12-6
The Spectator
Saturday
Letters | 28 April 2012
Time-honoured paradoxSir: Tristram Hunt’s argument (‘Gove’s Paradox’, 21 April) seems convincing. At first glance, economic liberalism does appear at odds with social conservatism. However, one cannot exist without the other, as Thomas Hobbes realised over 300 years ago. Without a social contract based upon shared values and common interests, anarchy would ensue, making it impossible to trade freely and conduct economic affairs. Nothing suppresses freedom as much as chaos, fear and poverty. Social conservatism and economic liberalism are therefore, and paradoxically, two sides of the same coin. Hunt conveniently ignores Labour’s more profound, irreconcilable contradiction borne out of its revolutionary zeal.
Barometer | 28 April 2012
Marathon mortalitiesA 30-year-old hairdresser collapsed and died in the final mile of the London marathon, echoing the alleged fate of the world’s original marathon runner, Pheidippides, who according to legend ran 26 miles to Athens to announce victory in the Battle of Marathon in 490 bc before collapsing and dying. — A paper published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in 1996 studied two US marathons over a period of 30 years and found that of 215,413 runners, three had died suddenly during the race, at distances between 15 and 24 miles, and one had died immediately afterwards. None had any previous signs of heart disease.
Portrait of the week | 28 April 2012
HomeThe British economy went back into recession, shrinking by 0.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2012, following a contraction of 0.3 per cent in the last quarter of 2011. Government debt rose by £117 million over last year’s figure, to £1,022.5 billion, equivalent to 66 per cent of GDP. George Osborne, the Chancellor, lent the International Monetary Fund another $15 billion to help it bail out countries in the eurozone. In the Commons, Ed Miliband, the leader of the opposition, had earlier characterised Mr Osborne’s Budget as an ‘omnishambles’.
Leave those Lords alone
The Joint Committee on the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill could have saved itself a lot of bother if, instead of producing a lengthy report, it had simply quoted the words of Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland, in the House of Lords in 1641: ‘When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.’ That was the attitude of the British people, expressed as eloquently as can be through a ballot box, the last time that a proposal to change the British constitution was put to them a year ago. The alternative vote system was rejected as emphatically as Lords reform would be if the public were given a say. But Nick Clegg has learned from his mistake over AV.
Friday
From the archives: Chernobyl, as seen from Minsk
It was this week in 1986 that the Soviet Union admitted there was a nuclear accident in Chernobyl. We've dug out this fascinating account by Samuel Phipps, who caught in Minsk when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. A sudden evacuee, Samuel Phipps, The Spectator, 10 May 1986 Minsk 'You'll be national heroes when you get back to England,' said one of our Russian friends in Minsk, as we sat outside the hostel, waiting in the evening sunshine for our fates to be determined. Sure enough, pictures on Friday lunchtime television showed a relieved mother pouring champagne over her relieved Sloane Ranger daughter at Heathrow.
The week that was | 27 April 2012
Here is a selection of articles and discussions from this week on Spectator.co.uk... Most read: James Forsyth on Jeremy Hunt's troubles. Most discussed: Fraser Nelson on whether Ed Balls caused the recession. Most shared: Jonathan Jones on Ed Miliband's increasing popularity. And the best of the rest... Fraser Nelson thinks Ed Balls's economic argument is detached from reality. James Forsyth thinks the economy is adding to Cameron's woes, reports on Tories rallying around Jeremy Hunt and looks at Liam Fox's shot across the aid budget. Peter Hoskin reports on Nadine Dorries' Cameron and Osborne comments, asks what good a National Strategy would do and examines our fall back into recession.
Wednesday
Shelf Life: Rachel Johnson
Editor-in-chief of The Lady, judge of the inaugural Hatchet Job of the Year Award, author of Shire Hell and a keen skier, Rachel Johnson is this week's Shelf Lifer. She has eminently sensible suggestions for the English curriculum, reveals the guilty literary secrets of the Johnson dynasty and tells us about the downside of having a famous brother. 1) What are you reading at the moment? The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing, The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright, Frances Osborne's Park Lane, just finished Philip Gould's When I Die. Off the record - Fifty Shades of Grey. 2) As a child, what did you read under the covers? Enid Blyton.