Incident
‘Oh my God! There’s some sort of major incident going on around here somewhere.’
The Spectator
Thursday
Wreckage
‘I love you, darling, but I’m leaving you for another piece of wreckage.’
Doom
‘Social network sites have made it so much easier to lure sailors to their doom.’
News 3
‘They’re called that because historically they had news in them.’
Elephants 2
‘Darling, there’s an elephant in the womb.’
Jihadi Wedding
‘You may now kill the bride.’
Burka 2
Dress 2
‘What colour is this dress?’
Flasher
‘It’s that flasher again — pretend we haven’t noticed him.’
Spectator letters: How to save the Union; who cares for Paolozzi’s murals
A disaster for unionists Sir: I share Alex Massie’s view that ‘this election is going to be a disaster’ for us unionists (‘Divided we fall’, 28 February). It is almost too painful to recall that it will mark the 60th anniversary of a great victory in May 1955 when the Tories, standing as Scottish Unionists,
The perils of planespotting
A dangerous hobby Three men from Greater Manchester were arrested and held in the UAE after being seen writing down the numbers of aircraft. — Plane-spotting can be risky. In 2001 14 Britons were arrested in Greece after allegedly taking photos at an air base in Kalamata. Eight were sentenced to three years; imprisonment for
If you really love the NHS, you know it needs to change
To adapt Aeschylus’s aphorism on war and truth, the first casualty in a general election campaign is objectivity. Over the next eight weeks NHS staff can expect nothing but saccharine praise from politicians who are falling over themselves to say how wonderful the health service is, how committed they are to it. The Conservatives may
Portrait of the week | 5 March 2015
Home The man seen in several Islamic State videos of hostages being beheaded, nicknamed Jihadi John by the British press, was revealed as Mohammed Emwazi, aged 26, born in Kuwait but raised from the age of six in London. He was said to have had help with anger management at his secondary school, Quintin Kynaston
Books and arts – 5 March 2015
The Spectator at war: Racing post
From ‘Ascot in Wartime’, The Spectator, 6 March 1915: [To the Editor of “THE SPECTATOR”] SIR,—There has been much discussion recently over the question of the Epsom Grand Stand. As to the rights and wrongs involved in that discussion I hardly think there can be two opinions. But, Sir, I ask your permission to address you
Too short for the trenches?
From ‘The “Willing” Badge’, The Spectator, 6 March 1915: A final ground for giving badges to those who have offered themselves and been rejected must be mentioned. Under any scheme for the presentation of badges a register should be kept giving in general terms the ground on which each man was rejected — namely, medical reasons,
Wednesday
The Spectator at war: Attention deficit
From ‘A Plea for Posterity’, The Spectator, 6 March 1915: A good many people have latterly argued that as posterity will enjoy the advantages of a successful war, so posterity may honourably be left to pay for those advantages in the shape of yearly interest upon a swollen National Debt. This is always the argument
Tuesday
The Spectator at war: Rules of war
From ‘The New Naval Measures and the United States’, The Spectator, 6 March 1915: Britain proposes to stop all German imports and exports by the general pressure of her naval strength, whereas the United States says that we ought to use this pressure only in accordance with what have hitherto been regarded as the laws
Monday
The Spectator at war: Straits times
From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 6 March 1915: THE advance made during the week by our naval force in the Dardanelles has been most satisfactory. As we write our ships are engaged with the great group of forts at the Narrows, while in the Gulf of Saros, opposite the neck of the Gallipoli Peninsula,
Sunday
The Spectator at war: Something cut off
From ‘On Commas’, The Spectator, 27 February 1915: I CAN picture the development of the misled reformer who introduced the comma into the languages of men. His laborious finger lost itself time after time among the elaborate pothooks of his generation; time after time he declared in a hissing voice that script was a fiend
