The Spectator

Saturday

The Spectator

Why we shouldn’t try the jihadi ‘Beatles’ in Britain

From our UK edition

The success of the military campaign against Isis in Syria and Iraq has left behind a diplomatic and legal problem: what to do with the British citizens who travelled to join and fight with Isis, but who have survived hostilities. The problem has been brought to a head by the capture, by a group of Syrian Kurds, of El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey — two Londoners who were members of ‘the Beatles’, a group which tortured and beheaded at least 27 hostages. There is little use in looking to the government for consistent guidance as to what should happen to the two men, who have been stripped of their British citizenship.

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 15 February 2018

From our UK edition

Suffragette setbacks Sir: Jane Ridley (‘Women on the warpath’, Books, 10 February) claims that Millicent Fawcett and her suffragists had ‘got nowhere’ by the time the militant suffragettes came on the scene in 1903. In fact Fawcett’s law-abiding movement, with a membership of some 50,000 (far more than the quarrelling Pankhursts ever managed), had won round the majority of MPs by 1897. Between that date and final victory 20 years later, there were always more MPs in favour of women’s suffrage than against it, though the gap shrank during the years of the suffragette campaign. Its violence has to be high on the list of factors that delayed victory.

The Spectator

Barometer | 15 February 2018

From our UK edition

Museums of curiosity The former culture secretary Ed Vaizey suggested that there are quite enough museums in Britain, and that they should attempt to display their treasures in more visited places like shopping centres. Some suggestions for an educational day out. — British Lawnmower Museum, Southport. — British in India Museum, Nelson, Lancashire. (Received 109 visitors in 2016, according to VisitEngland.) — Dog Collar Museum, Leeds Castle, Kent. — Derwent Pencil Museum, Cumbria. — Teapot Island, Yalding, Kent. ‘The largest teapot exhibition in England with more than 8,200 teapots to be seen.

The Spectator

Justice for jihadis

From our UK edition

The success of the military campaign against Isis in Syria and Iraq has left behind a diplomatic and legal problem: what to do with the British citizens who travelled to join and fight with Isis, but who have survived hostilities. The problem has been brought to a head by the capture, by a group of Syrian Kurds, of El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey — two Londoners who were members of ‘the Beatles’, a group which tortured and beheaded at least 27 hostages. There is little use in looking to the government for consistent guidance as to what should happen to the two men, who have been stripped of their British citizenship.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 15 February 2018

From our UK edition

Home The Charity Commission said it would hold a statutory inquiry into a scandal in which Oxfam staff paid for prostitutes in Haiti in 2011. Penny Lawrence resigned as deputy chief executive of the charity, saying that allegations had been raised about Roland van Hauwermeiren, Oxfam’s country director in Chad, before he moved to Haiti. He resigned in 2011, when Oxfam referred to unspecified ‘serious misconduct’. Penny Mordaunt, the International Development Secretary, said that no organisation could be a government partner if it did not ‘have the moral leadership to do the right thing’. Last year, Oxfam received £32 million from the government.

The Spectator

to 2343: Rats!

From our UK edition

The perimeter quote is by Nietzsche (taking the 1 in the top left corner as the first word). Other unclued lights were anagrams of stars: 18A Vega; 19A red giant; 20A Altair; 27A Castor, 33A nova; 26D Rigel.   First prize Angus Ross, Old Portsmouth, Hampshire Runners-up Mrs R.J.C.

The Spectator

Trotsky’s audacity

From our UK edition

From ‘News of the week’, 16 February 1918: Last Sunday M. Trotsky announced at Brest-Litovsk that Russia would fight no longer, and would demobilize her armies without signing a peace. In a wireless message issued that day he had the audacity to impute the blame for his miserable surrender to ‘the silent co-operation of the English and French “bourgeoisie”’ with the German capitalists, bankers, and landlords. That, of course, is the very reverse of the truth. The Allies would have supported any Russian Government which would fight, but the Anarchists destroyed the Army, and made an armistice without consulting us. They are now reaping the fruits of their folly.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Full text: Boris Johnson’s Brexit speech

From our UK edition

The other day a woman pitched up in my surgery in a state of indignation. The ostensible cause was broadband trouble but it was soon clear – as so often in a constituency surgery – that the real problem was something else. No one was trying to understand her feelings about Brexit. No one was trying to bring her along. She felt so downcast, she said, that she was thinking of leaving the country – to Canada. It wasn’t so much that she wanted to be in the EU; she just didn’t want to be in a Britain that was not in the EU. And I recognised that feeling of grief, and alienation, because in the last 18 months I have heard the same sentiments so often – from friends, from family, from people hailing me abusively in the street – as is their right.

Tuesday

The Spectator

Oxfam scandal: Helen Evans’ Channel 4 interview, full transcript

From our UK edition

HE: I think it was about a year into the role. We were putting in place new reporting procedures [and] training, and the allegations started to come in. And at that point we realised there' had been quite systemic under-reporting and I became concerned about whether we had resources in place to tackle the number of allegations we were getting in.  By 2013/14 it was 39, and it increased significantly after that. CN: You went off for maternity leave, and when you came back in 2014 the number of allegations concerning Oxfam staff overseas really escalated didn't they. So tell us about the sense of scale.

Monday

The Spectator

The Germans are right to be suspicious of government manipulation of money markets

From our UK edition

This piece was first published in this week's issue of The Spectator. It is easy to mock the most strident critics of capitalism, like Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn. It’s harder to ask whether they might actually have a point. Consider the past ten years of evidence. Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, wages for ordinary workers have been on the floor — even today, the average pay packet in Britain is lower than it was before the crash. The main response to the crisis has been to print money, through quantitative easing and ultra-low rates. This artificially inflates assets. And who benefits? Those who have the most assets: in other words, the very rich.

Thursday

The Spectator

Barometer | 8 February 2018

From our UK edition

How to sell snake oil Ex-cabinet secretary Lord O’Donnell accused Brexiteers of ‘selling snake oil’. How do you sell snake oil? Some eBay listings: — Original snake oil. £11.99 for 125ml. ‘Natural hair treatment. No chemicals. Feeds the hair and protects from precipitation. Free from alcohol. Country or region of manufacture: Saudi Arabia.’ — Snake oil strengthening hair mask with mamushi snake oil. £25.22 for 500g. ‘The effective remedy of supplementary hair care. The mask is perfect for dry and damaged hair.’ Some listed ingredients: aqua, cetearyl alcohol, paraffinum liquidum, cetrimonium chloride, mamushi oil, parfum’ (no actual snake oil).

The Spectator

Letters | 8 February 2018

From our UK edition

Stop knocking May Sir: I find this knocking of Theresa May increasingly depressing (‘Theresa’s choice’, 3 February). She has a terrible job which she was dropped into when David Cameron resigned. She was a Remainer, yet she is expected to steer the UK through the Brexit process of leaving the EU with no experience, as it has never happened before. She needs all the support she can get, so please give it to her. No one wants her job right now anyway. Lindy Wiltshire Alton, Hants My NHS experience Sir: I am very glad to hear that Mr Hawkes has had better experiences in NHS hospitals than I did (Letters, 3 February). Perhaps in leafy Bucks there are private hospitals which compete with their NHS counterparts, unlike in this part of the world.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 8 February 2018

From our UK edition

Home Stagecoach and Virgin could only manage to run the East Coast rail franchise for a few more weeks, Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, said, because ‘Stagecoach got its numbers wrong. It overbid.’ To cut 2,000 Royal Marines and the Royal Navy’s two specialist landing ships, a plan considered by the Ministry of Defence, would be ‘militarily illiterate’, the Commons Defence Select Committee said. Northamptonshire County Council gave notice that it would undertake no new expenditure because it expected to be overspent by £21.1 million by the end of this tax year; last year it opened a £53 million headquarters. The government proposed changes in the law that prevents heterosexual couples forming civil partnerships.

The Spectator

A return to normality

From our UK edition

It is easy to mock the most strident critics of capitalism, like Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn. It’s harder to ask whether they might actually have a point. Consider the past ten years of evidence. Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, wages for ordinary workers have been on the floor — even today, the average pay packet in Britain is lower than it was before the crash. The main response to the crisis has been to print money, through quantitative easing and ultra-low rates. This artificially inflates assets. And who benefits? Those who have the most assets: in other words, the very rich. Since the crash, the amount of wealth in Britain has risen by more than £4 trillion — almost half of which has accrued to the richest 10 per cent of households.

The Spectator

to 2342: Decorative

From our UK edition

The key terms are ART NOUVEAU (12) and JUGENDSTIL (19). One indicates 24 and 28D, and the other can be divided into JUG (defining 14 and 21), ENDS (31 and 41) and TIL (4 and 22). First prize John Kitchen, Breachwood Green, Herts Runners-up P.D.H.

Saturday

The Spectator

Donald Trump has a genius for damaging his own reputation

From our UK edition

It’s easy to see why Donald Trump gets angry. He is presiding over a robust economy, growing at the fastest rate of any major economy. His recent tax cut has encouraged jobs and investment to come back to the United States. Apple alone is redirecting an extra $38 billion in tax towards the Treasury’s coffers. Other employers are using the tax cuts to pay workers a bonus: AT&T is handing 200,000 of its staff a payout averaging $1,000 each. There’s so much economic optimism that even Democrat voters say they feel better about the economy than they did under Barack Obama. But Trump isn’t taking much credit. He is still very much blamed — and his approval ratings are still very low, worse than any other President going into his second year.

Thursday

The Spectator

Barometer | 1 February 2018

From our UK edition

Tight money Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of Ikea, was worth an estimated £40 billion. Yet the eighth richest man in the world drove an old Volvo, flew economy class, bought his clothes in flea markets and had his wife cut his hair to avoid the cost of a barber. Some other wealthy tight-fists: — The oil entrepreneur J. Paul Getty, worth $6 billion when he died in 1976, famously installed a payphone for guests at Sutton Place, his home in Surrey. — Wall Street financier Hetty Green was worth $200 million when she died in 1951. It would have been a little less had she not lived in a small apartment, used charity health clinics (leading, it was said, to the amputation of her son’s leg) and only washing the hems of her dresses to save on soap.

The Spectator

Letters | 1 February 2018

From our UK edition

Creeping repression Sir: John O’Sullivan is correct to argue that Europe’s centrist establishment often ‘does not really accept the right of its challengers to come to power. And when they do, it casts them as being illegitimate as extremists’ (‘A new Europe’, 27 January). We fear, however, that like a number of our fellow conservatives, Mr O’Sullivan’s enthusiasm to see elites get their come-uppance creates blind spots for creeping authoritarianism. At the end of a second term by its Fidesz government, Hungary performs worse on all of the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators than it did a decade ago.