Spectator articles from February 2009

Spectator archives from February 2009

Snowbama.(Barack Obama)(Editorial)
February 7, 2009... As Britain awoke to the stunning snowscapes of Monday morning, the nation could not make its mind up whether it was on the set of a huge Richard Curtis film, congratulating itself on its social cohesion and snowball-throwing geniality--or...

Diary.(Viewpoint essay)(Column)
February 7, 2009... I saw Henry VIII last Monday. He looked exceptionally thin and fit. No wonder, as he was played by the young and six-packed Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the BBC series The Tudors. As it was the Chinese New Year, with the usual three-day holidays, I...

The Scottish Parliament has declared war on me for speaking the truth about poverty.(POLITICS)
February 7, 2009... It takes more than an inch of snow to stop the wheels of Scottish democracy. The devolved parliament was hard at work on Monday morning, eight of its members engaged on a most sombre business: a motion formally denouncing a rogue political...

The Spectator's notes.(Winter of Discontent, 1978-79)(Viewpoint essay)
February 7, 2009... Watching white workers protesting in the snow, I cast my mind back 30 years to the Winter of Discontent. The year 1978/79 is the last time I remember being so cold, and taking such keen pleasure in 'bad' weather. It is also the last time that...

House of the Lords.(Cartoon)
February 7, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Diary of a Notting Hill nobody.(capitalism and British politics)(Viewpoint essay)
February 7, 2009... MONDAY Am bit confused about Responsible Capitalism. While wanting to Be The Change as always, the new RC guidelines are making the bagel run v complicated. Not sure the little place on the corner fully demonstrates a 'sense of...

Why would the English working class consider voting Labour again? Rod Liddle, a former glue factory worker, says that wildcat strikes have tapped a deep grievance: the anger of the English working class that it has been forgotten. These workers have been betrayed by the very party that was set up to protect and represent them.(Viewpoint essay)
February 7, 2009... It's lovely to see the former geographical entity Lindsey back in the headlines, a fleeting visit from a ghost from the past. Lindsey was one of the three subdivisions of the great county of Lincolnshire, if you remember, along with landlocked...

Flash Gordon.(Cartoon)
February 7, 2009... BRITISH JOBS FOR BRITISH WORKERS [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Iran will not unclench its fist, Mr President: on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Shah of Iran, Con Coughlin says that Iran's rulers today are devoted to the same militant objectives that drove Ayatollah Khomeini.(Barack Obama)
February 7, 2009... The heirs to Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic revolution have much to celebrate as they prepare to mark next week's 30th anniversary of the fall of the Shah of Iran's detested regime. The last nails were hammered into the Pahlavi dynasty's...

My ancestor's private memories of Darwin: Sir Norman Moore was Charles Darwin's doctor and friend for many years. Charlotte Moore, his great-granddaughter, reveals the intimate recollections in his private correspondence.(In memoriam)
February 7, 2009... 'I came to like Charles Darwin very much,' recalled my great-grandfather, Sir Norman Moore, in old age; 'he was so thoroughly kindly and so cheery and ready to laugh at what was worth a laugh.' I'd always known that my great-grandfather knew...

Standing room.(Viewpoint essay)
February 7, 2009... I've recently developed a callous indifference towards the torrent of amateur self-analysis that's infiltrating our everyday pattern of speech. I'm over 'issues'. Way too many people have way too many issues for my liking. And too many people I...

Turning 40 is a monsoon of my own mortality: Hardeep Singh Kohli enters his fifth decade clinging to his beige cardigan, averse to heartburn, comfortable in his footwear. But should he get a tattoo?(Viewpoint essay)
February 7, 2009... By the time you read this I will have turned 40. Forty. Up until a few days ago, 40 was just a number, plain and simple--the sort of number that followed 39 and preceded 41; the sort of number that bands from Birmingham placed after the letters...

We treat our pupils like Aldous Huxley's Gammas: the historian Lisa Hilton is dismayed by the government's latest proposals for the teaching of history in which the understanding of complex narrative will be marginalised.(Viewpoint essay)
February 7, 2009... Like any self-respecting adolescent, I spent most of my teenage years referring to my parents as fascists. What exactly that meant I had little idea, thanks to a state education in which world history consisted of Romans, mediaeval monasteries,...

A failure of fairness.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 7, 2009... Sir: Rod Liddle's defence of the BBC (Liddle Britain, 31 January) does not stack up. Of course people with close connections to Palestinians, those fully aware of their sufferings and traumas, were in the forefront of calling for the BBC to air...

The deflation delusion.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 7, 2009... Sir: I put down the Economist in disgust and picked up The Spectator, hoping for more sense. I was not disappointed. Thank you, Ross Clark, for succinctly demolishing the delusion ('A nation of savers and borrowers', 31 January), repeated ad...

Black box theory.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 7, 2009... Sir: Paul Johnson is at it again (And another thing, 31 January). He finishes his perfectly inoffensive paean to simplicity with the up-yours-Darwin corollary that we should be looking for a simpler explanation for the origins of the universe....

The material brain.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 7, 2009... Sir: Christopher Booker's assertion (Books, 31 January) that the genome project has hit a dead end is like saying in 1914, 'This relativity thing has gone a bit quiet.' If he still doesn't see why small genetic differences account for large...

Rusty smile.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 7, 2009... Sir: Jeremy Clarke (Low Life, 31 January) should be aware that he already has nonferrous fillings in his teeth if he has mercury amalgam fillings. Ferrous fillings would probably rust, which would not improve the appearance of his smile. I...

Some mistakes, surely?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 7, 2009... Sir: Further to Brian Willis's letter in your issue of 31 January, Paul Johnson's magnificent memory does appear to be less reliable than it used to be. In Mr Johnson's otherwise typically erudite article on Coleridge, there are three other...

Wire-cut.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 7, 2009... Sir: In one (mercifully) short column James Delingpole dismisses David Simon's The Wire as boring (Television, 31 January) before lauding Jonathan Ross as the embodiment of British wit. Is it too much to hope for that he shares the fate of...

An unlucky Barak.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 7, 2009... Sir: Referring to Dot Wordsworth's musings (Mind your language, 31 January) about the American president's name, how about Barak the Dyer in Richard Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten? He was neither fortunate nor blessed, indeed the reverse. ...

I'm a convert to shoe-throwing, and its power. But I bet they ban shoes in public pretty soon.(SHARED OPINION)(Viewpoint essay)
February 7, 2009... Where do we stand, then, on shoe-throwing? Me, I'm in two minds. Muntadhar al-Zaidi, I dunno, I think he carried it off. At least he threw both, and at least he was in the Middle East. Whatever happened next, is my point, at least he didn't...

Would Darwin have put atheist slogans on buses?(AND ANOTHER THING)(Charles Darwin)
February 7, 2009... The more I see of the intellectual world and its frailties, the more I appreciate the truth of G.K. Chesterton's saying: 'When people cease to believe in God, they do not believe in nothing. They believe in anything.' It is one of the tragedies...

We don't need this annual outburst of pipeline politics: the Kremlin wants Western Europe to be dependent on Russian gas, says Neil Barnett, but that doesn't have to happen if the EU is prepared--for once--to show leadership.(BUSINESS)
February 7, 2009... The annual New Year gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine assumed particularly menacing proportions this year, being longer than usual and coming in a bitterly cold, recession-bound winter. With a number of countries in central Europe...

Ending the Vile Traffic.(Sweet Water and Bitter: The Ships that Stopped the Slave Trade)(Book review)
February 7, 2009... SWEET WATER AND BITTER: THE SHIPS THAT STOPPED THE SLAVE TRADE by Sian Rees Chatto & Windus, 20 [pounds sterling], pp. 352, ISBN 9780701181598 [telephone] 16 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 ...

Travails with an aunt.(The Flying Troutmans)(Book review)
February 7, 2009... THE FLYING TROUTMANS by Miriam Toews Faber, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 219, ISBN 9780571224012 [telephone] 10.99 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Suicidal single...

Everest.(Poem)
February 7, 2009... EVEREST He's still up there--what he would have chosen for himself: to frighten-inspect the other climbers a friend of his said. People early on saw him try to work the breathing system-- the oxygen must have been long...

Time out in Tuscany.(The Last Supper: A Summer in Italy)(Book review)
February 7, 2009... THE LAST SUPPER: A SUMMER IN ITALY by Rachel Cusk Faber, 16.99 [pounds sterling], pp. 219, ISBN 9780571242566 [telephone] 13.59 [pounds sterling] (plus 2.45 [pounds sterling] p&p) 0870 429 6655 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In...

The true Stoic.(Stowe: The History of a Public School, 1923-1989)(Book review)
February 7, 2009... STOWE: THE HISTORY OF A PUBLIC SCHOOL, 1923-1989 by Brian Rees Stamp Publishing, 101 Turnmill Street, London EC1M 5QP, 20 [pounds sterling] (+ 2.75 [pounds sterling] p+p), pp. 361, ISBN 9780954487928, Tel: 07720 040435 www.stamppublishing.com...

Petra.(Poem)
February 7, 2009... PETRA Remember when Tommo found the library and fingered out that Blue Peter classic Petra: A Dog For All Seasons? That title clung to you like a Kick Me sign sticky-taped to the back of your blazer. You took...

Isherwood's fine memorial.(LIFE & LETTERS)(Christopher Isherwood)
February 7, 2009... In an admiring review (Spectator, 15 May, 2004) of Peter Parker's biography of Christopher Isherwood, Philip Hensher conceded, perhaps reluctantly, that 'Isherwood was not, in the end, a writer of the first rank'. This is probably true. The...

'Basically, I'm a spineless wimp': Steven Berkoff admits to Lloyd Evans that, despite his reputation, he's not tough at all.(ARTS)(Interview)
February 7, 2009... On the waterfront. This, literally, is where I meet Steven Berkoff to discuss his stage adaptation of the classic Fifties movie. Berkoff's east London office is a sumptuous, spotlessly clean apartment with wraparound views of the grey-green...

Open your eyes.(Palladio: His Life and Legacy)(architectural exhibition)
February 7, 2009... Palladio: His Life and Legacy Royal Academy, until 13 April [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a truly civilised society, a basic understanding and appreciation of architecture would be taught in schools. After all, most of us spend a...

City of dreams.(Die tote Stadt)(The Queen of Spades)(Opera review)
February 7, 2009... Die tote Stadt Royal Opera House The Queen of Spades Barbican At last, after 88 years, Erich Korngold's almost impressive opera Die tote Stadt has reached the UK in a handsome production, and in every respect the Royal Opera...

Caledonian whimsy.(Theater review)
February 7, 2009... Be Near Me Donmar Complicit Old Vic Here's the odd thing about the Donmar, the country's preeminent theatrical power-house. Its productions are nearly always stunning and rarely (very rarely) atrocious. They don't do so-so....

Keep it cool.(DGV: Danse)(Carmen)(Seven Deadly Sins)(Dance review)
February 7, 2009... Triple Bill Royal Ballet, Royal Opera House 'Saucy' and 'funky' are not terms one would normally expect to hear in relation to a ballet performance. Nor is the irritatingly ubiquitous 'cool', which is what my young(er) date uttered...

Still stood time.(The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)(Movie review)
February 7, 2009... The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 12A, Nationwide The most curious thing about The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is that it could receive 13 Oscar nominations when it is such tedious schmaltz, and not just any tedious schmaltz....

Setting the tone.(Television)("Nationwide" television show)
February 7, 2009... Nationwide began 40 years ago, and on Thursday BBC4 showed a tribute. The show ran nightly up to 1983, and was always the cheekie chappie of BBC programming. In the early 1980s I did a series of jokey sketches for them from the party...

Front man.(Radio )(Radio Four)
February 7, 2009... At the cinema the other night to see Frost/Nixon, at least five minutes of the commercial break were devoted to selling Radio Four. It was such an odd experience. Nothing to watch, just a blank screen, with Paul Merton and co. telling a few...

Get things moving.(Motoring)(automobile manufacturers' finance)
February 7, 2009... With Ford posting losses of over $10 billion, Honda shutting its Swindon factory until June and fields full of unsold cars, we might be excused for thinking that doom and gloom is here to stay. But we shouldn't, and we can start changing it...

Marked men.(High life)(Bernie Madoff)(Viewpoint essay)
February 7, 2009... Gstaad Last week I ventured down to Geneva for a meeting with my banker, a gentleman of the old school who did not get carried away by Bernie Madoff's siren songs. To the contrary, he went as far as Odysseus, tied himself to his desk and...

Best laid plans.(Low life)(Viewpoint essay)
February 7, 2009... A part from going to the nearest town one afternoon to have teeth out, I hadn't been out of the village for six weeks. I might have been depressed about this normally, but a jolly outing I had entered and underlined in my diary for the end of...

Fit for purpose.(Slow life)(smoking cessation)(Viewpoint essay)
February 7, 2009... I wonder how much of what we think we love and need is merely habit. It's only ten weeks since I stopped smoking 100 a day and now I hardly think about it. For sure, I fancy one occasionally, but I suppose I could say the same thing about...

Back to basics.(Bridge)(Brief article)
February 7, 2009... Rubber bridge is divided into optimists: 'I'm having a terrible run'; and pessimists: 'I'm the worst card holder in the club.' The moaning can sometimes be heard two streets away. Of course, no one is immune to a dip in form and sometimes...

File bodies.(CHESS)
February 7, 2009... Some games of chess are decided solely and simply because one side gains control of an open file with rooks and the queen, and then proceeds to dominate it as a springboard for invasion of the opponent's camp. One of the most celebrated...

Lost in translation.(COMPETITION)(French literature)
February 7, 2009... In Competition No. 2581 you were invited to take a passage from a classic of French literature and recast it in Franglais. The challenge was inspired by Miles Kington's masterly The Franglais Lieutenant's Woman and Other Literary...

1900: MCM.(CROSSWORD)(Brief article)
February 7, 2009... Round the perimeter from 1 runs part of a quotation (1,5,4,6,3,3,1,7, 3,5) (untrue of Dumpynose) followed by its author's name (forename, initial, surname). Corner letters make MYNAS NOISIER. Unclued lights include a deep colour, joyful song,...

I welcome Sir Jonathan Porritt's advice about population control.(STATUS ANXIETY)
February 7, 2009... According to Sir Jonathan Porritt, the government's green guru, couples who have more than two children are being 'irresponsible'. 'I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental...

Mind your language.(brioches)(Column)
February 7, 2009... While my husband was at a conference among the ancient surgical props of Padua, I took Veronica to Venice, to take her mind off the recession and Justin (who embodies it). At station buffets, the Italians have a funny way of making you pay...

Six of the best.(SPECTATOR SPORT)(rugby)
February 7, 2009... What treats await this weekend. An England Test match in the Caribbean; a north London derby in the increasingly fractious Premier League; and, joy of joys, at long last the Six Nations is back with three succulent games. There's always an...

Your problems solved.(library etiquette)(dinner party planning)(dog waste cleaning)(Column)
February 7, 2009... Dear Mary Q. A friend and I have been working in the new Eliot Reading Room of the London Library and are very pleased with it (the Ladies' in particular is very swish) but there is one drawback. A bespectacled man of Chinese appearance is...

Broken society.
February 14, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Flash Gordon.
February 14, 2009... IN THE LEFT-HAND CORNER, THE ONE-EYED SCOTTISH IDIOT! AND IN THE RIGHT-HAND CORNER, THE LOUDMOUTH PETROL-HEAD.... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Solidarity with the strikers.(LETTERS)
February 14, 2009... Sir: As a member of the English working class I write to express my approval of and agreement with Rod Liddle's article ('Would the working class vote Labour now?, 7 February). I would compare the action of the strikers with those of the...

Suicide in the depression.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 14, 2009... Sir: Matthew Lynn (Business, 31 January) takes J.K. Galbraith's tale in his book The Great Crash, 1929 of window washers being mistaken for distraught brokers as proof that no newly poor moneymen hurled themselves from tall buildings. However,...

Evolving belief.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 14, 2009... Sir: Simon Hoggart, in his review of Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life (Television, 7 February), says that David Attenborough refuted, by implication, the claim that Darwin believed in a Supreme Being by pointing out that he 'used to take his...

Reality of overpopulation.(LETTERS)
February 14, 2009... Sir: I have tried for many years to tolerate the mindless papistry of your magazine for the sake of its otherwise excellent opinions, but this week tries my patience beyond endurance. We are used to the weekly rants from the...

Beyond belief.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 14, 2009... Sir: Deborah MacCoby writes (Letters, 7 February) that 'though the Hamas Charter is indeed appallingly anti-Semitic, it played no part in Hamas's election campaign'. Really? That doesn't half take a bit of believing. Rene Dale ...

Stowe it.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 14, 2009... Sir: I am writing on behalf of my late wife, Judith, nee Roxburgh, to protest at the misspelling of the name of her kinsman J.F. Roxburgh in the otherwise excellent review of Brian Rees's Stowe, the History of a Public School (Books, 7...

Throwing shoes.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 14, 2009... Sir: I must sabotage Hugo Rifkind's theory of footwear throwing (Shared opinion, 7 February). A dictionary lately found in a Waterstone's sale informs me that 'sandal' is not Persian for sandal. 'Sandal' is a type of tree. The conversion to...

Ours not to reason why.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 14, 2009... Sir: Paul Johnson (And another thing, 7 February) shows his ignorance when it comes to scientific matters. Johnson asks, 'Why does natural selection lead to endless complexity?' But Darwin was asking the question 'How?' and not 'Why?' in trying...

O ye of little faith! This economic crisis is evidence that the market is working.(ANOTHER VOICE)(Letter to the editor)
February 14, 2009... Like skaters on a lake's frozen surface, we are sometimes reminded how thin is the crust of philosophical confidence on which our systems of political economy rest. Two years ago we were mostly agreed that free market economics had won the...

Health 'n' safety everywhere--except in the banking system; David Young was the first minister for deregulation, 25 years ago. What we need now, he says, is stronger regulation of banks combined with a bonfire of red tape for business.(CITY & FINANCE)
February 14, 2009... 'The President tells me that too much regulation is harming business,' Margaret Thatcher said, the moment I walked into her office for my weekly meeting. I had been appointed minister without portfolio some months earlier and the Prime Minister...

How many banks does the government want? Richard Northedge wonders how the Treasury will run competing banks, and whether it can ever sell them.(NATIONALISED BANKS)
February 14, 2009... So Business Secretary Lord Mandelson is planning to turn the Post Office into a 'people's bank'--to add to the taxpayers' portfolio that includes most of Royal Bank of Scotland, the biggest stake in Lloyds Banking Group, the rejuvenated...

No retreat for medal winners: the markets for militaria and wartime ephemera offer enthusiasts a relatively safe haven.(ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENT)
February 14, 2009... 'One of my American clients recently lamented: "If only I'd put as much money into military medals over the last year as I'd put into the stock market,"' says Peter Dangerfield, owner of online medals dealership www.medal-medaille.com. The...

'I decided to give it a go': Mary Wakefield talks to the actor Rory Kinnear about why he followed in the family footsteps.(ARTS)
February 14, 2009... It's a little awkward, standing nose to nose with strangers. Here, inside a lift the size of a train loo, are two young actresses, a PR man, one actor on the brink of proper stardom (Rory Kinnear) and me, all inching down through the body of...

I refuse to reinvent myself just because there is a new President and a recession.(STATUS ANXIETY)(Barack Obama)
February 14, 2009... I had quite a sobering lunch this week. It was with Bill Griffin, the former CEO of Kiss FM and now the strategy director of a big London ad agency. The main topic of conversation was the cultural impact of the recession and Barack Obama's...

Flash Gordon.(Cartoon)
February 28, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] OFFICER! I'D LIKE TO REPORT A NASTY INNER CITY STABBING!

Bonus issue.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 28, 2009... Sir: Ross Clark ('Big bonuses in the public sector', 21 February) summed up the challenge we face. The Institute of Fiscal Studies figure Clark quotes of a 12 per cent premium on public compared to private sector pay should be drilled into all...

The moral of the story.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 28, 2009... Sir: Charles Moore (The Spectator's Notes, 14 February) asks where the moral is in Slumdog Millionaire. Isn't it in the hero's truthfulness and faithfulness and a cracking good love story? The fact that he wins the money is...

Transferable experience.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 28, 2009... Sir: Lord Young ('Health'n'safety everywhere--except in the banking system', 14 February) says that when the Financial Services Authority was set up in 1997 'everyone who knew about bank supervision stayed with the bank; the FSA had to recruit...

Two tribes.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 28, 2009... Sir: Quentin Willson might have been converted to football ('The zeal of the football convert', 21 February), but how dull his experience was. The last time I went to a game in Ipswich we away fans adjourned to a nearby pub for a consoling pint...

Nantucket Graveyard.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 28, 2009... Sir: It is strange that, in a whole page devoted to American poets (And Another Thing, 21 February), Paul Johnson makes no mention of America's most important 20th-century poet, Robert Lowell. It is stranger still that when he discusses poems...

Spencer says.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 28, 2009... Sir: Following Dear Mary's comments about Earl Spencer mispronouncing Althorp, I have a pretty clear recollection that, as part of his millennial celebrations, Earl Spencer formally announced the change of the pronunciation of his home's name...

Move goods, not people.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 28, 2009... Sir: Matthew Parris (Another Voice, 14 February) claims that 'if we say workers should not travel to "undercut" local labour markets, the corollary that cheaper goods should not travel to "undercut" locally produced goods cannot be far behind'....

Lost in translation.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
February 28, 2009... Sir: I hope it is your editing rather than Martin Vander Weyer's 'Meribel franglais' (Any Other Business, 21 February) which has changed Christophe's surname from Gormier to Gournier. Alasdair MacKenzie Muscat, Oman

What the temptations on the high mountain mean today.(AND ANOTHER THING)
February 28, 2009... What are the salient evils of our time? They are twofold. One is social engineering, the idea that human beings can be changed, improved and moved about as though they are quantities of cement or concrete. Today, virtually all regimes, whether...