Uk politics

Turmoil in the Middle East, a reshuffle rumoured at Westminster, and Toby Young is offending the liberal establishment. So far, 2018 doesn’t seem all that different from 2017. The occasion for the latest sputtering is the Speccie columnist’s appointment to the board of the Office for Students. The OfS is the new regulator of Britain’s universities and, according to the Department for Education website, will ‘promote students interests’. (The possessive apostrophe will presumably have to look out for itself.)  Paul Mason describes Young as a ‘Tory eugenicist and educational apartheid guru’. Danny Blanchflower declares him ‘totally unfit [and] unqualified’ and calls for his removal from a post he has only

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It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times. As 2017 draws to a close, one could be forgiven for remembering the past 12 months as an unrelenting parade of grimness. There was the inauguration of Donald Trump, the governance of Donald Trump, the tweets of Donald Trump…and that’s before one considers the terrorists attacks in Manchester and London, the disintegration of Venezuela’s economy and democracy, and the Las Vegas spree shooting. There’s no sugaring it: 2017 was sent to test us. But it wasn’t all doom and gloom. Here are 17 positives to come out of 2017. 1. Islamic State was routed The Iraqis seized Mosul from

This month an investigation – by EITF and Channel 5 – found that bullying and sexual harassment are prevalent across the TV industry, with more than half of people surveyed, experiencing sexual misconduct in the workplace. But what constitutes sexual harassment? That’s the question Kirstie Allsopp, the Location, Location, Location presenter, has been grappling with of late. In an interview with the Times, Allsopp says she was recently sent an ‘edict’ about inappropriate behaviour. Among the ‘inappropriate behaviour’ listed was calling people ‘darling’: ‘It said that use of affectionate terms such as ‘darling’ will also constitute sexual harassment. I said, “This is ridiculous.” It’s belittling an incredibly important document about

From Ruth Davidson Q. My mother often tells me that I look scruffy. What’s the appropriate dress for a leader of the Scottish Conservative Party? A. Your mother should relax. Your own spontaneously evolved style speaks so eloquently of egolessness that it is of wide appeal to your fan base. This is an extract from Dear Mary’s Celebrity Problems Solved, which appears in the Christmas issue of the Spectator

Christmas – the season of goodwill, turkey, tinsel and general over-indulgence. Except that is, if you work at the Guardian. With just two days to go until Christmas day, the paper has produced a late contender for most Grauniad article of the year. Writing for the paper, Saskia Sarginson shares her Christmas dilemma: can one permit traditional indulgences when ‘they seem at odds with the world we live in today’? Sarginson’s environmentally-conscious children have changed her perspective on Christmas traditions: ‘My children have no desire to hark back to something that is gone, and I see their point that traditional indulgences seem at odds with the world we live in today. I

From Sir Vince Cable MP Q. I have an unfulfilled ambition to win a national title for ballroom dancing in my age group. But this leadership thing gets in the way of my training. What’s more important — Parliament’s squabbling schoolroom or Blackpool’s twinkle-toes ballroom? A. What’s all this either/or business? These days the only way to become a leader is to become a celebrity first. Viz Trump. If they like you as leader it won’t be because you’ve got the ‘leadership thing’ — it will have been the twinkle toes that swung it. This is an extract from Dear Mary’s Celebrity Problems Solved, which appears in the Christmas issue