The canonisation Time for Europe to The changing The Iron Lady of St Greta get tough on China face of Europe turned to rust Only two options are allowed. You can act as a teenager Few doubt that China will be the dominant global power Migration is not a new phenomenon. A new history of the The third and concluding volume of a landmark biography of that has just seen the light or be disowned as a climate- in the second half of the century – in response, Europe continent since 1945 shows how violent upheavals have Margaret Thatcher by Charles Moore is an utterly absorbing bashing, earth-hating cynic. must circle the wagons and bind ever closer together. driven the flow of people and reshaped Europe. account of the leader who helped defeat communism Johan Hakelius p.8 Walter Ellis p.9 Peter Gatrell p.10 James Barr p.15

Issue #11 | October 2019

A fortnightly Newspaper by the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Party | theconservative.online

Iain Martin on the final push to get it resolved p.5 Photo: UK Parliament - Jessica Taylor - Jessica UK Parliament Photo: 2 FEATURE theconservative.online theconservative.online FEATURE 3 Austrian centre-right surges PiS redraw the electoral map in Poland to claim n 29 September, the Austrian Prime Minister Kurz now has to seek Austrian centre-right surges SMEs are Europe’s backbone - people were asked to go to the to form a coalition that can see his gov- - p.2 Brussels must help them flourish polls for an early general elec- ernment reach the requisite 92 to have - Maggie Pagano, p.13 O tion, two years after the last one was a majority in the Nationalrat. In the- Tunisian outsider wins race - p.2 The ECB’s policies are creating held in 2017. ory this shouldn’t be difficult – he is more friction within the Eurozone For the last two years, the Austrian spoiled for choice when it comes to Shutterstock.com Photo: PiS redraw the electoral map in - Pieter Cleppe, p.13 Prime Minister, Sebastian Kurz, has choosing a coalition partner for a new Poland to claim victory - p.3 Edmund Burke: Founder and governed in a coalition between his government. A short history of Brexit Conscience of Conservatism own centre-right Christian democratic However, he has expressed an unwill- - Jack Dickens, p.4 - Gerald Warner, p.14 Austrian People’s Party (the ÖVP) and ingness to return to his former coalition European Council approves The Iron Lady Turned to Rust the right wing populist Freedom Party partners as a first choice in the negoti- Greens, however, that an alliance in compromise Brexit deal - James Barr, p.15 (the FPÖ). ation process, perhaps in the conviction national government might be politi- - Pieter Cleppe, p.4 In May this year, however, the then that they are now damaged goods. cally damaging for them amongst their Whatever happened to Never-ending Brexit story takes Scandinavian Art? leader of the FPÖ, Heinz-Christian Senior figures in the ÖVP who are members, for whom Kurz’s desire to Radical welfare policies are beginning to attract another twist - Iain Martin, p.5 - Alex Colville, p.16 Strache, then serving as vice chancel- close to Mr Kurz have said that a coa- curb immigration is unpopular. Europe must take a pragmatic Lost Classic: Scaramouche by Rafael lor of Austria in the ÖVP-FPÖ coali- lition with the Greens is now his first An ÖVP-Green alliance would traditional Polish liberal voters, potentially approach to fighting climate tion, became embroiled in a corruption choice. The Greens increased their require significant compromises VICTORY Sabatini - Gerald Warner, p.17 redrawing the electoral map change - p.6 scandal exposed by a sting operation vote by ten percentage points, after from both sides, one which would sig- Joker: A Smart, Dark look at Leading conservatives gather American Urban Life conducted in 2017. This triggered the failing to reach the 4% threshold to nal a shift in Austrian politics away in Rome - p.6 - Alexander Larman, p.18 collapse of the coalition, and of Kurz’s gain seats in the Nationalrat in 2017. from the right and towards the centre “A good time for Poland” with 49 seats, and the right-wing more years of PiS welfare benevo-

government, leading to a vote for an It is expected that Mr Kurz will try ground. Beyond environmental mea- Confederation with 11. The remain- lence and economic success – the Images - Getty Koall Carsten Photo: ECR Party leads large Nick Cave: Lets love in at last delegation to Conservative - Edward Thicknesse, p.18 early general election to resolve the to win them over with pledges to invest sures, the Greens would be likely to was the slogan at last Sunday’s Pol- ing seat went to a representative of growth rate was 5.1 per cent last Party Conference - p.7 crisis. in environmental projects designed to demand greater welfare spending and ish general election of the ruling the German minority community. year, the third highest in the EU – Corfu’s Secret Treasure Kurz and the ÖVP won the election reduce Austria’s carbon emissions. a relaxation of the ÖVP’s tough stance Law and Justice Party (PiS). Clearly However, it would be a mistake could change the entire political cul- Capital markets are already - Anne-Elisabeth Moutet, p.19 working to mitigate climate with a significant boost to their posi- Werner Kogler, leader of the Greens, on immigration. It would be a very dif- it had resonance with the elector- to assume that the relatively un-­ ture of Poland. change - Jack Dickens, p.8 Exploring textures and shapes tion in the Austrian lower house, the has previously expressed concern that ferent government from that run by ate, since PiS retained power in the dramatic seat count in the new Sejm So, amid that catalogue of elec- - Esme Mahoney, p.19 Questioning the canonisation of St Nationalrat. They won 71 seats out of there is a wide disparity between the the Prime Minister between 2017 and Polish Sejm with an overall majority, represents a static situation. PiS toral successes, how did PiS lose Greta is heresy - Johan Hakelius, p.8 Hamlet in the Hague makes the the available 183, and surged by 6% in environmental priorities and social 2019. won a larger share of the vote than achieved several successes in the control of the Senate? PiS declined grade - Gerald Malone, p.20 significantly from 61 Senate seats to Time for Europe to Get Tough the popular vote to a total of 37.5%. welfare policies of his party and those Ultimately, this may not come to any party in the past 30 years and broader scheme of things. First of all, on China - Walter Ellis, p.9 Tel Aviv is a Great Modern City Meanwhile, the government’s for- of Mr Kurz’s previous government. But pass: the main opposition parties, the extended its support into areas for- it discredited the orthodoxy among 48, with 51 required for a majority. - Charlotte Henry, p.21 mer coalition partners, the FPÖ, hae- he has also said that he will actively Social Democrats and the Fredom merly loyal to the opposition. electoral commentators that a large The apparent explanation is the dif- Taking on China - p.10 Waiter, where is my food morrhaged votes, losing ten seats and seek discussions with Kurz to see if Party, have ruled out working with one In contrast, it narrowly lost con- turnout would result in its defeat. ferent electoral system used for the The Changing Face of Europe (or wine)? - Bruce Palling, p.22 10 percentage points in the polls. Par- they can find common ground. another. This means that it could even trol of the Senate, the upper house Instead, it retained its overall major- Senate, which since 2011 has been - Peter Gatrell, p.10-11 ties who picked up seats included the Already, in the local governments be possible for Kurz to form a success- of the Polish parliament, where it ity in the Sejm on a turnout more first-past-the-post in individual Don’t buy the Natural Wine Hype How impeachment travails may - Guy Chatfield, p.22 Social Democrats (40), the Greens of Vorarlberg and the Tyrol, the ÖVP ful minority administration, divid- previously enjoyed a comfortable than 10 per cent higher than in 2015. constituencies. The opposition, by help Trump in 2020 (26), and the New Austria and Liberal governs in coalition with the Greens. ing and ruling amongst the competing majority. That, along with PiS’s fail- Of even more concern, though, to agreement, fielded only one candi- - Gerald Malone, p.12 Culture Digest - p.23 Forum (15). There are concerns amongst the blocks of the Nationalrat. ■ ure to secure a two-thirds superma- the Civic Coalition and other oppo- date in most Senate constituencies, jority in the Sejm, which would have sition parties will be the way in so that a single individual was carry- allowed him to draft a new consti- which the electoral map of Poland ing the flag for multiple parties and tution, will be the two disappoint- has changed during the course of thus attracting all of their votes. ments marring PiS leader Jaroslaw 2019. That map reflects a popula- That strategy worked. Civic Coa- Tunisian outsider wins race Kaczynski’s enjoyment of what tion that is most conservative in the lition increased its share of Senate was otherwise a sweeping electoral south-east and most liberal in the seats from 34 to 43, the Polish Coa- The Conservative is a fortnightly newspaper available in print and online hen Tunisia voted in the endorsement. In any case, a super- north-west. Those allegiances are lition won three, the Left two and published and owned by the ECR Party, formerly known as Alliance of second round of the Pres- majority, which would have required not based on recent developments. four independents were elected. The the Conservatives and Reformists in Europe (ACRE). idential elections last Sun- PiS to win 307 seats in the Sejm, was So tenacious is cultural heritage in arithmetic is not insuperable for PiS: W one of the independents is a PiS sup- day, 13 October, they were faced with a beyond the parameters of even the Polish society, they reflect the for- The Conservative can be read online at: fascinating choice between two starkly most favourable pre-election opin- mer borders of historically parti- porter, which leaves open the possi- theconservative.online different political personalities. ion polls. bility that, on some issues, REPRODUCTION RIGHTS It really was a fascinating contest: The election turnout one or two of the Polish All content and materials of The Conservative are copyrighted, unless on the one hand, there was multimil- was 61.1 per cent, the high- Coalition senators might otherwise stated. For permission to republish articles appearing in lionaire media mogul, Nabil Karoui, a Images - Getty Monasse Thierry Photo: est for 30 years. The vote PiS’s continuation in office and the vote with PiS, to produce a The Conservative, please contact the Managing Editor: secularist who fought both for boost- split 43.6 per cent to PiS draw or a majority of one. [email protected]. ing big business and championing the (compared with 37.6 per failure of Donald Tusk’s old party to The Senate’s powers poorest in the country through mea- cent at the last general regain power will be dismaying to are not sufficient to block sures to tackle unemployment. On Karoui ran upon a platform of the decriminalisation of homosexual- election in 2015) and 27.4 the PiS government pro- the other, there was the conservative increasing presidential powers over ity and legislation that ensures equal per cent to Civic Coali- EU integrationists. gramme. It has no role in law professor, Kais Saied, an avowed social and economic issues as a part of inheritance for men and women. tion, an alliance of liberal overseeing the executive. enemy of corruption and cronyism, plans to liberalise the Tunisian econ- Nonetheless, Saied has ridden into parties centred on Civic Platform, a tioned Poland. The west was ruled It may take 30 days to examine any who has received the endorsement of omy. Despite losing the vote in the final office with a great deal of support party founded by Donald Tusk, now by industrialised imperial Ger- legislation passed by the Sejm and Islamists. round on Sunday he remains popu- from young Tunisians. In his address European Council president, which many and became more developed, amend or reject it; but that inter- Despite their differences, both lar with some of the poorest regions of to his supporters after his election, ruled Poland from 2007 to 2015 (31.7 the east by Tsarist Russia and the vention can in turn be rejected by DISCLAIMER Karoui and Saied are united in their Tunisia, especially in the north-west- he thanked ‘young people for turn- per cent in 2015). Habsburg Empire. Eastern Poland the Sejm. For amendments to the ECR Party, formerly known as Alliance of Conservatives & Reformists status as political outsiders. Whoever ern hills close to the Algerian border. ing a new page’ and avowed that since The Left alliance (“Lewica”), remained more rural, Catholic and constitution the wording must be in Europe (ACRE) is a Belgian EUPP No: 0820.208.739, recognised and won this election was billed to bring Mr Saied also expressed a desire “Young people led this campaign”, he after being expelled from the Sejm nationalist. In 1900 incomes in the jointly approved by both the Sejm partially funded by the European Parliament. The views and opinions expressed in the publication are solely those of individual authors and a shakeup to the political elites who to do increase spending on the poor- would hold himself ‘responsible for by the electorate in 2015, clawed west were five times those in the and the Senate, but without a two- should not be regarded as reflecting any official opinion or position have governed the country since the est regions of the country. He became them.’ back 12.5 per cent of the vote, so east. thirds majority in the lower house of the ECR Party, formerly known as Alliance of Conservatives and Arab Spring of 2011 and the creation popular during the campaign for his The Tunisian President is the head that socialism will again be repre- That political map may now be PiS would not be embarking on con- Reformists in Europe (ACRE), its leadership, members or staff, of a democracy in 2014. personal austerity and his seriousness of state, and not the head of govern- sented, albeit modestly, in the new changing. At the European Parlia- stitutional reform anyway. The Sen- or of the European Parliament. At the final count, Professor Saied of purpose. The perambulating pro- ment. The office comes with several Sejm. The Polish Coalition, led by ment elections this year PiS gained ate does, however, have the power to won an emphatic 72.71 per cent of the fessor notably spent little on his cam- important powers over diplomatic the Polish People’s Party, the oldest some new support in the north- veto the holding of referenda. MANAGING EDITOR Richard Milsom votes cast by 2.7 million Tunisians. He paign, instead preferring to take to the and military positions as well as the political movement in the country, east of the country. Last weekend PiS’s continuation in office and won his landslide on a turnout of over streets and meet with people in the central bank, and has the capacity to won 8.5 per cent and the right-wing that trend in the north-east contin- the failure of Donald Tusk’s old PRODUCTION 50 per cent of the electorate, which country’s many cafés. give or withhold assent to laws. The Confederation, led by the colourful ued; but, more startlingly, PiS made party to regain power will be dis- Reaction Publishing (reaction.life) is seen as a positive by democrats in Saied’s appeal is that he is seen President is not, however, in charge of eccentric former MEP Janusz Kor- unprecedented inroads into Civic maying to EU integrationists. It is the country who feared that a loss of by the voters as a “clean” figure, the everyday processes of government win-Mikke, gained 6.8 per cent, suf- Coalition support in the north- clear that PiS will resume its reforms DESIGN faith in the political system might eas- untainted by the corruption of the and domestic legislation. ficient to enter parliament. west. Most sensationally, it took the of the Polish courts system and pur- VIDEOR o.d. (videor.ba) ily have led to a low turnout. Speak- country’s traditional political leaders. The fact that the socially conser- The results announced by the Pol- lead in the Warminsko-Mazurskie sue a policy of national autonomy KYIV • UKRAINE CONTACT ing to his supporters after the results Supporting this image was his lack of vative, economically liberal Mus- ish Electoral Commission awarded region, previously a Civic Coalition deplored by the Brussels bureau- European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) Party became known, Saied described them association with any political parties – lim Democratic party are currently 235 seats in the Sejm to PiS, the same stronghold. cracy. This result will confront EU Rue du Trone 4, B-1000, Brussels, Belgium as a “revolution within the constitu- he ran as an independent. the largest party within the Tunisian number it won in 2015. Since 231 That kind of development has to bureaucrats with the limitations on theconservative.online tional legitimacy”. He has promised to overhaul what Assembly of Representatives may seats constitute an overall major- be cause for serious concern to the curbing national sovereignty. In a [email protected] Mr Karoui, however, has com- he calls the “pyramid of power”, by just give him the opening he needs ity, PiS is securely back in power. Civic Coalition and liberal politi- wider context, it is likely to set pol- INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS plained that he was unable to run a fair encouraging reforms to the political for a radical overhaul of the political Civic Coalition won 134 seats, down cians generally. The obvious infer- iticians across Europe reflecting on Please address submissions and letters to the Managing Editor: campaign due to his temporary impris- system to give local councils greater and economic establishment. Or, yet from 166 in 2015. The Polish Coali- ence is that PiS’s radical welfare the electoral appeal of social conser- th th [email protected] onment under charges of money laun- authority. again, his overwhelming election may tion representation fell too: 30 seats, policies are beginning to attract tra- vatism married to generous welfare 7 - 10 November 2019 dering and tax fraud for several weeks He is also known to have very con- only end up being a turning point at compared with 58. The new winners ditional liberal voters, potentially provision promoting social mobil- ECRPARTY.EU • @ECRPARTY before the first round of voting. servative social views – he opposes which Tunisian history fails to turn. ■ were the Left, returning to the Sejm redrawing the electoral map. Four ity. ■ 4 BREXIT theconservative.online theconservative.online BREXIT 5

A short history of BREXIT European Council approves by Jack Dickens compromise Brexit deal NEVER-ENDING BREXIT here did Brexit start? In the W 2015 General Election, David Both sides had Cameron and the Conservative party to move to get a takes another plot twist managed to win a majority in defiance Britain’s Prime Minister had hoped for rapid approval of the of expectations. One of the key election historic agreement, pledges made by Cameron in the 2015 and both the EU new Brexit deal agreed with EU leaders. But there are still more manifesto was that he would hold a ref- developments to come in this dramatic story erendum on Britain’s membership of and the UK secured the European Union by 2017. victories in the latest In that referendum held on 23 June negotiations 2016, Britain voted to leave the EU by a majority of 52% to 48%. David Cameron, who had personally led the by Pieter Cleppe Remain campaign, resigned his posi- tion. He was succeeded by Theresa May who, although she had supported U leaders have been endlessly Remain, pledged to honour the refer- repeating that the binding endum result. E part of the Brexit deal as it May’s negotiating hand was week- was negotiated by Theresa May in end when she lost her majority in November 2018 was not up for nego- the June 2017 general election, and tiation. Yet in the end, that’s what she soon ran into difficulty over the happened. Given the challenges of Irish border question in 2017, an issue “no deal”, the incomplete prepara- which had been largely drowned out tions for it on both sides, and how by other policy questions during the it could easily escalate into a blame referendum. Irish Taoiseach, Leo game, this was a welcome develop- Veradkar, expressed concerns about ment and a UK “win” in itself. the return of a hard border between A revised agreement was approved Taylor - Jessica UK Parliament Photo: the Irish Republic and Northern Ire- by EU leaders at the latest European land. The EU declared that any with- Council last week. But what were the he British are famously At the British end, this process has approval from MPs. The DUP, an deal with the European Union. Yet drawal treaty would have to ensure individual wins for the two negotiat- adept at producing epic grown ever more fraught. This year Ulster Unionist party that previ- he bartered an improved deal that is that it did not jeopardise the Good ing teams? literary sagas involving a has been the parliamentary equiv- ously propped up the Tory minority endorsed by the EU. Friday Agreement between national- gothic setting. In the 19th alent of a horror story, with endless administration, has also been serially Other European leaders have ists and unionists. UK WIN Tcentury the English novelist Mary arguments between MPs always opt- difficult. noticed this and are planning ahead The result was the creation of the AN INDEPENDENT Shelley wrote Frankenstein, a mon- ing to delay a moment of decision. At All is far from lost though. The Brit- for relations after Brexit, assuming mechanism known as “the backstop”, TRADE POLICY Images - Getty Monasse Thierry Photo: strous tale centred on an ill-advised every stage, MPs have been able to ish government is pressing on and Johnson wins a subsequent British which was introduced into May’s The key problem with Theresa May’s experiment gone wrong. In the late agree on what they do not like. But trying to get the legislation required election. Withdrawal Agreement. This deter- deal was that it wasn’t guaranteed EU WIN with the EU as closely, if there is UK WIN 20th century much of J.K. Rowling’s they have been incapable of voting through both the Commons and the Emmanuel Macron, President of mined that, in order to prevent a hard that the UK would be able to con- INTRA-UK CHECKS a simple majority for this in the THE BINDING Harry Potter series took place at Hog- positively for a solution or a deal. House of Lords. The EU is monitoring France, has become an unexpected border in Ireland, the whole of the UK duct an independent trade policy, as Goods entering Northern Ireland assembly. It will only be able to do “LEVEL PLAYING FIELD” warts, a boarding school modelled The botched attempts by the Brit- by Iain Martin the situation. admirer of Johnson’s approach to would remain in the EU’s Customs the “backstop” arrangements basi- from Great Britain or outside the so four years after the end of the ARRANGEMENT HAS on the austere architectural style ish to leave have so far led to the There are signs too that John- getting things done. At his press Union until an agreeable border solu- cally meant that the UK would be EU will be subject to EU-level tariffs. transition. If it votes to dissociate, BEEN REPLACED BY made popular by the architects who departure of two Tory Prime Min- of Brexit. MPs had gathered in Lon- son’s determination to get Brexit conference at the European Coun- tion could be found. This backstop outsourcing its trade policy to Brus- There will also be regulatory checks, a two years “cooling off” period fol- A NON-BINDING ONE designed buildings such as the Palace isters, David Cameron and The- don for the first sitting of the House of done is building him a reputation cil, Macron said: “He (Johnson) is did not specify a time limit or an exit sels until alternative arrangements on top the already existing checks of lows, meaning that depending on Boris Johnson conceded to a “level of Westminster. resa May. Bitter divisions between Commons to take place on a Saturday as an unorthodox statesman with sometimes a colourful character, but mechanism. to prevent a hard Irish border were live animals between GB and NI. when the transition ends, Northern playing field” arrangement, which But for dark drama and ludicrous and within Britain’s political par- since the Falklands War in 1982. a longer-term future. Other Euro- it can be the case for all of us. He is When May put her deal to Parlia- agreed. The “Boris deal” changes Ireland can only abandon the close comes down to a promise to not overly plot twists, nothing can quite top the ties have spilled into rancorous pub- What went wrong? pean leaders, who found Theresa who he is, but I believe he is a leader ment three times between January that, as the UK will recover trade UK WIN alignment with the EU in 2027 or diverge from EU environmental and 21st century Brexit story as it has lic discourse. At times it has seemed On the agenda was a simple indica- May extremely hard work socially, with genuine strategic vision, and and March 2019, it was voted down powers in any case when the transi- THE INTRA-UK SEA 2029. social rules, but this won’t be enforce- unfolded in the House of Commons as though Britain’s long-established tive vote to endorse or reject the deal seem to have warmed to Johnson. At those who did not take him seriously each time by the House of Commons. tion period ends, at the end of 2022 CHECKS WILL BE LIMITED The DUP preferred a possibility able, as it’s part of the non-binding since Britain voted in 2016 to leave the party system, built around the cen- that Johnson secured in Brussels at the Council they looked genuinely were wrong and will continue to be After failing to pass a last vote through at the latest. During the transition, The checks between Northern Ire- to decide whether to opt into this political declaration. This is unlike European Union. The tale is the latest meeting of the pleased to see him. He makes peo- wrong.” the Commons, May successfully the UK will keep full market access land and Great Britain, in the Irish arrangement right after Brexit, with Theresa May’s level playing field something akin to a cross European Council last week. ple laugh and uses charm to make That is an astute observation. In the sought extensions to the UK’s Brexit in return for aligning with all EU Sea, will be limited and will only hit a veto for both communities on this, arrangement, which was part of the between the feature film The Johnson deal, amend- progress. weeks and months ahead, despite all deadline. The UK’s departure date rules and outsourcing its trade pol- companies, as personal goods and claiming this aligns with the prin- “backstop”, even if it also lacked real Groundhog Day, in which a The Brexit tale is something akin ing aspects of Theresa May’s It is worth remembering that John- the twist and turns, Johnson may yet moved from 29 March to 31 October. icy to the EU. If it wants to, the UK goods that “will not be subject to ciple foreseen in the Good Friday teeth, given that the EU wasn’t able to weatherman is condemned original and failed deal, son was not given much of a chance of get a happy ending - an orderly Brexit May resigned from office, and was can of course voluntarily extend the commercial processing in Northern Agreement that both communities open arbitration proceedings against to live the same day over to a cross between the feature involved a compromise on even getting close to securing a new via his deal. ■ succeeded as Conservative party arrangements foreseen in the transi- Ireland” will be exempt. need to be express “consent” with the UK if it thought the UK had disre- and over again, and the Net- film Groundhog Day, in which Northern Ireland and cus- leader and Prime Minister by Boris tion for a bit longer. Through the “Joint Committee”, any big changes. spected its obligations. flix series House of Cards toms. The EU side was pos- Johnson. Johnson declared that “the the EU will have a say in this, which Then making sure that Northern Also scaled back, as the “back- that casts politics in such a a weatherman is condemned to itive and going into the Backstop is dead” and pledged to take EU WIN is a slight UK concession, but then Ireland follows the UK when it leaves stop” was scrapped, is the role for bad light. live the same day over and over weekend Number 10 was the UK out of the EU, with or without NORTHERN IRELAND this is a considerable EU climbdown. the EU should be seen as a conces- the European Court of Justice, even Then, on Saturday, the again, and the Netflix series optimistic that they had the a deal, by the 31 October deadline. TAKES EU REGULATIONS French centrist MP Jean-Christophe sion to unionists, while at the same if it keeps some role: when there is scriptwriters of Brexit pro- numbers to pass a meaning- On 3 September, however, twenty In order to avoid regulatory checks Lagarde criticized that the deal out- time taking close alignment with the a question of EU law at stake in case duced their most implau- House of Cards that casts politics ful vote signalling approval of his own MPs voted with the oppo- between Ireland and Northern Ire- sources the protection of the EU’s EU as a starting point should satisfy of disputes related to the withdrawal sible development yet in in such a bad light. by the Commons. sition to pass legislation designed to land, Northern Ireland will be taking external border to the UK. EU nego- nationalists. In any case, agreeing to agreement, the “arbitration panel” the entire series. Rather Unfortunately, nothing is oblige the Prime Minister to rule out a EU rules, thereby de facto remaining tiator Michel Barnier also admitted a unilateral exit mechanism linked to needs to ask it to rule, but interest- than endorsing the deal painstakingly tre-right Conservatives and the left- ever that simple in the Brexit saga. By No Deal, the so-called Benn Act. in the single market for goods per- that “we cannot totally eliminate the a time limit has for a long time been ingly, the arbitration panel itself will agreed with the European Union, MPs wing Labour party, and an array of the time MPs met on Saturday morn- Johnson renegotiated a new deal manently. Of course, the territory risks”, suggesting that the EU is tol- an absolute taboo for Ireland. be able to decide when EU law is at in London voted for further delay. smaller parties, would come apart ing, an extra layer of complication and with the European Union. His deal, thereby also keeps full access to the erating some leaks in its – otherwise stake, which somewhat dilutes the This ushered in the ongoing tussle at the seams. A string of MPs have confusion has been added. agreed by the European Council last EU’s single market, which is a win of already quite leaky – external border. SLIGHT EU WIN ECJ’s powers. over yet more extensions and a frantic resigned and crossed the floor, or Oliver Letwin, a former Conser- week, has altered the controversial some sort for the UK. The UK should appreciate the EU EU LAW ON VAT WILL row on whether or not the Commons now sit as independents. vative and a veteran MP who has backstop which was present in May’s for its flexibility here. Perhaps any APPLY IN NORTHERN A BALANCED will pass the Brexit legislation wanted In the country, the divisions a reputation for over-complicat- Withdrawal Agreement. It has now UK WIN further EU concession here – to tol- IRELAND AGREEMENT AND by the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, between leave and remain have proved ing everything he gets involved in, been modified to include only North- NORTHERN IRELAND erate even fewer checks- can ulti- After Brexit, the UK will be able SENSIBLE COMPROMISE and an understandably weary EU. impossible to resolve. A vociferous had introduced an amendment. In ern Ireland with both a time limit and WILL REMAIN IN THE mately bring the DUP on board, as to scrap the burdensome VAT sys- This renegotiation has resolved a lot It does not mean that Brexit is off or Remain campaign has developed, essence, it sought to create a fur- exit mechanism. UK’S CUSTOMS ZONE there would then be less reason for tem and replace it with a US-style of the legitimate concerns the UK the deal with the EU is dead. Rather, it demanding a rerun of the referen- ther delay. It stipulated that Johnson After the government withdrew the British negotiators managed to per- the party to request safeguards on sales tax, but that won’t be possible had with Theresa May’s deal. Con- means that it remains unresolved and dum. At the other end of the spec- would have to pass the full legislation bill from the House on Saturday, after suade the EU to agree that North- Northern Irish “consent”. in Northern Ireland. There, the UK cessions had to be made by both there will now be occasion for days trum, Nigel Farage MEP, the leader of related to Brexit before the Commons the passage of the Letwin Amend- ern Ireland will remain a part of the will be responsible for collecting it. sides, and surely this still is an imper- and weeks of more shouting and dis- the insurgent Brexit party says loudly would consider declaring - to the EU - ment, it once again remains to be seen UK’s customs territory permanently. UK WIN To soften the concession, the EU fect deal, but given the complex agreement in Britain’s parliament as that any deal with the EU is surrender that they approve of the deal. whether or not the latest Withdrawal This is no theoretical matter, as some A UNILATERAL EXIT has agreed that the UK will be able nature of Northern Irish politics, it’s a bewildered and increasingly frus- and doesn’t count as “real” Brexit. MPs who want to stop Brexit com- Agreement will suffer the fate of its have claimed, because residents of MECHANISM FOR to apply Ireland’s reduced rates and very hard to get it right. The EU and trated British electorate looks on. In the middle of all this, trying to pletely spotted an opportunity and predecessors. Northern Ireland will enjoy the ben- NORTHERN IRELAND exemptions for VAT in Northern Ire- Ireland deserve credit for ultimately EU leaders - keen to get this sorted sort it out, is Boris Johnson. His hope allied with Letwin. His amendment Boris Johnson says he is committed efits of trade deals negotiated by the The Northern Irish Assembly will land, so the “tampon tax” can remain engaging, even if they had been drag- out one way or the other - sensibly at the weekend was that there would - passed - 322 to 306 - effectively killing to getting Brexit done. ■ UK, through a system of rebates. have the right to no longer align abolished there. ging their feet for far too long. ■ regard it as a postponement. finally - be closure on the first phase off Johnson’s attempt to get headline 6 EUROPE theconservative.online theconservative.online EUROPE 7 ECR Group seeks tough Europe must take a pragmatic approach ECR Party builds strong links measures to combat foreign to fighting climate change ECR Party leads large with Conservative parties political interference CR Group Co-Chair Raffaele year. from across the world Fitto has urged Europe to take The UN Secretary-General, Anto- delegation to Conservative nna Fotyga, the ECR Group E a bold but pragmatic approach nio Guterres, is expected to challenge he ECR Party and its delega- in its efforts to further promote Con- foreign affairs spokesperson, to fighting climate change. states and private investors to push tion to Manchester took part servatism. The ECR Party delegates A has warned that the European Speaking ahead of the Climate for further measures in the areas of Party Conference #CPC19 T in a series of events organized had a series of high-profile bilat- Parliament’s adoption of a resolu- Change Conference to be held in energy transition, climate finance, by the International Democratic eral meetings with political leaders tion on electoral interference should December in Santiago, run by the carbon pricing, and localised renew- he annual Conservative Party The Conference consisted of more in the United Kingdom and with an Union, the international alliance such as the former Prime Ministers be backed up by more wide-ranging United Nations Framework Conven- able energy initiatives. Conference (CPC) is one of the than 500 fringe events, panel discus- audience of business leaders, entre- of centre-right political parties, in of Canada and Australia, Stephen measures to combat cyber manipula- tion on Climate change (UNFCCC), On 4th October 2019, the EU Coun- T highlights of the political cal- sions, receptions and other network- preneurs, and key political players. which ECR Party plays a leading role Harper and Tony Abbott, with the tion by foreign powers. he said: “We agree on an ambitious cil set out its position for the con- endar and a great opportunity to come ing activities organized by think-tanks, This year, the message of the Con- as its main European regional part- Conservative Party Chairman James Fotyga said: “Although a majority approach to tackle climate change and ference. Their expressed priorities together as a Conservative family. magazines and businesses, and key- ference was simple and clear: Get ner. The IDU brings together more Cleverly, and other elected officials of EU Member States have strength- EP - Source: Union 2019 European Photo: reduce emissions. include: completing the implemen- This year, over twelve thousand note speeches by leading politicians. Brexit Done. ECR Party guests and than 80 Conservative parties from and members of the Conservative ened their capabilities in detecting He added: “We have to avoid tation guidelines for the voluntary people attended the Conference, that Conservatives from the UK, Europe delegates met with the British Prime over 60 countries, with which the Party, as well as with party leaders and countering hostile propaganda, extreme positions. To successfully cooperation mechanism of the Paris took place in Manchester, between the and across the world convened to dis- Minister Boris Johnson, Conserva- ECR Party engages and works closely from the IDU sister parties.. ■ the problem is however still there face the challenges of the green Agreement; enacting the second 29th of September and 2nd of Octo- cuss ideas and policies. The gathering tive Party Chairman James Cleverly,

and needs to be addressed at the agenda we need to be realistic and find review of the Warsaw International EP - Source: Union 2019 European Photo: ber, including a large number of MPs, was an opportunity for the ECR Party Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and highest levels.” an approach that protects our econo- Mechanism for loss and damage; MEPs, Ministers, and representatives and its members to engage, debate, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid She added: “The EU should develop engaging in increasingly extensive mies and businesses.” building on the review of the Lima working towards the fulfilment of the of leading charities and businesses. and connect with friends and partners Javid. ■ effective measures making it much voluntary checks. Fotyga warned: The conference will follow on from work programme on gender; and Paris Agreement to reduce domestic more difficult for foreign agents to “In addressing this issue, we must be the work of the UN Climate Action advancing technical work under the Greenhouse Gas emissions by at least operate inside the EU and force social careful not undermine freedom of Summit held in New York in Septem- Enhanced Transparency Framework 40% by 2030, compared with 1990 media platforms to develop stricter speech or allow social media compa- ber 2019, as well as the Regional Cli- However, the EU’s statement also levels. rules to prevent their platforms being nies to become privately owned cen- mate Weeks which have been held in highlights the success of decarbonisa- The EU has also expressed its desire used for disinformation campaigns.” sorship bodies.” Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, tion and the reduction of emissions in to move towards a longer term strat- According to a survey conducted Ahead of the European elections and the Asia-Pacific throughout the the EU between 1990-2017. The EU is egy of net carbon neutrality by 2050. ■ by the European Commission in earlier this year, Facebook unveiled November 2018, 59% of respondents new mechanisms to clamp down on said that they were concerned about political interference, including a cyber manipulation by foreign pow- measure which required those who Leading conservatives gather in Rome ers and criminal groups in domestic wish to run political and issue ads to and European elections. be “authorised” before launching an he 22nd Atreju Summit took Party President, Santiago Abas- insightful speech on the challenge of Various efforts have been made ad campaign. place from 19-21st Septem- cal MP, leader of Vox Party in Spain, climate change and warning against throughout the last year to respond Fotyga singled out Russia for its use T ber 2019 on the Tiber Island, Thierry Baudet MP Leader of the the green illusion: “In Europe, a rad- to rising public anxiety over inter- of “large-scale disinformation cam- in Rome. Atreju has become the main Forum for Democracy in the Nether- ical agenda is hidden behind the envi- ference in the democratic process. paigns, cyber-attacks and the use of annual gathering of all centre-right lands, and Raffaele Fitto MEP, ECR ronmental issue. This is an attempt In February, the European Council online trolls and fake news accounts.” Conservatives in Italy, and the ECR Group Chairman and board director at a systemic change in our society, adopted several conclusions drafted Officials in Brussels have suspected Party was well represented by a senior of the ECR Party. In addition, the we must empower innovators and by the Commission for “Securing Free Russian interference since 2015 at political delegation, playing a signif- ECR Party sent more than 50 inter- entrepreneurs through market mech- and Fair Elections”. least, when an East Stratcom Task icant role in promoting the ECR Par- national politicians, thought-lead- anisms and encourage the natural These measures included a num- Force was created, a specialist unit ty’s values at this major Conservative ers and academics from 12 European trusteeship and stewardship of our ber of non-legislative actions, such set up to identify Kremlin attempts to festival. countries to represent the party, lands to help solve climate issues. “ ECR Party members as organising regular meetings of the manipulate EU citizens in democratic Hungarian Prime Minister Vic- by participating and speaking on Santiago Abascal stated the impor- European election cooperation net- processes. Giles Portman, head of the tor Orban from the Fidez party, and numerous events, fringe meetings, tance of a shared European heri- participate in world class work, at which member states share task force, told the BBC in May 2019: the Italian President of the Council breakout sessions and attending tage. “There are many cultures, but expertise and good practices, as well “Attempts have been made to hack of Ministers, Giuseppe Conte, were social engagements. in Europe there is only one true civ- training sessions as identify common threats; setting and leak, or to denigrate particular joined by the Fratelli d’Italia party Throughout the weekend, a range of ilization, the European one. It is Debate on the Future of up a common framework in which politicians, or to misrepresent certain and its leader Georgia Meloni, and important issues were discussed, not the one that has conceived man as uring the conference, ECR and included sessions about polit- member states can work towards policies. The best way (for Russia) other Italian Conservatives, from just on Italy but regarding the Euro- being endowed with faith and rea- European Conservatism Party Members were fortu- ical messaging, digital strategies identifying disinformation cam- to strengthen itself is to weaken its Matteo Salvini’s Lega party, Berlus- pean continent as a whole. The cen- son... When Europe believes in these D nate enough to once again and social media, political coach- paigns; the creation of a “network opponent.” coni’s Forza Italia, as well as several tral theme of the summit was: “Let’s things we have prospered, when they utside of the main auditorium panel discussion. The debate focused or whether this burst of populism participate in a number of train- ing, public speaking, and leadership of multidisciplinary independent Ultimately, the EU Commis- other Italian Conservative Parties. change Europe for the Better.” have forgotten it we have become speeches, one of the biggest on the rise in populism and exam- may prove to be a relatively short- ing sessions, lively workshops and training. Best practices, successful fact-checkers” to expose disinforma- sion may have to simply bulk up Leading the ECR Party delega- Jan Zahradil, who was a scientist weak. Europe is poorer when we are O attractions of Conservative ined the dangers it may pose to global lived phenomenon. The panelists activities offered by the Conserva- campaigns, winning tactics; these tion on digital media; increasing “dig- its resources. Russia and Moscow tion was Jan Zahradil MEP, ECR before becoming a politician, gave an divided,” he said. ■ Party Conference are the numerous conservatism. then discussed core conservative tive Party, aimed to hone their cam- are some of the key takeaways our ital literacy’ to educate citizens about are set to spend up to 1.1bn euro on fringe events that take place. They Panelists included the President principles and catalogued differ- paigning abilities and hyper charge members and guests took away disinformation; and clamping down pro-Kremlin media, while the budget involve think tank directors, lead- of the ECR Party, Jan Zahradil MEP, ent approaches adopted by the Left their skills. The training sessions from a four-day training boot camp, on cyber threats and manipulation. of East Stratcom Task Force amounts ing journalists, and Cabinet Minis- Daniel Hannan MEP for the South and the Right in countering, or even were run by some of the most suc- designed to help improve campaign- Social media companies are to just 3m euro by the same date. ■ ters and focus on a litany of issues East of England, former PM of Ber- adopting, populist strategies. With a cessful campaigners in the world, ing and winning elections. ■ ranging from welfare reform to rural muda Sir John Swan, and former UK particular focus on Europe, they also broadband. The ECR Party hosted Minister James Wharton. discussed the extent to which Brexit a well-attended fringe event, bring- The debate at the ECR Party event has created single-issue parties in ing together over 200 international centred on whether the recent elec- the UK and whether this will become guests and a lineup of great conser- toral success of populist parties will more common across Europe in the vative speakers on a lively hour-long create a long-term shift in politics future. ■

More than 5,000 copies of the 10th issue of The Conservative were distributed to Conference participants and delegates. It was popularly received. Senior figureheads of the Conser- vative Party received copies, including Leader and Prime Minister Boris John- th th 13 - 15 December 2019 • GRANADA • SPAIN son, who was presented with his own ECRPARTY.EU • @ECRPARTY copy of The Conservative by ECR Party Executive Director, Richard Milsom. 8 ENVIRONMENT theconservative.online theconservative.online WORLD ANALYSIS 9

Few doubt that China will be the dominant global power in the second half climate change – it is simply to place it Time for Europe to within a more rational context. of the century – in response, Europe must The practical and ethical route out circle the wagons and bind ever closer of the current threat of climate disas- Amid the gloomy portents of climate ter is to make environmentally-friend- together, hoping to project a united front catastrophe, markets have been driving a lier energy resources a competitive and desirable alternative. This has already revolution in cleaner, greener energy been occurring for the last few decades. GET TOUGH Capital markets and clean energy entrepreneurs have been playing a by Jack Dickens crucial role in encouraging cleaner energy and the reduction of humani- he recent publicity acquired by we are succeeding at lifting unprece- ty’s dependency upon fossil fuels. climate change protesters has dented numbers of the global popula- This can be seen on the macro-scale, populations – instead, this energy tran- the whole EU to net zero carbon diox- ON CHINA T raised important questions: tion out of poverty without destroying where global levels of investment in sition is occurring because research ide emissions by 2050 is ambitious, by Walter Ellis does managing climate change and our environment. According to the renewables and reliance upon cleaner and development is making it increas- and it will come with sacrifices. Coun- preventing environmental catastro- World Bank’s data, in 1981 44 per cent energy resources have been rising at ingly attractive both to invest in and to tries such as Germany, the home of the phe necessarily have to curtail eco- of the world’s population lived in abso- the expense of coal. According to the use alternatives. EU’s largest heavy industries, includ- arco Polo may not Few doubt that China will be the activist leader, will visit China next nomic development for the world’s lute poverty. In 2013, that figure was research of BloombergNEF (BNEF), Across the world, countries and ing petrol and diesel vehicle manu- have been a conserva- dominant global power in the second month for talks focused on climate poor? Must there necessarily be a ten- reduced to just 10.7 per cent, a change Europe has invested a total of $698 bil- companies are embracing the potential factures, will potentially face a harsh tive, but he was cer- half of the century, dwarfing Russia, change and trade. He has already sion between economic growth and in no small part due to the success of lion in clean and renewable energy in economic dividends to be gained from transition. tainly a capitalist. The outpacing India and even eclipsing made clear to President Xi that Chi- ecological protection? These ques- developing nations in being integrated the last decade; and there is still room partnerships geared towards research Nonetheless, it is clear that nei- Mthirteenth century Italian explorer the United States. All that Europe can na’s cavalier approach cannot con- tions matter because it is often argued into capital markets and global trade. for far more investments to be made in and development into new, cleaner ther big state carbon protectionism greatly increased traffic along the do is circle the wagons and bind ever tinue unaltered and that, at the by those advancing an environmental- At the same time, the dire predic- a variety of areas. technologies. At the G20 summit at nor coerced deindustrialisation pro- Silk Road, the network of trade routes closer together, hoping to project a very least, there must be progress ist agenda that climate change is the tions of generations of climate alarm- New economic opportunities Osaka in June of this year, Japan, the vides the answer. We are living through between East and West first opened united front. over European demands for a relax- result of a crisis of capitalism, and that ists have failed to materialise. There afforded by cheaper clean energy have US, and the EU all pledged themselves a great transition, one in which the up in the second century. In the era “Belt and road” – a term dating back ation of the rules covering foreign this can only be overcome through has been less than half a degree of been made available across Europe. to a new partnership exploring the use shape and nature of our energy con- that followed, paper, pasta, tea and to the original “belt” of silk roads – is investment. drastic carbon reduction and the elab- global warming in the last four decades, Spain has become Europe’s leading of hydrogen fuels. sumption and economic behaviour is gunpowder were among the discov- one of three interlocking strategies Reflecting in Brussels on Italy’s Belt orate control of all economic activity an increase which has recently slowed market for subsidy-free solar energy. In the private sector, Primetal Tech- rapidly changing. It would be an enor- eries originating in China from which aimed at achieving China’s primary and Road initiative, he said that the by the state. down and not speeded up. The sea level, In June, Iberdrola, one of the world’s nologies, a joint venture by Mitsubi- mous act of self-harm to derail capital Europe would profit. From the very goal, the others being military might time of “naivety” in regard to China Many environmental movements, meanwhile, has also risen at the steady largest clean energy companies, shi and Siemens formed in 2015, has markets at a time when they are mak- earliest days, it was an exploitative and a dynamic domestic economy. was over. “For many years we had an such as the UK’s Extinction Rebellion, rate of about one foot per century. unveiled plans to create Europe’s larg- invested significantly in the discov- ing cleaner, greener energy consump- process, and as the centuries went by First Asia, then Africa, now Europe uncoordinated approach and China demand radical, altruistic changes The future is also less bleak than est solar farm in Caceres by 2022. It is ery of a means of replacing coal with tion more profitable than ever. and Chinese power declined, it was had to be made dependent on Chinese took advantage of our divisions. What to people’s lifestyles and economic alarmists would have us believe. The doing so because the levelised cost of hydrogen in the production of iron. If we can work to make climate mit- Europe’s “belt and road” approach money and purchasing power. It was Europe needs now is a clear, unitary region for decades to come. The issue The People’s Liberation Army is by ambitions. The central problem they UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on electricity for large-scale solar power If this is successfully carried out in a igation not only abstractly desirable that determined the nature of the a simple plan, direct in its objectives, view.” is that though the market is undoubt- far the largest in the world. China’s face, however, is that it is both unrea- Climate Change estimates that by in Spain is now twelve per cent lower trial process to be conducted in Austria but also practically profitable, then it relationship. that could only be accomplished by a This summer, during a visit to India, edly there – China has developed Navy and its Air Force are growing sonable and impossible to expect peo- the 2070s, the total effects of climate the wholesale price for energy. in 2020, then this would potentially might just be possible to change life- By the nineteenth century, with country with 1.4 billion people and an Macron said that the rise of China a dairy habit that in past centuries in leaps and bounds. Europe, by con- ple to de-industrialise and return to a change, including on ecosystems, will States and private investors are eliminate the carbon footprint which styles in a more sustainable direction. control of the opium trade the prin- ambition to match. You offer to build was good for everybody. “It’s good for would have been regarded as faintly trast, looks powerless. The absence of pre-modern economy in which life is, be equivalent to a reduction in aver- combining to stimulate energy tran- results from steel manufacturing In other words, to steal a line from the ciple means by which the West, now roads, railways, airports and seaports, China itself and its middle classes, disgusting – the price is far from guar- even an EU rapid reaction force, still in the memorable phrase of Thomas age incomes of 0.2 to 2 per cent. By sition, driving down costs and making (which currently accounts for about great Scots philosopher Adam Smith, including the United States, kept lending money to the applicant states and it’s good for global growth and anteed. Moreover, it is decided by less a European Army, is viewed by Hobbes, “poor, nasty, brutish, and then, however, each person on the renewables a real option for venture 7% of global emissions). it will not be by appealing to benevo- China quiescent, the resentment that in many cases, as in Sri Lanka, can regional growth.” But if “hegemony” – Synutra. When Sodiaal, France’s big- Beijing as evidence of a lack of serious short”. planet is expected to be 300 to 500 per capital. None of this is happening While there are many winners from lence, but to “necessity”, “advantage”, felt in Beijing was approaching boil- never be fully repaid. Then you oper- a word much employed by the Chinese gest dairy cooperative, whose prod- intent, giving rise to contempt. Soft In spite of popular catastrophising, cent richer. because of extensive anti-carbon reg- all this, however, there are also short- and “self-love” that we will succeed in ing point. First came the – was to be avoided, it was ucts include Yoplait, Entremont and power is one thing – and Europe has there is also cause for climate opti- To point this out is not to deny the ulations by states and governments or term losers. The incoming European confronting the challenges of climate 1911 Uprising that over- important that there should Candia, looked into the possibility of that in abundance. But raw power is mism. There is every indication that reality of the man-made nature of because of the benevolent altruism of Commission’s target of a reduction of change. ■ threw the last imperial be rules-based development, buying the Chinese plant, it was made what counts when the chips are down. dynasty. Next, in response Beijing would have Europe believe leading to (another Chinese clear that the market did not go with In the meantime, trade continues to Japan’s murderous favourite) “balance”. the factory and that the only way to to dominate much of the public dia- attempt to make China a – or at least pretend to believe – Unsurprisingly, Xi has, sell into the Chinese market was with logue between Europe and China, virtual slave state, came that its mercantile imperialism is up until now, shown him- a Chinese partner. with no shortage of talking points or the Kuomintang, led by the essentially benign. Europe needs the self somewhat less than On the Uighar front, it seems highly controversy. Heiko Mass, the German nationalist Chiang Kai- moved by Europe’s expres- improbable that China is about to foreign minister, probably put it best shek. In the years immedi- investment; China needs something sions of disquiet. Indeed, change its behaviour. As far as Xi, the when he warned this year that the EU ately following World War useful to spend its money on. he seems entirely sanguine. Communist Party Politburo and the had to stand united when confronting Maybe the Cult of Greta is best understood II, it was the Communists “French investors are wel- National People’s Congress are con- the world’s giants. “If some countries who triumphed, inspired by the ruth- ate the infrastructure of the client come to share development opportu- cerned, any interference in the affairs believe that they can do clever busi- as a kind of Bacchanalia, or at least an orgy, less, messianic figure of Mao Zedong. state as if it were Chinese, following nities in China,” he wrote this year in of the People’s Republic is an affront ness with the Chinese, they should not Only two options are allowed. to time have been known to grab the minus the wine and sex, I’m afraid. An ecstasy Mao would not only bring fundamen- up with factories and marketing that the French conservative newspaper to Chinese dignity that cannot be be surprised when they wake up and reins in a smaller setting. that allows us to escape reflection. tal change to China, but by the turn of tie everything back to Beijing. Le Figaro. Ties between France and tolerated. find themselves dependent.” ■ You can act as a teenager that has just Living, as we do, in a world the new millennium his heirs would In Europe, Italy is clearly a key tar- China were like “a myriad of small seen the light or be disowned as a with no shortage of intellec- usher in a new world order. get. Rome spent the money years ago streams converging into a mighty tuals, you would think the middle-of-the-road – or be disowned as a climate-bashing, The problem for Europe today is that should have been used to upgrade river”. climate-bashing, earth-hating cynic Cult of Greta would be averageness, literally earth-hating cynic. that Chinese payback for the years and replace its creaking roads and Macron remains to be convinced. an irresistible treasure only writes about cli- Of course, part of it is simply driven of humiliation is starting to eat away bridges. Now China is stepping in, tak- He wants there to be not so much a by Johan Hakelius trove for dissecting our mate change in gen- by a will to power. A lot of people, espe- at the foundations of the continent’s ing advantage of the country’s polit- mighty river, flowing into the South time. After all, we’re eral and Greta in cially teenagers, intellectuals and pol- economic independence. This month, ical instability and ongoing financial China Sea, as a two-way street, in not all enthrallingly particular these days. iticians, find few things as gratifying as Beijing celebrates 70 years of Com- crisis. Contracts totalling more than which European investors can more he Swedish National Agency old Greeks are something more than gloomy teenagers. Some He talks about experi- as judging and commanding others. munist rule, the feeling is growing €900 billion were signed earlier this easily put money into Chinese busi- for Education suggested the just one instance in a long sequence of of us are actually grown- encing a personal “cli- There will be a huge release of endor- that a shift is taking place that may year, including one to rebuild the port nesses or open factories and offices other week that Swedish one damn thing after another. Antiq- ups, presumably with an mate-revival” last summer phins within the Extinction Rebellion soon become unstoppable. of Trieste, vital not only to Italy but to that do not immediately fall foul of T China First regulations. teachers should skip the Greeks and uity is the Bletchley Park of civilisa- ability not to drown in our own and he recently preached to a protests across the world. No world leader could fail to be the neighbouring Balkan states. The the Romans. History has grown too tion. It provides a decryption machine sentiments and fears. There’s very lit- Christian auditorium and told them Part of it is probably a collective impressed by the sight of hundreds of prospect of Italy as a sino-trojan horse Beijing would have Europe believe large to fit into the curriculum. Some- to understand society and ourselves. tle of that going around. “you can face the truth of the apoca- midlife crisis: following a sixteen-year thousands of marching feet moving is causing disquiet across Europe. – or at least pretend to believe – that thing has to go, so why not clean the In that sense it all added up to yet Sweden may be exceptional to a lypse, tell us that everything may end old is rejuvenating to the chattering in unison in front of the Great Hall of Elsewhere, Athens handed over its mercantile imperialism is essen- stairs from the bottom up and get rid another reminder of the degrading degree, in the sense that we prefer one day”. classes. But you can’t help suspect the People, interrupted only by lines control of the port of Piraeus to Cosco, tially benign. Europe needs the invest- of antiquity? slavery of being a child of our age. And to hold one view at the time. In Swe- The home turf of Greta may be that what really strikes fear into our of tanks and vast machines. But as the the Shanghai-based shipping and ment; China needs something useful It was one of those proposals, so speaking of children… den disagreement is viewed not only somewhat exceptional, but it’s not age is not the outer workings of cli- West draws its breath in the face of logistics conglomerate owned by the to spend its money on. It is win-win – frequent these days, that seems like a A couple of weeks ago, Greta – as as unpleasant, but as a failure. In the unique. The Archbishop of Berlin, mate change, but the inner workings China’s formidable military displays, Chinese state. Cosco also runs con- much as the opium trade was win-win, ruse, as if someone’s checking whether with intimates and royalty, the sur- case of Greta, the race for conformity Heiner Koch, this spring compared of post-modern man. Maybe the Cult it must also confront the decades-long tainer ports in Valencia and Bilbao in with Chinese peasants desperate for we’re still awake. As it happened we name is no longer in use – was awarded seems to have driven the entire top- the “school climate strikes” inspired of Greta is best understood as a kind scandal of the eleven million Uighar Spain. In Portugal, Chinese invest- some form of relief from the drudgery were, and the idea was scrapped last the “Alternative Nobel Prize”, as the tier of society over the edge. by Greta with Christ’s triumphal of Bacchanalia, or at least an orgy, people held captive in the western ment in infrastructure is costed at €6 of their existence and the West only Friday. But the Agency is still on the founder Jakob von Uexkull likes to A high-ranking minister in the entry into Jerusalem. Yet, to analyse minus the wine and sex, I’m afraid. province of Xinjiang. The Uighar, Mus- billion, and rising, while in the Czech too happy to supply the means. warpath, looking for some other era to market his Right Livelihood Award. church has proclaimed Greta “fully this remarkable cult is taboo. It’s as An ecstasy that allows us to escape lims of Turkic origin, are regarded Republic a visit by Xi in 2016 led to Three years ago, Synutra, a leading erase for its scheduling purposes. The virtual and almost world-wide comparable with the prophets of if any attempt to understand what’s reflection. by Beijing as primitives, rather like massive investments in media com- Chinese baby-milk producer and dis- The striking thing was that the canonization of Greta Thunberg is a the Bible”. The editor of the cul- going on is heresy. Only two options Come to think of it, the scrapping the natives of Tibet. Across Xinjiang, panies, an airline and one of the coun- tributor, opened a massive processing th people – parents aside – ultimately remarkable phenomenon. It may even tural section of Dagens Nyheter, are allowed. You can act as a teen- of antiquity in Swedish schools may there are no fewer than 27 internment try’s leading football clubs. plant in Carhaix, in central Brittany, 14 November 2019 • BRUSSELS • BELGIUM responsible for the education of our be a first on this scale, even if messian- Sweden’s largest daily and tradition- ager that has just seen the light – or have been a way of trying to keep that camps, in which an estimated 800,000 President Emmanuel Macron, that was supposed to ensure a good ECRPARTY.EU • @ECRPARTY

kids, didn’t seem to realise that those ism and apocalyptic cults from time ally the voice of prissy middle-class perhaps rather the utter darkness secret. ■ Shutterstock.com Photo: Uighar are held prisoner. generally regarded as Europe’s most living for dairy farmers through the 10 COMMENT theconservative.online theconservative.online COMMENT 11 Photo: Shutterstock.com Photo:

he European Union has a problem with China and it can no longer defer confronting that reality. China is an anom- T aly in the 21st-century globalised economy and geopolit- ical arena: a Communist demi-superpower, the world’s second largest economy by nominal GDP (and the largest by purchasing power parity), an increasing actor in international affairs with an ever-expanding outreach, and a massive and unapologetic abuser of human rights. That profile inevitably renders EU-Chinese relations prob- lematic. Until recently, greed blinded the West to the wider impli- cations of China’s roaring economic growth, averaging 6 per cent for 30 years until 2015, and its emergence from Maoist isolation. The rush to target a market of 1.4 billion consumers fostered a blinkered indifference to issues that would have rung alarm bells in dealing with any other nation. Migration is not a new phenomenon. A new history The outcome of that stampede has been substantial. The EU is now China’s biggest trading partner and China is the EU’s second of the continent since 1945 by a leading scholar largest trading partner after the United States. But China enjoys shows how violent upheavals drove the flow of the advantage: last year, in trade in goods, EU exports to China amounted to €209.9bn, while Chinese imports totalled €394.8bn, people and reshaped Europe so that the EU had a trade deficit with China of €184.9bn. Beijing does not believe in a level playing field. It maintains by Peter Gatrell industrial policies and non-tariff measures that discriminate against foreign companies; in its domestic economy, government intervention has resulted in a dominant position for state-owned amously, Donald Tusk pro- political upheavals in the Middle East governments and firms in north-west Who are the people who are on the that they had a close affiliation with It is true that the Cold War framed It is sometimes said that the vul- smugglers to help them get to Hun- firms and unequal access to subsidies and cheap financing. Chi- claimed in a speech in Sep- and in particular the civil war in Syria Europe to attract reserves of labour. move today, and aren’t they very dif- the host society fails to take account debates around migration for four nerability of today’s migrants includ- gary via Italy and then to Germany na’s cavalier attitude towards intellectual property rights has tember 2015 that, “Today, sparked talk of an unprecedented So-called “guest workers” who arrived ferent from those who migrated in of the hostility they faced from many decades from the late 1940s onwards. ing refugees is compounded by the via Slovakia and the Czech Republic. long been a concern to other countries. everything is immigra- “European refugee crisis”. In truth, as in the 1960s and 1970s from southern the post-war era? It is true that the “native” Germans who portrayed Those who fled from communism actions of people-smugglers. Peo- No-one berated those who offered It is not necessary to be supportive of President Trump’s Ftion”. Nothing has happened since I shall argue, it is not unprecedented. Europe were expected in due course displaced population in Europe in them as “foreign elements”. The same could be portrayed as heroic “escap- ple-smugglers have a lousy reputa- their services to the beleaguered vic- aggressive trade policy towards China, with all its hostages to to lessen the force of that statement. Nor – since most Syrian refugees have to return to their homes and to be the late 1940s were predominantly happened elsewhere on the continent, ees”, including authors, musicians and tion. They are denounced for trading tims of civil war. fortune, to acknowledge that at least he is taking a robust stance, Indeed, “everything” in Europe has remained in the Middle East – is it fun- replaced by fresh contingents, but in Europeans, including ten million eth- such as to ethnic Turks who moved ballet dancers. But not everything was in human lives, seeking to profit from There is also a less well known side which all other parties have signally failed to do. There is now an always, not just today, been about damentally European, even though many instances they decided to put nic German expellees. But to suggest from Bulgaria to Turkey. as straightforward as it might appear the desperation of people seeking to to the history of people smuggling urgent need for the rest of the world to make it clear to China that migration and migrants. Note that the political ripples reach many parts down roots. As the Swiss author Max in hindsight: during the 1950s West- in Europe. From the 1950s onwards, it must conform to the same standards as other members of the I have dropped the first two letters: of Europe. Meanwhile, other stories, Frisch put it, “we asked for hands, but ern governments regularly sought migrants from Spain and Portugal global community. this makes a big difference. Immi- such as mass internal displacement in we got people instead”. to separate those who could demon- wanted to escape not only from pov- There are concerns more serious than discriminatory trade gration implies that people buy a Ukraine, figure only intermittently on Migration has affected all parts of strate that they were victims of polit- erty but also the iron grip of authori- policies. Last year an EU communications network was found to one-way ticket, whereas “migration” the international radar. Europe. For close on half a century, ical persecution from those who (as it It is true that the Cold tarianism under General Franco and have been hacked in a large-scale cyber attack that gained unde- takes account of regular return jour- Involuntary mass migration was Europe was divided by an Iron Cur- was said at the time) “merely disliked” War framed debates Antonio Salazar. These migrants – tected access to diplomatic cables over several years; it is widely neys and the prospect of returning to also the product of European decol- tain, but migration was as much a state socialism in Eastern Europe. around migration for trade unionists, students, journalists believed the Chinese military were behind this operation. one’s place of origin – in other words, onisation in the 1950s and 1960s. feature of the Soviet bloc as it was in Some commentators insist that and others – relied upon well-dis- Most serious of all is China’s flagrant and large-scale abuse of decisions not to burn bridges with Independence movements in col- Western Europe. Across the conti- we are living in an entirely new era four decades from the posed helpers to cross the Pyrenees human rights. The situation in Hong Kong is a global scandal. one’s place of birth. Migration speaks onies ruled by Britain, France, the nent, under different political and by virtue of globalisation and the late 1940s onwards. in the 1960s. Sometimes they were When the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s spokesman was asked at a of interrupted journeys and travel Netherlands and Portugal made life economic systems, migration has prospect of mass migration likely unceremoniously dumped over the press conference to respond to the EU Parliament’s decision to between different destinations. It enabled greater prosperity. However, to be unleashed not by war but by Those who fled from border, but they were often welcomed discuss Hong Kong-related issues, he blandly replied: “We hope acknowledges that migrants may migration has not only served a utili- “over-population” in the Global communism could be by European employers who needed the EU will fulfil its commitment to China-EU relations and simultaneously have a stake in more tarian purpose: it has supported social South. But observers who have taken portrayed as heroic workers and by liberal-minded gov- meet China halfway to ensure the sound and steady development than one place. and cultural transformation. To be the trouble to engage with migrants ernments who made political capital of China-EU relations.” The history of post-1945 Europe History tells us that sure, migrants were often made the who attempt the journey from impov- “escapees”, including from their presence, not unlike some The repression of the Muslim Uighurs in the Xinjiang region of is a history of people on the move. people smuggling scapegoats for social problems in host erished parts of sub-Saharan Africa authors, musicians modern-day politicians who are will- China has resulted in more than a million people being detained Migrants including refugees have countries in Europe, just as the blame confirm that many of them wish to ing to recognise the potential con- in re-education camps, a persecution that began in 2014 and has been neither marginal figures nor of is not a new for today’s over-stretched public ser- maximise opportunities from short- and ballet dancers. tribution of refugees from Syria and enlarged to the point where the construction costs of this gulag in fleeting significance, but have instead phenomenon. It vices is often laid at the door of recent term migration (including send- elsewhere. 2017 increased by $2.96bn. In April this year the European Par- been integral to the history of the runs like a thread migrants rather than on governments ing remittances back home) before cross the Mediterranean from North There is much more to be found in liament passed its sixth resolution of the past decade on Chinese entire continent. In my latest book for having failed to invest. But this going back. This is not to ignore the Africa, cramming their victims on my book The Unsettling of Europe, human rights abuse. The resolution identified nine major abuses The Unsettling of Europe I wanted to through the history makes it all the more imperative to fact that some will put down “roots” unsafe vessels without caring about including the portrayal of migration by the Beijing government – a telling indictment – followed by an connect the experiences of individu- of migration in and to understand the motives of migrants, in Europe, just as Italian, Turkish the risks to life and limb. Govern- in fiction and in film, and discussions anticlimactic conclusion. als who left their homes for one reason to appreciate how they created a life and Yugoslav guest workers did in the ments justify the resources devoted of where to locate migration in cul- The parliament called on the European Council to consider or another with the broad history of a Europe. for themselves, and to recognise how 1960s and 1970s. to the detection and interception tural institutions such as museums. targeted sanctions against officials in Xinjiang – presumably continent that has been transformed, they made Europe richer and more Where does this leave refugees, as of boats in the Central Mediterra- My aim in writing it has been to pro- their names are household words in Brussels – and a halt to politically, economically, socially and uncomfortable for colonial settlers diverse. the most vulnerable group of peo- nean not on the grounds of humani- vide readers with a new history of exports of cyber surveillance and predictive profiling apparatus culturally by migration. and colonial officials. When indepen- But isn’t the situation today com- ple on the move? From a European tarian rescue but because they seek post-war Europe, East as well as West, to China. This follows a long tradition of limp responses to Chi- Migration and migrants have come dence was achieved many of them pletely different from what it was standpoint, the situation faced by ref- to put people smugglers out of busi- that examines migration as the conse- nese provocations. in various guises. Men, women and “returned” to a “mother country” in in post-war Europe? My answer is ugees could hardly be worse. Broadly ness. Yet government action creates quence of violent upheavals near and Economic sanctions with teeth are the only response Beijing children alike were forced from their which they had hardly set foot hith- that it is important not to minimise speaking, European politicians favour the demand for the services of these far, but that also takes due account will heed. The Member States’ recently published report on EU homes because of violence: in the erto. These migrants portrayed them- the differences, but equally import- deterrence and restriction. In 2018-19 opportunists in the first place. of the perspectives of people on the coordinated risk assessment of 5G networks security highlights aftermath of the Second World War, selves as victims of persecution. In ant not to overlook some of the sim- the central Mediterranean replaced History tells us that people smug- move and their “unsettling” pres- threats from non-EU states or state-backed actors and suppliers. for example, ethnic German minori- any event, their migration was the ilarities. First, the numbers involved the eastern Mediterranean as the gling is not a new phenomenon. It ence in European society. It examines In that context the West must be vigilant when it is known that ties were expelled from Poland, Hun- result of the formation of new states. might seem to be “unprecedented”. chief hotspot. Governments now pre- runs like a thread through the history obscure and hidden personal stories Chinese firms could at any time be compelled by the Chinese gov- gary and Czechoslovakia; refugees But if post-1945 migration has been This is misleading, however. UNHCR fer to process claims for asylum off- of migration in and to Europe. During alongside more familiar ones. If it ernment to gather intelligence, in compliance with Article 7 of fled when communist parties tri- about ordeal, it has also been about estimates that 71 million people are shore, in countries such as Libya, the Cold War, a people smuggler could springs a few surprises on readers who China’s National Intelligence Law. umphed in East-Central Europe. Two opportunity – the opportunity to displaced worldwide as of 2018, but where the rights of migrants are regu- portray himself as a latter-day Scar- think they know the history of migra- We can only legitimately censure Donald Trump’s scattergun decades later, Greek Cypriots fled secure a better standard of living or more than twice as many people were larly abused. Many claims are refused, let Pimpernel, although many of them tion, I shall be very pleased. ■ policy towards China if the EU develops an equally robust but from northern Cyprus to the south to gain additional qualifications by wrenched from their homes during on the grounds that most claimants extracted payment for services ren- sophisticated programme for the containment of a state that has following the Turkish invasion of moving between countries or from and after the Second World War, 60 are “economic migrants” rather than dered and occasionally they betrayed transgressed behavioural norms beyond a level that can any lon- Cyprus in 1974. The disintegration the countryside to the city. Some- million of them in Europe alone. And individuals with a genuine claim to the people they offered to help. Peter Gattrel is Professor of Economic History refugee status on grounds of perse- During the wars in former Yugoslavia, at the University of Manchester and the ger be tolerated. ■ of Yugoslavia in the 1990s displaced times this took place through word in proportion to the world population author of The Unsettling of Europe: The Great more than four million people. In the of mouth, but migration was also the in 1945, the post-war crisis dwarfed cution. But, as indicated, insisting on according to the International Organ- Migration, 1945 to the Present. (Penguin second decade of the new millennium, result of orchestrated measures by what is happening today. this distinction is not new. isation for Migration, refugees paid Books, 2019) 12 COMMENT theconservative.online theconservative.online COMMENT 13 How impeachment travails may help SMEs are Europe’s backbone – Brussels must help them flourish

hatever the outcome of small companies are more robust in UK, pointed out at the meeting, Ger- become apprentices is just one of the the tortuous Brexit nego- times of crisis and they inevitably many’s economics minister, Peter Alt- ways the government is trying to help by Maggie Pagano tiations, there is one invest for the long-term. maier, was forced into announcing a overcome the skills shortage. W taxes on capital assets – also known subject on which all Europeans – The facts speak for themselves. string of new measures for the coun- By contrast, the big problem in TRUMPUS Republicans are confident that the Democrat IN frontrunner 2020being knocked out whether they are citizens of the Since the 2008 financial crash, for try’s Mittelstand after being stung by France is less state interference as a production tax – reduced if not European Union or not – can agree example, 80% of all new jobs in the UK fierce criticism that he was only inter- and more freedom for private busi- abolished. sets up an easier re-election run, but there are potential plot twists ahead on. I am referring of course to all the have been created by SMEs. In France, ested in helping big business. ness. According to Frédéric Coirier, He also had a warning for his Euro- start-ups, small and medium sized 335,000 jobs have come from mid- But the criticism worked. In co-president of Meti – Mouvement pean neighbours seeking help from businesses across the continent. It sized companies over the period, more August, Altmaier came up with a new des Entreprises de Taille Intermédi- their governments to boost enter- by Gerald Malone is these 23 million small businesses than a third of them in manufacturing. strategy to help Germany’s entrepre- aire – and chairman of Poujoulat, prise: “In France we want less of that everyone agrees must be helped Yet there is a problem at the top of neurs and medium sized companies the most important reform needed the state involved in our SME sec- to develop and thrive if the region is Europe’s political and to boost small busi- tor. Be careful that you don’t become onald Trump’s impeach- Two other presidents faced an impeachable offence as “Whatever to prosper. policy-making hierarchy. nesses in France is for like us and end up with more state ment is America’s very impeachment proceedings, where Congress says it is. There is no law.” What’s interesting is that almost Even though politicians taxes on assets to be cut interference.” own, never-ending Brexit. we stand now with Donald Trump: Wrong. When the Constitutional without exception when industrialists – whether they be in the drastically or abolished. Each country has its own wish-list The story bubbles, boils, James Buchanan in 1868 and Richard Convention of 1787 debated impeach- or politicians talk about these sectors, major capitals or in Brus- Even though politicians – whether Since the 1980s, when for what can be done to boost small Dstumbles, pauses, the single relentless Nixon in 1973 (abandoned when he ment, James Madison and Alexan- they refer to them as the “backbone” sels – say they know how they be in the major capitals or in the wealth taxes were business growth. In the UK, Martin feature being permanent domination resigned). Both commanded a degree der Hamilton framed the definitions of their country. In the UK, it is the critical SMEs are to their Brussels – say they know how critical introduced by President McTague, policy chairman of the Fed- of the media. of cross aisle consensus at the House of grounds of impeachment that still 5.6m SMEs which are the backbone. countries, in truth many François Mitterand, the eration of Small and Medium-sized The idea of removing Trump investigation stage. apply; “treason, bribery, or other high German business leaders call their of them ignore their cries SMEs are to their countries, in truth number of intermediate Businesses, reckons that improving Photo: Drew Angerer - Getty Images - Getty Angerer Drew Photo: started as a murmuring spring pretty The House Judiciary Committee crimes or misdemeanours”. Rep. 3.5m SMEs, including their Mittel- for help. With productiv- many of them ignore their cries for companies has collapsed apprenticeships for small businesses much immediately after his inaugu- comprises twenty-four Democrats Waters would respond that Congress stand companies, the Rückgrat, the ity low across the conti- from 5,000 to 4,000. is vital and is talking to the new edu- ration. Now it is a mighty torrent, and seventeen Republicans. A refer- can simply conclude that the almost French have the more lyrical descrip- nent, this attitude must help. With productivity low across (Germany has around cation minister about how vocational overcoming the last dam blocking its ence to the committee straight down incomprehensible flood of texts, tion – le colonne vertigral – and the change if Europe’s small the continent, this attitude must 12,000 of these mid- training can be improved for small way – House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. party lines would likely cause the tweets and telephone calls referenc- Italians call them the spina dorsale. businesses are to com- change if Europe’s small businesses sized companies, the UK businesses. In France, Coirier will She knows impeachment will prove Republicans on the Judiciary Com- ing Ukraine, upon which she and her And the Polish? Well, they are the pete with the world’s big- has 8,000 or so and Italy keep lobbying Macron for more tax toxic for Democrats at the polls. Yet, mittee to shun the process, turning allies rely, amount to “treason”. That kręgosłupit. ger trading blocs like are to compete with the world’s bigger roughly the same.) cuts while Atenstaedt hopes Altmaier on 25th September her own caucus impeachment into a partisan polit- is a political judgement, not a legal test. Never have these backbones been China and India. trading blocs like China and India. As three quarters of will go through with his promises to ignored her advice, pressuring her The words “other high crimes and needed more. With growth slowing The ambition sounds these intermediate com- Germany’s entrepreneurial spirit. into triggering the process. misdemeanours” were chosen after around the world, and in particular easy enough to announce panies are family-owned, And the best takeaway from the Impeachment has yet to reach a long deliberation by the framers over an across the eurozone, Europe’s entre- – get rid of red tape, cut taxes, hand become more competitive by offer- the tax on the transfer of company Club of Three? That, despite or in vote on the House floor, to refer the Why trigger a alternative, “maladministration,” pre- preneurs and small and intermedi- out a few tax breaks and let small busi- ing tax breaks, reducing bureaucracy shares was devastating. Coirier says spite of Brexit, the business leaders of matter to the Judiciary Committee. cisely to place them in the category of ate-sized business leaders are needed nesses free etc. But it’s not that easy to and launching a new campaign to help that President Macron’s recent deci- Europe’s three biggest economies will Why? Because at this stage no Repub- strategy that is criminal-like acts of a serious nature. more than ever to provide the jobs and achieve, as I discovered listening to a finance start-ups. sion to abolish most of the top wealth continue working with each other to lican will support it and precedent bound to fail? In Put it this way, if Aaron Burr was growth of the future. fascinating debate between French, Finding a solution to Germany’s taxes on financial assets is start- improve conditions for SMEs. Their holds that a degree of cross-aisle sup- not impeached for killing Alexan- As well as being the backbone to German and British small business skills shortage is another big problem ing to show positive signs, as are the next step should be to start lobbying port is gathered before referral. But, Washington last der Hamilton, it’s a bit of a stretch to their economies, small companies – leaders organised by the Club of Three for the country, says Dr Atenstaedt, more flexible labour laws which are the new Commission and MEPs in hothead Democrats, whipping them- week the buzz was argue that Donald Trump should be often family owned – provide the glue and Cercle d’outre-Manche in London particularly for its smaller companies being introduced. There’s more to Brussels to make sure policy-makers selves into a late-night show lather, that Democrats on impeached for dissing Joe Biden, the of so many local communities. Not recently. as most young workers would pre- be done: France is still the highest don’t pile on more rules and red-tape. will probably ignore precedent and former Vice President and contender only do they hold together the fab- As Dr Bernd Atenstaedt, the chair- fer to work for giants such as BMW taxed of all EU countries. Coirier says That would really stiffen the back- refer regardless. the left are doing it for the Democrat nomination. ric of small villages and towns, these man and CEO of German Industry or Siemens. Encouraging refugees to small businesses want to see other bone of the European economy. ■ The only two previous presiden- to derail Joe Biden’s The first is a potential crime. The tial impeachments – Andrew John- second may be dirty politics, but it’s son in 1867 and Bill Clinton in 1998 candidacy. hardly a criminal offence. Dressing – had a degree of bipartisan sup- the accusation up in words implying collateral damage. Senator Warren has and American flags. The ambiguity port for the process in the House. ical show trial, which the Founding that the national interest has been edged into a national Quinnipiac poll of the “Two China’s” policy stand-off The Judiciary Committee was not Fathers explicitly strove to prevent. besmirched is simply applying lipstick lead of 22% against Jo Biden’s 20%. had spilled onto the streets of Man- boycotted by the opposite political Has President Trump committed to the pig. The Ukraine debacle centres on pos- hattan. I was in the basement of the The ECB’s policies are creating faction. It will be this time. When an impeachable offence – even if all If Speaker Pelosi eventually calls a sible patronage for Biden’s son and Mott Street Chinese Community Cen- impeachment reached the Senate, of the whirling, contradictory accusa- floor vote which the Democrats will leaves a bad smell in voters’ noses. ter, and events were presided over by a which conducts the trial, it failed at tions about the Ukraine intervention win – the obsessed wing of her party Sadly, Bernie Sanders’ heart attack “Mayor”, elected by a cohort of the six- more friction within the Eurozone the hurdle of a two thirds majority. are proved? Representative Maxine will likely bring her to that – the is likely to scupper his campaign, in ty-six families who shaped Chinatown Johnson survived by only one vote, Waters, Chairman of the House Finan- impeachment process is ultimately spite of recent strong fundraising and as a community in the late 1890’s. ario Draghi’s last months research by Claudio Borio, the top time refinancing their debt. At least France. Nowadays central banks facil- Clinton by 10. cial Services Committee has defined doomed to failure anyway. The Sen- his protests that he is fighting fit. So, We started with the American as President of the Euro- economist of the Bank for Interna- in Zimbabwe things are more honest, itate runaway welfare spending. by Pieter Cleppe ate, Republican controlled, will not the political impact of keeping Joe national anthem, which I knew, fol- pean Central Bank have tional Settlements, the “Central Bank with the Central Bank paying out sub- Of course, central banks in the US, Biden’s name in the Ukraine frame by lowed by the anthem – this has to be M deliver the necessary two thirds been tumultuous. He managed to of Central Banks,” has demonstrated sidies directly with printed money. Japan and the UK engage in similar Some countries are also hit worse majority to convict. Game off. heading down the impeachment cul word perfect – the national anthem push through more bond purchases or that “the decline in real interest rates There is no such thing as a free practices. However, Greece, a coun- than others: Belgium has a lot of sav- Why trigger a strategy that is bound de sac will be to present Dodgy Don- of the Republic of China on Taiwan, “quantitative easing” on 12 Septem- over the last 30 years is not explained lunch, however, so someone has to try with a debt burden that would be ings, the Netherlands a lot of pension to fail? In Washington last week the ald with the easiest candidate to beat, which I did not. Everyone on Mott ber, despite the fact that Central Bank well by non-monetary factors but bear the cost. David Folkert-Landau, unsustainable without external Euro- funds that are banned from taking buzz was that Democrats on the left Senator Elizabeth Warren. Brilliant. Street was a paid-up member of the governors representing a majority of monetary policy seems to play a more the chief economist of Deutsche Bank, zone and ECB support, has paid less to big risks, while a relatively low per- are doing it to derail Joe Biden’s can- However, there are other possibil- “Yang Gang”. eurozone economic output opposed significant role”. estimates that negative interest rates borrow over a ten year period than the centage of Germans own real estate. didacy. Professional Trump cam- ities. Enter stage centre another con- Cue Representative Alexandria it, also because it was “open-ended”, The ECB has been using various amount to an annual tax on Euro- United States, whose currency under- Just like fiscal transfers, these mone- paigners were cautiously rubbing tender for the Democratic nomination. Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat, New York, without a time-limit. Not only was methods to keep interest pins the world economy. tary transfers ultimately also threaten their hands at the prospect, because Welcome, Andrew Yang, the entrepre- the left-winger who clearly had no there open opposition by German rates low. This includes its Greece now also enjoys the Eurozone as they create more dis- it could leave Trump facing Senator neur hopeful from Schenectady, New idea where she was, or to whom she and Dutch Central Bankers, but also general interest rate set- negative rates, meaning unity: those having to pay aren’t happy Warren in November next year. York, who squeaked into the latest was talking. She banged on about France’s Central Bank chief resisted. ting policies, whereby it investors pay the Greek and those having to accept conditions The Trump team would rather not televised candidates’ debate. He scored reversing evil Trump’s sanctions Governments waded in. Belgium’s sets negative rates, as well It’s not only an issue that savers government for the priv- linked to the payments aren’t either. have an ongoing impeachment pro- 3% in a Quinnipiac poll. His funding is against Chinese people, upending Finance Minister warned that the as “Quantitative Easing”, are hit and that asset prices are ilege of lending to it. This The Eurozone is no stranger to cess at all. Who knows what might surging – a good litmus test of momen- immigration controls and looking ECB’s policies hit savers and increase which amounts to creating distorted, given that people buy makes it clear how far the monetary actions with attached polit- crawl out of the woodwork? Or their tum. On October 2nd his campaign forward to impeachment, blissfully inequality. Ahead of the decision, the new money, which is then ECB has gone. ical conditions. The ECB has sent candidate, never an exemplar of announced he had raised $10m in the unaware that she had stumbled into Dutch government had stated that the used to buy bonds, including hard assets to avoid debasement The official line of the various letters to governments with self-restraint, may tweet in the heat third fund-raising quarter. the wrong China. policy suppresses interest rates, with government bonds issued of their savings. ECB is that we need all instructions in the past, suggesting of the moment. But, the main cause In New York earlier this month I She arrived disruptively late, then their Christian Democratic coalition by Eurozone governments. this to “achieve” a 2 per- monetary support may end unless for celebration in Connecticut Ave- found myself on Andrew Yang’s home dodged out discourteously early. It partner even accusing the ECB of Beyond negative rates and QE, it has zone savings equal to EUR 160 billion. cent inflation target. Originally, this they agree. With the arrival of Draghi’s nue’s Russian restaurant, Mari Vanna, territory, a celebration of the found- was all show, “Me, Me Me”; an apt endangering Dutch pensions, which also been lowering collateral require- That is not very democratic, given that was interpreted as a maximum limit, successor, Christine Lagarde, who is where a coterie of young White House ing of the Republic of China in 1912. metaphor for an impeachment pro- have had to be cut due to ongoing low ments for banks in Eurozone countries national parliaments have no say over but somehow the ECB gets away first and foremost a politician, an even staffers could not believe their luck, It was hosted by the Republican Party cess which will fail, and deliver Don- rates, further raising the question to receive financing from the ECB. what is essentially an “inflation tax”. with reinterpreting this as a goal to more politicised ECB can be expected. was that Democrats seem intent on of China – careful, not the People’s ald Trump an easier run in 2020 than of whether the ECB is respecting its When interest rates decrease as a Historically, central banks have been achieve. As if anyone aims for their But politicising the central bank undermining the credibility of the Republic of China. This was Manhat- his nervous support team could have mandate. result of this kind of manipulation, used to provide finance when taxpay- investments to lose 2 percent per year. will not change the fact that there is candidate who is the biggest threat to tan’s Chiang Kai Shek adoration soci- expected. Even so, are those in Team Draghi and his acolytes have even if this is also partially the result ers refuse to pay, most notably in the It’s not only an issue that savers are insufficient political unity underpin- Trump in 2020, Joe Biden. ety in full cry. Trump nervous? You bet. They are been rejecting all these accusations, of natural, “non-monetary”, fac- case of war, which is why the Bank hit and that asset prices are distorted, ning the Eurozone. The clearer the Polls prove they have a point and that To my astonishment, the whole of only ever a dangerous tweet away arguing that interest rates are low due tors, the beneficiaries are excessively of England was set up in 1694, at the given that people buy hard assets to effects of the ECB’s policies become, the former Vice President is suffering Chinatown was decorated with Taiwan from oblivion. ■ to ageing populations. Meanwhile, indebted governments that have a hard height of the Nine Years’ War with avoid debasement of their savings. the more evident this will be. ■ 14 CULTURE theconservative.online theconservative.online CULTURE 15 The

FOUNDEREdmund AND CONSCIENCE Burke OF CONSERVATISM TURNEDIron TO Lady RUST In the first of a series of essays on conservative philosophers, Gerald Warner explains how the horrors of the French Revolution inspired a The third and concluding volume of a landmark biography of great thinker to give birth to a movement Margaret Thatcher by Charles Moore is an utterly absorbing account of the leader who helped defeat communism

by Gerald Warner by James Barr

odern European con- and the Scholastics and, ultimately, His friend Adam Smith, the met Margaret Thatcher only in trouble, as Conservative MPs real- sterling to the German Deutschmark. servative thought to Aristotle. Yet for a long time Burke ground-breaking economist, observed: once, at a small party in 1998, ised that the new Community Charge Thatcher did not like this, partly begins with the British was erroneously thought to have “Burke is the only man I ever knew who where she kicked off her shoes – the Poll Tax – would lead to neigh- because she correctly recognised that political philosopher rejected the Natural Law as tradition- thinks on economic subjects exactly as so that she could address the bours paying vastly different sums in it would “cede” a “major role in British MEdmund Burke. Burke was the father ally interpreted. I do, without any previous communica- Images Getty Photo: Igathering from atop an unopened box local tax, and the NHS faced its annual economic policy” to Germany, partly of all later Counter-Enlightenment During the 17th ­ century­ Thomas tions having passed between us.” Burke of Famous Grouse. winter crisis. A trip up north, designed because Lawson’s preliminary move ideas on the continent, most notably Hobbes had redefined the Natural remarked that commerce “flourishes I was then an MP’s bag carrier to highlight Thatcher’s concern about – shadowing the Deutschmark – was Joseph de Maistre. He was not English Law beyond recognition and John most when it is left to itself”, but his and afterwards my boss introduced the plight of inner cities, had already already costing the taxpayer millions but Irish, born and reared in a culture Locke had subverted it more subtly, belief in free trade was moral rather me. “James is a good shot,” he said, produced the famous photograph of pounds. less insular and more in harmony both laying the groundwork for a than utilitarian, seeing it as a necessary to break the ice. “Paper targets”, I of her standing, like some post-in- The problem refused to go away. with European ideas than the typical radical notion of “natural rights”. It extension of the free right to enjoy- explained. “Oh”, she said, fixing me dustrial Ozymandias, alone among So far as the European Commission’s English Whig. was this perversion of Natural Law ment of property, again on Natural Law with that famous, penetrating look. “I the weeds at a derelict ironworks on president, Jacques Delors, was con- For Burke professed himself a life- that would be invoked by the French principles. could think of a few people you could Teesside. cerned, the ERM was not an end in long Whig, espousing the principles of revolutionaries in their “Declaration The same applied to his criticisms shoot.” The fact the tax burden on the aver- itself. His true aim was the creation the English Revolution of 1688 which of the Rights of Man”. of the government’s taxation of the Who did she mean? The obvious age worker had eased by less than half of a central bank and single currency. had overthrown James II and drasti- That was the travestied version American colonies and his relent- candidates were Geoffrey Howe and a per cent since 1979, and the burden Moreover, he exploited the European cally reduced the power of the monar- of Natural Law that Burke rejected. less denunciation of the East India Nigel Lawson. But Charles Moore on the low paid had actually increased, Community’s financial crisis at this chy in favour of the great nobles. Later Instead, he adhered to the traditional Company and Warren Hastings for quotes Richard Wilson, a senior civil put the onus on the Chancellor, Nigel time to argue for an increase in the in life, he was constrained to describe servant, saying that although she Lawson. His 1988 budget, which cut EC’s “own resources” (the money the himself as an “Old Whig”, to distance often sniped at her former chancel- the basic rate of income tax, and cor- Community accrued through its cut him from the increasingly radical lors after her fall, “her main focus was poration tax, to 25 per cent, and the of VAT and other duties). At bottom, Whig faction led by Charles James His friend Adam Smith, the ground-breaking on the younger men who owed every- higher rate by a third to 40 per cent says Moore, in one of many judicious Fox. Despite being a Member of Par- thing to her and had deserted her.” has framed taxation ever since. The verdicts in this book, Thatcher “was Thatcher’s message, of freedom to the Her unpopularity with other Euro- liament for almost twenty-nine years economist, observed: “Burke is the only Lord Wilson, as he now is, was joy within the press it caused made jealous of the power he [Delors] was eastern European states, went over pean leaders reduced her influence Burke only twice, briefly, held minor man I ever knew who thinks on economic one of over three hundred people Lawson, whom Thatcher had once accumulating.” his head. “It was”, he admits, “a great in Washington in turn. “I called Mar- office; yet his reputation and influ- subjects exactly as I do, without any previous whom Moore, the former editor of encouraged to get his hair cut, politi- An invitation to the College of moment in British foreign policy – garet today”, George Bush reported ence were prodigious. the Spectator and the Daily Tele- cally iron-clad. Europe in Bruges in the autumn of and we all missed it.” to Helmut Kohl, “just to listen to her, Burke’s background was far from communications having passed between us.” graph, interviewed while working The panache – some might say 1988 offered Thatcher the opportu- Delors’ proposal of a three stage which I did for an hour.” The Brit- classically Whig. Although his father, Burke remarked that commerce “flourishes on his authorized biography. This hubris – of the budget concealed nity to offer an alternative vision for economic and monetary union, made ish had been counting on playing on an attorney, was a Protestant, his final instalment covers the era from another tension which predated the Europe. Moore’s sight of the various in the spring of 1989, brought the Franco-German divisions to sabotage mother was Catholic. She belonged most when it is left to itself”, but his belief in Thatcher’s third general election vic- election victory. In a bid to tame infla- versions of the Bruges Speech enables question of British membership of the the single currency but the fall of the to a reduced landed gentry family of free trade was moral rather than utilitarian, tory in 1987 to her death in 2013. tion both Lawson and his predecessor, him to show how John Kerr at the ERM to the boil. Howe and Lawson Berlin Wall that autumn brought the Jacobites whose head, Sir Richard seeing it as a necessary extension of the free Spycatcher (where Moore makes it Howe, favoured joining the Exchange Foreign Office tried to water down now argued that joining was essen- two old enemies together. What Doug- Nagle, had served as Attorney Gen- clear that she was lucky to escape Rate Mechanism, which would tie the draft. Kerr sportingly admits that tial if the UK was to succeed in “kick- las Hurd described in his diary as her eral and Speaker of the Irish House of right to enjoyment of property. unscathed), AIDS, Death on the Rock ing Stages II and III [of EMU] into “demonic” hostility to Germany fur- Commons in James II’s “Patriot Par- and Britain’s salmonella panic are all the long grass”. “Nonsense” wrote ther isolated her when the question liament” of 1689. Born in 1730, Burke doctrine which held that Natural Law corruption in India. If the British gov- In his brilliant counterattack he What were the key principles of in here. Moore’s access to Thatcher’s Thatcher in the margin, which proved of reunification arose. received his first education in an ille- was “an emanation of God’s reason ernment had heeded Burke’s Speech deployed not only vast historical, fis- Burke’s philosophy? Russell Kirk, papers and the unpublished diaries to be spot-on. Chris Patten told Moore that it gal “hedge school” for Catholic chil- and will, revealed to all mankind”. The on American Taxation and Speech on cal and political knowledge but also in The Conservative Mind, suggested of some of her contemporaries means The story starts in the immediate aftermath As 1989, one of the most signifi- might have been better to have let dren in his maternal family’s country basic moral laws were obvious and Conciliation with the American Colo- his magnificent command of prose. that Burkean conservatism could be the book contains plenty of new, and of the 1987 victory when, despite her outward cant years in recent history, began, Thatcher fight and lose an election in County Cork: under the Penal Laws, men were capable through “right rea- nies, the American Revolution would The most celebrated passage refined down to six core principles: “(1) often entertainingly Yes Minister-ish, Thatcher’s influence was ebbing, how- in 1992. But this was not how peo- Catholic schools and teachers were son” of discerning right from wrong. probably have been averted. in Reflections is his encomium on Belief that a divine intent rules society stuff. triumph, the Iron Lady was showing the signs ever. The Vale of Glamorgan by-elec- ple thought at the time. “I’ll vote for forbidden to function. Natural Law was universally applica- It was the French Revolution, Queen Marie Antoinette: “It is now as well as conscience, forging an eter- The story starts in the immediate of metal fatigue. tion that spring produced the biggest anyone as long as it’s not her”, said Burke’s education was eclectic: a ble for all time and any state law that though, that supplied Burke with his sixteen or seventeen years since I nal chain of right and duty which links aftermath of the 1987 victory when, swing to Labour in half a century. one panicking MP, whose majority, in Quaker school followed by Trinity contradicted it was invalid. finest hour. His greatest work, Reflec- saw the queen of France, then the great and obscure, living and dead... (2) despite her outward triumph, the Iron 1992, was shaved to 53 votes. College, Dublin and the Middle Tem- This ancient concept of divinely tions on the Revolution in France, is the dauphiness, at Versailles, and surely Affection for the proliferating variety Lady was actually showing the signs Margaret Thatcher leaves When finally she was challenged by ple in London where, much against instituted equity represents a core foundation document of European never lighted on this orb, which and mystery of traditional life... (3) Con- of metal fatigue. At odds with many of Downing Street for the last Michael Heseltine, Thatcher was too his inclinations, he read for the Bar. conservative instinct, depriving total- conservatism. Burke started work on she hardly seemed to touch, a more viction that civilised society requires her cabinet colleagues, but no longer time, in November 1990. grand to save herself. Too successful He soon discovered his true metier itarian ideologies of legitimacy; today it as early as January, 1790 and it was delightful vision ... I thought ten orders and classes... (4) Persuasion that strong enough to sack them, she relied to go and “cadge” votes in the Com- as a writer and began to publish phil- its principles are being violently published on 1 November. The author thousand swords must have leaped property and freedom are inseparably increasingly on her advisers. Chief and mons tea-room, as Powell put it, she osophical studies; his second, suc- assailed by the identity politics of first denounced the Revolution on 9 from their scabbards to avenge even connected, and that economic levelling most controversial among them was left Downing Street on 28 November cessful publication was an essay on cultural Marxism. It provided much February, 1790 in his speech on the a look that threatened her with is not economic progress... (5) Faith in Charles Powell, a man she had accu- 1990 to face an empty kitchen in her aesthetics. of the inspiration for the three great Army Estimates. insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. prescription and distrust of “sophisters rately predicted would be “controlling house in Dulwich. She was aghast when Burke is sometimes represented as crusades of Burke’s career before his That shows extraordinary pre- That of sophisters, oeconomists, and and calculators”... (6) Recognition that us all within six months” when she told that she would need to consult the a liberal blown off course, in reaction final battle against the French Rev- science. By that time, although there calculators, has succeeded; and the change and reform are not identical, appointed him three years earlier. To Yellow Pages to get hold of a plumber. to the French Revolution, but while olution: his campaigns for reform of had been extreme violence at the glory of Europe is extinguished for and that innovation is a devouring con- recharge, almost literally, she would No wonder, because Moore reckons, that catastrophe had a powerful the abuses of imperialism in Ireland, storming of the Bastille in July, 1789, ever.” flagration more often than it is a torch of visit “a Hindu practitioner of Ayurve- entirely credibly, that she had not effect on him, as on all his contempo- America and India. the royal family had been removed Burke wept while he penned that progress...” dic arts” in the suburbs, who used to dialled a telephone number since 1979. raries, it was its violation of his core On Ireland, Burke was motivated by force from Versailles and taken to passage, as did the Queen when she There, in a nutshell, is the conser- poach her with herbs in a lightly elec- This is an utterly absorbing account beliefs that alerted him, earlier than not just by his loathing for injustice Paris, and the Church despoiled, rev- read it. This was romanticism before vative idea. Although the term would trified bath. It is an approach that it is of recent, and still highly relevant, others, to the destructive character and oppression, but by his belief in olutionary disorder had abated and Walter Scott. The lifelong Whig had not come into currency until Châ- hard to imagine any of her successors politics, and one, moreover, that pro- of a movement that Charles James free trade. Eventually he and his allies much of European public opinion succumbed to his Tory-Jacobite teaubriand popularized it in 1818, the daring to emulate. But then, as the vides enough telling details to explode Fox and the New Whigs greeted prevailed and Lord North’s admin- regarded the Revolution with fatuous antecedents. Burke, however, did not necessity to conserve became imper- official historian of GCHQ – Britain’s a central myth. enthusiastically. istration lifted the restrictions on benevolence. rely primarily on rhetoric to make ative in the face of the French Revo- listening centre – is quoted saying in “In her sense of herself, Marga- The most important element of trade with Ireland, relieving its hob- Burke was not deceived: he per- the case against a revolution that had lution against which Edmund Burke the book, as a scientist by training, ret Thatcher loved to claim absolute Burke’s philosophy was his belief in bled economy. In Britain, Burke suc- ceived that all that remained in shattered European civilisation. In first sounded the trumpet. The call “She would have known a watt from consistency,” Moore writes. “Part of the Natural Law. This key principle ceeded briefly in abolishing the Board Europe of Christendom was being this book he massed all the principles would be taken up by others inspired an amp.” the fascination of her character lies in of Western civilisation linked him of Trade, but it was subsequently destroyed: tradition, order, legitimate that had guided his thinking to dis- by Burke, the foremost among them After the 1987 election, the govern- the fact that this claim was sometimes intellectually to St Thomas Aquinas restored. authority, religion and true freedom. credit the advancing anarchy. being Joseph de Maistre. ■ ment almost immediately found itself Images - Getty Macdiarmid Peter Photo: false.” ■ 16 CULTURE theconservative.online theconservative.online CULTURE 17 Whatever happened to LOST CLASSIC Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini SCANDINAVIAN ART? Lost Classic is the Reaction series in which we highlight great artists that are under-appreciated or forgotten Scandinavian artists like Christen Købke, Hilma af Klint and Vilhelm Hammershøi are by Gerald Warner finally getting the popular recognition they deserve “He was born with a gift of relations, eventually scraping a living to a higher literary plane: the novel in pre-Revolutionary France. He wit- So, does Rafael Sabatini deserve to laughter and a sense that as a journalist. His early stories were Scaramouche. nesses his closest friend being killed be recognised as a classic writer? The by Alex Colville the world was mad.” published in magazines and newspa- It is believed that part of the plot in an unequal duel by the reactionary irony is that, if he had been a one-book pers. In 1902 his first novel, The Lovers for Scaramouche came to Sabatini Marquis de La Tour d’Azyr, an inci- author and had produced only Scar- candinavia is internationally reality. She created abstract geomet- pointillist style, Seurat’s controversial hose words supply the epi- of Yvonne, was published to an indiffer- while he was translating a history of dent that changes the whole tenor amouche, it would almost certainly renowned for its literary her- ric shapes so radical she hid them new technique – “He is conservative, taph on the grave of nov- ent reception. the Comédie-Française. He himself of his life, embracing the disparate have been accepted as a literary novel. itage. Ibsen and Strindberg for fear of ridicule, instructing in her yet radical at the same time.” elist Rafael Sabatini at Not to be deterred, the aspiring described its earliest genesis in a con- worlds of a company of strolling play- Accompanied as it is by thirty other are well-known to the pop- will they be hidden for 20 years, dis- Why is it that these artists, some Adelboden in Switzerland author struggled on. In 1906 he pub- tribution to The Strand Magazine. ers (as in Féval’s Le Bossu), the fenc- novels and nine collections of shorter Sular imagination, as are Kierkegaard played only when the world was ready popular in their own time, some even Tand they are the opening sentence of lished two historical novels, both very After explaining that the inspiration ing salle and eventually the political tales, all of widely varying quality, his and Knausgaard, the Nordic myths for it. Her work has now appeared in pre-empting future trends in mod- his most accomplished novel, Scar- different in character. One was The for his novels did not follow a set pat- turmoil of the Estates General and work is too easily written off by critics and sagas, The Killing and the scan- 28 exhibitions across the West, with ern art, are still relatively unknown? amouche. A couple of generations ago Trampling of the Lilies, Sabatini’s first tern: “Sometimes I begin by conceiving National Assembly. as mere adventure fiction. dal-rocked Swedish Academy. But the Guggenheim Museum in New Although experiencing a renaissance, that introductory line was as famil- ambitious attempt to mine the French a situation, sometimes a single charac- Sabatini followed up the huge suc- In compensation, Sabatini attained why is it that in visual art, Scandina- York mounting her first major US solo Hilma af Klint is probably complicit in iar to the reading public as “It is a Revolution for material. Compared ter, and sometimes I am attracted by a cess of Scaramouche the following fame and fortune. His life, however, via has only one global contender – exhibition earlier this year. She is in her obscurity through her self-censor- truth universally acknowledged…”. to a later novel in the year with an equally was clouded by tragedy. In defiance Edvard Munch? high demand as a fore-runner of bet- ship, thus explaining her failure to see Although his works are all still in same setting, Scar- popular novel, Captain of the cliché that lightning does not Even then, Munch is only really ter-known abstractionists like Piet a major exhibition until the late 1980s. print, largely thanks to Stratus Books amouche, it is stylisti- Blood: His Odyssey. Its strike in the same place twice, he wit- known for one painting. Walking with Mondrian and Kazimir Malevich. Perhaps the darkness of Scandi- which has republished the entire cally awkward, veering success prompted him nessed the violent deaths of his son in friends above the cityscape of Oslo, The 2013 retrospective of her work navia fires the literary imagination canon, which fits into a total of thir- perilously close to the to write two books of a road accident and his stepson in an Munch suddenly saw the sky turn at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet’s better than the visual one. Our con- ty-seven volumes, they are the pre- “Nay, sir, that love can short stories based on air crash, while flying over his parents’ blood red as the sun went down, and he was the most popular exhibition the ception of 19th century painting is serve of a minority of enthusiasts. never be!” school of the same character: home to celebrate having earned his was overcome with an awful anxiety. museum has ever had. filled with the clean light and bright The essential epithet invariably Victorian melodra- The Chronicles of Cap- wings in the RAF during the Second “Nature was screaming in my blood,” Af Klint may be making the big- colours of Monet, Delacroix, Gauguin applied to Rafael Sabatini is “swash- matic dialogue. In con- tain Blood, in 1931, and World War. The writer’s consolations he later recorded in his diary. But gest comeback, but she’s not the only or Matisse. The light nearer the arc- buckling”. Like so much of the Euro- trast, the other novel The Fortunes of Cap- were fishing and skiing in Switzer- Munch was far from alone in his awe one to re-emerge. The Danish painter tic circle tends to result in dark and pean romantic literary tradition it is he published that tain Blood, in 1936. land, where he died in 1950. of Scandinavia’s sublime vistas. Fel- Vilhelm Hammershøi’s Interior with cool colours. Eckersberg once said contemporaries like David or Delac- Ghosts while living in Paris. a term that traces its remote origins same year, Bardelys the Both collections were In reaction to the industrial scale low Norwegian artist Harald Sohlberg Easel, 1912, was bought for over $5 that his painting style arose from see- roix. Besides, as Hammershøi proved, By contrast, Sohlberg and Købke to Sir Walter Scott. On the Continent, Magnificent, moves strikingly atmospheric of slaughter in the Second World War is a footnote in international terms, million in October last year by Los ing a summery cityscape through a those who worked with cold colours worked in isolation. Købke, like most Alexandre Dumas père was the doyen with pace and aplomb, and demonstrated and the menace of the atomic bomb, despite being only six years younger Angeles’s J. Paul Getty Museum. black bottle. Even when he painted were just as capable of achieving Danish artists of the Golden Age, of this genre, dating from the publica- somewhat in the style Sabatini’s skill as a the immediate post-war period wit- than Munch. His Hammershøi bright Italian landscapes, they are international success in their day. received little opportunity to travel tion of The Three Musketeers in 1844. of his later Captain writer of short stories, nessed a large-scale re-popularization masterpieces like was internation- seen through a dusky lens, a tradi- So what was it about Munch that abroad. He spent most of his life Such was his staggering output that the Blood short stories. a talent not always of swashbuckling adventures in cin- Winter Night in the ally renowned in tion which many students of the made him stand out? He was cos- painting Copenhagen, where he lived. entire cycle of Musketeer sequels, the The evident reason exhibited by novelists. ema and comics, with the happy con- Mountains demon- his lifetime, featur- Danish Academy inherited. Ham- mopolitan, willing to travel and take In fact, he rarely left the city. Sohl- Valois novels and The Count of Monte for this disparity is In 1931, Sabatini sequence that many of his books were strate Scandinavia ing in exhibitions mershøi’s work is filled with varying inspiration from other artists across berg preferred to paint country scenes Cristo were all published in the single that Sabatini had been attempted to exploit also republished. In 1950 The Fortunes is not short either in Rome, Venice shades of grey (known as grisaille), Europe. The work of Gauguin, van in the remote landscapes of central decade of the 1840s. Dumas’ closest reworking The Tram- his success of a decade of Captain Blood came to the screen, of talented paint- and Paris. Emil creating paintings so neutral in color- Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec all lit a Norway. rival, Paul Féval, asserted his position pling of the Lilies from earlier by writing a followed by a parodic version of Scar- ers or eye-catching Nolde and Rainer ation that contemporaries described fire in his mind, and he was fascinated Hammershøi may have fallen as a writer of swashbucklers with his his earlier material, sequel: Scaramouche amouche in 1952, redeemed only by subject matter. Maria Rilke were them as “coloured black-and-white by the way they used colours to con- through the cracks because he was bestselling novel Le Bossu, in 1857, but the short story Made- the Kingmaker. the duel in the finale – the longest The nineteenth amongst his admir- photographs”. vey emotion. Munch also managed so unique as to be impossible to cate- preferred to produce crime fiction. moiselle de Castelroc, Although it illustrated swordfight in cinema history, between century saw an ers. But he fell into But, as the striking colours of to publicly attach his name to Ibsen, gorise. When he travelled to Paris in In the 1880s, Scotland, which had which had appeared his exceptional ded- Stewart Granger and Mel Ferrer. explosion of inde- obscurity after his Af Klint’s work demonstrate, such already known as one of the great fig- 1890, he was influenced by new styles arguably invented the genre of the in Pearson’s Magazine ication to historical One final observation should be pendent schools of death in 1916. Since an interpretation is wrong. Køb- ures of Scandinavia, painting stage of painting but dismissed the mod- historical novel, contributed to the in January 1904 and so research and ability to made regarding the writers of swash- art across the Nor- being exhibited at ke’s work is no less colourful than sets for productions of Peer Gynt and ern artwork there as “a lot of trash”. canon with Robert Louis Stevenson’s was probably written ferret out plots from buckling fiction: they were mostly dic states, including the Kunsthalle in He used classical art as his subject, Treasure Island, Kidnapped and The in 1903. real-life conspira- untrue to their fictional totems. Denmark’s Golden Hamburg in 2003 as Eckersberg would have done, with Master of Ballantrae. In England, the Sabatini diligently cies, in this book Saba- Dumas took a rather ineffectual, even Age of painting. Following the devas- and London’s Royal Academy in 2008, cities devoid of people in contrast to last decade of the 19th century was the produced one novel tini fell victim to the comical, part in the 1830 revolution tation of the country’s fortunes during Hammershøi has received greater Contemporary Scandinavian art no longer the relishing of city-life that came to golden age of swashbuckling authors. every year, except very literary skill with that finally brought down the Bour- the Napoleonic Wars, it was inspired interest, his work featuring in shows define the neo-impressionists. This They included Anthony Hope’s The once, until the out- which he had crafted bon monarchy his created protago- by a melding of neo-classicism and a in Paris, Tokyo and New York. keeps its creatives to itself. The minimalism traditional element to his work, along Prisoner of Zenda and Stanley J Wey- break of the First his greatest novel. The nists had revered and served, ushering desire to find an authentically Dan- Hammershøi’s work is filled with of Scandinavian interior design is the toast of with his work’s stillness and steril- man’s A Gentleman of France. These World War, mak- problem was that Scar- in a bourgeois king who carried not a ish art tradition. The paintings pro- unease. His cityscapes are grey ghost- ity, may have made him seem of the were followed at the turn of the cen- ing a very modest amouche was too per- sword but an umbrella. duced are highly detailed, imbibed ships, utterly devoid of people, while upmarket decorators. old guard in an era dominated by the tury by A. E. W. Mason’s Clementina living while the break- fectly complete for The English authors had a Whiggish with a sense of calm and stillness, sub- women with their back turned to the vibrancy and dynamism of Kandinsky, and works by Baroness Orczy, who through he dreamed the reader to live com- mentality, most obviously Stanley J. jects bathed in a dusky half-light. Big viewer gaze from a living room down Matisse and Picasso. launched the Scarlet Pimpernel on of continued to elude fortably with a sequel Weyman whose Protestant self-righ- names included Professor Christoffer yawning shadowy corridors. Domestic Contemporary Scandinavian art no his hazardous adventures in 1905 and him. In 1915, he pub- grafted onto it. teousness could become tedious. He Wilhelm Eckersberg, who like Joshua settings are turned into a vast, alien longer keeps its creatives to itself. The continued to chronicle Sir Percy Blak- lished the first novel Rafael Sabatini con- was the writer Sabatini most admired. Reynolds in London or Jacques-Louis wilderness. minimalism of Scandinavian interior eney through twelve novels and two that would later be tinued to write until Sabatini embraced the values of his David in Rome, encouraged students Dr Felix Krämer, the Artistic Direc- design is the toast of upmarket dec- collections of short stories until 1940. ranked as part of his his death, though less English mother’s homeland, demon- to paint scenes from the countryside, tor and General Manager of the orators. Australia can thank Danish As the new century began, so, very classic canon – The The essential epithet invariably applied prolifically. One of his izing James II and perpetuating the extracting universal beauty from “the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf who architect Jørn Utzon for the distinc- tentatively, did the career of the man Sea Hawk – but with- best novels was writ- Black Legend of Spanish beastliness great book of nature”. curated the exhibitions in Hamburg tive sails of the Sydney Opera House, who was to take historical fiction to out notable public suc- to Rafael Sabatini is “swashbuckling”. ten in 1940: The Mar- in many of his novels. The epigraph One of his pupils, Christen Købke, and London, tells me that Hammer- which arose from Utzon trying to sit- a new peak of popularity and literary cess at the time. Then Like so much of the European romantic quis of Carabas. In this preceding Scaramouche, a quotation is often considered the best painter shøi is a modern painter with a highly uate the building in its nautical sur- achievement. Rafael Sabatini was, on his writing career book he returned to from Jules Michelet, the anticlerical of the Golden Age. The son of a baker, distinctive style: “No other contempo- roundings: “It sits on a point sticking the face of it, the unlikeliest candidate was disrupted by the literary tradition it is a term that traces the themes of fencing republican historian, offers an apol- hardly able to spell, Købke managed to rary of his is equally reduced in palette out into a harbour, a very beautiful for this role. English was his sixth lan- War, when his linguis- its remote origins to Sir Walter Scott. and the French Rev- ogist’s view of the French Revolution. create extraordinarily vivid portraits. and subject matter”. Inspired by the harbour, a fjord with a lot of inlets.” guage, though his mature prose style tic skills caused Brit- olution. Although the The problem with creating In his portrait of Inger Margrethe realism of the Eckersberg and Købke, Most recently, Olafur Eliasson’s was superior to many of his English- ish intelligence to recruit him as a particular background”. He went on to genre of historical fiction is not sim- sword-wielding heroes who are on Høyen, the mother of one of his col- coupled with still-life interiors of the The Weather Project at Tate Modern’s born literary contemporaries. translator. disclose that “In one instance I began by ply one long duel, swordsmanship is the side of “progressive” forces that leagues and a self-made woman who Dutch Golden Age, Hammershøi has turbine hall attracted 2 million visi- Sabatini was born on 29 April 1875 in During the remainder of the war fastening upon a title, ‘Scaramouche’, a significant element in the Sabatini will eventually produce republics and grew from the daughter of a gardener been termed by some experts as “the tors in 2003. It harnesses the sublime Italy, at Jesi near Ancona. His parents years he produced only one novel, The and almost simultaneously came upon canon and the author knew the lore of mass democracy is that those pala- to supervising a distillery, we are con- modern Vermeer” for his crisp, aus- – a bright, burning sun, bathing the were both opera singers who became Snare, in 1917 and then wrote no fur- the phrase descriptive of the charac- the sword, a knowledge he displayed dins are destroying their natural habi- fronted by a woman of wisdom, cyni- tere depiction of domestic spaces. hall in warm light reflected through music teachers, his father being Ital- ther full-length work until 1921. That ter: ‘He was born with the gift of laugh- most forensically in The Marquis of tat. Even Rafael Sabatini did not grasp cism and sturdiness. There is also a hint of Whistler in his a fine veil of mist. Eliasson has said ian and his mother English. His father fallow period did not betoken any ter and a sense that the world was mad.’ Carabas. that irony; in compensation, he left Sweden’s Hilma af Klint has sombre colour palette. Dr Krämer that his work is often inspired by the Vincenzo trained the famous tenor decline in his writing skills or dedica- That supplied the opening line and the The same could not be said of many a large body of well-researched and exploded onto the world stage in says it is this aesthetic purity and min- landscape of Iceland, rooted as it is John, Count McCormack, in Milan in tion to his profession. On the contrary, keynote of the book.” other swashbuckling authors. Paul graphically atmospheric fiction pop- recent years. A keen spiritualist, af imalism that excites modern tastes, in his personal feelings and memo- 1905. Rafael, after a cosmopolitan edu- Sabatini was engaged in supreme cre- Scaramouche is the chronicle of Féval was ignorant of fencing: the sup- ulated with credible, heroic and witty Klint’s paintings from the 1900s to along with his blending of old and ries. Scandinavian awe for “the great cation in Portugal and Switzerland ative efforts and in 1921, aged 46, André-Louis Moreau, a spirited youth posed botte secrète of the Duc de Nev- characters that has brought pleasure the 1940s were intent on showing the new styles. While in Paris he painted book of nature” continues to create which made him multi-lingual, ended he published the masterpiece that of unknown paternity but brought up ers in Le Bossu could never have been to millions of readers and deserves to complex and chilling world beyond a Louvre Grecian marble relief in the remarkable pieces of work. ■ up in Liverpool where his mother had would change his life and elevate him by his godfather, a Breton nobleman, executed in a real swordfight. be re-read today. ■ 18 CULTURE theconservative.online theconservative.online CULTURE 19

stand-up comedian in the early Eight- accident, at the epicentre of a move- be more different. There, he played ies who ekes out a pitiful living dressing ment that sets the angry poor in their Johnny Cash with gusto and brooding, Ceramics by Jose Carvalho at the Ice House Gallery, London up as a clown, enduring violent physical rat-infested city against the uncaring but ultimately stopped short of inves- abuse in the course of his work and suf- rich, and riots ensue. It is hard not to tigating Cash’s truly dark side. Here, fering from a variety of mental health think of the gilets jaunes, or, of course, he is like someone unleashed. If he CORFU’S SECRET a certain red-baseball capped provoca- doesn’t erase memories of Heath Led- issues. He lives with his mother in the by Anne-Elisabeth Moutet Exploring kind of cursed and tiny apartment that teur-in-chief. This is America, and it is ger’s Joker in Nolan’s The Dark Knight, JOKERA SMART, DARK LOOK AT unhappy people in the movies always definitely not great. that is solely because they are such have to inhabit, and his only different interpretations. TREASURE AMERICAN URBAN LIFE real pleasure comes from Ledger’s terrifying, inexpli- Greece’s only museum dedicated to the TEXTURES watching oleaginous talk- cable figure seems to have art of Asia is one of Europe’s greatest and Joaquin Phoenix gives a knockout show host Murray Frank- emerged fully formed from lin (De Niro), whose show hell; Phoenix’s Fleck has been least well-known cultural artefacts and lead performance as Batman’s he has fantasies of appear- created by a mixture of every- SHAPES ing on. His life meanders on thing from inadequate mental greatest nemesis, the Joker in an unhappy way, until a health funding to deep-rooted by Esme Mahoney co-worker’s misplaced kind- parental issues. Initially, one by Alexander Larman ness and a late-night sub- pities him, before the violence way encounter with a trio of shifts from being borderline t is rare that a mainstream film behind The Hangover and with two drunken Wall Street bankers justifiable to unpleasant. is released with the intensity of A-list lead actors in Joaquin Phoenix combine to memorably vis- Phillips’ film is technically hype employed to promote Joker. and Robert de Niro. Anyone going to ceral effect. Cue the emer- excellent, thanks to Law- I rence Sher’s appropriately There is the award-winning acclaim it expecting a quasi-religious experi- gence of “Joker”. that it has already enjoyed (at the ence that redefines cinema will inev- A great deal of the advance gritty cinematography and, prestigious Golden Lion at Venice) itably be disappointed. Those hoping word on the film suggested especially, Hildur Guðnadót- and wild stories about how police for a smart, dark look at American that it was a deliberate hom- tir’s growling, cello-heavy have had to be drafted into screen- urban life, leavened with a gener- age to Taxi Driver and The score, which grows in inten- he wonderful Corfu Museum save a few formal reception rooms on ings on its first weekend of release, ous helping of social satire and with King of Comedy, and the sity and foreboding as the of Asian Art is world-renowned the ground floor. The Chinese collec- and claims that nobody wearing clown a knockout lead performance, will be influence of both is clear, action progresses. I’m not yet rarely visited. (They did tion has the largest number of pieces, sure that it is anything like T makeup will be allowed admission. altogether happier. Although I’m still especially in the casting of have an exhibition of their best Japa- with ceramics holding the lion’s share: That sounds to me like the invention not entirely sure about the inclusion De Niro in a pivotal role. as dangerous or threatening nese pieces in Tokyo ten years ago, and there is almost two millennia’s worth of a studio publicity department in the of Gary Glitter’s Rock and Roll Part Its director and co-writer as some of the early public- the Japanese are still talking about it.) of it, from warrior and horse figurines same way that Hitchcock reputedly 2 in a key scene, a moment at which Todd Philips, obviously try- ity has indicated, although no Housed in the grand, but somewhat found in tombs to the extravagant refused latecomers entry to Psycho. the filmmakers overplay their hand ing to distinguish himself doubt there will be a few fools dilapidated Palace of St. Michael and “Jesuit” dishes. Commissioned by the It has been marketed, aggressively, and attempt to troll the audience. As if with a far more serious pic- causing trouble while wear- St. George in the old town, it was cre- best porcelain workshops for western After the Chinese halls, evocative of as an event film, a comic-book pic- they needed to. ture than his previous work, ing clown masks at screen- ated for the exceptional collection religious designs in the 17th and 18th the wealth and breadth of an ancient The sky’s the limit for exciting ture that stands comparison to the The film, for the uninitiated, deals manages to keep the feel ings. Instead, it is a splendidly donated to the Greek nation by Gre- centuries, these are beautifully made, culture, the Japanese collection seems work of Scorsese rather than which- with the “origin story” of Batman’s authentically grimy and effective look inside the mind gorios Manos, once the Greek ambas- yet strangely void of recognisable at first restrained. The order of visit Portuguese sculptor Jose Carvalho – ever hack(s) directed Avengers: End- greatest nemesis, the Joker – although gritty, especially in the first of an extremely troubled man, sador to Austria in the late nineteenth emotion: one en grisaille ornamen- takes you from the Chinese profusion his latest exhibition is worth a visit game. None of which quite answers it must be noted that the scenes that act. There are long stretches played to perfection by a fine century. tal plate representing Golgotha, with of colours and ornamentation to the the question: is it any good? try to tie the narrative into a wider when one feels as if one is watching The casting of Phoenix, one of the actor. We can only imagine what Don- Manos had an eye for art, and a the three crosses, could be an illus- Japanese austerity of the Momoyama, tepping into sculptor Jose Carvalho’s exhibition in the Ice The answer is very much “yes”, comic-book storyline are some of the some lost classic from the era in which edgiest and most risk-taking actors ald Trump will make of it all, but no large fortune. Having retired in Paris, tration of mutual cultural incompre- Edo and Meiji eras. It takes a mental House Gallery in Holland Park the immediate impression is albeit not, perhaps, in the way that film’s weakest. (I worked out that this it is set, and the casting of the fine char- working today, represents a consid- doubt he will offer his thoughts on he spent all of it at dealers and in auc- hension, with Jesus, the thieves and shaking-off to adapt in the first few one of gentle tranquillity. Various forms in earthy colours are social media in due course. And thus S you might imagine. For all of the scut- was the fourth time in recent cinema acter actor Bill Camp in a small role erable coup for the filmmakers. Phoe- tion houses across Europe, in Ber- Mary all smiling in vague, ethereal rooms. But even before you reach the arranged around the edges of the space. Upon closer inspection, the tlebutt and rumours swirling around, that I had seen Bruce Wayne’s par- as a moustachioed detective only con- nix is usually found in altogether the whirligig of life imitating art imi- lin, London and Vienna. He acquired contemplation. Samurai room, with swords, daggers, initial orderliness melts into something altogether more interesting, this is still a piece of mainstream ents being murdered; twice was prob- tributes to the seamy atmosphere of more esoteric fare, and this is his most tating life will, once again, turn full almost 10,000 works of mainly Chi- illustrated screens and the black-lac- establishing Carvalho’s work as a bold contribution to the world of entertainment from a major Hol- ably more than enough.) As portrayed it all. The political dimension is also high-profile role since 2005’s Walk circle. Frankly, if you weren’t laugh- nese and Japanese art over a period quered complete suit of armour that pottery and ceramics. lywood studio, directed by the man by Phoenix, Arthur Fleck is an aspiring clearly present. Fleck finds himself, by The Line, although this could hardly ing, you’d cry. ■ of four decades. When he made his inspired Darth Vader, an intimate por- The exhibition is named Exploring Textures and Shapes, and it is bequest, shortly after the end of the You leave through the celain miniature of two girls reading in the first category that Carvalho really innovates. Developing his First World War, his only desire was a book, barely the size of your palm, own glazes and firing techniques, Carvalho’s pieces seem to bubble that the collection should remain elegantly provincial catches the heart like a shot from a and spit with life, the volcanic glazes creating intricately cratered sur- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Ghosteen Cave pits his signature baritone. The eponymous son of Priam of Troy, dates together as a whole. His wish was ful- hallways of the François Truffaut movie. faces. Engaging with the fiftieth anniversary of the moon landings, result is something of at times aston- from 515 BC. By juxtaposing the seman- filled in 1927, when the “Museum of Or there’s the unique alignment of many pieces recall that rocky and romantic satellite in quality: par- ishing beauty, as on standouts such as tic shorthand of this image with deeply Chinese and Japanese Art” finally Palace and down Nō theatre masks, each representing a ticularly resonant and beautiful is a circular wall piece, which Car- Bright Horses and Sun Forest. personal snapshots of family life, we came into existence, housed in what the grand staircase, stock character: who more so than an valho broke in half and then reformed using the Kintsugi technique Cave has applied the same process of cannot help but elide the two: the pri- had once been, in the previous cen- scrupulously educated Greek like Manos would find of reattaching broken fragments with gold. These dripping, foaming paring-back to his lyrics. The long, nar- vate pain of Cave and his wife is trans- tury, the residence of the British Lord such an immediate connection to this pieces encourage tactility, with the artist often juxtaposing a perfectly rative-led songs that made his name muted into something common to all. High Commissioner of the Ionian maintained and world? smoothed interior with a rougher glaze on the outside of the work. Nick Cave are no more, at least for the moment. Rendered in these terms, we too can Islands. Manos joined the staff as a The galleries devoted to Central The use of colour is also notable, with the first impression of earthy varnished, with some LETS LOVE IN AT LAST Instead, we are faced with a coalescing, begin to understand Cave’s pain. The curator and died one year later, ruined Asian art and textiles on the second tones shifting as the works are examined more closely. Blues and sea revolving group of phrases and motifs Pieta speaks to the essential truth of but happy. The museum now num- lugubrious portraits floor are smaller, but India is beauti- greens feature, with some pots seeming to be lifted straight from the Nick Cave’s latest album is which recur throughout the album, humanity: we all must die, and thus, bers some 15,000 pieces — with more of various grandees fully served with architectural remains seabed complete with foaming waves of volcanic glaze. Horizontal a triumph of the spirit forming a semantic framework that at some point or another, we all must recent donations and purchases from in frock coats and and statues and Buddhas in stone, banding of subtly blended colours suggests planets other than our binds the songs together. It’s as if Cave grieve for something that we have lost. Central Asia, Khmer, Tibet, Korea and wood and bronze. You leave through own, with some vessels, particularly the larger works, seeming to is extemporising, revising and refining Thailand — but it still retains Manos’s uniforms and lots of the elegantly provincial hallways of become 3D maps of different worlds. Carvalho’s use of colour is also by Edward Thicknesse in an almost oral-tradition manner. personality. draperies... the Palace and down the grand stair- playful, with surprising splashes of neon-yellow popping out amidst Certain among these phrases stand The turn of the twentieth was case, scrupulously maintained and the oceanic tones, and a series in which what could be called mil- here’s a simple message at the that story: the darkness abides, but at out: “the past with its undertow”, exactly the right time to acquire Asian Emotion, immediate and fresh, is varnished, with some lugubrious por- lennial pink is blended in a variety of concentrations across several heart of Ghosteen, the new last the light might start to get in. “children climbing to the sun”, and art, just as European interest in the Far found in sculptures and miniatures, traits of various grandees in frock coats works. These are ceramics that reward closer inspection, with a rich- album by Nick Cave and the Bad If Skeleton Tree was the sound of perhaps most affectingly, “I am here East had begun to view its heritage not produced variably in ceramic, stone, and uniforms and lots of draperies; ness of colour and texture being revealed over time. T and then come out in today’s Corfu, a Seeds. We hear it over and again through the sky falling in, Ghosteen is its oppo- and you are where you are”. It’s almost as mere decoration but as an alterna- ivory and horn. There is a mother There is a poignancy in the colouring of the pieces and in that del- each of the ten songs, but it is only in the site. The songs on this album are shot as if Cave is using these phrases as a tive view of the world. European porce- and her child made of two long ani- touristic town full of shops, clubs and icate vein of gold that seems to evoke another theme present in Car- record’s penultimate line that it finds through with a profound sense of form of echolocation, mapping his lain and cabinet-makers had imported mal tusks, forerunners of Jean Arp restaurants. valho’s works – that of ecological fragility. The organic quality of the its clearest expression: “Everybody is wonder: Cave now feels the presence grief in an attempt to fix his position pieces from China for several centu- and Giacometti; tiny china figurines It’s a complete disconnect, suggest- pieces and the planetary character of several works quietly reflect our always losing somebody”. of something, or someone, else. In the in this newly empty world. ries; but in order to add to them, or of servants with an expression of ing only the bare bones of what was home planet back to us: our oceans, our forests and our moon. Beauti- It’s not a radical thought, but one Red Hand Files, an ongoing collection Images of the familiar sit side-by- to integrate them into their designs, guile that would be at home in a Beau- conceived, two centuries ago, as the fully formed, Carvalho’s funnel vessels seem to encapsulate the sense that is entirely appropriate to an of letters addressed to fans, he has side with a stream of deeply resonant they layered delicate Chinese lacquer marchais play; roof tiles and corner first neo-classical ensemble on Greek of delicate balance most fully, with each piece crafted in two halves album that deals almost exclusively in written explicitly about this: “I feel cultural archetypes. We see snapshots panels onto rococo chests of drawers, pieces in the shape of lions and drag- land. There are two 1840s landscapes of that then must fit perfectly together. It is a question of science and the familiar. Told in the first person, the presence of my son, all around, but of family life – a woman “in the back encased celadon or Famille Rose vases ons invoke their protection over the the Palace and Esplanade, by the Ger- of art, and the need for care and precision seems to interact with the at its heart the record is the drama of he may not be there. I hear him talk to room washing his clothes” and “sit- in gilt bronze handles and pediments. long forgotten houses they crowned. man Romantic artist Joseph Schranz, blackened, charred appearance of some sections so that these pieces a family lost in the vastness of a uni- me, parent me, guide me, though he ting at the kitchen table, listening to By the time Manos was sniffing around A window of seventeenth-century in one of the ground-floor rooms, that stand almost as a subtle warning to the present. verse. In July 2015 Cave’s teenage may not be there.” the radio” – juxtaposed with Elvis, the The past will not let us go. There is, Paris galleries, artists from Whistler to Tang pottery stands out in the midst give an idea of mid nineteenth-cen- This is a mature effort from Carvalho – his ceramics have so far son Arthur fell to his death from the Sonically, too, things have changed. Three Bears, the Buddha, and, most as his film One More Time with Feeling Vincent Van Gogh had started collect- of ornate decoration: monochrome tury Corfu. In its time, Corfu has been been exhibited in various London venues and galleries including clifftops near their Brighton home. Where Skeleton Tree was drenched frequently, “Jesus lying in his moth- made clear, no moving on from such ing Japanese art and hand-coloured vases and plates in Mondrian colours a politically significant island fought Hepsibah Gallery, Chelsea Physic Gardens and Otomys Contempo- Skeleton Tree, the band’s previous in menacing synth and repetitive, er’s arms”. loss. But that is not to say that there is prints by Hokusai and Hiroshige, and and stark shapes – yellow, red and blue over and ruled by the Venetians, the rary gallery and he has received high profile commissions includ- record, and the accompanying film, oppressive percussion, the latest The Pieta, the image of the cruci- not beauty, and wonder, and joy. Gho- drawing on them in order to bring – to create a modernity utterly alien to French, the Turks, the British, the Ital- ing recent work for the prestigious Heckfield Place. Carvalho’s work One More Time with Feeling, were record is closer in texture to ambient fied Christ in his mother’s arms, has a steen is the sound of a man coming radical changes to their own sense of the Beaux Arts sensitivity of Manos’s ians and many others. It is now a peace- is rich and rewarding, working with beauty and distortion to create Cave’s response, a harrowing account music: long-time collaborator War- symbolic valency that is near univer- to terms with this truth. Everybody colour, shape and volume. epoch. Yet he saw something, enough ful place, devoted to tourism, sailing truly unique pieces that quietly resonate with you long after they have of a man staring into the darkness of ren Ellis has created a suite of songs sal. Indeed, it far outdates its Christian is always losing somebody, but that’s Part of his haul is now on show in the to buy a dozen such pieces, more than and the odd international summit; and been viewed. ■ grief. As its portmanteau title sug- touched with sublime, immense, connotation – the so-called Sarpedon exactly where we can begin to find the museum’s near deserted rooms, which in any other Chinese art museum I’ve this great museum, half forgotten, is its gests, Ghosteen is a continuation of sparse soundscapes against which krater, which depicts the death of the strength to lift our eyes again. ■ take up almost all of the palace itself, visited. secret treasure. ■ 20 CULTURE theconservative.online theconservative.online CULTURE 21

This innovative production succeeds where previous attempts to convert Shakespeare’s plays to opera have failed TELIS A GREAT MODERNAVIV CITY WHERE TO EAT The Old Man by the Sea Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet by Opera2Day, The Hague A never-ending feast of salads, dips, and pitta bread. Add delicious fish or meat, but be sure to arrive hungry.

Teder FM Secluded spot for a slice of pizza and a beer with HAMLET a really fun atmosphere. in the Hague makes the grade North Abraxus Regarded as one of Israel’s best best restaurants, by Gerald Malone North Abraxus is a staple of Tel Aviv dining. It’s busy and can be hard to get a reservation, but the amlet isn’t brooding on based on Shakespeare’s work, the Joe “Mac” and Pat who are stuck Some of it does. Some of it doesn’t. tempted to kill murdering Uncle Clau- burned cauliflower makes the battlements in Den- majority – probably thankfully – in their dead-end jobs at Duncan’s The action is staged in the 20th cen- dius who is kneeling in prayer, but it worth it. mark. He’s in the Hague; mouldering in dustbins. Restaurant. Pat is getting restless and tury, using props like digital cam- stays his hand because the penitent starring in a new produc- David Garrick had a go with The hatches a plan as Mac starts to see eras to record “the conscience of the king may make it straight to heaven. WHAT TO DRINK Htion from Oper2Day, the Dutch “new Tempest as early as 1756. He was things – the three hippies (witches). King”, during the play reprising the Best to do him in when he is perform- energy from old sources” opera com- accused of “castrating Shakespeare”. It’s about supersizing – and a mon- murder of Hamlet’s father. The back- ing some unforgivable act. This was a Sputnik Bar pany. Its premiere was broadcast live Lord Byron, no less, accused Rossini ument of towering piffle. But, it is ground is innovatively set as film noir, struggle of the mind M. de Lang por- Sputnik bar is a bustling on OperaVision – www.operavision. of “crucifying” Othello in a letter to a opera-ish. Perhaps. allowing ghosts to strut their stuff in trayed vividly alongside many of his bar in the centre of the eu – a cultural gold mine partly funded fellow poet in 1818. English composer So, where in this galaxy shines the background and the inner work- soliloquy moments. He did introspec- city and it has a nice by the EU Commission (grant about Thomas Adès brought The Tempest Hamlet? Francesco Gasparini – we all ings of the characters’ minds – espe- tion well – a Hamlet, to his boots. outdoor area if you need to expire in 2020). It is now available to stage in 2004 in a coproduction of remember him – had a go in 1712 with cially Hamlet and Ophélie – to run in French-Dutch soprano, Lucie Char- to cool off. on demand. The Royal Opera House, Copenhagen his Ambleto (Hamlet rendered in Ital- parallel with the onstage action. tin, sang Ophélie. The litmus test That’s my commercial. Here’s the Opera and Opéra National du Rhin. It ian), performed in London by the cel- I started out thinking, “hokum”, of this role in the Ambroise opera – Shpagat If you want to delve threat. If funding for OperaVision is received great acclaim and was staged ebrated castrato, Nicolini. Takes all but was quickly enthralled. The multi as it is in the play – is the mad scene into Tel Aviv’s LGBT not continued beyond 2020, in some at The Met in 2012 to rave reviews and sorts. Funny to reflect that gender dimensional effect allowed the plot to and Mme. Chartin was mesmerising. Smart, freewheeling and dynamic – Tel Aviv might not be a by Charlotte Henry scene, this bar is shape or form, I shall see to it person- then dumped. selection is nothing new. Didn’t really be advanced quickly and understand- She flipped from sanity to madness regarded as good a ally that the ghost of post Brexit Brit- Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer work – the opera, that is. ing was enriched. It was like watching with a glance of her eyes and sang the centre of world religions, but it has a lot to offer place to start as any. ain returns to stalk the corridors of Night’s Dream is probably the most Only one composer cracked the a YouTube video running at 2X speed swooping mood changing passages Brussels, demanding righteous ret- performed Shakespeare based opera Hamlet curse, Ambroise Thomas in – very du jour amongst geeks, I’m told effortlessly. espite recent showcase more people spend Saturday, the Jew- Then there are ice cream parlours assassinated. Jerusalem is a sim- ribution; “Alas, poor OperaVision, I in today’s repertoire, because the plot 1868, a French composer who won the - to pack in more content. The performance was conducted events like the Eurovision ish sabbath, on the beach than pray- that Italians might even be impressed ple bus ride away. The range on offer WHERE TO STAY watched it well”. line lends itself well to operatic pre- Paris Conservatoire’s Prix de Rome In this advancing era of simulcasts, by Hernan Schvarzman, who cracked Song Contest and tour- ing and many restaurants openly flout by. My personal favourite is Otello on in what is really a small city all adds Tout court, OperaVision is an amaz- sentation, asses, love potions and all. and is now best know for his operas global transmissions and on-the- the New European Ensemble along ism-promoting adver- religious laws by staying open. Dizengoff Street, which puts an outra- a unique kind of dynamism to what Dan Panorama Enormous hotel right ing cultural resource, allowing unlim- at a great pace. They made the most tising campaigns, when most people The Museum of Art reflects the geously good chocolate sauce on top is, officially according to most other D on the beach, with a ited access to a raft of productions of Ambroise’s score which is frankly think of Israel their thoughts proba- city’s diversity too. When I was there, of your selection. There’s the equally countries, Israel’s capital. price tag to match the across Europe’s opera houses, and deficient. For a tragedy there are too bly still turn first of all to Jerusalem, it was displaying a thought-provoking delicious Anita Gelato in Neve Tzedek Of course, that is not to say every- location. a full library of concerts and music Hamlet was a compositional bullet that even Verdi dodged: Otello, many ascending-chord-progression and specifically the Old City, with its exhibition by Palestinian artist Samah too, if you’re in that part of town. thing is perfect. The cost of living is documentaries. In the battle to make aria finales. It’s uplifting rather than iconic religious landmarks such as the Shihadi nearby to work by the estab- If you want to relax but do not high. While everyone in Tel Aviv seems Gordon Hotel opera relevant to the many not the Macbeth and his triumphant finale, Falstaff – but no Hamlet. Too foreboding. Ambroise was writing for Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock lished Israeli artist David Avidan. It is fancy the beach there is Gordon Pool to work in “hi-tech”, those jobs can be A cheaper offering few (sorry for the tired trope) Oper- complex. It is Shakespeare’s longest play and difficult to adapt to the audiences who insisted on romanti- and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. not all local work either – the museum – a beautiful lido with Olympic sized as insecure as the fortunes of start-ups also overlooking the aVision is a gladiator par excellence. It cism with everything. I was listening Then, perhaps, they will picture some featured pieces by Jackson Pollock, lanes, an adult pool, and a children’s which inevitably rise and fall. Giant sea, located on Gordon combines the well-loved mainstream operatic medium – too many subtle emotions, subplots and twists. for the occasional blazing trumpet of kind of barren, acrid, desert landscape. Pablo Picasso and Wassily Kandinsky pool all overlooking that harbour. It posters of Prime Minister Benjamin beach. with the cutting edge, broadens taste, doom – but it never came. The music Of course, after years of violence, the in the permanent collection. is a particularly great, although not Netanyahu shaking hands with Don- That’s true of mostly all Shakespeare plays. Others have struggled Cinema Hotel educates and draws opera watchers is pleasant, but unexceptional. For tragic conflict with the Palestinians is ald Trump and Vladimir Putin were A more boutique manfully. There are over 200 operas based on Shakespeare’s work, the th well beyond their comfort zone. once, I was lusting after a bit of 20 never far from the mind either. unavoidable during my visit this sum- offering in a good, It is supported by 29 production majority - probably thankfully – mouldering in dustbins. century dissonance. But to focus only on these things mer, a reminder of the country’s polit- location – right near companies spanning Europe (loosely All in all, this was a brave attempt to is to miss much of what the country ical turmoil. You also need to remain the Dizengoff centre. defined) from Ireland in the west to Then there is the “riff” Shakespeare Mignon and François de Rimini. His fly editing pioneered by New York’s revive a former repertoire favourite in has to offer. In Tel Aviv in particular, Tel Aviv is an unremittingly positive city. vigilant to not be taken out by locals Moscow in the east. It performs an category. The Enchanted Island, which Hamlet was performed 153 times Metropolitan Opera, it makes per- a manageable form. It could be better Israel boasts one of the world’s great A young city. A vibrant city. A city where as a whizzing around on electric scooters. WHAT TO SEE important educational function, pro- premiered at the Met in 2011, was in the era, but is hardly heard of fect sense for opera companies to if in future productions some of the modern cities. It has a beautiful beach, woman who was travelling by myself I largely There are constant reminders of the viding accessible materials to pupils a pasticcio rewrite of The Tempest, today. The neglect was spotted by utilise technological developments vital action – such as the final scene arts, night life, and unspeakably deli- security situation too. Shopping malls and teachers alike. A library section jumellé avec A Midsummer Night’s Opera2Day. to the full. This is a slick and clever – is not treated in such a peremp- cious food. It is perhaps the only city felt safe walking around. and train stations have airport-like David Ben Gurion’s House is a cornucopia of back productions, Dream, composed by – wait for it – Australian composer, Brett Dean, production. tory fashion. And, I would proba- on Earth where you can be a Jew and security. The Great Synagogue is sur- The house in the Marina documentaries, concerts and – well Vivaldi, Handel, Rameau, Campra, had a moment in the Sussex country- Less so, the choices made of where bly not have gone to The Hague just gay and feel no conflict between those Elsewhere, you can walk through necessarily cheap, day for a family or rounded by a high concrete wall and area of the city provides I never – a “For Fun” section. While Ferrandini, and Purcell. The whole side sun in his Glyndebourne Ham- to cut. There were clunky jumps in for that performance. So, thank you, two elements of one’s identity or a the chaos of Carmel Market and a group of friends. barriers to stop car rammings. Even an essential insight into most intellectual bien pensants the mishmash was assembled by Julian let in 2017. But the sun went in and plot throughout, but the strangest was OperaVision. need to hide them. On buildings and minutes later be in the beautiful Secret spots are dotted around the Gordon Pool has security guards and the founding of Israel. world over are having the glooms, the Crouch and Phelim McDermott. the strange effort – which drew on the the closing scene in which Hamlet, More like OperaVista. The folk at beaches the rainbow flag flies proudly serenity of the Neve Tzedek area, city too. These include Teder FM – a metal fencing. tribe at OperaVision dares to have fun. Believe it or not, it worked. words of Shakespeare’s First Quarto after a brief exposition of his predic- OperaVision have a veritable flood of next to the blue and white Star of enjoying a delicious Israeli breakfast restaurant selling pizza by the slice Despite this, Tel Aviv is an unre- Neve Tzedek Heaven forfend. Descending to the depths, there is version of the play – has not seen ament and grief following Ophélie’s new and interesting productions on David. It hosts one of the world’s big- in the shade at Café Suzana. Indeed, and local beer hidden away behind mittingly positive city. A young city. A A lovely, peaceful area On, to the battlements. Hamlet (stop press, premiered on 21st Sep- the light of day, let alone basked in funeral, suddenly shoots himself. the schedule. Janacek’s Jenufa, from gest Pride events, with 250,000 people the food is pretty incredible across a door that you would not even stop vibrant city. A city where as a woman of the city on the way to Jaffa - take a stroll was a compositional bullet that even tember in Manhattan) Scotland PA, the sun, since. “To be or not to be, ay, Lights out. In more senses than the Brno Festival, Henze’s The Bas- turning up this year. the board, with a good meal not dif- to look at if you did not know it was who was travelling by myself I largely through the gorgeous Verdi dodged: Otello, Macbeth and a musical version of a black com- there’s the point”. Eh? one. The surprised audience took a sarids, performed by Komische Oper That is far from the only appar- ficult to find whether it’s a relatively there. Go through and you enter a felt safe walking around. jewellery stores. his triumphant finale, Falstaff – but edy retelling of Shakespeare’s Mac- Opera2Day has based its produc- moment or two to catch on before the Berlin and Der ferne Klang by Schre- ent conflict or contrast that co-exists lowly looking falafel bar on a street beautiful open square filled with bars, Tel Aviv will never be able to boast no Hamlet. Too complex. It is Shake- beth, set against the backdrop of a fast tion on the Ambroise Thomas work, applause started – tentatively. ker, from Royal Swedish Opera. And here though. The ancient Arab city corner to more tourist focussed des- shops and restaurants, all animated by that it is at the centre of world reli- Museum of Art speare’s longest play and difficult to food restaurant in the early 70s, rural itself a much condensed version of Comments on the two principals. that’s just a taste of what’s available in of Jaffa sits next to the modern Jew- tinations like the Old Man and the pulsing electronic music. gions. It will never be able to show-off Near the city centre, adapt to the operatic medium – too Pennsylvania (PA is the state abbrevi- the play. Then the team picked up the Quirjin de Lang, the Dutch baritone, October alone. Their mandate was to ish metropolis of Tel Aviv, with both Sea in Jaffa, with its never-ending For those who want to learn about having a wonder of the world. What the museum boasts a many subtle emotions, subplots and ation). Reader note: I am NOT making pruning shears and clipped away even who sang Hamlet, is a true singing open the opera experience to a wider peoples living happily side by side. salad refill. Sitting by the sea looking Israel’s history there is the house of it has though are all the hallmarks of stunning collection of twists. That’s true of mostly all Shake- this up. more vigorously. The work’s runtime actor and needed all his dramatic tal- European audience and offer new hori- Secular bars and restaurants heav- up at the old city, I consider no trip David Ben Gurion, the first Prime a great modern city, and that makes it local and Western speare plays. Others have struggled This classic junk food tale of guilt is 140 minutes. The play lasts four ents to pull off some of the visuals, zons for seasoned opera goers. They ing with people are on the doorstep to Tel Aviv complete without dinner Minister of Israel, and Rabin Square, an increasingly essential travel desti- artists’ work. manfully. There are over 200 operas and betrayal centres on the McBeths, hours. Does the pruning work? especially the scene in which he is are succeeding beyond expectation. ■ of the Great Synagogue. In Tel Aviv, there. the site where Yitzhak Rabin was nation. ■ 22 CULTURE theconservative.online theconservative.online CULTURE 23

Waiter, where is my Don’t buy the CULTURE food (or wine)? NATURAL DIGEST musicAeterna, Teodor The best of Europe’s art and culture Currentzis Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris and Baden-Baden Festspielhaus, WINE HYPE rd until 3 November by Guy Chatfield The sensational Russian Caravaggio and Bernini orchestra and its messianic Kunst Historisches Museum, music director Teodor th Vienna, until 19 January Currentzis have escaped their Creating a dialogue between home in Perm for now, and SOMETHING from the sculptures and paintings continue a whirlwind tour NOTHING: The Visual that triggered the start of the around Europe, with blistering Realm of Magnús Pálsson Baroque, this exhibition brings performances of Rameau, Art Museum, Reyjavík, th Lohengrin works from as far afield as LA, Mozart, and Hersant. until 12 January nd Prague Opera, until 2 February Perth in Scotland, Chicago, Sculptor, sound poet, set Lohengrin was conceived St Petersburg, Paris, Rome, designer, writer, teacher, by Wagner during one of his and Florence to supplement performer; Pálsson’s creative frequent trips to Prague. Now it Vienna’s own impressive output is wide-ranging and makes its return to the Bohemian collection, with works including highly influential. This exhibition Appalling food, rude waiters and wine gone capital. The production is a like- Contemporary Art Biennial David with the Head of Goliath examines his visual art from the th missing – bad service is more common in the for-like remake of Wolfgang Lyon, until 5 January and St Francis is Ecstasy by 1960s to the present day, drawing Wagner’s original staging for the Occupying 29,000 square Caravaggio, and Bernini’s on his sculptures, bookworks, hospitality industry than you might think Bayreuther Festpiele. metres in the city centre, Medusa and David. and 2D works. alongside outposts and pop-ups by Bruce Palling throughout the region, the 15th Edition of the Biennial will be t was the smell that the table It would probably be difficult to cat- the shoulder comments about how it the biggest yet. 50 Artists have noticed first, which was reminis- egorise all the sorts of issues that can was coming in five minutes until the made site-specific works for the I cent of a burnt tyre. This would go wrong, but I was impressed with owner, a kindly middle-aged woman, main site in Fagor Factory, on be exciting enough in the pit lane of one ad hoc solution to a customer apologised and said she would sort it the theme “Where Water Comes the Goodwood Revival, but not what complaining to a Soho chef about out. Before she did, a complimentary Together with Other Water”. you expect in a fashionable Mayfair a grub in her salad. He simply bent plate of delicious hors d’oeuvres restaurant. My wife was hosting the down, picked it up and then ate it. arrived, including fresh asparagus he wine business is not immune to fads and crazes. There is departure of a much-loved member A recent trip to Marseille provided stalks, grilled red mullet and fried constant chatter when a “new” grape variety comes along and of her magazine. It started on a high me with a virtually textbook exam- squid. Fifteen minutes later, the main we are forever hearing that X is the new Y, or something that T Lisbon Architecture De Pisis with old stories being told and per- ple of how to both ameliorate and to dishes emerged, including my gardi- will replace the previously popular grape whose cool quotient has sonalities dissected with the assis- inflame an unhappy customer. Time ane de taureau, a sticky Camargue bull now dwindled. Triennale Museo Del Novecento, Milan, nd st tance of some excellent cocktails. was in short supply, since we had to daube. We rather rashly then ordered When I say new, that is a bit of a misnomer. The Vitis genus has until 2 December until 1 March In fact, all went swimmingly until visit the recently completed Museum some glasses of wine, though alas, been stalking our planet since well before the dinosaurs even popped The Triennale has become The Italian twentieth century Brueghel: Marvels the food turned up. She had ordered of European and Mediterranean they made it onto the bill, but not the on to the scene. Adding to that, we humans have demonstrably been an influential platform for artist, Filippo de Pisis (1896 of Flamenco Art The Bassarids Chicken Paillard, but what she Civilisations (MuCEM) on the site table. On departure, we pointed this fermenting grape juice to make wine for roughly six millennia, so in architecture internationally – 1956) receives an extensive Gaviria Palace, Madrid, Komische Oper Berlin, th th hadn’t expected was that it would be of Fort St-Jean, which dominates the out to madame, who was already furi- reality, nothing is really new. Like economic principles, hemlines and since its founding in 2007. retrospective at the Museo del until 12 April until 10 November accompanied by a stench, ous with her staff and kept music, wine fads are cyclical and whatever is trendy now can very Curated by French architect Éric Novecento, Milan. Beginning This major exhibition exploring Vladimir Jurowski and Barrie wafting ahead of its apologising and offering us often be traced back to its roots in the past. Lapierre, this year’s programme, Rigoletto with his debut work in 1916, “De the work of the Dutch Brueghel Kosky reunite to take on Hans arrival. Once it was on the wine. Overall, the service One of the hot topics in the European wine industry at the moment entitled “The Poetics of Reason”, Oslo Opera House, Pisis” explores the painter’s dynasty between the 16th and 17th Werne Henze’s one-act music th table, with its latticework An elderly couple had wanted to was extraordinarily incom- is “natural” wine. includes five main exhibitions until 10 January universe: his influential meeting centuries draws on hundreds of drama. The libretto, by WH of burnt charcoal stripes, celebrate their wedding anniversary petent, but we left with no This “natural” moniker has been adopted by a relatively small in locations around the city, Theatre veteran Ole Anders with De Chirico’s metaphysical works by the Elders and Youngers Auden and Chester Allman, it was clearly not fit for hard feelings as we felt that group of winemakers, in essence, to signify that they have added noth- including “Economy of Means”, a Tandberg directs Verdi’s tragic painting, his important trips of this influential family. is based on The Bacchae by purpose. Not wishing to at one of the most famous every effort had been made ing to their creation. It is a movement that champions minimal chem- multisensory exhibition exploring masterpiece at the Oslo Opera across Europe, and, finally, The exhibition also includes Euripides, and examines the dampen the fun around hideaways on Bali, so had a special to sort it out. The secret ical and technological intervention in the farming and production ethical and aesthetic responses House, the harbour-facing “wave his hospitalisation at the Villa representative works by Rubens, conflict between emotion the table, she took a bite. here was to leave us with process. The core aim is really for producers to differentiate them- to local and global challenges, at wall” and home to Norwegian Fiorita mental institute in the Bosch and David Teniers the and rationality, with bloody It was nasty and inedible. bottle of Romanée-Conti 69 (retail the feeling that the man- selves from, as they see it, the big corporate and industrial producers. MAAT – Central Tejo. National Opera. early 1950s. Younger. consequences. The waitress nodded in price £10,000 plus) shipped out agement were on our side. They want to create a niche of “ethical” winemakers who deliberately sympathy and took it to be weeks in advance. They arrived for Ultimately, it is the sin- eschew “artificial” additives, laboratory created strains of yeast and, replaced. cerity of the response that specifically, the use of sulphur dioxide (sulphites) for preservation. Shortly afterwards, she dinner but were puzzled not to find matters – I still fume about All are legal, but the question is whether excluding them from produc- very reluctantly brought their treasured bottle decanted being kept from our allot- tion is actually going to produce a “better” wine. Ultimately, to make ACROSS 51. Sent down for the count Lonely” the plate back – still with ted table at a smart place the tastiest wine should be every winemaker’s goal. 1. “___ a Lady” 52. Strand 13. Starfish arms and waiting by the side of the table. (Tom Jones hit) 53. Compensate for 19. Cheers mailman the bite out of the chicken. in Manhattan, because Just to add to the fun, the natural wine movement is a very broad 5. Ready to swing 57. Possess, to Burns 24. Julius Erving’s nickname Covered in embarrass- It turned out it had been sent to some “personality” turned church with no clear set of ground rules and no specific definition. 10. Toffee-based candy bar 58. Evergreens 25. “I’ll send ___ to the ment, she told my wife the the wrong table, where the guests up unannounced. We were With no definitive set of rules a lack of a clarity is often exploited and 14. Reunion attendee 61. Wagon maker world...” (Police) chef refused to replace it given a conciliatory glass of the door is opened to an “Emperor’s new clothes” scenario, where 15. Dog controller 63. Ambush 26. Allow entry to because that was how it thanked the sommelier profusely champagne while we sat in consumers are led to believe that a substandard, “funky” or cloudy 16. Colada lead-in 64. Girl’s name, or anagram 27. Good, in Guadalajara 17. Measure out for “dial” 28. Signed with a pen was supposed to be cooked. before drinking it. reception but it felt robotic wine is phenomenal and that they are ignorant heels for not enjoy- 18. With skill 65. Based on the number 29. Amusement Rather than face further and hollow. ing it. 20. Close observer eight 30. Greenland settler (var.) awkwardness, she left it uneaten and entrance of the Old Port. There are All of this pales into insignificance Personally, I’m not sure what level of paranoia or distrust would 21. Noah’s boat 66. German title 31. Island in the Ionian Sea ordered something else. any number of simple restaurants compared to the story an hotelier told make one think that the average bottle of supermarket plonk is unnat- 22. George Jetson’s boy, 67. Gruel, e.g. 32. Assemblage of people It is a puzzle how people, allegedly nearby, so we chose Chez Madie les me. An elderly couple had wanted ural. Even at this entry level bracket, it is still fermented grape juice and others 68. Town outside of Ft. 35. Made bales 23. Place on the fluff cycle Lauderdale, FL 38. Can. currency in the hospitality industry, can get Gallinettes, known for its classic take to celebrate their wedding anniver- and not something that can be plausibly created in a laboratory. On again 69. Miniature maelstrom 40. Bug with wheels something so egregiously wrong, but on Provençal Cuisine. The outdoors sary at one of the most famous hide- top of this, the use of sulphites in modern wines (which the natural 25. MPEG alternative 43. Distorted it happens more often than you would space looked full but we were more aways on Bali, so had a special bottle wine movement opposes) is done in such a controlled and minuscule 26. Engross DOWN 45. USA, in Portuguese think. What makes it even more puz- than happy to take the last remaining of Romanée-Conti 69 (retail price way, typically using twenty to two hundred parts per million, that it 28. For practical purposes 1. Likewise 48. Cool car zling is how little official advice there table. What more could one desire? A £10,000 plus) shipped out weeks in has been proven even the theoretical adverse reaction is extremely 33. Driver’s concern 2. A nephew of Donald 50. Grim Reaper tool advance. They arrived for dinner but 34. Painter Jasper ___ Duck 52. Faith that arose is on what needs to be done when sunny table within paddling distance rare. 36. Frenzy 3. Becomes a part of in Persia problems arise with a meal. I checked of the two and a half thousand-year- were puzzled not to find their trea- On a positive note, I am greatly in favour of producers making their 37. Get better 4. Home music system 53. Hooters out various manuals for restaurants, old port and a commendable €18 set sured bottle decanted and waiting wines in an environmentally sound and ethically sourced manner. 39. Comic Smirnoff 5. Acolyte 54. Blow it including the Bible of them all, The lunch? by the side of the table. It turned out There are a multitude of brilliant wines from the portfolios of estab- 41. Actor Robert De ____ 6. Pathetic 55. Generic dog name New Catering Repertoire, a 1300-page The drinks and gazpacho turned it had been sent to the wrong table, lished “ethically sound” vegetarian, vegan-friendly, biodynamic and 42. “A guy walks ____ 7. Here again 56. Jacket fastener work devoted to everything you need up within ten minutes, but then we where the guests thanked the som- organic producers out there. My advice though, on anything that spe- bar...” 8. Carribean clock setting, 57. “House Hunters” 44. “____ can!” maybe network to know to run a restaurant. Nowhere entered the dreaded limbo of waiting melier profusely before drinking it. cifically styles itself as “natural” is – caveat emptor, “let the buyer (campaign slogan) 9. Swipe 59. Mr. Cleaver in it is a single word about how to deal interminably for the next course. After History does not relate which shack beware”. ■ 46. Fiscal VIP 10. Box 60. Surprisingly lively for with a complaint – valid or otherwise nearly half an hour, anxious enquiries on Kuta Beach currently employs the 47. Backyard sight 11. Drug unit one’s age 49. Bring to an end 12. The Motels’ “____ the 62. Peruvian region – from a customer. to the scurrying waiter elicited off sommelier. ■ & sudoku crossword LEADING EUROPE’S CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT

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