The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

From the archives: the liberty of the battlefield

From ‘Soldiers for the land’, The Spectator, 13 November 1915: It is certain that, when the war is over, tens of thousands of soldiers will not want to return to their former urban occupations. No man who has enjoyed the liberty of a greater world and a freer life will be reconciled easily to resuming his job of, say, working a lift, or enduring stuffy hours in a shop, or addressing envelopes in an office. The nearest reproduction of the campaigner’s life which will be normally possible for him will be settlement on the land.

The Spectator

Books of the Year: the best and most overrated of 2015

Anna Aslanyan  My top title of the year is Satin Island by Tom McCarthy (Cape, £16.99), convincing proof that the best writers of our time are anthropologists, and that James Joyce, were he alive today, would be working for Google. I also enjoyed Ben Lerner’s 10:04 (Granta, £14.99), a self-deconstructing novel whose metafictional plot speaks of the nature of time and of things being endlessly interconnected. My non-fiction pick is Iain Sinclair’s London Overground: A Day’s Walk Around the Ginger Line (Hamish Hamilton, £16.99), the psychogeographer’s passionate take on 21st-century London, a place of perpetual change and chronological resonances.

Tuesday

The Spectator

Full text: David Cameron’s Chatham House speech on Europe

Almost three years ago, I made a speech about Europe. I argued that the European Union needed to reform if it was to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. I argued that Britain’s best future lay within a reformed European Union, if the necessary changes could be agreed. And I promised the British people that, if I was re-elected as Prime Minister, we would have an in-out referendum…and the final say on whether our national and economic security is better protected by remaining in the European Union, or by leaving. That promise is now being honoured. The law of the land will require that there must be a referendum on our EU membership by the end of 2017.

The Spectator

Europe podcast special: what would Brexit mean for British business?

This podcast was sponsored by King & Wood Mallesons. Would a vote to leave the EU help or hinder British businesses? In this View from 22 special podcast, The Spectator's Fraser Nelson discusses the upcoming EU referendum with Matthew Elliott, co-founder of the Vote Leave campaign, Richard Reed, the co-founder of Innocent Drinks and a patron of the Stronger In campaign, and Stephen Kon, senior partner at King & Wood Mallesons. How are British business feeling about a potential Brexit sometime before 2017? Aside from the major corporations, are smaller businesses more inclined towards remaining in or leaving the EU? Where does the greater danger lie: the uncertainty of leaving the EU or remaining in and facing more integration with Brussels?

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters | 5 November 2015

The power of creativity Sir: A rounded education should encourage creativity as well as maths, English, science and history if Britain is to compete in the modern world. Toby Young’s claim that the arts world is exaggerating the decline of arts in secondary schools therefore deserves to be challenged (Status anxiety, 24 October). In spite of his confidence, teachers do think that there is a problem. They fear that the focus on ‘core’ subjects means they shouldn’t offer arts subjects. Students worry that studying the arts will damage an academic profile. But encouraging creativity makes people more adaptable, and helps prepare them for the uncertainties of life.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 5 November 2015

Home The all-party Foreign Affairs Committee urged David Cameron, the Prime Minister, not to press ahead with a Commons vote on British air strikes against Islamic State positions in Syria. At its conference, Scottish Labour adopted a policy of opposition to Trident renewal, though Kezia Dugdale, its leader, remained in favour, while the Labour party in the United Kingdom as a whole favoured retaining the nuclear deterrent, though its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, opposes it. Britain was smothered in fog, except in Wales, where temperatures on 1 November reached a record 22˚C. A man had his ear bitten off in a pub in Aberystwyth on Halloween.

The Spectator

Hot air summit

The delegates who will gather for the star-studded Paris climate summit include celebrities, presidents and perhaps even the Pope. Among other things, they will be asked to consider the formation of an ‘International Tribunal of Climate Justice’, which developed countries would be hauled before for breaching agreed limits on greenhouse gas emissions. That the proposed body will seek to be ‘non-punitive, non-adversarial and non-judicial’ does not reassure. A tribunal, if it is worthy of the name, ought to be all those things. Does the threat of climate change really justify such a system? It is disturbing to think how many world leaders and policymakers might casually answer ‘yes’.

The Spectator

Barometer | 5 November 2015

Family business Justin Trudeau, son of Pierre Trudeau, was elected to his father’s old job as Prime Minister of Canada. Other descendants of former leaders currently in power: — The maternal grandfather of Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, held the same job between 1957 and 1960. — Park Geun-hye, president of South Korea, is daughter of Park Chung-hee, president between 1963 and 1979. — Benigno Aquino III, president of the Philippines, is son of Corazon Aquino, president between 1986 and 1992. — Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, is daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Prime Minister 1972 to 1975. Safety drive Does the public expect driverless cars to make the roads safer?

The Spectator

The fall of a king

From ‘News of the week’, The Spectator, 6 November 1915: We greatly regret to record a serious accident to the King. When His Majesty was reviewing troops of the First Army on the Western front the cheers of the men startled the mare he was riding. She reared up so far that, she fell and partly rolled on the King. His Majesty was at once taken away in a motor-car, and though he bravely tried to respond to the recognition of his troops as he passed, it was evident that he was in very great pain. As soon as possible the King was conveyed home. Thus in a wholly unforeseen manner the King has suffered like any of his soldiers from the risks of the campaign.

Wednesday

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