Islington isn’t indifferent Sir: I was shocked to read Mary Wakefield’s article accusing Islington’s middle classes of ‘extreme indifference’ to the death of our young people (1 August). As the local MP and a resident of N1, I can assure you that all these losses are deeply felt. It is provocative to suggest that there
Speaking after the Stafford hospital scandal in 2010, the then newly appointed Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley, grandly announced plans for a charter to support whistleblowers. The government, he said, would ‘create an expectation that NHS staff will raise concerns about safety, malpractice and wrongdoing as early as possible’. We now know just how that fine
Home The Metropolitan Police encouraged people to celebrate VJ Day despite reports in the Mail on Sunday (picked up from an investigation by Sky News) of plans by Islamic State commanders to blow up the Queen. The RMT union announced two more strikes on the London Underground for the last week in August. Network Rail
Forget Greece; China’s economic slowdown is the biggest story of the year, says Elliot Wilson in this week’s issue of The Spectator. China’s long boom may finally be ending and the consequences for the world will be profound. Elliot joins Isabel Hardman and Andrew Sentance, Senior Economic Adviser at PwC and a former member of the
From ‘What will they do with it?’, The Spectator, 14 August 1915: It is true that in a good many cases boys of 17 ought not to be sent to the trenches. Such boys would, however, be quite serviceable for home defence purposes, and it is obvious that we must in any case keep a quarter
From ‘The End of the First Year‘, The Spectator, 7 August 1915: Terrible as have been the sufferings caused by the war—the agonies of the body for those who have fought and fallen wounded, and the agonies of the mind for those who have seen husbands, fathers, and sons go to their deaths or return
‘From now on I want you all thinking outside the box.’
‘Oh no! He’s going big game hunting.’
‘The doctor said I should get more sunshine, so I took up smoking.’
‘Essential oils...’
Very cool box
‘I only want to get to England to join the Bloomsbury Group.’
‘There’s so much rubbish up here — and there’s the pedestal you used to put me on.’
‘They’ll be mentally dressing us.’
‘May I see your papers?’
‘You wanna go large?’
Exploiting our charity Sir: Melissa Kite (‘Asking too much’, 1 August) is spot on about charity fundraising. This has changed charitable sentiment into an exploitable business asset. The consequences are bad for both givers — who are likely to become more cynical as time goes on and therefore less charitable — and the charities themselves, which will suffer
