Society

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Nobody defeats Rupert Murdoch…

It looks like the Dirty Digger has won his battle to take control of The Wall Street Journal. Unlike many people I don’t believe this means the sky will fall. I’ve written about Rupert Murdoch and the gruesome Bancrofts here and here. Shorter version: Rupe has no incentive to change the Journal’s newsroom structure and every reason to keep it the way it is. Does this guarantee he won’t fiddle with it? Certainly not, but there’s no such thing as total editorial independence from owners’ whims anyway so suck it up suckas and make the most of having a boss who loves (and understands) newspapers and is prepared to invest

The Spectator

The joy of the Bolshoi

A new swathe of Russians has hit town – dancing ones this time. The Bolshoi Ballet opened in swaggering style last night at the Coliseum with the full three-act version of Le Corsaire. Even paid-up balletomanes have often only seen the bravura duet from Act One. The whole thing was gloriously, unabashedly old-fashioned. The plot is negligible, everyone had at least four costume changes – the heroine sported a dazzling series of little hats, each one cocked at a fetchingly oriental angle – and a rousing finale was reached at 5 to 11 with a cracking thunderstorm and a shipwreck from which hero and heroine managed to extricate themselves with

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Bush’s banter

Nick Robinson has a funny little blog post up on the ongoing needle between him and President Bush. Back in December 2006, Robinson asked Bush if he was in denial on Iraq. Bush bristled at the question, he doesn’t much like Fleet Street’s finest who he reportedly views as a bunch of smart alecs and Robinson with his quick-fire question seemed to embody that. So yesterday when the BBC man popped up to ask his question, Bush grunted “you still hanging around.” But it was at the end of the press conference when Bush got his real dig in. As Robinson writes, the president looked at me, sweating in the swampy conditions,

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

This Washington Life

Quote for the Day: “In Washington, achievement is measured by how much legislation is passed and how much money is spent, not by whether the nation’s interests are advanced.” Cato’s Dan Griswold rolls his eyes (one assumes) at the House’s “great achievement”  in passing the new and monstrous Farm Bill.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Baby talk

I was struck by the fact James plucked out of that Newsweek article – that “every second child in London is born to an immigrant mother.” Could it really be true? Silly question –Newsweek is known for its accuracy, and originality. The data is in Table 9.2 of this Office of National Statistics Excel file – 53% of London births are to immigrant mothers. In Newham, it’s 74%. In Kensington & Chelsea, it’s 68%. The least is in Staffordshire, 7%. For some reason, the ONS also calculates fertility rates: a UK-born women has on average 1.6 kids – it’s 3.9 for a woman born in Bangladesh but living here. And

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Searching for an identity

This week’s Newsweek has a piece on what it calls “Britain’s post-Blair identity crisis.” Most of the article is about Gordon Brown’s current obsession with Britishness but this fact in it stood out: “every second child in London is now born to an immigrant mother.” This isn’t a problem if these children are being brought up in a way that leaves them feeling part of society rather than in opposition to it. (On that front, it is not encouraging that “only 26 percent of the 1.3 million British residents of Pakistani and Bangladeshi descent are fluent” in English). But it does show how imperative it is that we articulate a sense

The Spectator

Signs of progress in Iraq

Ken Pollack and Mike O’Hanlon—neither of whom could be called a neo-conservative, a Bush supporter, or a Republican—have a must read op-ed in the New York Times this morning on Iraq. Their view is that: “We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.” This is not to argue that everything is rosy in the Iraqi garden. As today’s Oxfam report illustrates there are

Saturday

The Spectator

Letters to the Editor | 28 July 2007

Sir: I’m very encouraged to see you doing such wonderful work supporting Boris Johnson in his bid to be Mayor of London… Why we need Boris Sir: I’m very encouraged to see you doing such wonderful work supporting Boris Johnson in his bid to be Mayor of London (Leading article, 21 July). Yes, it’ll be a great laugh and yes, Boris is a great personality and a good match for Ken, but that’s not why I think it’s so important. It is crucial for Boris to become Mayor because if, as now seems likely, David Cameron and his team of young lightweights are blown away by Gordon Brown at the

Tamzin Lightwater

Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody | 28 July 2007

Good news at last. Dezzy and Paddy (sorry, Mr Swayne and Mr McLoughlin) have successfully identified the traitors who are calling for a vote of no confidence in Dave.When you look down the list it’s clear that we are dealing with some extremely vulnerable people. MondayGood news at last. Dezzy and Paddy (sorry, Mr Swayne and Mr McLoughlin) have successfully identified the traitors who are calling for a vote of no confidence in Dave.When you look down the list it’s clear that we are dealing with some extremely vulnerable people. Sherwood our lifestyle guru has recommended aromatherapy massage, acupuncture and possibly re-birthing. Says if we’d paid sufficient attention to Quentin

Ursula Buchan

Anyone for shopping?

I thought it wouldn’t happen. I thought that because the natural world is free, and because gardening is principally about doing, rather than getting and spending, that gardeners would be hard to beguile. But I was wrong. Like the rest of the population, they have taken up shopping as a hobby. I thought it wouldn’t happen. I thought that because the natural world is free, and because gardening is principally about doing, rather than getting and spending, that gardeners would be hard to beguile. But I was wrong. Like the rest of the population, they have taken up shopping as a hobby. There was a time, definitely in living memory,

Taki

Pulling power

On board S/Y Bushido My closest friend Yanni Zographos, who died 11 years ago, had a system for picking up women with young children in tow. As he passed a mother pushing a pram he would announce to no one in particular, ‘Les jolies mamans font des jolies bébés…’ Starting in the summer of 1956, my first free year after 11 years in captivity, I put his theory to the test. In the 51 ensuing years I can confirm that neither Yanni nor I ever managed to pick up a single woman with that line. Still, we always remained upbeat and confident. Another favourite pick-up line of Yanni’s back in

Jeremy Clarke

Eye trouble

My boy’s mother’s husband was plastering a wall last week when a sack of lime fell off the scaffold and landed on his dog… My boy’s mother’s husband was plastering a wall last week when a sack of lime fell off the scaffold and landed on his dog, which was lying at the foot of the ladder. The sack burst open and some lime went in the dog’s eye. For nearly a week the poor dog’s cloudy, pus-encrusted eye introduced a welcome little drama into their united family. Would Duke lose his sight in that eye? (And, if so, would he still be able to retrieve shot birds with only

Douglas Murray

Diary – 28 July 2007

I am registered as a voter in Ealing-Southall and have a problem. Though a member of the party, I could not vote Conservative. The candidate put up by ‘David Cameron’s Conservatives’ had been a Conservative for a matter of hours and been parachuted in over any number of dedicated, and equally ethnic, party workers. I might have reined in my objections if it hadn’t been for the earlier elevation of Sayeeda Warsi to the shadow Cabinet and the Lords. After a recent run-in with her on the BBC’s Question Time she attacked me for referring to Islamic terrorists. I thought she only minded me identifying terrorists with Islam, but —

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Embro to the ploy…

Sunday’s New York Times travel section has a 36-hour guide to what to do and see in Edinburgh. Unfortunately it’s terrible, listing rotten pubs and feeble restaurants. Though it’s a) questionable how much attention people pay to this sort of mini-guide anyway and b) I can’t hope to defeat the NYT,  let me say that I’ll provide a much better personalised weekend guide to Auld Reekie to any reader who happens to be visiting the city this summer/fall/winter.  Can’t say fairer than that, can you? PS: The NYT opens its guide to the city thus: EVERY August, the global theatrical community — well, at least the part that is drawn

The Spectator

The world after Bush

This review essay by Samantha Power, a Harvard professor who is close to Obama, on where the Bush presidency is leaving the war on terror is well worth reading. Her main concern is that the American public, with little faith in the credibility of the government’s claims, may deny even cleareyed leaders the resources they need to meet the complex demands of neutralizing modern threats.”

Lucy Vickery

Modern muses

In Competition No. 2504 you were invited to invent nine muses for the 21st century.It was left to you to decide which form to use, so variety was the order of the day. Some went for straightforward lists; others for verse. D.A. Prince kindly provided her line-up with symbols, but most didn’t. While the lion’s share of entrants had fun coming up with 21st-century names, William Danes-Volkov went out on a limb, sticking to the designations of the original nine but giving them new jobs, more fitting to the modern age.Bill Greenwell hit the spot with ‘Proactiviope, the muse of business memoranda and blue sky thinking’ as did Michael Saxby’s

Mary Killen

Dear Mary

Q. A member of my social circle, a local celebrity of sorts, has created a Facebook group the title of which contains a glaring spelling error. I feel unable to accept her invitation to join, as doing so would generate notifications to my other ‘friends’, who no doubt would question my judgment. I now fear a froideur in my relations with said celebrity, who is sensitive to both slights and to any criticism of her work. Mary, what should I do? Name and address withheld A. Why not write on her message ‘wall’ that you are trying to join her group but the annoyingly overpedantic version of SpellCheck you have

Frank Keating

On the beach | 28 July 2007

A column’s seasonal staple: what to read on the beach this summer? A column’s seasonal staple: what to read on the beach this summer? Usual form is a rave notice, in matey holiday spirit, for any new book by an old friend. I plead guilty as charged. But this one’s still a terrific book. Be aware, mind you, as you loll in the sun that the Premiership football season will be in full spate by the time you’re home. The crazy carnival of kick whirrs into life again just two Saturdays hence. Not that it’s really been away, what with the transfer market’s monstrous money-changing all summer as well as

Simon Hoggart

Spectator Mini-Bar Offer | 28 July 2007

I’ve just been sent an order form for the 2006 Château Pétrus, now being held in bond. It works out at £917 a bottle (or, say, £15 a sip.) I’ve just been sent an order form for the 2006 Château Pétrus, now being held in bond. It works out at £917 a bottle (or, say, £15 a sip.) Clearly things are going swimmingly for the great names of Bordeaux — and indeed Burgundy. In the rest of France things are a little tougher. Which is why I always recommend people to try French wines from outside the most famous areas. To compete in world markets they have to try much

Graham Lord

Is it, like, such a tough ask to speak proper English?

We all know that correct English is no longer taught in most of our schools, but now at last the government seems to agree.A few weeks ago it announced the introduction of new A-level grades to make it more difficult to achieve the highest ranking. From next year pupils will have to gain 80 per cent to be awarded an A-grade A-level and 90 per cent if they are to earn an A* — and they will not be allowed to sit the exam again to achieve a higher mark.A damning research programme has just found that there are fewer school-leavers in work or training now than there were when