Today

4 Aug 2022

Thursday

28 Jul 2022
Portrait of the week: Sunak vs Truss, London dodges a blackout and 94st walrus capsizes boats

Home In a television debate between the two contenders for the leadership of the Conservative party (and hence the prime ministership), Rishi Sunak said it would be irresponsible to put the country in even more debt by cutting taxes and Liz Truss said that the tax rises he approved would put Britain into a recession. Mr Sunak was criticised for interrupting. A later proposal he made to cut VAT when the price cap on energy bills rose above £3,000 only brought accusations of a U-turn. He agreed to be interviewed by Andrew Neil on Channel 4, but Ms Truss didn’t. Opinion polls put Ms Truss well ahead among Conservative voters; Labour voters preferred Mr Sunak. Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour party, made a speech favouring ‘growth, growth and growth’, in pursuit of which he would establish an Industrial Strategy Council to set out ‘national priorities that go beyond the political cycle’.

Portrait of the week: Sunak vs Truss, London dodges a blackout and 94st walrus capsizes boats

Thursday

21 Jul 2022
Portrait of the week: Record-breaking heat, a summer of strikes and a warning for snake-owners

Home In the contest for the leadership of the Conservative party, Jeremy Hunt and Nadhim Zahawi were the first of the eight contenders to be eliminated, followed by Suella Braverman, Tom Tugendhat and Kemi Badenoch. After two televised debates, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, the frontrunners, refused to take part in a third, which was cancelled. The debates were bitter and accompanied by negative briefings. Lord Frost said he had ‘grave reservations’ about Penny Mordaunt, and had ‘had to ask the PM to move her on’ when she was his junior during Brexit negotiations. After parliament rose for the summer two names were to be put before party members in a postal ballot. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, removed the Conservative whip from Tobias Ellwood when he failed to support the government in a vote of confidence it called in itself, which it won by 349 to 238.

Portrait of the week: Record-breaking heat, a summer of strikes and a warning for snake-owners

Wednesday

20 Jul 2022
The heatwave shows the lockdown instinct is still alive

Trains were running even more slowly than usual. Schools were closed again. Offices were empty. No one would deny that Monday and Tuesday were on the warm side, at least by British standards. Even so, there was something more alarming than the temperature: how quickly the authorities started to close down society – and showed that the lockdown instinct is still very much alive. The Met Office, a body that has turned from fairly comical to slightly sinister in recent times, started advising everyone to stay at home. The unions asked for schools, offices and transport systems to be closed down. There were no trains north out of King’s Cross or Euston, and Luton airport closed completely. Sadiq Khan lost no time in asking people not to have barbecues.

The heatwave shows the lockdown instinct is still alive

Saturday

16 Jul 2022
Job offer: Product Owner

Over the last decade, The Spectator — the world’s oldest weekly — has almost doubled its sales in a market that has fallen by two thirds. In an era where publications are judged by the quality of the digital product as much as they are the magazine, the role of product owner is crucial to our continued success. We are looking for someone to manage and oversee our digital products — including primarily our website and app, but also our podcast and video platforms. You will act as a bridge between the digital, editorial and marketing departments. So you’ll be not just technically proficient, but also a meticulous organiser, communicator and project manager with a keen eye for detail who can juggle several mission-critical projects all at once.

Job offer: Product Owner

Thursday

14 Jul 2022
Letters: In defence of Boris Johnson

Boris’s legacy Sir: It is grossly unfair to assert that Boris Johnson’s legacy was the lockdown (Leading article, 9 July). His chief legacy was, of course, Brexit, followed by the crushing of Corbynism, the world-beating vaccine rollout, and his leading role in supporting Ukraine against the Russian invaders. Not a bad tally. Most European countries, though not Sweden, imposed lockdowns of varying lengths and severity, on the advice of scientists and with overwhelming public support. Governments were on a learning curve when the vicious virus struck. Johnson’s government made mistakes, but got most of the big decisions right. We all know about Johnson’s flaws, but he was a remarkable prime minister. He deserves more credit than you give him.

Letters: In defence of Boris Johnson

Thursday

7 Jul 2022
Portrait of the week: Boris on the brink, petrol price protests and a £3,000 swear word

Home Rishi Sunak resigned as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Sajid Javid as Health Secretary. (Nadhim Zahawi accepted the post of Chancellor and Steve Barclay, the PM’s chief of staff, Health Secretary.) The resignations came five days after Chris Pincher, aged 52, the MP for Tamworth, resigned as deputy chief whip the morning after he ‘drank far too much’ at the Carlton Club where he was alleged to have groped two men. Then began questions of what Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, knew and when. Mr Pincher had the whip removed as a member of the parliamentary Conservative party, and said: ‘I will benefit from professional medical support.’ He had previously stood down from the whips’ office in 2017, after being accused of making an unwanted pass at the former Olympic rower and Conservative activist Alex Story, but he was cleared of any breach of the Tory party’s code of conduct.

Portrait of the week: Boris on the brink, petrol price protests and a £3,000 swear word

Thursday

30 Jun 2022
Portrait of the week: Scottish independence, striking lawyers and the end of Roe vs Wade

Home Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, said that military spending had to increase. Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, reacted to the loss of two by-elections by saying ‘I’ve got to listen to what people are saying’, but did not resign. Oliver Dowden said ‘Somebody must take responsibility’, and resigned as a co-chairman of the Conservative party. Later Mr Johnson joked to reporters in Kigali, Rwanda, at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting: ‘I’m thinking actively about the third term.’ The Liberal Democrats won Tiverton and Honiton with a swing of 29.9 per cent from the Conservatives; the Conservative majority of 24,239 from the 2019 general election was the largest ever overturned in a by-election. On the same day, Labour regained Wakefield with a majority of 4,925 and a swing of 12.

Portrait of the week: Scottish independence, striking lawyers and the end of Roe vs Wade