From ‘The Starving Belgians’, The Spectator, 8 May 1915: The two hundred thousand Belgian refugees who are being provided for in the United Kingdom have made us feel that the refugee question is part of our daily life. We hear of the refugees wherever we go; we see them; our everyday conversation is concerned with
‘Get the nuclear codes in case Nicola Sturgeon tries to wipe us out.’
‘Tooth fairy?! I want a visit from the lip-filler fairy!’
‘Of course, it doesn’t make any sense since the election pledges wore off.’
‘I guess you know why I’m here?’
‘I don’t mind a bit of role-play, but I absolutely refuse to dress up as Nicola Sturgeon.’
‘What are the kids up to? I can’t find them on here anywhere…’
‘We’re just practising.’
‘Some politician, dog bit him while canvassing… make sure he waits at least five hours.’
‘Oh God, it’s that luvvie again.’
‘I can’t decide — these pencils are all as stubby as each other.’
Party packs Is it possible to form a stable coalition with more than one political party? The Conservative/Lib Dem coalition of 2010– 2015 was in fact unique in being the only British coalition featuring just two parties. — Lord Aberdeen’s coalition on 1852–55 was made up of 11 Whigs, six Peelites and one Radical, Sir
Bees vs Belgians Sir: To answer Rory Sutherland and Glen Weyl’s question: yes, everyone should vote and no, just because someone is more interested in politics, his opinion should not count more heavily (‘Plan Bee’, 2 May). Belgium has had compulsory voting for over a century. The troubles that follow every general election may seem
After working for Bill Clinton, the political strategist James Carville said he had changed his mind about where power really lies. ‘I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the President or the Pope,’ he said. ‘But now I would like to come back as the bond market.
Home The country went to the polls. David Cameron, the Conservative leader, prepared by going around with his sleeves rolled up. Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, said that his pledges had been cut into an eight-foot slab of limestone. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, took a bus for John O’Groats. Stuart Gulliver, the chief
From ‘War by Poison’, The Spectator, 8 May 1915: THE nature of the gases by means of which the Germans have won undoubted local successes is gradually being ascertained, and the more we know of the gases the more brutal does the use of them appear. At first we heard them spoken of simply as
From ‘War by Poison’, The Spectator, 8 May 1915: By the consent of all men who are not savages, the use of poison is ruled out in war, and has been prohibited by custom for centuries. And war by poison is being practised not only in Europe; in German South-West Africa the Union troops, as we
From ‘National Concentration’, The Spectator, 8 May 1915: The two great needs of the hour are more men and more munitions of war. We have got so to organize our forces that while more men are spared for the fighting line, there shall also be more men engaged, and efficiently engaged, in the manufacture of
