Autumn Books Salman Rushdie Roddy Doyle Ryan Gattis
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Hilary Spurling Christopher Ondaatje Jenny Colgan Craig Raine David Crane Sam Leith Autumn Books Salman Rushdie Roddy Doyle Ryan Gattis 16 september 2017 [ £4.25 www.spectator.co.uk [ est. 1828 Playing the race card Munira Mirza on Theresa May’s cynical new strategy Why footballers dope Angel Hernández THE MADNESS OF ARONOFSKY DEBORAH ROSS ALLAHU AKBAR! MICHAEL KARAM BAHRAIN BD3.20. CANADA C$7.50. EURO ZONE €6.95 SOUTH AFRICA ZAR79.90 UAE AED34.00. USA US$7.20. Give your children’s future a jump start. Aberdeen’s Investment Plan for Children You want to give your children a head start. So give them an investment plan that lets them aim a little higher. Aberdeen’s Investment Plan for Children offers a wide choice of investment trusts. And because this is Aberdeen, your children get access to investment opportunities not only in the UK but in Asia and worldwide too. The plan accepts monthly and lump sum investments – from parents, grandparents and anyone else who wants to contribute.A Hop over to our website to learn more. Please remember, the value of shares and the income from them can go down as well as up and you may get back less than the amount invested. A Subject to certain criteria being met. Request a brochure: 0808 500 4000 invtrusts.co.uk/children Issued by Aberdeen Asset Managers Limited, 10 Queen’s Terrace, Aberdeen AB10 1YG, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK. Telephone calls may be recorded. aberdeen-asset.co.uk Please quote CH S 11 established 1828 Red Tories eremy Corbyn has never been very keen pay rises must come out of existing budgets, The Tories have not won a convincing on parliamentary democracy. He may be it is difficult to see how public sector spend- election victory for 30 years now, and these Jchanging his mind now. The British elec- ing will be contained. Now the cap has been decades of drift seem to have damaged the toral system has allowed him to strip the breached, there will be unbearable pressure party’s self-confidence. Even when Theresa Conservatives of their majority, an extraor- from other groups of workers, such as nurses May was expecting a landslide, she filled her dinary result that not even he had thought and teachers, to ditch it altogether. manifesto with bad ideas left over from Ed possible. As a reward, he can watch the gov- This week we heard Len McCluskey Miliband’s disastrous tenure of the Labour ernment squirm as well as shape its policy. threatening to co-ordinate illegal strikes — party. She promised that her government All he needs to do is threaten a vote which a suggestion that until the recent past would would not ‘drift to the right’. It was as if she Theresa May thinks she might lose, and she have rebounded badly on Labour. But half thought the right is wrong. buckles — as we are now witnessing. the electorate now has no memory of the The race audit that Mrs May is due to For some time, the Prime Minister had Winter of Discontent or the miners’ strike. release in the next few weeks will likely stood firm on the public sector pay cap, Irresponsible unions feature low down the show the Conservatives again adopting the arguing that when you factor in generous list of priorities for younger voters, if they agenda of their opponents. Britain is one of pensions, the average government worker is feature at all. So McCluskey can compare the best countries in Europe in which to be still paid 10 per cent more than their private himself to Nelson Mandela defying an unjust young, gifted and black — the achievements sector counterpart. But the Tories have lost law. When Labour failed to condemn him, no of ethnic minority pupils in schools and uni- the argument on this and now fear they’d one really minded. versities encapsulate what Michael Howard lose a vote if they stuck to their guns. Back- called the ‘British dream’. The Tories should bench Conservative MPs are nervous of the The Tories have not won a convincing have adopted his message of optimism and political traction which it might give Corbyn election victory for 30 years, and this opportunity. But there are more votes in if they voted for the pay freeze now. So the seems to have damaged their confidence adopting a negative message, in claiming government is lifting the 1 per cent cap for the system is rigged against ethnic minori- police and prison officers. Similarly, the government seems ready ties. David Cameron should never be for- What they should have done was abolish to cave in on what seemed until this week to given for telling black children that they are nationwide pay settlements altogether, and be its robust position on student loans. Min- more likely to end up in prison than a good allowed flexible pay adjusted to local living isters are said to be reviewing the 6 per cent university. As Munira Mirza says this week costs. A bold Tory government might have interest rate on loans. It is hard to believe (cover article, page 12), the Tories risk send- done so; this one looks set to dance to a tune that this policy is a result of anything other ing a false message of despair — and all in called by its opponents. than fear of Jeremy Corbyn and his remark- pursuit of narrow political gain. The next step will be rowing back a little able popularity with the under-40s. There was a time, soon after the general bit further on what had, for the incoming Reducing interest rates on the repayment election, when Jeremy Corbyn fantasised Cameron administration in 2010, been the of student loans would be a regressive move that he would be prime minister within six government’s defining purpose: balancing that would really only help the most success- months. That prospect has receded a little, the books. In lifting the 1 per cent cap on ful graduates. According to the Institute of but it is still a very real possibility. If the gov- public sector pay for police and prison offic- Fiscal Studies, only a quarter of graduates ernment begins to lose votes on Brexit, as it ers, Theresa May has condemned the Chan- will clear their debt before the 30-year dead- briefly seemed that it might do over the EU cellor yet again to put off the great day line, after which all student debts are writ- withdrawal bill this week, it could fail to sur- when the British government lives within its ten off. A lower interest rate will save money vive the autumn. But if Corbyn’s ideas con- means. Ten years after the crash, the national only for this richest quarter of graduates — tinue to sneak into Conservative policy, it debt is still rising by £47 billion a year — or those who pay off their loans more quick- might be asked whether Labour’s seemingly £5,000 by the time you finish reading this ly — while having no effect whatsoever on absurd claim that he was the ‘real winner’ of sentence. While the government says the relieving the finances of the rest. the June election has come true. the spectator | 16 september 2017 | www.spectator.co.uk 3 He’s disgusting, p9 Beyond the cliffs, p50 Ave Maria, p40 THE WEEK BOOKS & ARTS 3 Leading article 12 A convenient untruth AUTUMN BOOKS 6 Portrait of the Week Theresa May’s cynical race strategy 26 Sam Leith Munira Mirza 9 Diary Cricket in Iceland, eating The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, by Stephen Greenblatt puffin and finishing my novel 14 Decision changers Sebastian Faulks Someone make a choice already! 28 Hilary Spurling Jenny Coad A Life of My Own, by Claire Tomalin 10 Politics How to unite the Tory tribes James Forsyth 16 Watergate 29 Houman Barekat Privatisation and an organised rip-off Elmet, by Fiona Mozley 11 The Spectator’s Notes Nick Cohen Talking with sporting types, 30 Ian Thomson and remembering Cormac 18 The straight dope In the Forests of Freedom, Charles Moore Even footballers take illegal drugs by Lennox Honychurch Damian Reilly 15 Matthew Parris 31 Christopher Ondaatje Return to an African childhood 20 Our browbeaten universities Madam, Where Are Your Mangoes?, They must declare independence by Desmond de Silva 17 Rod Liddle James Tooley An orchestrated race storm 32 David Crane 24 Ya Allah! The Fearless Benjamin Lay, 21 Letters Obesity, tapestries, and the Arabic-speakers are not all terrorists by Marcus Rediker England football player problem Michael Karam 33 John Jolliffe 24 Barometer Animal rights, iPhones The Age of Decadence, by and boozing with babies Simon Heffer 25 Any other business The City’s Jenny Colgan fight, Hinkley Point and phone deals Safe, by Ryan Gattis Martin Vander Weyer 34 Thomas W. Hodgkinson The Darkening Age, by Catherine Nixey 35 Tim Martin The Golden House, by Salman Rushdie Jonathan McAloon Smile, by Roddy Doyle Cover by Morten Morland. 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