The Spectator

Wednesday

The Spectator

What was in the Wellcome Collection’s Medicine Man exhibition?

From our UK edition

Not Wellcome The Wellcome Collection closed its own Medicine Man exhibition on the history of medicine, complaining that it was racist. Some of the treasures it displayed: – Wax and cloth head of Elizabeth I, half of which shows a face and the other half a decomposing skull being consumed by insects. – Pair of bellows used for blowing smoke into the rectum of people fished out of the Thames, which some doctors believed could revive them after near-drowning. – Charles Darwin’s walking stick, topped with a skull. – Napoleon’s toothbrush, made from silver and horsehair. – A Japanese papier-mâché figure adorned with acupuncture points, used as a teaching aid.

Dorothy Lawrenson

Gathering Daffoldils

From our UK edition

In bulb-beds in the public park, daffodils lie headlong, scythed by Spring storms. The rate of attrition is high: one in ten felled beyond saving, fodder for slugs. I triage the casualties, their snapped stems, bruised blooms spattered with mud. These I bring home, and a vase of water will be their hospice: a tattered corps of buglers sounding the last post.

The Spectator

Letters: Why I left the Society of Authors

From our UK edition

Write and wrong Sir: As a former member of the Society of Authors I read with interest Julie Bindel’s article about its failure to defend J.K. Rowling when she received death threats (‘Write-off’, 26 November). I asked on the society’s ‘Children’s Writers and Illustrators’ Facebook page why they had not spoken out in support of a fellow children’s author and the administrator replied that Rowling ‘has not requested an intervention’. I hadn’t realised that the defence of freedom of speech was something which had to be specifically requested. The other responses I got ranged from blandly negative to downright vitriolic and it wasn’t long before the administrator closed the discussion.

Wednesday

The Spectator

In defence of Brexit

From our UK edition

Opponents of Brexit have been given plenty of ammunition in recent weeks. Trade with the European Union has taken a big knock. Many British exporters say that owing to the excessive bureaucracy they can no longer sell to the Continent. The United Kingdom’s new trade deals have promised a lot but delivered little. There is worldwide inflation, but Britain is still expected to be the worst economic performer in Europe next year, by some margin. Opinion polls suggest an ever-growing number of voters think it was a mistake to leave. This magazine is the only publication to have backed British independence in both the 1975 and 2016 referendums – arguing on both occasions that it was time to go ‘Out, and into the world’. That remains our view.

The Spectator

How much alcohol is drunk in Qatar?

From our UK edition

Cornish pasting Malcolm Bell, the chief executive of VisitCornwall, complained in an online interview about ‘emmets’ – an emmet being a derogatory word for an outsider, derived from a local dialect word for ‘ants’. Some more insults in Cornish dialect: Bimper, a peeping Tom; Dobeck, a fool; Gocki, stupid; Piggy-whidden, a weakling; Squallyass, a crybaby; Janjansy, a fibber; Timdoodle, a fool; Tuss, an offensive person. Team building Ten players in Qatar’s World Cup squad were born outside the country. Only 12% of Qatar’s population are native Qataris. Where are the rest of its citizens from? India 22% Bangladesh 13% Nepal 13% Egypt 9% Philippines 7% Pakistan 5% Sri Lanka 4% Sudan 1.9% Syria 1.7% Jordan 1.

The Spectator

Letters: What about Qatar’s Christians?

From our UK edition

More turmoil Sir: The comparisons made by Kate Andrews between the post-2008 settlement and the ‘Austerity 2.0’ Budget last week seem accurate and this is likely to have wider consequences (‘The squeeze’, 19 November). The failure of growth and perceived lack of care for many in society post-2008 undoubtedly contributed to Brexit and the increased bifurcation of the electorate. Jeremy Hunt now appears to wish to add to intergenerational inequality by keeping the triple lock. Trussism clearly failed at the point of prosecution, but at least it represented a new approach. The Sunak/Hunt answer, which makes no acknowledgement of the sacrifices made by the young during Covid, will produce more of the political turmoil we have experienced in the last decade.

Monday

The Spectator

The Spectator’s 2022 Books of the Year

William Boyd Writing effective comedy is very difficult. True comic genius, the ability to create a unique tone of voice — deadpan, perfectly timed, self-deprecating, abjuring all whimsy (the British disease) and grandstanding — is extremely rare. One thinks of S.J. Perelman, Peter de Vries, the Grossmiths and P.G. Wodehouse amongst very few others. One name that can be added to this tiny and exclusive club is Theo Fennell who has published, this year, his memoir I Fear For This Boy: Some Chapters of Accidents (Bloomsbury, $35). It relates incidents in Fennell’s life where everything that could go wronnd Catholic Churches as he veered between them.

books

Wednesday

The Spectator

Will Sunak continue with the censor’s charter?

From our UK edition

Had it not been for the Tory leadership contest over the summer, a new censorship law would have been passed in Britain by now. The Online Safety Bill included a clause banning content regarded as ‘legal but harmful’ – a dangerously vague phrase that could mean anything that ministers wanted. It would, in effect, have been the end of free speech in the UK. Rishi Sunak said that, if elected, he’d amend the legislation. But this may be only a partial reprieve. The new text of the Bill has yet to be published. But one mooted compromise is that ‘legal but harmful’ would be removed for adults but still apply to under 18s. The trouble is that this would be almost impossible to implement.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: record inflation, record NHS waiting lists and the return of Trump

From our UK edition

Home Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said, ‘We’re all going to be paying a bit more tax’ as he polished up his Autumn Statement. ‘The number one challenge we face is inflation,’ said Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister. The annual rate of inflation rose to 11.1 per cent from 10.1 per cent the month before. Regular pay increased by 5.7 per cent in the year to September but its real value fell by 2.7 per cent because of inflation. In a survey of grocery prices, the consumer group Which? found Heinz tomato ketchup had gone up 53 per cent in two years and Anchor spreadable butter by 45 per cent. Unemployment rose a little from 3.5 to 3.6 per cent, but an increase in the economically inactive was largely attributed to the long-term sick, of whom there are now 2.

The Spectator

2579: Destructive plot – solution

From our UK edition

The theme was MURDER SHE WROTE, the long-running TV series starring ANGELA LANSBURY as JESSICA FLETCHER in the corpse-strewn CABOT COVE. The theme could also describe AGATHA CHRISTIE and DOROTHY L. SAYERS. First prize R.A. Towle, Ilkeston, Derbyshire Runners-up M.F. O’Brien, London N12; John M.

The Spectator

Who has lost the most money in human history? 

From our UK edition

Billion-dollar losers Sam Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old founder of FTX, saw his wealth plummet from $16 bn to zero when the company collapsed. Other big fortunes lost: – Masayoshi Son, founder of Softbank, lost paper wealth of around $70 bn (in today’s money) during the dotcom crash of 2000-2. The company later floated and now he is reckoned by Forbes to be worth $22.8 bn. – Yasumitsu Shigeta, founder of mobile phone company Hikari Tsushin, lost a paper fortune of $42 bn in the dotcom crash, but thanks to a partial recovery in shares he is now worth $3.4 bn, says Forbes. – John Rockefeller, the oil magnate and America’s richest man at the time of the Wall Street Crash, is reckoned to have lost the equivalent of $10 bn.

The Spectator

Letters: Camilla should not be called ‘Queen Consort’

From our UK edition

Zero sense Sir: Ross Clark’s article (‘Hot air’, 12 November) neatly sums up some of the fallacies of the net zero target. Electricity generation currently fulfils about 20 per cent of the UK’s total energy demand – of which at best 40 per cent is covered by wind, solar, and hydro: i.e. 8 per cent of total energy demand is fulfilled from renewable sources. Are we really expected to believe that in the next 27 years electricity generation from renewables will grow 12.5 times – or from any source five times – and that the infrastructure will be put in place to deliver it? James Fairbairn Oxford Thank you, Jeremy Sir: I lunched today with friends, one fighting the unwinnable battle against Motor Neurone Disease.

Wednesday

The Spectator

2578: Torture – solution

From our UK edition

The word is ‘rack’. In the order of the headwords in Chambers, their meanings are indicated by: FRAMEWORK (41), VENGEANCE (4A), DECANT (15D), BONES (1A), GAIT (25), MIST (17), DRINK (42) and SKIN (24). RACK in CRACKED (13) was to be shaded, Title: a further meaning of rack1.

Brandon Robshaw

Repudiations

From our UK edition

The first, essential task: repudiate your parents. Reject their values and advice. Make clear they have no right to legislate.   There will be rows, of course, but that’s the price.  The later task: reject the youthful you. Remove the smirk from that conceited face. It may take tens of years to see this through.  Slow and painful, like shedding a carapace. The final, urgent task: repudiate the first repudiation. Try to mend the damage that you wrought. If not too late. Assuming they’re still there to re-befriend.

The Spectator

The new era of austerity

From our UK edition

It’s the Chancellor who will deliver next week’s Autumn Statement, but every-one knows it will have been ghost-written by Rishi Sunak. When Jeremy Hunt ran for party leader, his own proposal was to take corporation tax from 19 per cent to 15 per cent. Now, he wishes to raise it to 25 per cent. When Hunt speaks next week, we should imagine Sunak’s voice. Liz Truss spooked the markets by combining unexpected tax cuts with a spending splurge bigger than Sunak’s furlough scheme: a £10 billion-a-month subsidy on energy prices, going even to the richest. This was a shock, sprung on markets at a time when interest rates were rising globally. About two-thirds of the interest rate rises that emerged under Truss would probably have happened anyway, but politically this is irrelevant.

The Spectator

Letters: The triple lock must be saved

From our UK edition

Running the asylum Sir: The interview with Robert Buckland must be the most depressing article I have read for a long time (‘Let them contribute’, 5 November). He notes that the many months of lockdown when no one came into the country presented the perfect opportunity to cut the asylum backlog. Instead it got bigger. He suggests reforming the system so that all information material to a case must be presented upfront, instead of cases being subject to endless appeals. (There’s also the fact that many asylum claimants have confused matters by tossing their passports in the sea during their transit.) One wonders how the Tories allowed this mess to develop, and why they can’t take commonsense steps (including his own suggestions) to resolve it.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week: Williamson resigns, nurses strike and Norwegian royal quits

From our UK edition

Home Sir Gavin Williamson resigned from the cabinet as minister without portfolio following publication of texts he had sent (annoyed at not being invited to the Queen’s funeral) to the chief whip Wendy Morton, full of swear words. ‘There is a price for everything.’ A former civil servant said that Sir Gavin had told him to slit his throat, which he denied. Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, agreed with Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, £35 billion of tax cuts and £25 billion of tax rises, in time for the Office for Budget Responsibility to peruse the proposals before the Autumn Statement next Thursday. The Bank of England had raised interest rates by 0.75 percentage points to 3 per cent.

The Spectator

Books of the year II – chosen by our regular reviewers

From our UK edition

Andrew Lycett Describing how individuals get drawn, often haphazardly, into a bloody conflict such as the English Civil War is not an easy task. But Jessie Childs manages it superbly in The Siege of Loyalty House (Bodley Head, £25), which tingles with a discerning historical imagination. Lily Dunn’s memoir Sins of My Father (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £16.99), about her mixed reactions to her beloved dad’s dive into a religious cult and subsequent alcoholism, is notable for its emotional truthfulness, sure sense of time and place and appealing tone of delivery. The novel which gave me most pleasure was Winchelsea by Alex Preston (Canongate, £14.99), a rip-roaring yarn about smugglers and seafarers in Romney Marsh and its coastal hinterland in the 18th century.

The Spectator

Who first started burning fossil fuels?

From our UK edition

Carbon dating Did burning fossil fuels begin with the industrial revolution, or is there someone else from whom we could claim reparations for carbon emissions?  — Artefacts made from coal and dated to 4000 bc have been uncovered in the Shenyang province of north-eastern China, with a formalised industry using coal for copper-smelting in operation by 1000 bc. In Britain, coal has been traced to bronze-age funeral pyres lit prior to 2000 bc. The Romans began mining for coal in the Midlands, and the first deep coal mine was opened in Ashby de la Zouch around 1450 ad. The earliest-known oil product is asphalt used in the construction of the walls of Babylon c. 2000 ad. China probably started using oil as a fuel in around 400 bc.