The Spectator

Saturday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 11 February 2012

HomeA judge granted bail to Abu Qatada, once described by a Spanish judge as ‘Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe’, who was to be freed from Long Lartin prison and allowed to leave a fixed address in London for two one-hour periods a day, in order to take his youngest child to school. Ed Davey replaced his fellow Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne as Energy Secretary after Mr Huhne’s resignation to concentrate on defending himself against charges that he persuaded his ex-wife to accept his speeding points in 2003 to avoid a driving ban. The Metropolitan Police unlawfully failed to warn people that their telephones had been hacked by the News of the World, a judicial review, sought by Lord Prescott, ruled.

The Spectator

Economies of shale

The weather conditions of the past week could not have been better conceived to show up the inadequacies of Britain’s — and the rest of Europe’s — energy policy. A vast anticyclone extending from Siberia to eastern England has brought snow as far south as Rome and temperatures of minus 40˚C to Eastern Europe. With North Sea gas production in sharp decline, never has Europe’s position on the end of a long gas pipeline originating in Russia been so exposed. As that country’s demand for energy has spiked, so the quantity of gas which it is prepared to export to the rest of Europe — also gagging for extra energy — has slumped. The wholesale price of gas has soared by more than a third in a week.

Friday

The Spectator

The week that was | 10 February 2012

Here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk during the past week: Fraser Nelson says Andrew Lansley's NHS bill was completely unnecessary. Douglas Murray thinks Ken Livingstone will get away with his homophobic remark, but a Tory wouldn't have. James Forsyth reports on Osborne's pro-business speech on Tuesday, and spares a thought for the 30 ministers of state who've been passed over for promotion to the Cabinet. Peter Hoskin says too few questions are being asked about the Bank of England's decision to launch more QE, and wonders whether Cameron will turn his talk of gender quotas into legislation or not. James Plunkett backs Cameron's focus on quality apprenticeships.

Wednesday

The Spectator

Transcript: Stephen Hester on bankers and bonuses

This morning, the chief executive of RBS Stephen Hester appeared on Radio 4's Today programme to discuss the recent furore over his bonus. Hester revealed he nearly resigned over the crisis and agreed that bankers have been making too much. Here's the full transcript for CoffeeHousers. James Naughtie: Banker without a bonus? You might say he’s a lonely figure in his business; he’s Stephen Hester, Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland. The public furore about executive pay in a bank that’s 83% owned by the taxpayer caused him to forego the bonus he was awarded this year in the form of more than three and a half million shares, worth probably about a million pounds.

Monday

The Spectator

From the archives: Britain’s new Queen

To mark the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's ascension to the throne in 1952, here is the leader that appeared sixty years ago on our front cover. It was written under the editorship of Wilson Harris, who had been in the position nearly 20 years. Queen and Nation, 15 February 1952 The slow days are dragging their sad length along to the climax, when the mortal remains of King George VI will be laid, where so many of his forbears have preceded him, in the historic St. George's Chapel at Windsor.

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 6 February 2012

...here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: Fraser Nelson says the richest 1 per cent pay 28 per cent of the UK's income tax, so let's not scare them away. James Forsyth says Lords reform is going to dominate the next parliamentary session, but the government will have a tough time passing it. Jonathan Jones reports on two attacks on David Miliband, and finds that public opinion is split on Gove's school reforms. Daniel Korski thinks a massacre in Syria now looks inevitable, and argues that old comments by an Indian minister don't mean we should reduce aid. On the Book Blog, Sam Gyimah answers our questions about his reading habits. And Martin Bright says the best way for MPs to find out about apprentices is to take one on.

Saturday

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Letters | 4 February 2012

A woman’s workSir: I enjoyed Andrew M. Brown’s article on the rise of the ‘Dalis’ (28 January). As the working wife of a man who earns more than I do, I drew comfort from the fact that more and more women are becoming the main breadwinners. At the same time, it is irritating to think of all those useless men sitting about dreaming while their wives slave away from home. Perhaps we will all eventually reach the same conclusion as our more militant sisters — we don’t really need men at all.

The Spectator

Barometer | 4 February 2012

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

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.