The Spectator

Wednesday

The Spectator

Letters: it’s not wrong to criticise the Israeli government

From our UK edition

The submariners’ parade Sir: My thanks to Matt Ridley for his excellent article on the Cenotaph (Symbol of peace’, 11 November). As a former Cold War submariner, while I was well aware that we paraded a week earlier than the official celebrations, I did not know the reason why. However, we did join the Armistice Day parade in 2001, the centenary of the Submarine Service: 167 submariners and ex-submariners marched to mark the memory of the crews of the 167 boats lost over the 100 years. We each had a badge with the individual name or pennant number of a particular boat. I was proud to have HMS Triumph, lost with all hands on 31 December 1941. She was finally located in June this year.

The Spectator

Full text: the Supreme Court’s Rwanda ruling

From our UK edition

The Supreme Court has ruled that the government’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda is unlawful. Below is the full judgment from the court, setting out the reasons for their decision:Introduction  (1) The nature of the issue before the court This appeal is concerned with the Secretary of State’s policy that certain people claiming asylum in the United Kingdom should not have their claims considered here, but should instead be sent to Rwanda in order to claim asylum there. Their claims will then be decided by the Rwandan authorities, with the result that if their claims are successful, they will be granted asylum in Rwanda. In this appeal, the court is required to decide whether the Rwanda policy is lawful.

Tuesday

The Spectator

The Spectator’s 2023 Books of the Year

Andrew Roberts America’s Collection: The Art and Architecture of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the US Department of State (Rizzoli, $100) is beautifully written by the director and curator of the State Department’s truly extraordinary collection, Virginia B. Hart. It is a sumptuous volume chronicling the US government’s huge collection of American art, furniture, porcelain, maps, prints and drawings, compiled over a quarter of a millennium. Thirteen other writers and experts, including David M. Rubenstein, have also contributed to what is a genuinely remarkable as well as gorgeous-looking book. James B.

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The Spectator

The Spectator’s 2023 Holiday Gift Guide

Matt McDonald, Managing Editor I am much better at buying gifts for others than I am at coming up with ideas for what I want: I’ve always valued experiences and memories more than material things... which isn’t very Christmassy or helpful. That said, I best unwind outside of work by going to the cinema and turning my phone off — replacing “bad screen” with “good screen,” if you will — and so getting me a MoviePass so I can watch Dune Part Two in IMAX next year at cut-price would be worthwhile. For others... the best thing I regularly get my Irish-ish cousins is items of clothing in one of our family tartans. Scarves for the ladies, ties for the gents.

Monday

The Spectator

Will the government be able to turn off your car?

A provision to require automobiles built after 2026 to contain technology capable of limiting or preventing the vehicle’s operation will go into effect after Representative Thomas Massie’s move to block funding for the Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 for one year failed last week. Nineteen Republicans defied Massie and voted against his budget amendment, along with 210 Democrats, though two Dems — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez — voted Yes to Massie’s bill.

Friday

The Spectator

Senator Jim Justice? Don’t be so sure…

Immediately after longtime West Virginia senator Joe Manchin bowed to political reality and called it quits on his re-election, Republicans celebrated that it virtually guarantees their party an elusive win next year.  In fact, some were already proclaiming that the state’s First Pup, Babydog, and her owner, Governor Jim Justice, are cruising to victory next November.  But that’s not necessarily the case — it’s not next November that Justice should be concerned with, but rather next year’s GOP primary. Justice, who finally secured Donald Trump’s valuable endorsement, faces Congressman Alex Mooney and a field that may now swell given the GOP’s virtual certainty to pick up the seat.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Did the GOP really perform that badly?

Republicans no doubt woke up Wednesday morning incredibly disappointed by last night’s election results. Democratic governor Andy Beshear won re-election in Kentucky, the GOP lost control of the Virginia House of Delegates, and Ohio voters opted to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution. Political consultants and commentators quickly lashed out at the party’s perceived failure: Republicans either talked too much or not enough about abortion and the GOP will never win again with Trump at the top of the ticket or Trump is vital to its success, depending on who you ask.Abortion obviously mattered Tuesday night; the Ohio referendum results made that clear.

Polly Walshe

Jonah’s Letter

From our UK edition

I’m sailing to Tarshish as usual. The air is thick, Its walls are greyish white, This desk light flickers intermittently. Let me be plain: Being good in your sort of way Does not appeal to me. Why would I go to Nineveh? The parking’s diabolical And the people there Are not my type. Some send out for Domino’s every night, Most have no notion of eternity. How could you care for them? I have a feeling that you prefer them Which doesn’t seem right. They have no ear for music And why should they need to hear my voice When there’s always a catch to it? No one likes me on this ship But I’m indifferent. I’d rather suffer as I want.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Met in a muddle, King’s Speech and a wine production slump 

From our UK edition

Home Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, said of pro-Palestinian demonstrations: ‘To plan protests on Armistice Day is provocative and disrespectful, and there is a clear and present risk that the Cenotaph and other war memorials could be desecrated.’ The Metropolitan Police urged organisers of a pro-Palestinian march on 11 November to postpone it, but they refused. The Prime Minister then said he would hold the Metropolitan Police Commissioner ‘accountable’ for his decision to greenlight the ‘disrespectful’ demonstration. Imran Hussain MP left the Labour front bench over Sir Keir Starmer’s opposition to a ceasefire in Gaza, and Afrasiab Anwar, the leader of Burnley council, and ten councillors left the Labour party.

The Spectator

Britain has led the way on migration

From our UK edition

Human trafficking is a multi-billion-pound global industry. It is fuelled by the desperation of migrants seeking a better life and the cynicism of those who are now adept at identifying and exploiting loopholes in western border controls. One of Germany’s proposals is to explore copying the British model and process asylum applicants elsewhere As ever larger waves of migrants cross the Mediterranean, Rishi Sunak has told European leaders that their efforts at policing illegal migration are ‘not working’ – because there is no shortage of poor people willing to pay smugglers for their ‘barbaric enterprise’. He has raised difficult questions about how the rich discharge their duty to the poor in a world with about 100 million displaced people.

The Spectator

What is the loneliest life form?

From our UK edition

I want to be alone An animal described as ‘Britain’s loneliest sheep’ was ‘rescued’ from the bottom of a cliff in Easter Ross where it had been living for the past two years, presumably after clambering down the steep coastal slope and finding it impossible to climb back up.   Some other lonely life forms: – All albatrosses live in the southern hemisphere – except one. ‘Albie’, or ‘Albert’, is believed to have made a navigational error in around 2014 and has since been living in Europe, dividing his time between Germany, the Yorkshire coast and the east coast of Scotland, where he tends to hang out with gannets.

The Spectator

Letters: Israel/Gaza isn’t the time for fence-sitting

From our UK edition

Ill-judged Sir: Professor Carl Henegan’s authoritative demolition of the Covid Inquiry (‘The Covid whitewash’, 4 November) prompts the question of why judges are normally appointed to chair public inquiries. Lady Hallett has clearly had a distinguished law career, but has no apparent expertise in government, public health, epidemiology, medicine or science. Her first move on being appointed was not to remedy these deficiencies but to spend more than £100 million hiring other lawyers – and the only possible explanation for the inquiry’s behaviour is that they believe they’re in a court of law and having already stated their positive view of lockdown, see themselves as acting for the defence.

The Spectator

Books of the year II: more choices of reading in 2023

From our UK edition

Ruth Scurr In Ways of Life (Jonathan Cape, £30), Laura Freeman channels the spirit of the art critic and collector Jim Ede. She traces the origins of Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge – not a museum, nor art gallery, more a cabinet of curiosities – through Ede’s own life, his work for the Tate, the other houses and countries he lived in and the artists he cared for and wrote about. In Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines and the Health of Nations (Simon & Schuster, £30), Simon Schama argues that ‘all history is natural history’, and introduces a rich cast of protagonists who pushed forward the frontiers of science for the good of humanity, regardless of national, territorial boundaries.

Monday

The Spectator

The poll that sent Democrats running

We’re almost exactly one year out from what increasingly looks like another Trump v. Biden showdown. Former president Donald Trump leads his second-place opponent by more than forty percentage points nationally, and has a thirty-point advantage in Iowa. President Joe Biden avoided a primary challenge from RFK Jr., who is now running as an Independent, and no one thinks Representative Dean Phillips’s campaign is serious, especially considering his refusal to acknowledge the objective reality that he’s even running against Biden. Although Phillips doesn’t seem to be the guy for the job, more Democrats are waking up to the idea that Biden doesn’t have what it takes to win a second term. Polls have consistently shown that a majority of Democrats don’t want Biden to run again.

Friday

The Spectator

Democrats revise their own party history

The political left isn’t content to secretly smelt statues of Robert E. Lee or remove a plaque honoring the Confederate general’s horse, Traveller. Apparently, the Democratic Party’s own history is too problematic to bear.  Over the years, the Democratic Party’s official website has undergone some curious changes. The Spectator previously reported on the Democrat logo changing from sky blue to royal blue after President Joe Biden took office. It seems the “Our History” page is also getting whitewashed.  Since 2019, the history page has neglected to mention anything about the Democratic Party prior to the 1920s.

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Wednesday

The Spectator

Racial politics infect Kentucky governor’s race

On Tuesday, Kentuckians will vote in the state’s highly publicized — and very expensive — governor’s race. Democrat incumbent Andy Beshear is facing off against current Republican attorney general Daniel Cameron. Polls throughout the race have shown Beshear leading by double digits, but GOP consultants I’ve spoken to are cautiously optimistic about Cameron’s chances, noting that his numbers have been rising over the past couple of weeks and that many Kentucky voters remain undecided, which is usually bad news for the incumbent. Trump also reupped his endorsement of Cameron this week in an attempt to disrupt Beshear’s relatively high approval rating among Trump supporters.  Cameron’s recent rise has inspired some late-stage nastiness.

The Spectator

We have more to fear from social media than AI

From our UK edition

For once, Nick Clegg had a point. At the start of this week’s Artificial Intelligence summit at Bletchley Park, our former deputy prime minister spoke about the need to get priorities right. ‘My slight note of caution,’ he said, is that we ‘don’t allow the need to focus on proximate challenges to be crowded out by speculative, sometimes futuristic predictions’. He’s quite right. The most immediate threat is not the prospect of dysfunctional AI but the power wielded by Mark Zuckerberg, Sir Nick’s boss at Meta, and the extent to which the companies it runs, Facebook and Instagram, control the news. On its own, Facebook has a stunning concentration of power: it’s now the UK’s third biggest news source after BBC1 and ITV, according to Ofcom surveys.

The Spectator

How dangerous is ice hockey?

From our UK edition

Sporting danger An ice hockey player died in Sheffield after his throat was cut by an opponent’s skate blade. How dangerous is ice hockey? – There were 7,668 visits to US emergency rooms as a result of ice hockey-related head injuries in 2018. This compares with 51,892 for American football, 24,516 for baseball, 38,898 for basketball and 26,955 for football. These figures are not adjusted for the participation rate. – An analysis of 13 seasons in the US found that an average of 3.17 ice hockey players per season suffered from concussion – A 2013 Canadian study claimed 44.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Gaza deaths, Covid chaos and looting in Mexico

From our UK edition

Home Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, chaired a Cobra emergency committee meeting on the effects in Britain of Israel’s war against Hamas: his spokesman described videos and pictures on social media at the weekend as ‘extremely concerning’. A large pro-Palestine demonstration had again been held in London. Andy McDonald MP had the Labour whip suspended after using the phrase ‘between the river to the sea’ during the march. Paul Bristow MP was sacked as a Conservative parliamentary private secretary for calling for a ceasefire. A tornado tore the roof off a house in Littlehampton, West Sussex. Plans to close ticket offices at railway stations were cancelled. The government granted 27 licences for oil and gas exploration and development in the North Sea.