Think Tank
The Spectator
Thursday
Letters | 21 May 2015
Soldiering on Sir: Max Hastings’s article about demobbed army officers trying for a job after the war struck a chord (‘Demob unhappy’, 16 May). The problem prevailed. I left as a captain many years later in 1978. The local vicar asked what I was going to do with myself, adding scornfully, ‘Go into commerce, I suppose. Well, even that might be a struggle for someone who knows little else other than to play cowboys and shoot Indians!’ Somewhat bemused, I asked where his Sunday collections came from if — either directly or indirectly — it wasn’t commerce. He wasn’t pleased with this. Luckily, a few months later I was hired by a British company to do some fascinating work in north Africa.
Barometer | 21 May 2015
Cake discrimination A bakery in Northern Ireland was found guilty of discriminating against a gay couple for whom it refused to bake a cake celebrating gay marriage. Cake-baking has become the epicentre of gay rights. — In April a lesbian couple were awarded $135,000 in damages against Melissa’s Sweet Cakes, in Oregon, after shop owners refused to bake them a wedding cake. — In a similar case, 111 Cakery, based in Indianapolis’s gay district, closed down after being attacked on social media for refusing to bake a cake for a gay couple. — One cake that did get baked, however, was one commissioned by Republican senators in Texas in February to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Texas Marriage Amendment, which outlaws gay marriage.
Portrait of the week | 21 May 2015
Home The annual rate of inflation turned negative in April, for the first time since 1960, with deflation of 0.1 per cent as measured by the Consumer Prices Index, so that a basket of goods and services that cost £100 in April 2014 would have cost £99.90 in April 2015. But, measured by the Retail Prices Index, inflation continued at a rate of 0.9 per cent. Marks & Spencer reported its first rise in annual profits for four years. Police trying to find the gang that broke into safe-deposit boxes in Hatton Garden last month arrested nine men. A botanist claimed unconvincingly that Shakespeare was depicted in the frontispiece of Gerard’s Herball dated 1597. Greggs, the baker’s, stopped selling loaves in many of its shops.
Isis rising
[audioplayer src="http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/michaelgovesfightforjustice/media.mp3" title="Fraser Nelson and Freddy Gray discuss the march of the Islamic State" startat=1785] Listen [/audioplayer]In recent months, as the country went through a general election, our focus has been on our own domestic debates. Meanwhile, the situation in Iraq has deteriorated significantly. After intense fighting, the jihadist group Isis has now taken the city of Ramadi. They already control Fallujah and Mosul. A growing body of opinion says that something must be done, before the group moves on Baghdad or organises a major terror strike over here. But what? There are plenty of reasons not to take action. Our interventions in Iraq have not been successful, to put it mildly.
Books & arts – 21 May 2015
National government
From ‘A National Government’, Spectator, 22 May 1915: When we wrote last week there seemed little possibility that our hopes for the formation of a National Government would be fulfilled. Yet on Tuesday a National Government was in process of construction… We have followed the Roman example. We have named a Dictator — but we have put the Dictatorship in commission. Till the war is over there must be, and will be, no thought of who is a Liberal and who a Unionist, or of what the elements in the Cabinet desire. The Administration will have but one thought and one aim — the saving of the nation and the destruction of our enemies. spectator.co.
Wednesday
The Spectator at war: Trialling terror
From 'The Trial Runs', The Spectator, 22 May 1915: LONDON is busy with rumours just now as to an imminent air raid upon the capital by German aircraft. It may be that some definite piece of information has leaked out of Germany, but it is just as likely that the rumours are due to one of those rerulsione of belief from which people always suffer when their information is scanty. Any observer may have noticed during this war that there have been regular pulsations, or cycles, of optimism and pessimism. As a rule there has not seemed to be much more reason for the one than for the other.
Tuesday
The Spectator at war: Munitions, men and management
From 'A National Government', The Spectator, 22 May 1915: We are not going to say anything about the mistakes of the past. They are not merely dead. They are buried. We have got to think only of the future. It is obvious that the construction of a National Government, however ideal in appearance, will be a mockery unless that Government are prepared to face the new situation in a new spirit. Without that we might just as well have gone on with the old Government. The nation will be mocked if things are to go on just as before, and will never forgive the men who have mocked it.
Monday
The Spectator at war: National Government
From 'News of the Week', The Spectator, 22 May 1915: We have named a Dictator to finish the war. The Dictatorship, it is true, is in commission, but none the less it is a Dictatorship. The new National Government will be all-powerful. Let us hasten to say that this will not make their task or their responsibilities any the easier. On the contrary, the responsibility that will rest on each Minister individually and upon the Cabinet collectively will be very much greater. Neither jointly nor severally will they be able to excuse themselves from doing the right thing by declaring that the Parliamentary situation would not allow it, or that if they had done an unpopular though a wise act, or a necessary act, they would have been thrown out of office by an Opposition waiting to destroy them.
Sunday
The Spectator at war: Outrages in Belgium
From 'German outrages in Belgium', The Spectator, 15 May 1915: TOWARDS the end of last year the Prime Minister appointed a Committee to inquire into the outrages committed by German troops during the present war, and the Report of the Committee was issued on Wednesday. As the Committee indicate, the inference to be drawn is that the German military authorities made up their minds that it was desirable to terrorize the Belgian people in order to overcome Belgium's resistance to the German Army, and in order to maintain the German communications without having to devote too large a force to protect them. In other words, the military interests of Germany were held to justify any kind of cruelty that might con- ceivably contribute to the success of German arms.
