House of lords

Wednesday

William Atkinson

Put Paul Dacre in the Lords

For those us who dabble in journalism, it is a constant effort to make our prose as engaging, punchy, and robust as our limited vocabularies can manage. It is thus utterly refreshing and deeply imposing to be reminded of how best to do it by a master of their craft. Exhibit A: Paul Dacre’s statement following Prince Harry’s loss in court yesterday. Read it and grin. Dacre and his publications stood for people like us: ordinary suburban Brits ‘There isn’t a laundry in the cosmos big enough to wash all the dirty linen he has aired about his own family’. ‘I feel sorry for the way a confused and angry young man has been drawn into this case’. This ‘trumped-up action’ raises ‘profoundly disturbing questions about the conduct of elements of the legal profession’.

Friday

Tom Holland

Is politics becoming more religious? With Tom Holland & Jonathan Sumption

39 min listen

Is British politics becoming more religious? Madeline Grant certainly thinks so, arguing – in the Spectator’s cover article – that the next election could be the most religious for decades. Issues like immigration and Islam, assisted dying – and even the establishment of the Church of England are likely to play a role. The current Labour government's ‘most telling divide’, Madeline writes, is between MPs – like Shabana Mahmood and Wes Streeting – who understand religion – and 'those who don’t’. For the Edition’s Easter special, host Lara Prendergast is joined by vicar – and Madeline’s husband – The Rev’d Fergus Butler-Gallie, former Supreme Court justice Jonathan Sumption and the historian and broadcaster Tom Holland.

Sunday

Charles Moore

Will books soon become extinct?

I am glad that BBC Radio 4 is producing a series called How Reading Made Us, presented by the subtle, super-literate Times of London columnist James Marriott. I must declare an interest. Roughly 98 percent of my earnings over 45 years have depended on the fact that plenty of people like reading. Now we are thinking harder, however, about the fact that form affects substance. The idea of an encyclopedia, for example, as developed (from classical roots) in the 18th century, was that all needful knowledge on a particular subject could be assembled and consulted in a book or series of books. With AI, there is little need for this form. The form of a book, which often seemed so compendious, can now seem cumbersome. Fiction, too, is affected by form.

books