Charles Moore
Already a subscriber? Log in
There was a small but historic moment on the Today programme last week. John Humphrys introduced a report on Saudi Arabia’s support for terrorism as being by the ‘highly respected’ Henry Jackson Society. This flustered the BBC’s security correspondent, Frank Gardner, to whom Humphrys turned. Gardner said that he needed to explain at once that the Henry Jackson Society was ‘right of centre’, not ‘absolutely bang down the centre’. What Gardner meant, but dared not quite directly say, was that in BBC theology ‘highly respected’ means centre-left. Thus the King’s Fund and the Institute for Fiscal Studies are ‘highly respected’ (or, sometimes, ‘independent’). ‘Centre-right’, ‘right of centre’, ‘right-leaning’ think-tanks can just about be tolerated, but can never be ‘highly respected’. A ‘right-wing’ think-tank, tout court, means ‘really bad’. So Gardner was clearly shocked by Humphrys’s description of the Henry Jackson Society and was trying to steer the listener in a different direction. It will be interesting if the Henry Jackson Society remains ‘highly respected’ when it next pops up on Today. Was this a bold move by the excellent new editor, Sarah Sands, or just freelancing by Humphrys?
A history teacher from an east London comprehensive writes to me. The staff, he recounts, had been looking to decorate their classrooms with pictures of successful women in history. He had suggested Mrs Thatcher as our first woman prime minister. No, they said, Mrs Thatcher had not been a feminist, so she did not deserve a place of honour. He pointed out that, to many working-class women of his mother’s generation, a female prime minister provided ‘enormous motivation’. He added that if all figures of the past had to conform to contemporary standards of feminism, this would rule out Florence Nightingale. That’s right, his colleagues replied, Nightingale was ‘too pastoral and reinforced negative female stereotypes’. He gave up the argument, but stuck Mrs Thatcher on his classroom wall all the same.
For many years now, I have had the company medical test which is provided by Nuffield Health. It is well done, and the nurses are quite clearly ‘too pastoral’, constantly reinforcing ‘negative female stereotypes’ by being kind and competent. I hope that left-wing east London teachers don’t have to endure that sort of indignity when they have medical treatment. Over the years, I have been pleased to notice that more and more data about the human body is collected by painless monitors, so nowadays blood tests seem oddly primitive. Given the way tiny samples can now yield the medical knowledge required, why does a needle still have to plunge into a vein and the syringe suck out so much blood?
Over the years, the Nuffield Health form has also changed. In addition to the traditional questions about diet, urination, chest pains etc, have come more subjective ones. I am invited, for example, to mark, on a scale of one to ten, how good my life is, how much good I do in it, and whether I put the interests of others first. I decided that the best course was to avoid ethical self-certification, so I scribbled on top, ‘It is for others to say.’ At dinner recently, I sat next to a judge who told me that those applying for high office in the judiciary are now asked to cite an example of when they have behaved with integrity. Since a judge must behave with integrity at all times, it is a pointless question, like trying to distinguish between dairy farmers by asking each how often he milks his cows.
Because you read about laura kuenssberg
Also by Charles Moore
Latest
Comments
Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just $5 for 3 monthsAlready a subscriber? Log in