Miscellaneous

The Libyan Civil War of 2011, culminating in the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, was the bloodiest of the uprisings across North Africa forming part of the so-called Arab Spring. Western leaders, including David Cameron, backed the rebel forces for a myriad of reasons, not least in response to the brutality shown by Gaddafi in bombing his own people. But there was also an expectation that a Libya free of Gaddafi would be a more prosperous and peaceful country. The reality has been very different. For a decade now, Libya has been beset by chaos. A chaos that has seen the country riven by regional rivalries, divided by political figures from

White to play. Duda-Anton Guijarro, Charity Cup, March 2022. Black’s last move, 21…Qe7-b4 was an unforced error. Which move did White play to exploit it? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 11 April. There is a prize of £20 for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please include a postal address and allow six weeks for prize delivery. Last week’s solution 1 Rd2! e.g. 1…Bxd2 2 Qa7#, 1…Kc5 2 Qd4#, 1…Kc7 2 Qxa5#, 1…Ka6 2 Rd6# Last week’s winner Paul Heaton, Theydon Bois, Essex

The UK magazine industry releases figures today and we’re delighted to announce that The Spectator sold a weekly average of 106,905 copies last year, up 16 per cent on 2020 and — yet again — our best year ever. The Spectator has now almost doubled our sales over a decade where sales of consumer magazines fell by two-thirds. We can also announce: Our ABC certificate, released today, shows a total figure of 112,040 — so that includes those who first sign up on a free trial. But we judge ourselves on full-price sales: up 16 per cent year-on-year as we built on the base readers we recruited in the pandemic.

The ugly spectacle of Boris Johnson’s self-destruction will reach a new climax at the end of this week. Many think that only a miracle can save the great escapologist from the official Partygate inquiry. The Gambler himself is convinced that his determination will crush his enemies and once again he will survive to fight and win his next challenge – the local elections in May. Even Johnson’s closest admirers are baffled how an experienced politician could have orchestrated such an extraordinary succession of self-inflicted wounds. Just what went wrong in Johnson’s life since he won a stunning 80 seat majority just over two years ago? All the qualities which won

The buy now pay later industry has exploded in recent years, with the industry now worth $100 billion (circa £70 billion). Also known as BNPL, it is used by shoppers to delay payments on any kind of product from champagne to clothes and kitchens, and the option to pay nothing today and repay over 12 months in instalments or one lump sum, either interest-free or a little interest on top. While the Financial Conduct Authority requires anyone offering consumer credit to be authorised, this is not currently the case with BNPL. The industry remains unregulated if customers make no more than 12 payments within 12 months or less and many

Amanda Pritchard, the new NHS England chief executive, has had quite a week. She wrote an article for the Health Service Journal about the pressures on the NHS and followed up with a Sky News interview where she had this to say: Where did she get that 14 times figure from? By using statistics in a strange way, highlighted by Kate Andrews fairly shortly afterwards. By ‘have had’ she was technically correct insofar as this was the peak ratio. But comparing a wave to a non-wave, and presenting a peak value as somehow representing the current situation is fundamentally misleading. The actual picture for Covid hospitalisations is here. I won’t

During a visit to the UN, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told other world leaders he was ‘increasingly frustrated’ that efforts to tackle climate change were ‘nowhere near enough.’ At McDonald’s we believe it’s never been clearer that now is the time for us all, including businesses, to match our words with action. We’ve been serving communities across the country since 1974, and have a long history making a difference where it matters. From turning cooking oil into fuel for our delivery trucks to removing thousands of metric tonnes of plastic from our business, we’re committed to making a positive difference to our planet. But this moment in time requires us

Since 1924, ‘Swifter, Higher, Stronger’ has been the motto of which international organisation? – The International Olympic Committee On the day Prince Philip died, the historian Guy Walters tweeted: ‘If anybody else on this planet has met both Winston Churchill and Tom Cruise, apart from the Queen, then I’ll eat my hat.’ He received replies nominating several possible contenders. But only one was shown to have definitely met both Churchill and Cruise. The British man was — at the time of the Duke of Edinburgh’s death — 88 years old. The proof consisted of a photo of him with Cruise at the 2000 Academy Awards ceremony, and the following quote:

You wait 2,000 years for a papal visit and three come along almost at once. Reports in the Scottish press suggest that Pope Francis would like to say Holy Mass while in Glasgow for the COP26 climate summit in November. It would mark the third time a sitting pope has visited Scotland and celebrated Mass there. Saint John Paul II was the first to come, in 1982, and led an estimated 300,000 in worship at Glasgow’s Bellahouston Park, then in 2010 his apostolic successor Benedict XVI gave an open-air Mass in the same park to a crowd of 70,000. Both events were seen as successes, attracting interest from non-Catholics and

When the pandemic struck, we at The Spectator adopted the brace position. Like many publications, we furloughed staff and prepared for the worst. When subscription growth picked up, we became the first company in Britain to return the furlough money to the taxpayer and say we’d instead trade our way through the storm. Our last reported sales in 2019 were 83,000 (a record high) and we set a pretty big goal: to hit 100,000. I’m delighted to report that sales of The Spectator averaged 105,850 copies in the first half of this year, up 27 per cent on the first half of last year. Digital-only sales are popular but when new

The level of interest within the UK in responsible and sustainable investing has been unprecedented in recent years. This strong momentum has rightly led to greater scrutiny over the authenticity of many asset managers’ approach to environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. In addition, lack of standardisation remains a key issue for consumers, who are faced with a variety of labels — including ethical, SRI, responsible, sustainable, ESG, impact and transition, to name just a few. The choice of an appropriate asset manager has therefore never been more vital for willing responsible and sustainable investors, who are faced with this bewildering choice of funds, all of which appear to have

Wales 0 Denmark 4 (blonde self-satisfied young men 4) The battle between the neutrals’ favourites. Brave Denmark, with their stricken player and heroic travails against the evil Russkies. Wales – a small nation, although not so small as several others in this contest – magnificent conquerors of the Erdogan Caliphate. Here, though, in Amsterdam, they were hammered senseless and the score could and should have been more: Wales are out – iechyd da. Basically a Championship side – Luton Town, Swansea, Cardiff, Bornmuff – gilded by Aaron Ramsey and the gently dwindling brilliance of Gareth Bale. Oh – and Dan James, one of the world’s more overrated players. A winger