Mccoy 2
‘I say, didn’t you used to be A.P. McCoy?’
The Spectator
Thursday
Graveyard
‘It’s how my beautiful assistant would have wanted it.’
Thor
‘I preferred him when he just had a hammer.’
Facebook 3
‘The gods are unfriending us on Facebook tonight.’
Spoilt
‘No, it’s neck and neck. These are the spoilt ballots.’
Sorry
‘Couldn’t you just have said, “Sorry, mate, was that your pint? Here, let me get you another one.”?’
Selfie 7
‘Your trouble is you’re too selfie-centred.’
Sub
‘You’re right, I do feel subeditors are outdated. How did you know?’
Election 3
Monkey
‘I’ll write an Iraq report before Sir John Chilcot.’
Letters | 30 April 2015
An instinctive Tory faith Sir: For once Bruce Anderson does not exaggerate: David Cameron did indeed win golden opinions for his ‘high intellect and low cunning’ at the 1992 election (‘The boy David’, 25 April), putting him among the most brilliant products of the Conservative Research Department over its long history. He contributed magnificently to
Portrait of the week | 30 April 2015
Home The British economy grew by 0.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2015, the slowest quarterly growth for two years. The Institute for Fiscal Studies pointed out many absurdities in party election promises, noting that most people would see tax and benefit changes that reduced their income; it said that the Conservative and
Barometer | 30 April 2015
One-way stretch A study at Louisville University in Kentucky concluded that collisions are twice as likely in one-way streets as in similar streets with two-way traffic. — The one-way street is an older concept than many might imagine. Pudding Lane, where the Great Fire of London began in 1666, was one of the world’s first
The right choice
When election day dawns, it’s worth bearing in mind that two million more people will be going to work than when David Cameron came to power. On an average day in Britain, there are 1,500 fewer reported crimes than there were before Theresa May was made Home Secretary. Some 2.2 million pupils now attend independent schools
Books & arts – 30 April 2015
As it happened: Question Time leaders special
Welcome to the Spectator’s live coverage of the special edition of Question Time with David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg. We’ll be providing live analysis of the final TV programme with each of the party leaders from 8pm. This page will automatically reload.
The Spectator at war: The thin khaki line
From ‘The Military Situation’, The Spectator, 1 May 1915: EXCEPT for the terrible death-roll, there is nothing to disquiet us in the second battle of Ypres, the embers of which are glowing as we write. The Germans have once more made a determined attempt to break our line and to reach Dunkirk and Calais, and
An empire for Islam
From ‘The Khalifate’, The Spectator, 1 May 1915: It seems that the Ottoman Empire is likely to crumble away, and in that event, whether it happens soon or late, the question of the Khalifate will cause many searchings of heart to the Mohammedan world. In an intimate and most important sense Britain is concerned in this matter.
Vote Tory | 30 April 2015
Andrew Roberts Biographer The Cameron ministry of 2010-15 will go down in history as having made Britain as the most successful economy in the developed world, despite it having inherited a near-bankrupt nation from a Labour party that spent money like a drunken sailor on shore leave. Ordinarily that should be enough to have it
