Douglas Murray

In the magazine this week I have a piece on learning poetry by heart. Spectator readers will remember that Michael Gove received some flak from teaching unions earlier this year when he suggested that British schoolchildren should be able to recite a poem by heart. In the piece I try to explain why this is a good idea, both as a mental discipline and a way of accessing the best thought and literature. I was never made to learn poetry by heart at school, but I have been trying to remember what the first poetry I taught myself by heart was. I think it may have been portions of Edward Fitzgerald’s version of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Its metre and rhyme scheme, and the fact that the stanzas are short, make it ideal to memorise.

Julian Assange is one of my best enemies.  For my part it was hatred at first sight.  He was only slightly slower on the uptake.  Our relationship was consummated last year when we debated in London, and he fluttered those strange dead eyes at me, and threatened to sue me, and then didn’t, and I wrote about it afterwards and revealed to the world (or Spectator diary readers at least) that his backstage chat is like aural rohypnol. Anyhow – in recent months I have not had the time to keep my hatred active.  Partly because Julian has now even discredited himself with the left.

I do not necessarily wish to imply I have the gift of prophecy. But this is either uncanny or part of some cosmic plan to aggravate me. Three years ago on an edition of Question Time, alongside the then Olympics minister Tessa Jowell, the panel was asked whether we regretted bidding for the Olympics (since a recession had come along afterwards). I said that I had never been terribly in favour of getting the Olympics, not because of the expense or because our athletes wouldn't do our nation proud (as they more than have) but because of how bad we in Britain had become at selling ourselves as a culture. I referenced the beautiful closing ceremony of the Athens Olympics, which included a recording of Maria Callas, the finale of Mahler 3 and a reading from George Seferis.

Last night the BBC aired a brilliant horror-movie (viewable on iPlayer) called ‘Young, Bright and on the Right.’ It followed two young men, one at Oxford the other at Cambridge, trying to make their way in student Conservative party politics. One of the stories – of a young man from a one-parent family in Yorkshire whose father had been in prison – was genuinely interesting. Rather than being happy about himself and his background, he had become someone else. Though he presented this as being essential in order to get on in Conservative party politics, I am not certain he was right. Having never been involved I can’t say for certain, but it does occur to me that William Hague, for instance, never lost his accent.

A fascinating column in yesterday’s Mail on Sunday by Peter Hitchens asks ‘Am I an “animal”, a “cow” — or just another victim of BBC bias.’ The spur for asking this otherwise surprising question is a BBC radio programme presented by the former New Stateman writer, Mehdi Hasan. While presenting ‘What the Papers Say’ a couple of weeks ago Hasan found the opportunity to misquote a column by Hitchens, who promptly complained to the BBC. For its part, the BBC seems to have accepted that the quote was doctored and has tried to make up for this. But now Hitchens asks some questions about Hasan’s own opinions.

Despite having carried out terrorist attacks for the last thirty years and killed hundreds of people around the world, the terrorist group Hezbollah is, unbelievably, still not on the European Union's list of banned terrorist organisations. In today's Wall Street Journal. Daniel Schwammenthal lays out the imperative case for putting them on that list. Officially the EU claims that there is a difference between the terrorist group's political and military wings.  But that is not so, any more than it is the case for Hamas (which the EU does recognise as a terrorist entity).

It is becoming increasingly clear that Twitter might be the greatest threat to civilised life in Britain. Take just 24 hours of news: A 17 year-old has been arrested (and is currently being detained) in Weymouth for sending unpleasant tweets to the nation’s Olympic hero Tom Daley. Rio Ferdinand has been charged by the FA with retweeting a comment which referred to another footballer as a ‘choc-ice’. The Mail reports: ‘The initial ‘choc ice’ remark about Ashley Cole came two days after the Chelsea defender gave evidence on behalf of team-mate John Terry in his race trial concerning Ferdinand’s brother Anton.

Some conservatives have been accused of ‘politicising’ the Olympics by daring to say anything negative about the opening ceremony. Having begun by attacking an obscure back-bench MP, these accusations are now being aimed at Conservatives in the cabinet. Yet it is not conservatives, but the organisers of the opening ceremony who politicised the event. Naturally, those who agreed with the political bent on display rejoiced in it and continue to do so. Take the Labour Minister for Social Justice and Local Government in the Welsh Assembly, Carl Sargent who tweeted on the night: This is the best Labour Party political broadcast I've seen in a while. And: Working class history, multi-cultural, nhs, cnd, gay kissing. Well done comrade Boyle! Bet Dave is wriggling!