The Spectator

Letters | 14 January 2016

Borderline case Sir: Alex Massie (‘The painful truth for Ruth’, 9 January) correctly identifies the challenges facing the Scottish Conservatives. But he is wrong to say it will ‘never’ be the moment for a Tory revival. Tax devolution is a game-changer. For the first time in years, the Conservative party gets to fight a Scottish

Pickets of privilege

Treatment for that once-virulent condition, the British disease of strikes, has largely been successful. The number of working days lost to industrial action in the first ten months of last year was the second-lowest since records began. Pay and conditions have been relentlessly improving. Since the Winter of Discontent in 1979, the average worker’s disposable

Christmas crossword: The winners | 14 January 2016

The first prize of £100, three prizes of £25 and six further prizes of the Chambers Dictionary of Great Quotations (2015) go to the following. The first four prizewinners also each receive a bottle of champagne. First prize Andrew Dymond, London SE24 Runners-up Mrs P. Bealby, Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland; David Norwood, Puddletown, Dorset; Roderick Burgess, Cantsfield, Carnforth

Christmas crossword solution

The grid quotation was from the JOURNEY OF THE MAGI (T S ELIOT). Initial letters of superfluous words spelled out ‘Heap on more wood, the wind is chill / But let it whistle where it will / We’ll keep our Christmas merry still’, from MARMION (Sir Walter SCOTT). Unclued works by these authors were the

Compelling evidence

From ‘The Position of the Government’, The Spectator, 15 January 1916: Any man who knew the nature of Englishmen, or rather, let us say, of the English-speaking race, during war, would have been able to foretell that an enactment to compel shirkers to do their duty would be certain of something like universal acceptance… Our