Matthew d’Ancona on the late Spectator quiz compiler, Simon Carter I still get letters about the Impossible Quiz which Simon Carter set for our Christmas special issue. An infernally complex blend of merciless logic, M.C. Escher’s art, and very tough questions, the Thirty-Nine Steps quiz that Simon compiled and adjudicated was, in its way, a
Philip Bobbitt’s cover piece in this week’s magazine is a very significant intervention in the debate on what is happening in Georgia. I commissioned the article because – in my opinion – Bobbitt is the most important writer in the world on geopolitical issues right now: his impeccable scholarship, work for the National Security Council,
The death of John MacDougall, Labour MP for Glenrothes since 2001, will trigger yet another nightmare for Gordon Brown. No other word will do. Glenrothes in Fife is on the PM’s very doorstep and – after Glasgow East – looks distinctly vulnerable. In the 2005 general election, Mr MacDougall polled 19,395 votes, well ahead of the
Amid all the earnest discussion of Rowan Williams’s position on homosexuality and Christianity, can I recommend the classic Not the Nine O’Clock News sketch on the subject? Still essential viewing:
Nothing on God’s Earth would persuade me to wish al Qaeda a “Happy Anniversary”, ten years to the day since its simultaneous attacks on US Embassies in the East African capital cities of Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, at the cost of more than 200 lives, most of them African civilians. Are they winning? Sadly, I
The Daily Telegraph story about David Miliband offering Number 11 to Alan Milburn rings true for a number of reasons: not least that Milburn has also been in to see Gordon Brown about a possible return to Government. At a time when Labour is desperately in need of combative talent in its front row, the absence
One Cabinet minister described it to me with dark wit as the ‘Eden Project’: the idea being that, after a summer of reflection, Gordon Brown is gently or not-so-gently persuaded to retire, in the manner of Anthony Eden, on the grounds of ‘ill health’. To which the PM’s entirely predictable response is: have you seen
I have spent the past week in Tintagel, overlooking the castle thought by some to be the birthplace of King Arthur and perhaps even the true site of Camelot. It is one of the most astonishing views in England and you feel – because you are – on the edge of the world, looking out
The Spectator’s own Wiki Man, Rory Sutherland, and I spent yesterday evening at the BFI Imax near Waterloo watching a preview of The Dark Knight. Very rarely is it genuinely true to say that a movie is astonishing. But no other word will do justice to this film. To describe The Dark Knight as the
This is the fourth in our series of posts looking at where it all went wrong for Gordon Brown. The first, second and third are here, here and here, respectively. When did it all go wrong for Gordon? Before he even began, I now think: on the evening of 16 May, 2007, to be precise. It was then that
In her only print interview, Jacqui Smith tells Matthew d’Ancona that her proposal for the detention of terror suspects does not undermine Magna Carta, that she is ‘frustrated’ by Lord Goldsmith, and that the ‘West Midlands housewife’ is a better judge of the threat than MPs In a government stuffed with malfunctioning robots, nervous wrecks
As John Prescott is fond of saying, the plates are moving. Two left-of-centre commentators today turn their attention to Labour’s predicament in ways that only emphasise its depth. Steve Richards – always essential reading – sets out the case for electoral reform and freely admits that only parties that are desperate take this issue seriously.
And so I got to thinking….what the Hell am I doing here? As I watched a preview of Sex and the City at the Soho Hotel last night, with Trevor Phillips nodding off beside me, I realised that the reason was nostalgia: pure and simple. Fantastic television (into which category SATC undoubtedly fell) rapidly becomes
The Dubai-based satellite TV channel Al Arabiya is reporting that Osama Bin Laden has been “located” by US intelligence in the Kararakoram – a mountain range that spans the borders of Pakistan, the Kashmir and China (K2 is one of its peaks). There was a high-level meeting last week in Doha including General Petraeus, the
This book is so important that I hope the publishers have the civic spirit to send a copy to every parliamentarian, decision-maker and opinion-former in the land. For Philip Bobbitt, the legal and constitutional historian best known for The Shield of Achilles, has drawn nothing less than a philosophical route-map for the war on terror
Well, well. I have just watched Gordon Brown deliver a speech on the global economy and the web at the Google Zeitgeist forum at The Grove hotel. Someone has definitely put something in the PM’s tea, because this was a very different Gordon to the testy, embattled figure of the past few weeks. Confident, relaxed
Text for the day is Jackie Ashley’s Guardian column. Jackie argues that those who object to aspects of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill are acting from intrinsically “reactionary” motives: she warns that this Commons battle is a dry run for the general election. Modern Labour versus Luddite, anti-progressive Conservatives. Dave and his gang, she
Politics is moving at an astonishing pace. Frank Field has upped the ante with his extraordinary remarks on the BBC World Service – that Gordon will not lead Labour into the next election, and that he should ask his loved ones when would be best to leave. Every time the PM raises his head above
Frank Field’s piece in the magazine is one of the most interesting analyses of New Labour and its character I have read: Frank’s point is that the Blair Project was not primarily presentational but contractual. The architects of New Labour – Gordon Brown prime among them – agreed to hold true to certain core values
Charles Clarke, as predicted earlier, has been distributing his article in the new Progress magazine. It is strong stuff: “First, we have to change the conduct of our politics. We should discard the techniques of ‘triangulation’, and ‘dividing lines’ with the Conservatives, which lead to the not entirely unjustified charge that we simply follow proposals
