The Spectator

Monday

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: A damp squib

From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 20 February 1915: The great event of the week ought to have been the beginning of the blockade by Germany of the whole of the shores of the British Islands. Strangely enough, however, Der Tag passed in complete calm, and we are now informed by German wireless that it was a mistake to suppose that anything particular would happen till some days after the 18th. One of the German papers, indeed, speaks of ten or fifteen days having to elapse before the hour strikes.

Sunday

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Labour problems

From ‘Labour Problems and the War’, The Spectator, 13 February 1915: The ultimate object of all Trade Union regulations is to improve the pecuniary position of the wage-earner. How far that object is attained by Trade Union methods is a matter of very keen controversy. There are economists, like the late Mr. T. S. Cree, who have brought forward many strong reasons to show that in the long run the position of the wage-earning classes could not be pecuniarily benefited by Trade Union action. There is no space here to follow out Mr. Cree's arguments, and for the moment there is no necessity to do so. For the purpose of the controversies which are now likely to be raised no harm will be done in assuming that the conventional view as to the value of Trade Union methods is correct.

Saturday

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Open markets

From News of the Week, The Spectator, 13 February 1915: In the House of Commons on Thursday Mr. Asquith made three notable announcements. In future Sir John French will send twice a week a communication summarizing the doings of the British Force. Evidently "Todgers's can do it when it likes." Next Mr. Asquith explained that the Government are considering the adoption of more stringent measures against German trade. Thirdly, he declined to fix maximum prices – "an experiment which the German Government had made with disastrous consequences." We record this decision with intense relief, for it means that the Cabinet realize that the sure way to starve the working classes would be to discourage the importation of corn by artificially knocking down prices.

Friday

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: The last full measure of devotion

From ‘Prohibition in Scotland during the war’, The Spectator, 13 February 1915: WE note with great interest the movement which is gathering strength in Scotland in favour of prohibition during the war. Let us say at once that, provided a well-marked majority of the representatives of the Scottish constituencies support the movement, we not only see no reason why their wishes should not be fulfilled, but we see good reason why the Government, at a time when there is plenty of Parliamentary leisure, should take up the matter and let Scotland have what she wishes.

Thursday

The Spectator

Spectator letters: The ENO must go on; another expensive typo; and PC and Pamela

A vandalistic proposal Sir: Igor Toronyi-Lalic (Farewell, ENO, 7 February) displays a lack of judgment in advocating ENO’s demise and in suggesting that opera needs no opera houses, companies or subsidy. That its new arts editor should plead for the closure of England’s great repertory opera company is unworthy of The Spectator. Toronyi-Lalic is wrong to think that the hundreds of thousands of English opera-goers will be content with performances by itinerant ensembles only. Small-scale performances presented anywhere can be moving, but the public demand productions of a scale that befits the art form as it has grown over the last four centuries.

The Spectator

What Samsung’s new TVs owe to Jeremy Bentham

Watching brief Samsung warned users of its voice-activated televisions that what they said in front of the TV could be transmitted to other people. The story attracted comparison with the telescreens in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, but the principle of keeping a population under control by surveillance was foreseen a century earlier by Jeremy Bentham. — In 1791 he came up with the idea for a Panopticon, a circular prison with one-way observation holes which would allow a single gaoler to patrol several hundred prisoners, none of whom could tell whether they were being watched at any one moment. — Bentham saw the government’s eventual rejection of the scheme as ‘sinister’, a word now more likely to be used to describe the idea itself.