Q. I was interested in the advice given to the niece who owed £30 (12 March). A more direct option, which I have had to use in the past, is: ‘Have you forgotten about the £50 I loaned you?’ The response I received was, ‘I thought it was £30?’ To which I replied: ‘Oh. You
‘Still I’m called Buttercup —poor little Buttercup,’ sang my husband in an inappropriate and displeasing baritone. Not wishing to encourage him, I simply said: ‘Darling, it’s butterbump.’ A furniture company called Loaf has been advertising ‘butterbump sofas’, supposedly named for their bringing out customers in a cross between goosebumps and butterflies. It doesn’t sound a
White to play. This is from Karjakin-Nakamura, Fidé Candidates, Moscow 2016. Hikaru -Nakamura has just implemented an ingenious combination to win material, but he has not foreseen White’s counterattack. What has he missed? Answers via email to victoria@spectator.co.uk, by Tuesday 29 March. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of
One ‘unclued’ light, as the title suggests, can be paired (on one occasion twice) with each of the other unclued lights, (one of two words), all verifiable in Brewer. Alphabetical order takes priority in the unclued solution at 36A. Across 1 Builders’ aid marketed outside greasy spoon in Gabon (11) 7 Chap who’s
The unclued lights can be preceded by JACK. First prize Margaret Lusk, Preston, Lancs Runners-up P.D.H. Riddell, London SE23; Derek Willan, Gosport, Hants
With the PLP more divided than ever today thanks to the discovery of Team Corbyn’s ‘hostile list’ — which ranks MPs in terms of the their loyalty to the leader — tensions are high among Labour politicians. Now it appears that Team Hostile have decided to have some fun. ‘Hostile’ MP Jamie Reed claims to have ‘uncovered’
A few years back, Mr Steerpike wrote a blog entitled ‘How Danny Finkelstein botched the reshuffle‘ – revealing how those around Iain Duncan Smith were furious to see his future in an expected reshuffle being discussed on Newsnight by the Fink. Our joke: that IDS might well have moved to the Justice department has he not
Corbyn had an open goal at PMQs. Cameron is weaker than he’s ever been. His favoured successor is toast. His party are restive and mutinous. Three months from now the retirement committee may gather around the PM with tense smiles and whetted blades. All Corbo had to do was kick straight. But asking the Labour
While PMQs took place in the Commons this lunchtime, outside in the Central Lobby a protest could be heard. Disability campaigners had gathered outside Parliament to protest the benefit cuts in the Budget. Not that the powers that be want you to hear about the protest. The BBC’s Norman Smith was interrupted live on air by
Why have Jeremy Corbyn’s allies drawn up a list ranking Labour MPs according to how hostile they are to the leadership? It’s not the first list that categorises MPs: I revealed in the Times recently that the moderates who are plotting to destabilise the Labour leader had drawn up their own list that ranged from
On Sunday at noon, few would have predicted that Tory MPs would have come out of PMQs cheered and unified. But thanks to The Times’ Sam Coates revealing this morning that the Labour leader’s office have ranked their MPs from core group to hostile, David Cameron won this session hands down and cheered up Tory MPs
Here’s a sobering fact for you: yesterday in Brussels, Isis sympathisers killed five times as many civilians in one hour as British airstrikes have killed or injured Isis fighters in Syria since December. At the last count, in late February, British airstrikes over Syria had killed or hurt just seven Isis fighters in three months. Seven. Not even
Today’s PMQs ought to have been a walk in the park for Jeremy Corbyn following days of in-fighting and rebellion in the Conservative party. However, a secret document changed all that, with the Times today publishing a spreadsheet which categorises all the Labour MPs in terms of their loyalty — or lack there of —
Once again, Europe finds itself reacting to another terrorist attack – this time in Brussels where simultaneous suicide bombers, all who appear to have been known to Belgian authorities, were responsible for the murder of at least 30 people, with at least 100 hundred wounded, some critically. Brussels has a tortured history of inadvertently harbouring terrorism cells,
David Cameron has been chairing a Cobra meeting this morning to discuss the UK government’s response to yesterday’s terror attacks in Brussels. Inevitably, the issue has become deeply partisan, with Ukip’s Mike Hookem managing to release a statement while the attacks were still taking place, arguing that ‘this horrific act of terrorism shows that Schengen free movement
No-one in their right mind would have willingly created the monster that is now the country’s current pension system. It has become the financial Hydra of modern day Britain. Bizarrely, it is deterring most of us from saving for retirement because we are intimidated by its many heads of poisonous anti-saving rules. Governments past and
It’s a tough world out there for singletons in the digital age. Although dating apps like Tinder mean it’s never been easier to look for love, many find that any such romance is fleeting and miss the days of proper courtship. So, perhaps that’s why some women are now thinking outside the box. The artist Tracey Emin
After years in the doldrums, the reinvigorated housing market continues apace. With a stamp duty stampede attributed to rising prices in London, the south east and the east of England, the boom shows no signs of petering out. According to the Office for National Statistics, house prices nationally rose by 7.9 per cent in the year to
In Competition No. 2940 you were invited to supply Dr Seuss’s take on the US presidential race. Given his taste for taking down bullies, tyrants and hypocrites, it seems unlikely that Theodor Geisel would have been a fan of the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, who, as might be expected, loomed large in your submissions.
