Out of tune The use of a song, ‘Love Natural’ by the Crystal Fighters, at the launch of the Labour manifesto backfired when the band’s drummer urged people to vote Green instead. Some other campaign songs whose writers disowned the campaign: — Ronald Reagan used ‘Born in the USA’ by Bruce Springsteen for his re-election
Home Launching the Conservative party manifesto, David Cameron, the party leader, told voters he wanted to ‘turn the good news in our economy into a good life for you and your family’. The Tories promised: to eliminate the deficit by the end of the parliament; to provide 30 hours of free child care a week
One Friday, 28 people were rescued by the Italian coastguard when the boat on which they were fleeing Libya capsized in the Mediterranean. Arriving homeless and without prospects in a strange land, these were — relatively speaking — the lucky ones. As many as 700 are thought to have drowned. Add them to the tally. On Monday, another boat
Welcome to The Spectator’s live coverage of the opposition leaders’ debate on the BBC. We’ll be providing the latest developments and analysis on the programme, starting at 8pm this evening. This page will automatically reload
From ‘How it looks to a German’, The Spectator, 17 April 1915: Try to imagine how things must look to a German who dares to put off the mask of self-complacency which the German people have deliberately worn ever since the beginning of the war and to face the facts, the whole facts, and nothing
From ‘Some reflections of an alien enemy: the contradiction between being and feeling an Englishman, by a Czech’, The Spectator, 17 April 1915: What I most regret having lost is my previous unawareness of there being any difference between me and Englishmen. In saying we, I used to mean we English people; somehow or other I
From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 17 April 1915: The chief event, or rather sensation, of the week has been the German aircraft raids—first on the Tyne on Wednesday, and then on Thursday over Lowestoft and Malden and other parts of South Suffolk and North Essex. Both raids were quite futile. The raid on
In a View from 22 podcast special, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss the implications of the Conservative manifesto, which was announced today. You can read the full manifesto here and Isabel’s snap reaction here. Will Tory promises on issues such as childcare, housing and income tax be enough to convince voters that they are
From ‘Friendship and the War’, The Spectator, 10 April 1915: WE are all losing our friends. This is true in a tragic sense, because our friends are dying in battle. But there is a lighter sense in which it is true also, and which is also connected with the war. There is so much work to be
From ‘The Possibilities of Thrift’, The Spectator, 10 April 1915: IT has, perhaps, not yet been sufficiently realized that the country is passing through what may almost be called an economic revolution. Large numbers of the working classes who, let it be frankly admitted, were often underpaid are now in receipt of incomes which, in
‘I don’t like the look of this.’
‘They seemed to drink all the time in those days.’
‘The swamp, the swamp, always we go to the swamp. Why can’t we head north this year?’
‘When I was your age we had to make our own porn.’
‘You laughing hyenas at the back, why don’t you just come out here to the front and then we can all share the joke?’
‘You were right – it’s not the cat.’
‘It’s not working, Raymond — I feel like you’re judging me.’
‘Let’s promise everyone a pay rise twice the rate of inflation!’