Books and arts opener – 5 May 2016
From our UK edition
The Spectator
Thursday
What to do in Ireland
From our UK edition
From ‘Reconstruction’, The Spectator, 5 May 1916: What Ireland wants just now is firm and judicious military government. The rebellion of last week has been put down, but undoubtedly the embers of the fire are still red-hot, and a very little might fan them into flame again. All students of Irish history know that rebellions in Ireland do not run the course that they run in other countries. The fact that they have become hopeless seems, indeed, sometimes to act as a stimulus to the race which specialises in lost cases. Unless, therefore, a very firm hand is kept in Ireland, and kept till the end of the war, there is a possibility of a recrudescence of trouble.
Wednesday
It’s Trump vs Hillary: a race that should terrify all conservatives
From our UK edition
This morning, Ted Cruz bowed out of the race. Now, John Kasich has given up. As a result Donald J. Trump, the most grotesque candidate ever to have run for the Oval Office, is now the only candidate still running for the Republican Party's nomination. And so the most powerful country on earth, a nation teeming with talent, will this November be asked to choose between Hillary Clinton or the egregious Trump. It cannot be assumed that Trump will be defeated in the presidential election itself. This week, for the first time, a poll put him ahead of her. The bookmakers give him a 30 per cent chance: this time last year, he had a 2 per cent chance of winning the nomination.
Tuesday
The other leagues that Leicester tops
From our UK edition
A sneak preview from the 'Barometer' column of facts and figures in the next Spectator, out on Thursday... Other remarkable things about Leicester: 28% of the population is made up of ‘Asians’ or ‘British Asians’, higher than any other district in England and Wales. Leicester has the highest percentage of residents born in India and also the highest percentage born in Zimbabwe. 51% of children have tooth decay, the highest in England and Wales. 41% of children reached the expected level of attainment in the Early Years Foundation Stage, the lowest in England. Leicester has 289 tennis courts, the most in any city except London, Sheffield and Ipswich.
Thursday
Letters | 28 April 2016
From our UK edition
Green reasons to stay in Sir: As Conservatives we are clear that the European Union has been central to improving the quality of the UK’s environment. European policy is not always perfect, but on environmental issues it has allowed us to move forward in leaps and bounds. The wealth of the environment on which our economy depends is not confined to national boundaries, which is why the EU has become such a vital forum for negotiating Britain’s interest in maintaining healthy seas, clean air, climate security and species protection. It is largely thanks to European agreements that we now have sewage-free beaches in Britain. Because of tough European vehicle standards, British car drivers spend less on fuel.
Barometer | 28 April 2016
From our UK edition
Getting a head Barack Obama dismissed Boris Johnson’s accusations that he shown disdain for Sir Winston Churchill by removing a bust from the Oval Office. What’s the going rate on eBay for such a bust? One-sixth scale resin bust of Winston Churchill (removable head) £12.50 Sir Winston Churchill bronze/brass bust £44 English-made marble bust of Sir Winston Churchill £70 Signed classic Winston Churchill bust by Oscar Nemon £80 Tallent Winston Churchill Terracotta Bust Cigar Lighter (used) £165 The academy difference Education Secretary Nicky Morgan partially retreated on plans to turn all schools into academies, free from council control. How do academies perform against maintained schools at GCSE?
Portrait of the week | 28 April 2016
From our UK edition
Home Junior doctors went on strike for two days, refusing to provide even emergency treatment. The 96 Liverpool fans who died in the Hillsborough football stadium disaster in 1989 were unlawfully killed, an inquest jury found. Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, contemplated British forces being sent to Libya, but said ‘if there were ever any question of a British combat role in any form — ground, sea or air — that would go to the House of Commons’. Big Ben is to be silenced for months while its clock and tower are restored.
Fear and loathing
From our UK edition
Strange as it may seem, there are still people around David Cameron who regard the Scottish referendum campaign as a great success. Yes, they say, the nationalists didn’t like the original ‘Project Fear’ — the attempt to frighten Scotland into voting no — but it worked. Alex Salmond was defeated by a 10 per cent margin — proof, it’s argued, that relentless negativity works. Those who complain about it are either losers, or too squeamish to win. Andrew Cooper, chief of the Scottish ‘in’ campaign, said afterwards that the only criticism he would accept is that it was not negative enough. This attitude is a poison in the bloodstream of the Conservative party.
How to listen to The Spectator podcast
From our UK edition
Every week, The Spectator podcast brings together a variety of people to discuss politics, culture and current affairs. Presented by Isabel Hardman, The Spectator's assistant editor, each episode focusses on three separate topics. Past guests have included everyone from doctors to dominatrixes, cab drivers to Cabinet ministers. To join some of the best British journalists, critics and authors discussing an intelligent and entertaining mix of stories, you can subscribe to our free podcast in a number of different ways. Episodes will then automatically download to your computer, phone or tablet. To subscribe using iTunes, click here. Alternatively, you can find our RSS feed here.
The Easter rising
From our UK edition
From ‘The Dublin Revolt’, The Spectator, 29 April 1916: If we are to do what will most disappoint the Germans, and that surely is a thing worth doing, we must pick up the pieces in Ireland with as little fuss as possible, and show the minimum of annoyance and disturbance… The insurrection in Ireland, seen in its true proportions, is not a great military event.
Tuesday
Leave wins the Spectator Brexit debate at the London Palladium
From our UK edition
It was the largest debate in The Spectator's history: we sold out the 2,200-seat London Palladium for our debate on whether Britain should leave the EU, sponsored by Rathbones. The lineup: Dan Hannan, Nigel Farage and Kate Hoey vs Nick Clegg, Liz Kendall and Chuka Umunna. Andrew Neil chaired. Here are summaries of all the speeches, as well as the full audio: Daniel Hannan for Out. https://soundcloud.com/spectator1828/daniel-hannans-speech-in-spectator-brexit-debate Tonight, I'm inviting you to make me redundant - and, into the bargain, make Nigel redundant. And I wouldn't be doing if I were not confident that there will be plenty of openings for newly-unemployed MEPs in the boom that would follow our exit from the European Union.
Monday
The Spectator reader survey
From our UK edition
The Spectator exists to inform, entertain and infuriate. If you have a few minutes, we'd love to know more about your opinion of the magazine and the website. Which writers do you like? What would you like to see more of? What would you like to see less of? If you could change one thing, what would it be? If you would like to let us know your thoughts, we'd be delighted if you could take our survey, which takes around five minutes to complete. After finishing it, you will be entered into a prize draw to win a year's subscription to the magazine (or a year's extension if you are already a subscriber). To take the survey, please click here.
Friday
The future belongs to entrepreneurs
From our UK edition
‘Who thinks the UK is the best place in Europe to start a business?’ asked Spectator editor Fraser Nelson. Almost everyone at the table raised a hand. ‘So that’s a pretty good start…’ In the dining room of Drummonds Bank — a fine example of 18th Century entrepreneurship — The Spectator and NatWest brought together an eclectic group of entrepreneurs, investors and Labour’s shadow business secretary Angela Eagle MP, to discuss opportunities and obstacles for start-ups and scale-ups. The question for the table was what government and banks can do better to help turn great ideas into growing businesses?
Thursday
Letters | 21 April 2016
From our UK edition
Safe keeping? Sir: James Delingpole will be relieved to hear that not everyone follows the fashion for demanding repatriation of historical treasures (‘Give thanks for the tomb raiders’, 9 April). When presenting my ambassadorial letters of credence to the President of Haiti, René Preval, in 2010, I mentioned in passing that a rare (possibly unique) copy of Haiti’s Declaration of Independence had recently been discovered in our National Archives at Kew. At this point Preval’s foreign minister leaned forward and suggested that Her Majesty’s Government might wish to repatriate the document. Preval laughed at the suggestion.
Barometer | 21 April 2016
From our UK edition
European bogeymen Michael Gove said ‘remain’ campaigners were spreading tales of bogeymen. But what is a bogeyman? Appropriately enough, the concept of an imagined monster is a pan-European concept which has exercised the right to free movement for centuries. — The boggel-mann has been terrifying children in Germanic cultures since the Middle Ages, as has the bussemand in Scandinavian countries. In Dutch, he became the boeman. — Middle English had its bugge-man and Scotland its boggarts — the latter suggesting a possible connection with marshy ground. But possibly the earliest bogeyman was bugibu, a monster in a French poem written in the 1140s. Reversed forecasts A Treasury report claimed that leaving the EU would leave the UK economy 6% smaller by 2030.
Portrait of the week | 21 April 2016
From our UK edition
Home George Osborne, the Chancellor, said that if Britain left the European Union, households would be on average £4,300 a year worse off. He quoted a Treasury analysis that said the British economy would be 6 per cent smaller outside the EU by 2030 than it would have been. ‘Remain’ campaigners were treating voters ‘like children who can be frightened into obedience’, Michael Gove, the Justice Secretary, said, and declared that Britain could be part of the European free trade zone but ‘free from EU regulation which costs us billions of pounds a year’. Kenneth Clarke, the former Chancellor, said that David Cameron ‘wouldn’t last 30 seconds if he lost the referendum’.
Cut the claptrap
From our UK edition
So far the campaign for the EU referendum has resembled a contest as to which side can spin the most lurid and least plausible horror stories. On the one hand, the ‘in’ campaign claims that we’ll be £4,300 worse off if we leave; that budget airlines will stop serving Britain and that we will become more prone to terror attacks. Not to be outdone, the ‘out’ side warns that we will be crushed by a fresh avalanche of regulation and immigration, and more prone to terror attacks.
Duty calls
From our UK edition
From ‘The Volunteer Training Corps’, The Spectator, 8 April 1916: If we were the Government, we would state plainly that in the opinion of His Majesty’s advisers no man over military age of good physique will be doing his duty to the nation who does not join a Volunteer battalion… it should be clearly understood that he was not performing his proper duties as a citizen, and that even if the state did not think it worth while to compel him to perform them, he would be a proper object of public censure and contempt.
Thursday
Letters | 14 April 2016
From our UK edition
In defence of Charles Sir: As a former full-time member of the Prince of Wales’s office, and a part-time equerry for 20 years, I can identify with some of HRH’s interests, just like Geoffrey Wheatcroft (‘How to save the monarchy’, 9 April). In my case we share a passion for churches and other historic buildings. I also share some of Mr Wheatcroft’s frustrations — the chaos of the prince’s office has at times driven me to distraction. As the product of a Yorkshire grammar school, I have never considered myself part of any ‘Highgrove set’: the prince calls me ‘Matthew’, and I call him ‘Sir’.
Barometer | 14 April 2016
From our UK edition
Boss cuts The chief executive of the Co-operative Group, Richard Pennycock, asked for a pay cut, saying his job had got easier now that the business is more steady — not to mention smaller. His basic pay will fall from £1.25m to £750,000 and his overall pay will drop 60%. Some other bosses who have recently taken pay cuts: — Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent took a 42% pay cut last year, with his overall package falling from $25.2m to $14.6m. — Cressida Pollock, CEO of English National Opera, took a 30% pay cut last September, partly in return for her job being made permanent. — Simon Potter, chief executive of Bahamas Petroleum, this month deferred 90% of his pay so the company could continue to invest in spite of low oil prices.