From ‘Pages of War’, The Spectator, 27 February 1915: With its darkened lights and sparse traffic, its khaki-dotted clubs and restaurants working at half-pressure, its transformed shop-windows, where everything is “for the front,” London was yet never so absolutely, so intimately itself. All the distilled essence of the Empire is concentrated here under these foggy
From a letter to the Editor, ‘The Channel Tunnel’, The Spectator, 27 February 1915: [To the Editor of The “Spectator’] SIR,—Many of us must be wondering what the promoters of the Channel Tunnel enterprise think about the matter now. To those of us who are of the “Island” school it has always appeared that there
‘What a great list! Have you considered a career in journalism?’
‘To be honest, usually both members of the couple are alive.’
‘Take no notice — he lives in a fantasy world.’
‘Excuse Melanie, she’s come out without her mobile.’
‘We were made for each other, Susan.’
‘I’ve found you a trolley.’
‘Hell, this is a dead spot, I’ll just tell you what I was going to text you.’
‘Oh yeah? Well, we used to walk to France for the weekend till you gang of weirdos started that messin’ about with the environment.’
‘So he’s @newborn123456. Does he have a hashtag?’
‘I’m calling to find out if you got my text about the email I sent regarding the letter I wrote...’
‘Today’s text comes from…’
The presence of a church Sir: The challenge for the Church of England and the wider community is to ensure that our village churches are a blessing and not a burden (‘It takes a village’, 21 February). The Church of England has approximately 16,000 churches, three-quarters of which are listed by English Heritage. Most of
Golden league Some MPs who earn Sir Malcolm Rifkind’s rate of £5,000 a day: — Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury): £3,333 for four hours work as deputy chairman of Woburn Energy. — Greg Barker (Bexhill and Battle): £20,000 for 30 hours providing advice to Ras Al Khaimah Development LLC. — Henry Bellingham (NW Norfolk): £7,500 for
Home Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former Conservative foreign secretary, resigned as chairman of Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee and promised not to stand for Parliament in May after he and Jack Straw, the former Labour foreign secretary, were suspended from their parties. This followed their being separately secretly filmed apparently offering their services for payment
Had the public been asked, before Monday morning, to identify two MPs who stood for honesty and decency, the names Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind would have been prominent among their replies. Both have served as foreign secretary, Straw also as home secretary and justice secretary. Neither seemed unduly driven by personal ambition, nor
