The Spectator | The Spectator columnists & writers

Peace project Sir: It was heartening to read your editorial on the peace which has reigned in Europe since 1945, in which you paid justified tribute to those who sacrificed their lives in the two world wars (‘Why we remember’, 13 November). You emphasised how Nato and the UN have contributed to the maintenance of peace, but sadly you failed to mention the European project and the EU. The first president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, always insisted that the project of European integration, launched by Adenauer, Schuman and De Gasperi, was above all a ‘peace project’. That continues to be the view of today’s Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen. The peace dividend of the EU must not be overlooked.

Has Peppa Pig changed political sides?

The true cost of Boris

Portrait of the week: Boris’s shambolic CBI speech, more Covid protests and Kyle Rittenhouse is cleared

2531: Villainy - solution

The unclued lights are VILLAINS encountered by James Bond. First prize Ian Skillen, Cambuslang, Glasgow Runners-up Liz Knights, Walton Highway, Cambs; Keith Williams, Kings Worthy, Winchester, Hants

2530: Ups and downs - solution

The quotation is ‘LAUGH, AND THE WORLD LAUGHS WITH YOU; WEEP, AND YOU WEEP ALONE’ from Solitude by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. Her two unclued novels are SWEET DANGER (34/24) and A DOUBLE LIFE (3/29). ELLA (on the perimeter), WHEELER (12) and WILCOX (diagonally from 12) were to be shaded. First prize Roy Sharp, Kelburn, Wellington, New Zealand Runners-up Sue Topham, Elston, Notts Glyn Watkins, Portishead, Bristol

Books of the year II — a further selection of the books chosen by our regular reviewers

Letters: it isn’t climate change scientists who are the hysterics

Does Leeds need trains – or trams?

Portrait of the week: a Liverpool terror attack, the end of COP26 and the Belarus migrant crisis

Emad Al Swealmeen should not have been in Britain

It’s not too late to scrap HS2

There are government projects gone haywire – and then there’s HS2. The High Speed rail project should never have been given the nod in the first place. Costs spiralled out of control from the very beginning: it was estimated to cost £32.7 billion in 2012, now this is set to surpass £100 billion. The technology will be out of date before it even comes online. The government is right to ditch plans for an easterly arm of HS2 from Leeds to Birmingham. In contrast to the London to Birmingham section, no buildings have yet been flattened, no earth has been moved. Now is the chance to abandon it, before any more money and effort is spent. But even with billions funnelled into the first leg of the journey, there’s still a strong case for scrapping the rail project completely.

Chateau Musar zoom tasting

The power of remembering

Is there any evidence climate change is making hurricanes worse?

Letters: climate protestors would do better to boycott China

Portrait of the week: Tory sleaze, NHS jabs and Elon Musk’s shares

The power of remembering

Is there any evidence climate change is making hurricanes worse?

Letters: climate protestors would do better to boycott China

Portrait of the week: Tory sleaze, NHS jabs and Elon Musk’s shares

2529: Formerly - Solution

Books of the Year I — chosen by our regular reviewers

Delamin cognac Zoom tasting.

Portrait of the week: Fishing friction, Greta’s singalong and terror in Tokyo

Are there more over-seventies or twenty-somethings behind the wheel?

Letters: Why net zero is impossible

The flaw in Britain’s net-zero plan

Portrait of the week: Fishing friction, Greta’s singalong and terror in Tokyo

Are there more over-seventies or twenty-somethings behind the wheel?

Letters: Why net zero is impossible

The flaw in Britain’s net-zero plan

From the archive: the nature of Japan

2528: Not to Lose - solution

Where is the climate plan B?

The COP26 summit is unlikely to be an outright flop. There has been no shortage of drama, with speakers seeming to compete with each other to see who could use the most histrionic language. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, went so far as to compare the attending leaders to Nazi appeasers. He later apologised. Some progress, albeit small, is being made. A hundred countries have been persuaded, some on the promise of sweeteners worth £14 billion, to sign a pledge to end deforestation by 2030. Brazil, the most important of all, is among them. India has agreed, for the first time, to set itself a date for achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions — although its target, 2070, is two decades beyond what the United Nations would have liked.

Letters: The contentious issues of religious conversion

Hard to reconcile Sir: Although not an Anglican, I appreciate Michael Nazir-Ali’s dilemma (‘A change of mind and heart’, 23 October) and know many Anglicans whose loyalty to the C of E is being severely tested. But insofar as his theology is classically Protestant and evangelical, it is difficult to see how the former bishop can reconcile it with the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church on the sacraments, the office of the Pope, the role of Mary, purgatory and justification, to name but a few contentious issues. He speaks of how ‘what Anglicanism in its classical form has held most dear is being fulfilled in the progression of the Ordinariate’. Assuming that classical Anglicanism is summed up in the Book of Common Prayer and the 39 Articles of Religion of the Church of England, with their strong emphasis on the biblical and Protestant doctrine of justification through faith alone in Christ, Michael Nazir-Ali must have had a significant change of heart and mind, or be doing some remarkable theological gymnastics.

Portrait of the week: Queen stays home, Boris rubbishes recycling and pay freeze thaws

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