The Week

Diary

Diary – 19 July 2008

We’re back in St Tropez after a whirlwind week in London. The party season is in full swing so I dipped my toes in a couple, and what a difference between two of the most high-profile events that week. One, an exhibition of paintings at a Dover Street Gallery, was given in a large airy

Ancient and modern

Ancient and Modern – 19 July 2008

Whether Muslims want elements of sharia law to have the force of civil law or not (not, it is argued in last week’s Spectator), the principle of different jurisdictional codes existing side by side has been with us for thousands of years. The general principle of private settlement of disputes, on any terms agreeable to

More from The Week

Global Warning | 19 July 2008

These things are sent to try us: I’m speaking now of circular letters from the General Medical Council. I recently received a second such letter about the Council’s Ethnicity Census from the president of the Council: Toward the end of 2007, I wrote asking for your help with an important project designed to help us

The mugger’s accomplice

‘Inflation,’ Ronald Reagan declared, ‘is as violent as a mugger.’ In response, the world pursued zero-tolerance policies for two decades, to the point at which politicians and central bankers began to believe they had actually eradicated the menace. When Gordon Brown used to boast that there would be ‘no more boom and bust’, he was

Letters

Letters | 19 July 2008

Rod for our backs Sir: Each week, Rod Liddle’s column reminds me of the little girl of whom it was written that she hiked up her skirt to show she wasn’t wearing knickers. In the absence of a parent, or in Mr Liddle’s case an editor, one can only look away in embarrassment. So usually