Society

Syed Kamall’s bid to be the Tory candidate in the race to be the next Mayor of London has not got off to a great start. In the face of strong competition from Zac Goldsmith, the London MEP emailed hundreds of Tory activists to win their support. Alas, the chummy campaign missive was addressed to the wrong people. ‘Dear everyone,’ came a swift follow up: ‘Well, you might have noticed that earlier today my team sent out an email from me with the wrong names on. If I called you “John” and your name is “Jane” or vice versa then all I can say is sorry for trying to change your

The Greek government is making one final throw of the dice. Just hours before Greece is set to default on its €1.55 billion payment to the IMF, Athens has proposed a new two year bailout from the Eurozone, funded by the European Stability Mechanism set up in 2012. Asking for a third bailout within hours of the second one drawing to a close shows just how keen the Greek government is to remain in the Eurozone. But this does not mean they are giving into their creditors’ demands. In a statement this afternoon, the Greek government said it still wants better terms: ‘From the first moment, we made clear that the decision

When the Green Party revealed their manifesto ahead of the general election, they were the subject of much ridicule as they promised to abolish the monarchy and get rid of the army. However, the policy that perhaps gained the most attention was a pledge to ban rabbit hutches. Now, even party officials appear to agree that the policy is somewhat mad. Speaking in a debate at the Left Field stage at Glastonbury, Green MEP Molly Scott Cato said the ‘loony policy’ was not created by officials, but instead was a result of their members having input in the manifesto: ‘We had a debate yesterday in the green field about why we have all

In today’s Observer, Will Hutton unwittingly highlights the poverty of the inequality debate in Britain. Gifted writers like him bang on about private schools the whole time rather than look at the far greater problem: inequality within the state system. He devotes a column moaning about the schools which, I suspect, will supply a good chunk of the students he’ll meet in his role as Principal of Hertford College, Oxford. “Social apartheid,” he says: a lazy analogy, suggesting a binary divide between state and private. In fact, the truth is far worse. Britain doesn’t have a two-tier system: we have a multi-tier system where educational attainment is directly linked to parental wealth.

Alexis Tsipras’ gamble in calling a referendum on the bailout deal has failed in two respects. First, it has not prompted Greece’s creditors to offer the country a better deal. Second, they are not going to extend the bailout until the referendum—so, it will end on Tuesday. This means that without capital controls, the Greek banks will not be able to open on Monday morning. As the Irish Finance Minister put it, ‘The crisis has commenced’. We are now waiting for two things. First, will the Greek parliament and president approve the referendum. Second, will the European Central Bank continue to prop up the Greek banks. But, at the moment,

For most of my adult life, I’ve heard people say that Scots are – politically – different to the English. Not small differences, but fairly fundamental ones. This never rang true to me; I grew up in or around military bases which bring families from all over the UK together and never noticed any difference. If anything, I noticed a bigger difference moving from the Highlands to Glasgow than moving from Glasgow to London. But anecdotal evidence counts for nothing, and you can’t deny that Scots have a tendency to vote for left-wing parties. But was this simply because they had the more impressive candidates, or because – as the

In serious competitive chess the play is regulated by time limits for completion of the moves. In the mid-19th century, players could take as long as they wished over their moves. This proved unsatisfactory and it was recognised that time needed to be rationed and the failure to meet time control would result in the loss of the game. There have been freak accidents with time restrictions. In the first round of Hastings 1895, the German grandmaster Dr Siegbert Tarrasch lost on time with one move to go against Amos Burn. The reason for Tarrasch’s time forfeit was that he had written his own name in the space for his