W hile David Cameron was in Darfur, pointing out how Islamist
leaders in Khartoum give evasive answers about the mass killings in the region, his shadow attorneygeneral, Dominic Grieve, was attending a rally in central London called to protest about ‘Islamophobia’. The publicity for the rally said this was manifested by a campaign of ‘physical attacks, firebombing and assaults on women... including an attempt to suppress the right of persons of all faiths to dress in accordance with their religious convictions’. It was organised by the British Muslim Initiative, an offshoot of Respect, the party represented in Parliament by George Galloway. Among those speaking were Ken Livingstone, Tony Benn and Muslims from such organisations as the Islam Channel, owned by Salafists, the hard-line Muslim Association of Britain and the Islamic Forum Europe, a radical umbrella group. Does Mr Grieve agree with the organisers that those who oppose wearing the veil are part of a campaign which includes firebombing and attacks on women? If not, why was he sharing the platform? There is something very patronising about a Tory approach which feels it has to turn up to anything which calls itself Muslim. Would Mr Grieve attend BNP rallies on the grounds that one must hear the voice of white people? There needs to be a much more rigorous identification of who is, and is not, a truly moderate Muslim.
For some months I have been receiving abusive letters from TV Licensing. They are sent to ‘The present occupier’ of our London flat and they threaten me with criminal proceedings if I do not buy a television licence. TV Licensing has ‘authorised officers from our Enforcement Division to visit your home and interview you under caution’. John Hales, the head of the Enforcement Division, ‘strongly advises’ me to telephone a number (an 0870 number — more money to them) ‘to avoid an appearance in court’. I have chosen not to answer any of these letters, because I do not have a television in the flat. The letters never allow for this possibility, let alone apologise for troubling those in that situation. They assume that payment is due, and that a failure to pay is dishonest, or incompetent. They provide an example of how untrue it is when people say, of some new law restricting our liberty, ‘The innocent have nothing to fear’.
Some months ago this column informed Spectator readers of the creation of the Old Rectory Club. Its purpose is to advance the cause of old rectories, vicarages, manses etc... These buildings are unique to the British Isles and have, on the whole, been illtreated by the Church of England in modern times. We want to accumulate more information about their architectural, cultural and social history, arrange visits to them, etc. We have already signed up a large number of members, and though many are themselves occupants of the buildings in question, many are not, and all enthusiasts are equally welcome. It takes ages nowadays to set up a charity in the legally proper manner, but we have now done so. Our patron is the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire. Our distinguished trustees include Lord Fellowes. I am the chairman. We shall hold our inaugural meeting at St George’s, Hanover Square, London W1 on Tuesday 30 January. The highlight will be a talk by the famous Lucinda Lambton, but we shall also use the occasion to discuss with all those present how best our aims should be advanced. Doors open at 5 p.m., and there will be wine. Tickets are free to members and £10 on the door to anyone else. If you know you would like to attend, please notify Charles Crosthwaite, the Hon Secretary at rectoryclub@brown-rudnick.com, or write to him at Brown Rudnick, 8 Clifford Street, London W1S 2LQ.
The obituaries of Milton Friedman remarked on his cheery readiness to preach his message about freedom at all times. John Blundell, of the Institute of Economic Affairs in London, has recorded how he was once walking through San Francisco trying to find the Friedmans’ apartment. He knew he could not be far away when he spotted a car whose number plate carried the letters MV PT. The equation MV=PT expresses the law of money which states ‘Money quantity times velocity of circulation equals price level times transactions’. The obituaries also noted the long-standing disagreement between Friedman and the Keynesian guru J.K.Galbraith. In my Margaret Thatcher researches, it has given me malicious pleasure to find a long and lofty interview which Galbraith gave to the Observer in 1975. The paper billed the interview by saying that the ‘celebrated economist explains... why pay and price curbs will be a permanent feature, both in Britain and in every other industrial country’. In the interview, Galbraith said the prices and incomes policy of Harold Wilson would ‘last forever’ and that the monetarists who disagreed ‘should be treated as museum pieces’. I think there is now no Western country which has pay and price curbs. For that, and for so much more, Milton Friedman deserves credit.
Writing elsewhere last week in praise of the disinterested career of Lord Sainsbury, the former science minister, I discovered that he resolutely conceals where he went to school. The helpful office of the Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts would not enlighten me, nor does Who’s Who. I assume, therefore, that it was Eton. It is interesting how authors’ blurbs now almost never mention their school, especially if it was a private one. Look in vain on the dust jackets of works by Alexander Chancellor, Ferdinand Mount, Matt Ridley, Colin Thubron, Noel Malcolm, Adam Nicolson, all Etonians, for the truth. But surely school makes a huge difference, and so it should be mentioned. Lord Sainsbury is passionately devoted to education, but coy about his own.
The other things that blurbs now seldom mention include family background, marital status, date of birth and, indeed, almost any information that tells you anything. They seem to conform with every antidiscrimination act, so they end up saying useless things like, ‘She is a fulltime novelist, and lives in London’, and leaving it at that. I have to hand the Penguin blurb for Nancy Mitford’s Love in a Cold Climate, in a 1950s edition. It reads, in part, ‘She was, she says, uneducated except for being taught to ride and speak French. She had two literary grandfathers, Lord Redesdale, the author of Tales of Old Japan, etc., and Thomas Gibson Bowles, MP, editor, founder and owner of Vanity Fair and other papers. She is married to Peter Rodd, son of Lord Rennell, the former ambassador to Rome, and now lives in Paris.’ Much more fun.
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