From ‘News of the Week‘, The Spectator, 1 May 1915: SINCE our last issue the western extremity of the western theatre of the war has been the scene of furious fighting in which the French, Belgians, and British have been engaged. The special feature of this second battle of Ypres, one of the greatest of
Dick West, a foreign correspondent and longtime contributor to The Spectator, has died. Here’s a profile we ran about him in 1989. One side of Richard West’s character is his contrariness. At a time when others fear salmonella he refuses to have his breakfast eggs kept in the refrigerator. At the height of the Band Aid
In 1914 some 1,500 men from ‘Churchill’s Little Army’, the First Royal Naval Brigade, retreated from the defence of Antwerp to the Netherlands. As a neutral country the Netherlands was obliged to intern any soliders from warring armies that crossed its borders to stop them re-joining the fight. The men were put in the ‘English Camp’ (or ‘HMS
Today is the 100th anniversary of the first landings of the Gallipoli campaign by Anzac troops. The battle to take control of the Dardanelles and Bosphorous to open a supply route to Russia and force the Ottoman Empire out of the war would, in its eight months, leave 130,000 dead. The Spectator was to report the
‘Is Ed Miliband actually talking or is it Nicola Sturgeon doing his voice?’
‘Apparently she used to be a city tour guide.’
‘I can’t stand Labour party electioneering. What’s on ITV?’
Fridge magnet
‘Oh, Malcolm — is this a raft of proposals?’
‘We’re worried he may be addicted to online porn.’
‘We must remember to send the Johnsons a death threat.’
‘Do you ever wonder just what Earthlings look like?’
‘You’re right — oil on canvas.’
‘The problems started when we both lost our smartphones and had to talk to each other.’
Enemies within Sir: I thought Matthew Parris was typically incisive in his last column, but perhaps not quite as much as the person who wrote its online headline, ‘Scotland knows the power of a common enemy. We English don’t’ (18 April). It is true that ‘the wish to be the underdog’ is a defining urge
