkup

Starmer’s grooming gang stance might not last the weekend

From the start of Elon Musk’s onslaught, Sir Keir Starmer’s position in refusing a new national inquiry into the grooming and rape of girls across England has looked fragile. This weekend that position – and Labour’s parliamentary discipline – will be tested further. That’s because Labour are now away from the Commons, back among their voters. Labour MPs who find themselves being harangued by angry voters might not be keen to stand up for the PM One of the defining features of the new intake of Labour MPs is their localism. Most were selected by constituency Labour parties demanding total commitment to the local area and, where possible, a personal connection to the

Andrew Tettenborn

In defence of prejudice

There’s always something that seems clinically compelling about a claim that we need yet more equality laws. Mary Prior KC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association and a proud working-class Potteries girl, has demanded that regional accents and social deprivation should be legally protected characteristics. At first sight it’s difficult to argue with the icy logic. If it’s unfair to do someone down because they’re female, or Catholic, or black, it can’t be all right for a lah-di-dah appointments committee in SW1 to prefer Serena to Sharon, or Simon from Surbiton over Steve from Sunderland. Or can it? Some will gravitate to certain jobs, some to others. So what? It’s actually much less

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Could Elon Musk really oust Keir Starmer?

Another day, another story that risks further exacerbating tensions between the world’s richest man and the prime minister. The Mirror reports that Elon Musk’s posts on X (the platform he owns) are being monitored by the Home Office’s counter-extremism unit as part of an increased effort to assess the risk posed to Britain by tweets sent from those with large followings. The news will go down like a cup of cold sick with Musk who has long railed against the UK government over censorship. It’s just another indicator of how the strained relationship between Keir Starmer and Musk is unlikely to improve anytime soon. But are things so bad that

Julie Bindel

Grooming gang victims are still being ignored

The horror of organised child sexual abuse and pimping – euphemistically called ‘grooming gangs’ – is back in the news. But unfortunately the victims remain ignored.  These young girls endured horrific abuse, sadistic torture (including gang rape), enforced pregnancies, enforced abortions, sexually transmitted infections and even murder. But the reason that victims’ and survivors’ voices are missing from any discussions about the scandal is that they have effectively been silenced by the local enquiries into the atrocity, as well as the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).  These survivors have lost faith in the police, social services, their friends, their schools and sometimes even their families. They can trust no one The

Martin Narey

How I was punished for breaking the conspiracy of silence on grooming gangs

The renewed interest in the disproportionate involvement of men of Pakistani origin in historic group child sexual abuse has led to trenchant criticism of the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service. What has been less acknowledged is the failure of the children’s sector to acknowledge the horror of what was happening. They were part of a consensus which betrayed some of the most vulnerable and innocent children in the UK.  Deeply disadvantaged children being repeatedly raped deserved better I worked with offenders for 23 years and led the Prison Service for seven, resigning in 2005 to lead Barnardo’s. A couple of years into the job, I heard the first tentative

Thursday

Terry Barnes

Beach turf wars are dividing Australia

At a time when Donald Trump threatens to annex Greenland and the Panama Canal, China is flexing its military and economic muscles, Britain is in a state of seemingly permanent political crisis, Los Angeles tragically burns, and murderous conflicts still ravage Ukraine and the Middle East, here in Australia just one issue dominates public debate this week: whether a true Australian has the right to reserve beach space by setting up an American-style beach shelter – a cabana – to stake a claim, whether or not it’s occupied. Even the country’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has waded in on the subject – and finally found popularity by condemning the canvas

Ross Clark Ross Clark

The truth about the LA wildfires 

It is like a Hollywood disaster movie with a difference: it really is happening close to Hollywood, and the stars involved, such as James Woods and Eugene Levy, aren’t acting – they really are fleeing their homes as a wildfire singes residential areas in the Pacific Palisades area on the north-west fringe of Los Angeles. Several film premieres have been cancelled, along with the nomination ceremony for the Screen Actors Guild awards.  Because fire services have become better at putting out fires, the natural cycle has been interrupted We know what to expect, however, when we do get to those awards ceremonies: celebs lecturing us on climate change and how

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Should you leave the country? Other questions for 2025

I was intending to write one of those ‘Ten tips to change your life’ lists that fill so many column inches at this drab time of year. But I got no further than ‘Buy bigger trousers’. Instead, I’ll tackle some of the obvious questions you might be asking as you watch snow turn to slush and wait for the boiler repair bloke to answer his phone. Can I cheer you up? Let’s see. First, will 2025 be a good year to buy a new home (a decision that should always be taken on at least a five-year time horizon)? Pundits see house prices going up (and mortgage rates eventually coming

The Spectator

Letters: In private schools, struggling children find the help they need

Growing problem Sir: The first leading article of the year (‘Growing apart’, 4 January) points to the gap in economic growth between the US and the UK, while the first cover piece (‘Shift key’) identifies a shift rightwards in values and voting intention, in reaction to the bigger state model of Keir Starmer’s government. Sandwiched between the two is ‘Reeves’s new year’s resolution’, in which James Heale tells us of the Labour Growth Group, a WhatsApp group with 99 MPs that is only marginally more credible than a Turkeys for Christmas cabal. Have these Labour MPs studied the research cited in Jon Moynihan’s excellent Return to Growth? Has Rachel Reeves?

Michael Simmons Michael Simmons

Luke Littler’s bland entourage

Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler, born two weeks after the first iPhone was unveiled, stormed the Professional Darts Corporation world championships last week to become, at 17, the sport’s youngest ever world champion. How Littler behaved after his win shows how different young sports stars are today. Littler didn’t celebrate by going out drinking; no hotel rooms were trashed. Instead, within hours of his quarter- and semi-final victories, he was on the video-game streaming website Twitch via phone call to his red-headed gaming friend Morgan Burtwistle – known online as ‘AngryGinge’. Streaming is the new drinking for semi-celebs and it’s not something they grow out of AngryGinge, 23, is one of

Christian Wolmar

The shocking truth about the Paedophile Information Exchange

The man who walked up the stairs was the embodiment of the cartoon image of a paedophile. Grey, thinning hair, a couple of days’ stubble and a gabardine raincoat. He had come to persuade us that the age of consent for sexual activity should be reduced to four years old ‘because that’s when children have the ability to express themselves’. The group managed to fool many liberals into thinking free love for children was the logical next step The ‘us’ was the small collective who worked for Release, a charity that helped young people who had got in trouble with the law, usually over drug use. This was 1976, a time

Lionel Shriver Lionel Shriver

The case against a ‘climate emergency’

January is the ideal month for gaining a sense of perspective. I’m increasingly convinced that the ‘climate emergency’ is another social mania we’ll look back on with: ‘J-eez, what was that about?’ Why? The paradigm displays the classic anthropocentrism of our era. As organised religion declines, we replace God with humanity. Arrogating to our species the power to dial global temperature up or down is typically arrogant (see: pride, goeth, fall). Claiming that something is all your fault is as vain as claiming it’s to your credit. Regarding ‘the planet’ as a frightened fluff ball that requires our protection is the ultimate hubris. ‘The planet’ can squash us like bugs.

The Spectator

What does Keir Starmer’s social media use say about him?

Social networking Wes Streeting suggested that Elon Musk requires a ‘social media detox’ after the Prime Minister entered into a spat on X with the owner of the platform. What about Keir Starmer’s own social media use? – Starmer’s X profile claims he is following 410 users, yet only 69 of them are visible. They include Angela Rayner, Jess Phillips, Andy Burnham, Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and namesake Labour MP Keir Mather. However, he does not appear to be following Wes Streeting, Rachel Reeves, David Lammy or Yvette Cooper. – Outside Labour, Starmer follows the Tories’ account, Liz Truss, Caroline Lucas, Bernie Sanders, Joe

Ysenda Maxtone Graham

Is anything still cheap?

Things used to cost approximately what you expected them to cost. Now, the price of almost every item is eye-wateringly, gasp-inducingly more than you expect it to be. The nation is reeling from a month of crippling generosity. The new cashless existence anaesthetised us a little from the financial violence as we went through Advent visiting actual shops, discovering that almost no item cost less than £50, and trying not to feel physical pain or to look at the numbers on the screen as we heard the transactional beep. Now, in January’s glare, bank statements are regurgitating our crazy Decembers. Mine started with £33 for 20 first-class stamps and went

Luke McShane

Blitz decision

‘To share is to do’, as no Latin proverb dared to suggest. The 2024 Fide World Blitz championship, held in New York just before the new year, awarded gold medals to both Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi when their final match remained tied after seven games. The last three games were played in ‘sudden death’ mode, where any decisive game would determine the championship, and according to the rules they were to play on indefinitely. Carlsen proposed to Nepomniachtchi that they share the title, and they got the nod after a private discussion with Arkady Dvorkovich, the Fide president. Disgruntled fans complained that there must be one winner because ’twas ever

Luke McShane

No. 832

White to play and mate in two moves. Composed by Edith Baird, Pen and Pencil, 1888. Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 13 February. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1 Nb6+! Then 1…cxb6 2 Kg3 Kb7 3 Kf4 Kc7 4 Ke5 wins, or 1…Kb7 2 Nc4 c6 3 b6 wins Last week’s winner Matthew Dean, Crewe

Victoria Lane

Spectator Competition: Quite a turn 

In Competition 3381 you were invited to write a proposal for the rebranding of a well-known product/entity to aim it at an entirely different market. It was of course inspired by Jaguar’s gender-fluid relaunch ad, which has already somehow faded into distant memory by now. The idea here was to rebrand an existing thing rather than reinvent it, but the lines blurred sometimes. Among those deserving a mention: D.A. Prince’s idea to reposition the National Trust as a body that looks after wild coastlines and historic houses etc, which seemed like a crowd-pleaser. Basil Ransome-Davies took over Liz Truss’s PR (‘It’s irony, stupid. Liz’s career is performance art at its

Doc

2685: Scocourban

The unclued lights (including a pair) are of a kind. Across 3              No manual required for addict at pre-season match (4-8) 10            Old store attendants operating on different levels (4-3) 11            Extra name in article about garden feature (7) 13            Room spray distributed to armies (8) 16            Newspaper aunt’s torment (5) 19            Mum, almost for ever, in ward (9) 22            Cast is enormous, but not good (3) 24            Unemployable boffin regularly by river (2,2,3) 25            Have some sense – charge pounds! (4) 28            No Dream arranged like Ansermet’s Suisse orchestra (7) 30            Scottish barley from borders of Berwickshire (4) 32            Love this flower that’s a standard for Bix Beiderbecke (7) 33            Underworld’s record cut (3) 35            Asian

The Spectator

2683: Famous Last Words – solution

The perimeter quote from Cole Porter ends with the word GOODBYE, suggesting the remaining unclued lights and VALETE, to be highlighted in the grid. First prize Frances Whitehead, Harrogate Runners-up John Pugh, Ely, Cardiff; Willie Hamilton, Exeter

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

My YouTube rabbit hole

How do you live with yourself when 179 air passengers are burned alive on a South Korean runway, and you’ve spent the last few weeks binge-watching YouTube videos about plane crashes? The obvious answer is that I need to seek help. I have a defence, but I don’t think any British jury would buy it. I started watching the air-crash videos to escape the anxiety caused by the American presidential election. Anxiety that Donald Trump might lose, that is. On YouTube there’s always someone listening. It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet for monomaniacs I can imagine Emily Maitlis and Rory Stewart’s reaction: ‘Self-declared Trump supporter chills out by imagining planes full of