Oxford, Cambridge or somewhere else entirely?
Aug 10, 2013 1:54:23 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Aug 10, 2013 1:54:23 GMT -5
Good morning to you all, once again! To all those who survived the night, Ramadan and Eid, what an Eid al-Fitr it turned out to be! Congratulations to all!
BBC - In pictures: Eid al-Fitr 2013
Across the world, we are building a series of megacities to house around ten billion people over the course of the twenty-first century. In 2008, for the first time in human history, over half of the world's population had moved from a rural to an urban environment. We are constructing new and bigger megacities, particularly in Asia, at an unprecedented rate! London hardly even qualifies as a megacity, although Tokyo is still the largest, if only just! The past few centuries have witnessed an Industrial Revolution which has, in many ways, created the modern world. In some respects, our rate of innovation is decreasing, but we now live in a nuclear, computer and digital age! We new Elizabethans increasingly live in small, if high technology city flats, just like Jason on the Isle of Dogs!
Confident predictions about the future are, as ever, amongst the most disreputable forms of public utterance, but behind Robert Burns's statue in the Victoria Embankment Gardens is the Savoy Hotel. To stay at The Savoy is to follow in the footsteps of Sir Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra, Maria Callas, Claude Monet and Katharine Hepburn. An iconic hotel has been brilliantly reinvented for the twenty-first century where an unashamedly old fashioned glamour sparkles with a new lustre. Perfectly positioned on the banks of the Thames, the excitement of London is waiting just beyond the world famous entrance.
Fairmont - Savoy London
Writing in 'FT Weekend', Ruth Bloomfield tells a tale of two blues: property in Oxford may be more expensive, but Cambridge is closing the gap. Crews from Oxford and Cambridge have tussled for dominance on the river Thames since 1829. Currently it is Cambridge which can boast a sliver of clear blue water, with 81 Boat Race wins to 78.
On land the rivalry between the two cities is more complex, particularly when it comes to real estate. On the face of it, Oxford and Cambridge are similar. Both city centres overflow with fine historic buildings (and one or two modern mishaps), interspersed with shops, bars, restaurants and cafés. These historic cores are encircled by verdant suburbs of mainly Victorian and Edwardian homes and high-achieving schools. “Both tick the boxes in terms of commutability, schools and quality of housing stock and the wider built environment,” says Lucian Cook, director of residential research at Savills. Ruth concludes thus:
At this point, I should reveal a certain bias in favour of Cambridge, Sydney! The University of Cambridge is stronger in the natural sciences. As for London, it has the inimitable Jason! Due to unprecedented demand from around the world, everyone reading 'The Third' is cordially invited to Saturday brunch at 10:00 (BST) this morning.
Tom's Kitchen at Somerset House
If you cannot make it in person today, how about lunch with the FT instead? Over Dorset crab and Picpoul, the former soldier hailed as a Clausewitz for our times talks to John Thornhill about military strategy, Afghanistan and ‘armed politics’. When the veteran military historian Professor Michael Howard raves about a book by a little-known, 30-year-old ex-Gurkha officer and declares it to be comparable to Clausewitz, it is surely worth snapping to attention. And after reading 'War From the Ground Up', John is all the more intrigued to meet its author, Emile Simpson. Drawing on his experience of fighting in Afghanistan, Simpson has written an engrossing account of the 12-year conflict that challenges the way we think about war and suggests how we might better fight the next one. “War From the Ground Up is a work of such importance that it should be compulsory reading at every level in the military,” Howard concluded in his Times Literary Supplement review.
Sitting in the Drapers Arms on a gloriously sunny day in north London, Simpson looks every inch the military man, from his regulation haircut to his civilian uniform of brown sports jacket and green tie. As he rises to greet John, the tall, athletic Simpson exudes an air of orderliness. His voice, modulated by his schooling in Cambridge and the parade grounds of Sandhurst, is one notch too loud, as is often the way with army officers.
They decide to move to the garden of the Islington gastropub, which he says is one of his favourite watering holes. It is eerily deserted on a Friday lunchtime. As they settle at a shady table, John asks Simpson whether he is from a military family and what first drew him to the army. He explains that his parents are both Cambridge academics who were somewhat surprised by his choice of career. “My interest in things military was part through history and [part] a spirit of adventure,” he says, in the slightly elliptical manner he deploys when talking about himself.
On a gap year spent teaching in Nepal, he was drawn to the local culture and traditions of the Gurkha regiment. After studying history at Jesus College, Oxford, where he was tutored and inspired by Niall Ferguson, he went to Sandhurst, where he was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Gurkha Rifles. In his six and a half years in the army, Simpson served three tours in southern Afghanistan, first as a platoon commander in charge of 30 men in Kandahar in 2007, then as a military intelligence officer helping to fight the counterinsurgency in Helmand province in 2010, and, finally, working at headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) under the US commander General John R Allen in 2011. Like Carl von Clausewitz, whose service in the Prussian army during the Napoleonic wars shaped his classic book 'On War', Simpson’s writings are informed by deep personal experience as well as a fascination with military theory. Before we can plunge too deeply into Afghanistan, the waitress arrives! John concludes thus:
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Lunch with the FT: Emile Simpson
I propose some toast: to Oxford, Cambridge and London! Three cheers from kleines c and the gang (Saturday morning breakfast coffee)!
BBC - In pictures: Eid al-Fitr 2013
Across the world, we are building a series of megacities to house around ten billion people over the course of the twenty-first century. In 2008, for the first time in human history, over half of the world's population had moved from a rural to an urban environment. We are constructing new and bigger megacities, particularly in Asia, at an unprecedented rate! London hardly even qualifies as a megacity, although Tokyo is still the largest, if only just! The past few centuries have witnessed an Industrial Revolution which has, in many ways, created the modern world. In some respects, our rate of innovation is decreasing, but we now live in a nuclear, computer and digital age! We new Elizabethans increasingly live in small, if high technology city flats, just like Jason on the Isle of Dogs!
Confident predictions about the future are, as ever, amongst the most disreputable forms of public utterance, but behind Robert Burns's statue in the Victoria Embankment Gardens is the Savoy Hotel. To stay at The Savoy is to follow in the footsteps of Sir Winston Churchill, Frank Sinatra, Maria Callas, Claude Monet and Katharine Hepburn. An iconic hotel has been brilliantly reinvented for the twenty-first century where an unashamedly old fashioned glamour sparkles with a new lustre. Perfectly positioned on the banks of the Thames, the excitement of London is waiting just beyond the world famous entrance.
Fairmont - Savoy London
Writing in 'FT Weekend', Ruth Bloomfield tells a tale of two blues: property in Oxford may be more expensive, but Cambridge is closing the gap. Crews from Oxford and Cambridge have tussled for dominance on the river Thames since 1829. Currently it is Cambridge which can boast a sliver of clear blue water, with 81 Boat Race wins to 78.
On land the rivalry between the two cities is more complex, particularly when it comes to real estate. On the face of it, Oxford and Cambridge are similar. Both city centres overflow with fine historic buildings (and one or two modern mishaps), interspersed with shops, bars, restaurants and cafés. These historic cores are encircled by verdant suburbs of mainly Victorian and Edwardian homes and high-achieving schools. “Both tick the boxes in terms of commutability, schools and quality of housing stock and the wider built environment,” says Lucian Cook, director of residential research at Savills. Ruth concludes thus:
' ... Cambridge’s answer to The Dragon is the Perse School, which is based on three sites in the southeast of the city. This, says Radcliffe, means the Victorian homes in the suburb of Trumpington, are particularly sought after. Strutt and Parker (www.struttandparker.com) has a six bedroom Victorian house, The Old Mill, which has been recently refurbished to include a cinema room and half an acre of gardens and within walking distance of The Perse, on the market for £2.5m.
However Radcliffe’s personal preference is for homes in the Victoria Park conservation area in the city centre, where four to five bedroom Victorian houses sell for above £1m.
Meanwhile, the unremarkable Chesterton in north east Cambridge is seeing an investor scramble thanks to the arrival of a new station in 2015. Two bedroom Victorian terraces are selling for close to £300,000 in anticipation of the improved transport links.
Ed Meyer, head of residential at Savills in Cambridge, feels the city’s strong track record of attracting top level science and technology firms (he cites imminent arrival of pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca with some 2,000 staff) means it has the potential to close the gap with its collegiate rival.
“Every house sold this year thus far in the Cambridge city market has sold at or above the guide price,” he says. “Half our sales have sold in competition either in sealed bids or during open rounds of negotiation – the biggest offer above guide being 22 per cent.” '
However Radcliffe’s personal preference is for homes in the Victoria Park conservation area in the city centre, where four to five bedroom Victorian houses sell for above £1m.
Meanwhile, the unremarkable Chesterton in north east Cambridge is seeing an investor scramble thanks to the arrival of a new station in 2015. Two bedroom Victorian terraces are selling for close to £300,000 in anticipation of the improved transport links.
Ed Meyer, head of residential at Savills in Cambridge, feels the city’s strong track record of attracting top level science and technology firms (he cites imminent arrival of pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca with some 2,000 staff) means it has the potential to close the gap with its collegiate rival.
“Every house sold this year thus far in the Cambridge city market has sold at or above the guide price,” he says. “Half our sales have sold in competition either in sealed bids or during open rounds of negotiation – the biggest offer above guide being 22 per cent.” '
At this point, I should reveal a certain bias in favour of Cambridge, Sydney! The University of Cambridge is stronger in the natural sciences. As for London, it has the inimitable Jason! Due to unprecedented demand from around the world, everyone reading 'The Third' is cordially invited to Saturday brunch at 10:00 (BST) this morning.
Tom's Kitchen at Somerset House
If you cannot make it in person today, how about lunch with the FT instead? Over Dorset crab and Picpoul, the former soldier hailed as a Clausewitz for our times talks to John Thornhill about military strategy, Afghanistan and ‘armed politics’. When the veteran military historian Professor Michael Howard raves about a book by a little-known, 30-year-old ex-Gurkha officer and declares it to be comparable to Clausewitz, it is surely worth snapping to attention. And after reading 'War From the Ground Up', John is all the more intrigued to meet its author, Emile Simpson. Drawing on his experience of fighting in Afghanistan, Simpson has written an engrossing account of the 12-year conflict that challenges the way we think about war and suggests how we might better fight the next one. “War From the Ground Up is a work of such importance that it should be compulsory reading at every level in the military,” Howard concluded in his Times Literary Supplement review.
Sitting in the Drapers Arms on a gloriously sunny day in north London, Simpson looks every inch the military man, from his regulation haircut to his civilian uniform of brown sports jacket and green tie. As he rises to greet John, the tall, athletic Simpson exudes an air of orderliness. His voice, modulated by his schooling in Cambridge and the parade grounds of Sandhurst, is one notch too loud, as is often the way with army officers.
They decide to move to the garden of the Islington gastropub, which he says is one of his favourite watering holes. It is eerily deserted on a Friday lunchtime. As they settle at a shady table, John asks Simpson whether he is from a military family and what first drew him to the army. He explains that his parents are both Cambridge academics who were somewhat surprised by his choice of career. “My interest in things military was part through history and [part] a spirit of adventure,” he says, in the slightly elliptical manner he deploys when talking about himself.
On a gap year spent teaching in Nepal, he was drawn to the local culture and traditions of the Gurkha regiment. After studying history at Jesus College, Oxford, where he was tutored and inspired by Niall Ferguson, he went to Sandhurst, where he was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Gurkha Rifles. In his six and a half years in the army, Simpson served three tours in southern Afghanistan, first as a platoon commander in charge of 30 men in Kandahar in 2007, then as a military intelligence officer helping to fight the counterinsurgency in Helmand province in 2010, and, finally, working at headquarters of the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) under the US commander General John R Allen in 2011. Like Carl von Clausewitz, whose service in the Prussian army during the Napoleonic wars shaped his classic book 'On War', Simpson’s writings are informed by deep personal experience as well as a fascination with military theory. Before we can plunge too deeply into Afghanistan, the waitress arrives! John concludes thus:
' ... In Simpson’s view, one of the biggest mistakes the US has made has been to talk about a “global war on terror”, a phrase he describes as silly because it raises expectations that can never be met. “If you elevate this to a global concept, to the level of grand strategy, that is profoundly dangerous,” he says. “If you want stability in the world you have to have clear strategic boundaries that seek to compartmentalise conflicts, and not aggregate them. The reason is that if you don’t box in your conflicts with clear strategic boundaries, chronological, conceptual, geographical, legal, then you experience a proliferation of violence.”
Simpson finished his last tour of Afghanistan just before Christmas 2011 and left the army shortly afterwards because it “was mainly incompatible with personal life, my girlfriend and my family”. He also had broader frustrations with the career structure in the army. “If you are a reformist and want to reform the army then you have to bide your time, as you do in any organisation. Just being in a bureaucracy in general was quite frustrating,” he says.
Simpson has switched careers and is now studying international law, a field in which he hopes he can combine both theory and practice. But he will not be wholly lost to the field of military doctrine as he is already working on another book about the concept of the enemy. His spirit of adventure is sated by trekking trips in Nepal and cycling tours in Oman.
Since his book’s publication in 2012, Simpson has been invited to speak to several military audiences in the US, where the debate still rages about how best to conduct counterinsurgency campaigns. It has received a cooler response from Britain’s top brass, despite Professor Howard’s endorsement, but Simpson says the army is slowly becoming more receptive to fresh thinking because of its recent setbacks in Basra and Helmand.
“Thirty years ago, if you could drink a bottle of whisky in the evening and run 10 miles in the morning and had a big moustache, then you were a good bloke and didn’t need to read anything. But today the army is much more open to reading. The army has got less afraid of intellectualism since things went wrong in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he says. “We do need to rethink our profession.” '
Simpson finished his last tour of Afghanistan just before Christmas 2011 and left the army shortly afterwards because it “was mainly incompatible with personal life, my girlfriend and my family”. He also had broader frustrations with the career structure in the army. “If you are a reformist and want to reform the army then you have to bide your time, as you do in any organisation. Just being in a bureaucracy in general was quite frustrating,” he says.
Simpson has switched careers and is now studying international law, a field in which he hopes he can combine both theory and practice. But he will not be wholly lost to the field of military doctrine as he is already working on another book about the concept of the enemy. His spirit of adventure is sated by trekking trips in Nepal and cycling tours in Oman.
Since his book’s publication in 2012, Simpson has been invited to speak to several military audiences in the US, where the debate still rages about how best to conduct counterinsurgency campaigns. It has received a cooler response from Britain’s top brass, despite Professor Howard’s endorsement, but Simpson says the army is slowly becoming more receptive to fresh thinking because of its recent setbacks in Basra and Helmand.
“Thirty years ago, if you could drink a bottle of whisky in the evening and run 10 miles in the morning and had a big moustache, then you were a good bloke and didn’t need to read anything. But today the army is much more open to reading. The army has got less afraid of intellectualism since things went wrong in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he says. “We do need to rethink our profession.” '
Drapers Arms
44 Barnsbury Street, London
2 glasses Picpoul £11.50
1 steak tartare £7.50
1 smoked mackerel £6.50
2 Dorset crab £27.00
1 chips £3.50
1 potatoes £3.50
1 lemon tart £6.50
1 poached pear £6.50
Total £72.50
44 Barnsbury Street, London
2 glasses Picpoul £11.50
1 steak tartare £7.50
1 smoked mackerel £6.50
2 Dorset crab £27.00
1 chips £3.50
1 potatoes £3.50
1 lemon tart £6.50
1 poached pear £6.50
Total £72.50
Lunch with the FT: Emile Simpson
I propose some toast: to Oxford, Cambridge and London! Three cheers from kleines c and the gang (Saturday morning breakfast coffee)!
