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Ancient and Modern: 2007
| 30/03/2007 | Cinematically
fascinating, historical tosh, eye-goudgingly tedious and designed
for boys of a mental age of about thirteen – such was the
general judgement of 300, the film about the holding operation of
the Spartans and their allies at Thermopylae against the massive
Persian army (480BC). But how the Spartans would have loved it! |
| 12/5/2007 | Now that the Oxford,
Cambridge and Royal Society of Arts Examination Board (OCR) proposes
to scrap the last remaining A level in Ancient History, it is time
to consider what the purpose of history is. |
| 16/6/2007 | John Prescott probably
thinks he is being immensely clever and original in finding an excuse
to spend a couple of weeks in the Caribbean doing almost nothing
at the tax-payers’ considerable expense. But, as usual, his
behaviour is typical of people like him. |
| 7/7/2007 | Grammar schools? Comps?
Sec. mods? City academies? Faith schools? Selection by race? Background?
Locality? The argument about education is now, in fact, an argument
about the social mix of schools for children between the ages of
11 and 16. What has this got to do with education? |
| 14/7/2007 | As globalisation
of business and communications grows, to what extent will we see
globalisation of values? The experience of the ancient world suggests
it could be to quite a large extent. |
| 4/8/2007 | Apparently Gordon
is planning another tax-raid on savings, this time life-insurance
companies which have ‘too much’ money in reserve against
rainy days. After his last pension raid, this will not be a popular
move. The Romans can help him solve the problem. |
| 22/9/2007 | These days we find
the idea of an exclusive citizenship hard to handle, probably because
we live in a multi-ethnic, ‘global’ world where ‘inclusivity’
is an endlessly repeated mantrum (now the accepted singular
of that well-known Latin plural mantra. Dot, where have
you been?). Greeks and Romans found no problem with it at all. |
| 29/9/2007 | Greeks and Romans
saw advantages in making citizenship exclusive. But while we long
to be dreamily inclusive in the name, presumably, of ‘human
rights’, ethnic, religious and other barriers seem to stand
in the way. The Romans can help us. |
| 29/11/2007 | When this column discusses democracy, it is usually to argue that our elective oligarchy bears no relation to it at all |
| 1/12/2007 | Mission statements and codes of practice are all the rage today among business communities. Everyone has to have one. |
Every week in the London Spectator, Peter Jones compares something that has happened in the week's news with the way things were done in the ancient world.
Responses to the columns and further articles from the current Spectator are contained in the Spectator's website, to which you can travel by clicking the logo below:
