The Week’s daily round-up highlights the five best opinion pieces from across the British and international media, with excerpts from each.
1. Robert Saunders in the New Statesman
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Why party members should never be allowed to elect prime ministers
“Not since the days of the rotten boroughs, before the Reform Act of 1832, have a few thousand people held such extraordinary, undemocratic power. This raises serious questions of legitimacy. In a democracy, the authority to govern must flow from the people. It can do so directly, through a presidency or a general election, or indirectly, through our elected representatives. The current system does neither: on the contrary, it vests the power to appoint a prime minister in a private, members-only democracy that you have to pay to join.”
2. Danny Finklestein in The Times
on what Jeremy Hunt needs to do to win the Tory leadership
Jeremy Hunt must have a go at creating Jeremymania
“However many scrapes Mr Johnson gets into, Mr Hunt cannot win or even come close unless he is able to engender Jeremymania. If he regards that as impossible or ridiculous, then he should just give up. He needs to make Conservative members feel a sense of enthusiasm for his leadership, a desire to join the Hunt.”
3. Philip Johnson in the Daily Telegraph
on education and social mobility
Want to end the reign of public schoolboys at the top? Build more grammar schools
“If there is a problem it is with one group in particular, the white working class who live on benefits and appear to have a cultural animus towards improvement through education that is not shared by, say, poorer ethnic minorities. Once, a clever child from this group would escape its clutches by going to a grammar school. Now if they are lucky they will be in the catchment area of a new academy or free school where intellectual achievement is not considered a sin.”
4. Jo Ellison in the Financial Times
on the ills and benefits of noise pollution
Why we need to turn down the volume
“The noisy adult on the train is a violation of one kind of social contract, the one in which we consider our impact on other people’s lives. But the widespread use of headphones symbolises another social ill. The death of the community — where you are attuned to the nuances of life around you, and moderate your behaviour to fit in. To quote another parental maxim: Can’t we just dial it down? Modern life is deafening — but for all the shouting, no one’s listening any more.”
5. Arwa Mahdawi in The Guardian
on the rules of modern dating
Is it ethical for a woman to date a man for a free dinner? Only if they’re very upfront
“Call me old-fashioned, but I reckon that if you are only interested in a dude for food, you should probably be upfront about it. Be like Kate, a Chicago-based woman who went viral a few years ago for asking every man she matched with on Tinder to send her pizza. ‘Just be straight up with the guys, and tell them you want a pizza,’ Kate advised at the time. As for guys, she counselled: ‘Don’t send dick pics. Send pizzas.’ Truly, advice to live by.”
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