Bigger Bens Big Ben will have a £29m refurbishment. Who has the biggest clock tower? Kremlin Clock: Installed on the 232ft Spasskaya Tower. Clock has a diameter of 20ft. Big Ben: Installed on 315ft Elizabeth Tower. Clock faces are 24ft across. Metropolitan Life Insurance Building, New York: 700ft high (although the clock is only two-thirds
From ‘Reprisals’, The Spectator, 23 October 1915: The Germans lately executed Miss Cavell, a good and brave English hospital nurse, on a charge of harbouring fugitives. Are Englishmen prepared for such reprisals as this execution suggests? … Is there a single Englishman, no matter how many public meetings he has attended in support of reprisals, and no matter how
Boris Johnson has recently returned from a tour of Japan. His diary of the trip appears in this week’s issue of The Spectator: Frankly I don’t know why the British media made such a big fat fuss last week when I accidentally flattened a ten-year-old Japanese rugby player called Toki. He got to his feet.
'Let’s go somewhere else — this place has turned into a hipster hangout.'
'Sigh. One of these days we'll come home to find they've had a wild party.'
‘Please like me and share me.’
‘I won’t believe you’re innocent until you’ve been accused by Tom Watson.’
'You'd better go, he'll be home soon ... you’d better...'
'Oh, just the usual Nordic noir: a seemingly run-of-the-mill porridge theft leads to the discovery of a serial killing, people trafficking, drug dealing, paedophile conspiracy.'
'Looks familiar — was he on "I'm a Celebrity", "Big Brother" or "Strictly"?'
'It's another of those extremely obscene and threatening phone calls. Do something — she’s your mother.'
‘We decided to focus on coffee.’
'How much did you pay for it?'
'Oh no! Someone's stolen the wheel.'
‘Everyone’s viral for 15 minutes.’
‘He was a smoking beagle. Can he have a last cigarette?’
'I think this dispels the myth that they never reached old age.'