The Spectator

Saturday

The Spectator

Barometer | 4 February 2012

From our UK edition

Bonus cultureSome have called for an end to a ‘bonus culture’ in banks and big firms. But bonus culture has been around a long time… — Around the year ad 70, Roman legionnaires received bonuses of 25 denarii to supplement their salaries of 225 denarii. — Bonuses were recorded by 14th-century Florentine banks, with one employee of the Peruzzi Company receiving 40 lire to supplement a salary of five times that sum. — In 1965 India passed the Payment of Bonus Act, which entitled employees to a bonus of 8.33 per cent of their salary, and at least 100 rupees, providing they worked for more than 30 days in a year. Who’s unbalanced?Nicolas Sarkozy says ‘Britain has no industry any more’.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 4 February 2012

From our UK edition

HomeFred Goodwin, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, was stripped of his knighthood by the Forfeiture Committee, which said he had ‘brought the honours system into disrepute’. Stephen Hester, the chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, turned down a £963,000 shares-only bonus payment in the face of ‘enormous political pressure’. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that the government was borrowing £2.9 billion less this year than expected and that there might be room for tax cuts in the budget next month. A man in Bournemouth found blue spheres of jelly an inch across on his lawn after a hailstorm.

The Spectator

Bank withdrawals

From our UK edition

When George Osborne became Chancellor, he took charge of a very large zombie bank with a medium-sized government attached to it. The Royal Bank of Scotland was nationalised in 2008 with assets of £2.2 trillion, almost four times state annual spending. The difference between RBS being run well or run badly could be counted in billions. The man who would make that difference was Stephen Hester, a top-flight banker who in a moment of madness had accepted the contract from Alistair Darling’s Treasury and got to work. He would not have known how his new ­masters would turn on him, demanding that he refuse his bonus of nearly £1 million. Hester’s bonus was almost twice as large last year — but then, fewer people cared.

Friday

The Spectator

The week that was | 3 February 2012

From our UK edition

Here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk during the past week: Fraser Nelson champions John Sentamu as the next Archbishop of Canterbury, and examines Labour’s chances in the 2015 election. James Forysth contemplates what Chris Huhne’s resignation means, and reminds us of the coalition's political purpose over Fred Goodwin. Peter Hoskin has a six-point guide to the IFS’ Green Budget, and disregards Miliband's Eurospecticsm. Jonathan Jones highlights the importance of the Scottish referendum question, and reveals the tuition fee effect. Sebastian Payne looks into the politics of the Falklands standoff. Peter Robins asks how dangerous cycling really is.

Monday

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 30 January 2012

From our UK edition

...here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: Fraser Nelson finds the prospect of party political police commissioners depressing, and doubts that 51 per cent of Scots really back independence. James Forsyth notes that Douglas Alexander understands Labour's problem, and comments on the party's attempt to seize on Stephen Hester's bonus. Peter Hoskin breaks down Labour's new line on the benefits cap, and reports on the government's problems over Hester's bonus. Daniel Korski reports on the worsening situation in Syria. On the Book Blog, Gloria de Piero reveals her love of books about recent US politics, and her respect for Das Kapital.

Saturday

The Spectator

Letters | 28 January 2012

From our UK edition

Behind the packSir: Melissa Kite (‘Labour’s Iron Lady’, 21 January) writes an excellent article examining the pros and cons of Yvette Cooper’s suitability for leadership of the Labour party. She is quite wrong, however, to state categorically that ‘Cooper’s intelligence is beyond doubt’. Cooper’s academic ability may be so described but, dear oh dear, anyone who could have sponsored, let alone championed, the ludicrous Home Information Packs (Hips) fiasco could never, by any stretch of the imagination, be described as having intelligence beyond doubt. Academic success and intellectual prowess are the result of having a good memory and the ability to read fast. Nothing more. Intelligence is quite a different matter.

The Spectator

Barometer | 28 January 2012

From our UK edition

Lords spiritualThe bishops in the House of Lords, who led a successful rebellion against plans for a benefits cap this week, are a remarkable survival of Lords reform. — While most hereditary peers lost the right to sit in the Lords as part of the House of Lords Act 1999, the number of bishops remained at 26, the number fixed by the Bishopric of Manchester Act 1847. — The archbishops of Canterbury and York, plus the bishops of Durham, London and Winchester, are automatically granted seats; the remaining 21 are drawn from the longest-serving bishops from the other 39 dioceses of the Church of England. — Lords spiritual serve until the age of 70, after which they may be made life peers. There is no representation, however, from the Welsh and Scottish churches.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 28 January 2012

From our UK edition

Home The government was defeated in the Lords by 252 to 237 on an amendment by the Rt Rev John Packer, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, to the Welfare Reform Bill, removing child benefit from the proposed welfare cap of £26,000 a year per household. Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, said in the Commons that he wanted to see legislation to give shareholders a binding (rather than the current advisory) vote on executive pay. MPs heard that the clock tower that houses Big Ben was leaning by 0.26 degrees to the north-west, which was just visible, but that it would not become unstable for more than 4,000 years.

The Spectator

Things fall apart

From our UK edition

Last week, the Islamist group Boko Haram launched a horrific attack, bombing five Nigerian police stations and killing 186 in one day. What started as a campaign targeting Christians in the north has now grown into a crisis that threatens to overwhelm the Nigerian government — and the church leaders who appealed for foreign assistance have had little response. When Nigeria’s president said he is now facing a crisis as grave as the civil war of 1967, in which a million died, his words were barely reported by the foreign press. This former British colony, which we controlled until 1960, has slipped off our political radar.

Friday

The Spectator

From the archives: Remembering the Holocaust

From our UK edition

To mark Holocaust Memorial Day, here's a piece Sam Schulman wrote for The Spectator 12 years ago, on his fear that ‘Holocaustology’ will create a new form of anti-Semitism. Did six million die for this?, Sam Schulman, 1 January 2000 The Holocaust dominated the moral imagination of the 20th century. Before the rise of Hitler, anti-Semitism was a parochial concern of the Jews; after the war it was everyone's concern, and everyone regarded it with horror.  The cause of anti-Semitism is a mystery to most Jews and most Gentiles, but it was not a mystery to Isaiah Berlin. He blamed it on the New Testament. That is true of one kind of anti-Semitism, based on history and doctrinal differences. Another kind is more subtle and only a century or two old.

The Spectator

The week that was | 27 January 2012

From our UK edition

Here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk during the past week: Fraser Nelson tells Tristram Hunt that capitalism is just what Britain does, and says Osborne owes Darling an apology. James Forsyth thinks the Tories will be delighted to see the battle over the benefit cap prolonged, and says Alex Salmond's strategy is both subtle and dangerous. Peter Hoskin watches Vince Cable teach Chuka Umunna a lesson about the past, and says Barack Obama's State of the Union was a Romney-seeking missile. Jonathan Jones says Mitt Romney's tax returns are a gift to the Democrats, and spots striking similarities between speeches by Obama and Nick Clegg. Hamish Macdonell takes a look at Salmond's proposed wording of the independence referendum.