Society

Wednesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Have you heard the one about David Attenborough, a case of diarrhoea and a rat?

To London Zoo, where Mr S caught up with Sir David Attenborough at the launch of his new UKTV series Natural Curiosities. The 88-year-old broadcaster gave party goers pause for thought when he revealed what his least favourite animal was. ‘Rats. I don’t want to put you off your meal but when I was in India, I was by and large not afflicted by tropical diseases, but I did get a bit of the you-know-what and I had to run to a loo. I sat on the loo and I did what I had to do and a rat came out from between my thighs. That is not endearing.’ Happily, Attenborough said such vermin does

Tuesday

Barnaby Rogerson

Why is the V&A hiding a picture of Mohammed from its website?

The V&A has recently decided to remove an historic image of the Prophet Mohammed from its website. The image remains in the collection and will be made available to scholars and researchers by appointment. I am not sure it is a very uplifting example, this censorship of the past, but they are certainly not alone in doing this.  Indeed over the last generation, a slow but efficient iconoclasm has been at work in Britain pruning images of the Prophet from published books, not just about the life of the Prophet but also illustrated surveys of Islamic Art.  It is extraordinary how successful this campaign has been, based not on any physical threat but on a deluge

Steerpike Steerpike

Mike Tindall: Why in any way am I lucky with my in-laws?

The Duke of York attended the World Economic Forum last week in what was his first public appearance since he was accused of abusing an under-age ‘sex slave’. While Prince Andrew chose to speak out in Davos to deny the allegations, members of his family appear to be lost for words. Mike Tindall, who is married to Prince Andrew’s niece Zara Phillips, agreed to an interview with the Radio Times on the condition that ‘any questions about the royal family, including Prince Andrew, will lead to it being called to an abrupt halt’. When the writer did venture a question as to how his wife is holding up, he was met with a terse reply. ‘Let’s

Alex Krasodomski

Are the members of hacker group Lizard Squad cyberterrorists or cybervandals?

Another day, another hack. This morning, Facebook and Instagram went dark. Facebook has blamed a technical glitch; ‘Lizard Squad’ celebrated another successful attack: Facebook, Instagram, Tinder, AIM, Hipchat #offline #LizardSquad — Lizard Squad (@LizardMafia) January 27, 2015 Yesterday, the group claimed responsibility for defacing the website of Malaysia Airlines. One of the more active of many mysterious groups, they have claimed responsibility for a range of online mischief in the last year, from hacking into online games networks to the temporary internet blackout in North Korea in December 2014 (although the latter isn’t easy to prove). This kind of seemingly random hacking has been happening more often, and has been termed ‘cybervandalism’. A

Monday

Steerpike Steerpike

How will the Guardian and the BBC cover the Trinity Mirror phone hacking?

Trinity Mirror have admitted that they published 71 stories which were enabled by phone-hacking. Now eight cases are due to come before Mr Justice Mann at the beginning of March, with a two-week trial scheduled. Those they concern include Alan Yentob, Sadie Frost and Paul Gascoigne. Steerpike is curious to see what coverage the trial will get in the papers and from the BBC. Both the corporation and the Guardian have taken glee in the past at resting the phone hacking crimes firmly in Rupert Murdoch’s court. Giving the impression, of course, that the sin of hacking came straight from the blackness of Murdoch’s heart – rather than a sin that was spread right across an

Steerpike Steerpike

Should the Guardian apologise to David Cameron over orgasm blunder?

Readers of the Guardian had cause to splutter into their tea this morning after one bright spark seemingly put the wrong photo on an article advising a reader who has difficulty reaching climax during sexual intercourse. Some mistake surely by the @guardian website’s picture editor pic.twitter.com/HLufxoiuoW — Paul Callaghan (@PMCallaghan) January 26, 2015 Although the reader’s name was not listed, it is thought that it was not David Cameron writing in with his problem. Mr S imagines he would go straight to The Spectator‘s own Dear Mary should any issues arise. The photo on the article has now been changed to a more generic snap. It would certainly make an interesting read in their corrections column.

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Greece and the Eurozone, what happens next

The Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has called Syriza’s leader Alexis Tsipras to concede defeat. But n European Chancelleries, they will be holding their breath and hoping that Syriza do not manage to win an overall majority—the latest official projection has them just one seat short. If Syriza have to form a coalition, the German government, the European Central Bank and the European Commission will be hoping that it is with Potami, who would moderate Syriza’s demands. But if Syrzia wins a majority or forms a coalition with another party that wants to renegotiate the terms of the Greek bailout deal, then the Eurozone crisis will move into a new

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Oftsed’s campaign against Christian schools: now Gove is gone, the Blob is back

When Ofsted inspectors allegedy asked primary-age girls at Grindon Hall Christian School, Sunderland, whether they knew what lesbians did in bed, they (apparently) received insufficiently detailed answers. Also, pupils displayed scant knowledge of Hindu festivals. Now the free school has been placed in special measures. It may be that Grindon Hall is a nest of Christian fundamentalist bigotry. I rather doubt it, though. Likewise, I’m unconvinced – to put it mildly – that St Benedict’s Catholic comprehensive, Bury St Edmonds, ‘failed to promote British values’ by neglecting citizenship classes. A better explanation comes to mind. Having claimed the scalp of Michael Gove, ‘the Blob’ is bouncing jubilantly around the Department for Education. Nicky

Saturday

The Spectator

How the Spectator congratulated a 25-year-old journalist called Winston Churchill

In 1899, Churchill headed to South Africa as a journalist for the Morning Post to cover the Boer War. He was captured in an ambush of an armored train but escaped with £75 and four slabs of chocolate in his pocket in hopes of finding the Delagoa Bay Railway.  This from our archives, 30 December 1899 (link here).  The Morning Post of Wednesday contained a characteristic telegram from their correspondent, Mr. Winston Churchill, describing his escape from Pretoria. Mr. Churchill, who had been taken prisoner after showing great gallantry in the armoured train action near Chieveley on November 15th, was confined at Pretoria. Despairing of his application for release (on the disputable ground

The Spectator

‘We live as free men, speak as free men, walk as free men because a man called Winston Churchill lived’

This is the Spectator’s leader from 22 January 1965. Two days later, on 24 January, Winston Churchill died: Since the first news was given of his grave illness, the attention of the world has been concentrated on a quiet house in Hyde Park Gate. Old men and children, friends and strangers, came to pay homage and to be near him as he fought his last battle. The Archbishop of Canterbury on Tuesday prayed for him ‘as he approached death’ and the world waited and joined in prayer. There is more pride than tears in our grief. We are a free people because a man called Winston Churchill lived. By some

Douglas Murray

I don’t want to live under Islamic blasphemy law. That doesn’t make me racist

I have spent most of the last fortnight debating Islam and blasphemy and wanted to take the opportunity to put down a few unwritten thoughts. In the immediate aftermath of the Paris atrocities most of the people who thought the journalists and cartoonists in some sense ‘had it coming to them’ kept their heads down.  I encountered a few who did not, including Asghar Bukhari from the MPAC (Muslim Public Affairs Committee).  In the aftermath of the atrocity Asghar was immediately eager to smear the cartoonists and editors of Charlie Hebdo as racists.  From what he and others of his ilk have been sending around since, they appear to have

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Archbishop shows politicians a more honest way to answer the question

After Islamist terrorist atrocities, political leaders often rush to say that the attacks had nothing to do with Islam. One can understand why they feel the need to do this but the problem is the terrorists clearly do think, however mistakenly, that they are acting in the name of Islam. But if any politician wants to know how to answer the question about the link between terrorism and Islam, they should look at these answers from the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in an interview with The New York Times: There are aspects of Islamic practice and tradition at the moment that involve them in violence, as there are, incidentally,

William Cook

The perfect job for Britain’s disenfranchised young men: boar hunting

When I went to stay with my German cousin and he showed me the room where I’d be sleeping, the first thing I noticed were the hairy hides on the floor and the spears mounted on the wall. ‘Boar skins,’ he told me. ‘The forest is full of them.’ ‘And the spears?’ I asked him. ‘For hunting.’ I was intrigued. ‘Tell me more,’ I said. He didn’t need much prompting. Apparently, there’s not a great deal of skill involved – only nerve. A cornered boar will charge you. If you turn and run, you’ve had it. But if you stand your ground, they’ll impale themselves upon your spear. This story

Lucy Vickery

Spectator competition: Henry VIII’s bedroom tax (plus: poems about beards)

In Competition No. 2881 you were invited to take your lead from Carol Ann Duffy and provide an amusing poem about a piece of government legislation. The first line of Duffy’s poem ‘22 Reasons for the Bedroom Tax’, ‘Because the badgers are moving the goalposts’, is, of course, a reference to environment secretary Owen Paterson’s unfortunate attempt to explain the government’s failure to reach cull targets. A congratulatory slap on the back to Adrian Fry, who managed to wring an entertaining poem out of the Chancel Repair Bill. Commendations, too, to Mike Morrison, Virginia Price Evans, Max Ross and John Whitworth. Alan Millard takes the bonus fiver. The rest get

Friday

Ross Clark Ross Clark

Is your smartphone making you fat?

Matthew Parris is obsessed by an unsolicited app which landed on his smartphone and which, thanks to GPS tracking, is able to tell him how far he has walked in the past 24 hours. ‘I can’t stop checking, sometimes every 10 minutes, my average daily distances,’ he wrote in the Times last week. He has discovered, to his pride, that he covers an average of 3 miles a day. I would beware that app, Matthew. There is a reason why it is free and why it sneaked itself onto your phone ­and it isn’t with your health in mind. It has put itself there so that advertisers can follow you around. I

Molly Guinness

The perils of being posh

This week’s wazzock spat hasn’t polarised people in the way that arguments about class often do; most of us have just enjoyed the spectacle of the pop star James Blunt and the Labour MP Chris Bryant exchanging insults. In case you missed it, Bryant said it was a pity the arts were dominated by public school boys like Blunt, who responded in an open letter to The Guardian by calling him a ‘classist gimp’ and a ‘prejudiced wazzock’, and Bryant wrote back to say that Blunt was being ‘blooming precious’. Blunt said he’d become a pop star despite his poshness, not because of it. In 1969, Nigel Nicolson met some

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The British economic recovery, in 12 graphs

Everything seems to be falling into place ahead of the election for the Tories. Today’s data shows high street spending rising at the fastest rate for more than 13 years – and this is not a freak. In fact, it’s part of a broader picture which is more impressive (and promising) than George Osborne seems to realise. The Chancellor is a wee bit slow off the mark when it comes to recognizing the radical effect of his own tax cuts. He is still banging on about fiscal position when the consumer story is the one he should be telling. Here’s why: 1. Shops are busier than ever. Brits spent £331bn in

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Keeping the country sweet

From ‘Economic Quackery’, The Spectator, 23 January 1915: Ever since the war began there has been a tendency to rely upon the Government, instead of relying upon ourselves and upon the operation of economic laws. The political mischief resulting is the establishment of what is virtually an un-controlled Cabinet autocracy. The economic mischief, though it has already made itself evident in one important particular, may only be realized years hence. The instance to which we refer is the case of sugar. The public and the Government worked themselves up into a panic at the beginning of the war over the price of sugar, with the result that Mr. McKenna was

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Can George Osborne pass his own 13 tests?

Before George Osborne took to wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, he used to revel in his status as a political insider. In 2004, he wrote a piece for The Spectator setting out his model for forecasting the result of UK General Elections. Adapted from an academic model for predicting US Presidential Elections, it set out the ’13 keys to Number 10’ and argued that if a government held six of these it would win re-election. Here are Osborne’s 13 tests and how the government is doing on them: 1. Real per capita economic growth during the parliament equals or exceeds the mean growth during the previous two parliaments. Yes:

Thursday

The Spectator

Spectator letters: Islam and the roots of radicalism

The roots of radicalism Sir: Qanta Ahmed is to be praised for her dissection of Islamism and her call for a reformation of Islam (‘Let there be light’, 17 January). That call has been muted for decades but is now growing louder, and it is right to promote Muslims who see a way forward out of their current predicament. But her view of an ‘authentic Islam’ that is untainted by Islamist interpretation is surprisingly naive. Islamists do not, in fact, distort classical Islam to the extent that Ahmed suggests. Offensive jihad is a doctrine in the Quran and was a practice of Mohammed. Harsh sharia laws pre‑date modern Islamism by