Home > The Magazine > The Week

Saturday 22 November 2008

Dare to dream and make your ultimate trip a reality

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Michael Henderson

Michael Henderson suggests

Email registration

Free weekly email update

Great products and special offers for Spectator readers

Click here for great value events

Click here for exclusive articles, offers, tasting notes and discussion

Letters

Wednesday, 27th August 2008

Spectator readers respond to recent articles

We did it, not the state

Sir: I am not a social historian but surely Liam Byrne fatally undermines his whole argument when he praises the founding of various organisations and movements 150 years ago to deal with the ‘huge change which swept millions from the countryside to the cities’ (‘Give us back our Big Idea, Mr Cameron’, 16 August). Isn’t the whole point that the state did not do this — individuals and groups did? Less state interference allows individuals and groups to help their communities and Britain as a whole rather than being strangled by the red tape, form-filling and box-ticking so beloved by Liam Byrne and New Labour. Clearly Mr Byrne hasn’t been on enough doorsteps recently — if he had he would know that any politician arguing for less government will be greeted with relief and enthusiasm.

Nicky Morgan

Loughborough Conservative parliamentary spokesman, Loughborough, Leicestershire

Shear delight

Sir: I have no connection with the Big Sheep, Bideford, other than as a visitor, but I feel bound to counter the negative impression given by Rachel Johnson’s Diary (23 August), in which she and her family ‘drove for two hours to watch a sheepdog herd three ewes’. This is very unfair. My husband and I took our two boys of eight and 11 there last week and saw not only the sheepdog demonstration but also a display of sheep-shearing, a sheep show featuring different breeds, a dog herding Indian runner ducks and the Big Sheep Grand National, all presented in an informative yet amusing and child-friendly way. Should the appeal of all things ovine pall, there is a combat laser-shooting area, pets corner, horse whispering, pony rides, ceramic painting and a huge indoor play area with giant slides. Our sons had a fabulous time.

1 | 2 | 3 Next page

Heather Goodall

September 1st, 2008 10:43am

This is not a comment but just a desire for information. Taki mentions a Greek lanterna player. PLEASE what is a lanterna? Have spent most of the morning on google without success.

A child of our time

From the economic and psychological bedlam of the global downturn has emerged a particularly dangerous false dichotomy: namely, that there is somehow a choice for ministers over the next few years between economic reconstruction and the repair of Britain’s broken society, and that the government (whether Labour or Conservative) must prioritise the former at the expense of the latter.

Diary

Anne Robinson

The daughter and I spent the last few days before the American election in Arizona.

Politics

Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

The Spectator's Notes

Charles Moore

‘A money-financed tax cut is essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman’s famous “helicopter drop” of money.’ So said Ben Bernanke, now the chairman of the Fed, in a speech about how to ward off the ‘extremely small’ chance of deflation, which he delivered in 2002.