Skip to main content
The Knowledge logo

2-3 April

Behind the headlines

What if Mrs Thatcher had been a man?

It’s 40 years since the Argentine junta invaded the Falkland Islands and Britain’s first female Prime Minister launched a war to get them back. I often wonder, says Charles Moore in The Spectator, what would have happened “if Margaret Thatcher had been a man”. Nearly all the men of her generation were war veterans, and therefore understandably cautious about heading back into conflict. “As a woman, she felt differently.” She looked at military action “not professionally, but morally”, which made her “unforgiving of aggressors” and “maternally furious” at the wicked Argies who killed “our boys”. She also made a strong connection between Britain’s honour and her own political success. If Britain had lost the Falklands on her watch, that would have been her political end. As she often said: “There’s no second chance for a woman.” So Mrs Thatcher, with a portrait of Nelson hanging in her office, “scarcely went to bed” for the whole 10-week war, generally preferring to sleep – if at all – “in a chair, dressed in her ever-neat clothes”.

Quirk of history

The conman who hoodwinked Hitler

The trouble with all those gripping stories about scam artists, says Tobias Carroll in InsideHook, is that there are always victims who end up “losing jobs, money or some combination of the two”. But what about a scam that targeted someone who everyone hates – “like, say, Adolf Hitler”? As Walter Shapiro recounts in his book Hustling Hitler, that’s exactly what Freeman Bernstein managed to do in the 1930s, in a racket you can enjoy “without a shred of guilt”.


Quoted

quoted 2.4.22

“There are a number of mechanical devices which increase sexual arousal, particularly in women. Chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz 380SL convertible.”

American humourist PJ O’Rourke

Life

Keeping calm and carrying on

The Queen is “the mistress of understatement”, says Craig Brown in The Mail on Sunday. In his new biography, Queen of Our Times, Robert Hardman recalls the moment when the monarch woke one morning to find a “strange man in her bedroom, dripping with blood, all ready to commit suicide”. She quietly pressed an alarm button but there was no response, so the then 56-year-old royal kept the intruder talking until a maid appeared. “In her position, most of us might have taken the rest of the morning off, but for the Queen it was business as usual, with an investiture at 11am.” When anyone congratulated her on her calm behaviour, she replied: “You seem to forget that I spend most of my time conversing with complete strangers.”

Quoted

quoted 2.4.22

“Be most slow to believe what we most wish should be true.”

Samuel Pepys

Life

In 2015, a group of burglars mainly in their 60s and 70s stole £14m in jewellery and cash from a safe deposit vault in Hatton Garden. The press had a field day: British tabloids called them the “diamond wheezers”; in France they were le gang des papys (the grandads’ gang). But they’re by no means the only older folk to fall foul of the law, says Duncan Campbell in The Oldie. Over-60s are the fastest-rising section of our prison population. More than a sixth of inmates are over 50, including more than 300 who are over 80. This has its issues. Many of our prisons date from the Victorian era, so they’re pretty grim “for anyone in a wheelchair or with a walking frame”. Still, for some elderly inmates, a life behind bars has perks. One ex-con I visited in a care home told me he would prefer to be back in prison, because “the conversation and company are better”.

Tomorrow’s world

“Hydropanels” look rather like solar panels, says Diana Olick in CNBC, but instead of turning sunlight into electricity, they “create water out of thin air”. A company called Source Global has invented a canny way to capture airborne moisture, then use the sun’s warmth to convert it into liquid water. The firm has installed its $2,000 panels in 52 countries and raised $150m from the likes of Bill Gates to keep rolling them out. Given half the world’s population is expected to live in “water-stressed areas” by 2025, they’ve arrived just in the nick of time.

On the way out

Batsmen in cricket, who are increasingly being called “batters” in the name of equality, says Giles Coren in The Times. It’s silly. The word “batsman” implies mastery of a craft, “nobility of purpose” and a certain human dignity, whereas a “batter” is just someone who whacks things. Women might prefer to append the non-gendered “batters” to themselves, but that need not affect the “nomenclatural poetry” of the men’s game.

Quirk of history

Corsets were comfier than we think

The stars of Regency romp Bridgerton love to moan about how “painful and restricting” corsets are, says Hilary Davidson in Slate. New leading lady Simone Ashley complained to Glamour magazine that she had “problems eating, a lot of pain, and even thought she tore her shoulder” while wearing one. Even the show’s costume designer Ellen Mirojnick paints corset pain as inevitable, telling Refinery29: “of course, a corset will never be truly comfortable”.

Property

Property

THE TOWNHOUSE This double-fronted detached villa is set back from a peaceful road in the Camberwell Grove Conservation Area in London. The five-bedroom house is set across three storeys and retains its original Victorian character. Outside, the private walled garden has a terrace, a pond, a fountain and an array of trees. Peckham’s pretty village is a 15-minute walk. £2.5m.

Property

THE HIDEAWAY This “smart” villa on the northeast coast of Corfu is brand new. The six-bedroom hilltop property has big windows, minimalist interiors, unobstructed views, an infinity pool and a large garden with olive trees. The village of Kassiopi and the nearest beach are both within walking distance. €4.9m.

Weather