The Spectator

Saturday

The Spectator

Bookbenchers: Douglas Alexander MP | 7 July 2012

From our UK edition

After a brief hiatus, the Spectator’s Bookbencher interview returns. First up is Douglas Alexander, the Labour MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South and shadow foreign secretary. He tells which books he’ll be reading this summer.  1) Which book's on your bedside table at the moment? Leaving Alexandria by Richard Holloway — the recently published memoir of one of Scotland's most controversial and colourful churchman on his life's journey from faith to doubt. 2) Which book would you read to your children? As a family we have read and loved all the Katy Morag adventures set on the fictionalised Isle of Struay based on the actual Isle of Coll in the Hebrides. Right now I am reading with my daughter ‘Katy Morag Delivers the Mail’.

The Spectator

Bookbenchers: Douglas Alexander MP

From our UK edition

After a brief hiatus, the Spectator’s Bookbenchers interview recommences this week. Over at the books blog, Douglas Alexander MP, the shadow foreign secretary, tells us what he plans to read his children over the summer, as well what he hopes to read for himself. He says: ‘My mother, who herself was born in China — the daughter of Scottish medical missionaries — just leant me a book called Through Earth Wind and Fire which is a history of the Scottish missionaries in China which I hope will help fill in some of the gaps in my family history.’ You can read his answers in full.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Shelf Life: Cityboy

From our UK edition

Geraint Anderson still has an axe to grind. Filthy lucre is corrupting public life, and the City's casino banks continue to spoil all who come near them. Their venality is the subject of his latest book, Payback Time - of which he wrote in these pages last week. He is this week's Shelf Lifer. He tells us what he's into (the Marquis de Sade) and what he's not (Rick Santorum). He tweets @cityboylondon 1) What are you reading at the moment? William Golding’s Lord of the Flies…again 2) As a child, what did you read under the covers? See above as well as page 72 of James Herbert’s The Rats 3) Has a book ever made you cry, and if so which one?

Monday

The Spectator

Calling for Agius’ head

From our UK edition

Marcus Agius' resignation this morning as chair of Barclays took few by surprise after being widely trailed over the weekend. But as ever, The Spectator was far ahead of the curve, with columnist Martin Vander Weyer calling on 5 May for Agius to go, nearly two months before the Libor scandal even broke. You can read his argument below. A word of sympathy for Alison Carnwath, the chairman of Barclays’ remuneration committee, whose re-election to the bank’s board failed to win support from a quarter of its shareholders at last week’s turbulent AGM.

Saturday

The Spectator

Cyber insecurity

From our UK edition

The NatWest banking disaster is an ominous reminder of the way in which technology has come to control our lives. We now know what a proper IT collapse feels like: a piece of computer code goes wrong and, within days, bank machines shut down and chaos ensues. This week the stories range from unpaid bills to the parents of a critically ill seven-year-old in hospital in Mexico fearing that her life-support machine would be turned off for want of funds. NatWest says it was a software screw-up, not a cyber-attack. But there are plenty of the latter taking place every day. As we show in our special cybersecurity supplement this week, Britain’s dependence on computers has become one of our biggest vulnerabilities.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 30 June 2012

From our UK edition

Home A computer failure left millions of customers of RBS and NatWest without access to their money for days; a man was held in jail over the weekend because his bail payment could not be traced, and other customers feared that their credit ratings would suffer because of missed payments for mortgages and regular direct debits. Alistair Darling, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, launched the campaign against Scottish independence called Better Together. England was knocked out of Euro 2012 in a penalty shootout with Italy. ••• The government introduced, at the instigation of the Liberal Democrats, a bill for a reformed, mostly elected House of Lords.

The Spectator

Letters | 30 June 2012

From our UK edition

Hunting for real Tories Sir: It is interesting to note that more than 10 per cent (four) of the 39 Tory MPs who comprise the Free Enterprise Group, which your correspondent James Forsyth assures us is full of young radicals determined to lead a fightback from the Tory right (‘Next right’, 23 June), are committed to keeping the ban on fox-hunting. How can you be a right-wing Tory and be anti-hunting? If this is the best that the Tory right has to offer, then Ukip must be looking good. Peter Holt Wellington, Telford Debt is the problem Sir: Your leading article is misconceived (‘Summit of arrogance’, 23 June).

Thursday

The Spectator

Shelf Life special: The Skidelskys

From our UK edition

Robert and Edward Skidelsky have written a new book for our times, How Much Is Enough? The Love of Money, and the Case for the Good Life, which is published today. In their own words: ‘it is the story of… how we came to be ensnared by the dream of progress with purpose, riches without end.’ But what have this father son combination been reading while penning this and their other books? The answer is: rather more than just John Maynard Keynes. Robert Skidelsky 1) What are you reading at the moment? Laurent Binet, HHhH 2) As a child, what did you read under the covers? J.B.Priestley, The Good Companions Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage 3) Has a book ever made you cry, and if so which one? As a child, F.W. Farrar, Eric, or Little by Little — uncontrollably.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Shelf Life: Samantha Brick

From our UK edition

Journalist and former TV producer, Samantha Brick was recently castigated for her Daily Mail article suggesting that some might be intimidated by her good looks. But since we're always game at Shelf Life, we invited her to reveal which books she would read during solitary confinement, where she wouldn't like to find herself with Patrick Bateman and what she used to read under the covers. Samantha Brick has a personal website. 1) What are you reading at the moment? Lots of ex-pats-who-have-relocated-to-France type memoirs. I’ve just negotiated a deal to write my own warts’n’all version of living the French ‘dream’, so I thought I really ought to read the others in this genre too. My favourites so far are the Carol Drinkwater series, she writes exquisitely.

Monday

The Spectator

Transcript: IDS on Today

From our UK edition

Iain Duncan Smith appeared on the Today programme this morning. In a heated interview with Evan Davis, the work and pensions secretary was interrogated about David Cameron’s radical welfare proposals. Conversation ranged from cutting rental payments for under-25s to protecting non-means tested pensioner benefits. The bulk of the exchange was devoted to discussing Cameron’s intentions, as he seeks to make welfare reform a central part of the 2015 election. Here is a transcript of those passages: Evan Davis: Okay, I’m going to quote a couple of things that you wrote in your green paper. ‘Successive governments have made well-intentioned but piecemeal reforms to the system.

Saturday

The Spectator

Summit of arrogance

From our UK edition

The folly of jetting off to an international summit in a pleasant tropical resort during a time of emergency at home was amply demonstrated by Jim Callaghan in 1979 when he arrived, suntanned, back from the Caribbean apparently unaware of the seriousness of growing industrial unrest at home. But at least he never actually uttered the words ‘Crisis, what crisis?’ This week, on the other hand, the EU Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, really did make a statement that deserves to enter the history books, as a symptom of the detachment of EU leaders from the economic crisis engulfing the eurozone.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 23 June 2012

From our UK edition

Home Europe faced ‘perpetual stagnation’ unless leaders acted to resolve the euro crisis, David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said at the G20 summit of leading economies in Mexico. He also said that he would ‘welcome more French businesses to Britain’, where they would pay tax at a lower rate than that imposed by the Socialist government. David Lidington, the Europe Minister, insisted that a proposal by European Union ministers to reduce the British budget rebate was pointless, as Britain would not accept it. Workers paid less than £13,000 a year will no longer be able to claim working tax credits when they are on strike, the government said.

The Spectator

Letters | 23 June 2012

From our UK edition

Full steam ahead Sir: Your cover story (‘A U-turn to celebrate’, 16 June) claimed that the government has ditched High Speed 2: we absolutely have not. The article was built on three assertions, none of which stand up to scrutiny. Firstly, HS2 legislation has always been planned for the 2013–2014 session of Parliament, as set out in my department’s business plan of over a year ago, and never earlier as alleged in the story. There is no delay, no rethink. Secondly, as the article points out, I do listen to the concerns of those opposed to the project because I recognise the impact HS2 will have and I care about how I deal with the local communities affected. But no one should think that means I no longer support the scheme.

The Spectator

Barometer

From our UK edition

Striking out Argentinian tennis player David Nalbandian was disqualified from the men’s final at Queen’s Club after he kicked out at an advertising hoarding, injuring the leg of a line judge sitting close by. It can be dangerous being close to a frustrated sportsman. — Former Manchester United player Eric Cantona executed a flying kick on a Crystal Palace fan after being sent off during a match in 1995. In 1987, while playing for Auxerre, Cantona punched his own goal-keeper, giving him a black eye. — In 2003, David Beckham received a cut above his eye in what his Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson described as a ‘freakish incident’ involving a flying football boot.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Shelf Life: Taki

From our UK edition

This week’s Shelf Life stars our very own Taki, the Spectator’s infamous High Life correspondent. As you’d expect, he has a clear idea of which literary party he attend, and who he’d try to deflower when he got there. 1) What are you reading at the moment? At the moment I am simultaneously reading Paul French's Midnight in Peking and Anthony Beevor's History of WW 2. 2) As a child, what did you read under the covers? As a child I did not read dirty books under the covers — I had a very strict German nanny — but adventure stories, mostly Greek mythology. 3) Has a book ever made you cry, and if so which one? I suppose Uncle Tom's Cabin made me cry, but I was very young.

Saturday

The Spectator

Much ado

From our UK edition

The American political scientist Wallace Sayre said that the bitterness of a political debate was inversely proportional to its importance. This has been true for US politics, where at each election time the issue of gay marriage divides the country — even when the president has no authority to either legalise or ban it. It’s all about sending messages and expressing values. This murky, often hysterical form of campaigning has largely been absent from British politics — until David Cameron, that is. The Prime Minister’s decision to legalise gay marriage has, from the off, been more about political positioning than equality. He has created a fuss which is, as Sayre would have predicted, out of all proportion to what is at stake. The pot has been stirred.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 16 June 2012

From our UK edition

Home The Church of England opposed government plans for gay marriage, noting that if they were brought into law, the European Court of Human Rights would probably oblige churches to perform such marriages. Michael Gove, the education secretary, said he expected children of five to recite poetry. Gordon Brown, the former prime minister, in evidence to the Leveson inquiry, flatly contradicted evidence that Rupert Murdoch had given about their dealings. Edinburgh saw 39 confirmed and 49 suspected cases of legionnaires’ disease, which killed one man. David Cameron and his wife, it was discovered, accidentally left their eight-year-old daughter behind in a pub one Sunday lunchtime this year. There was widespread flooding in England and Wales. Thames Water lifted its hosepipe ban.