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
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
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
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
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,
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
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
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,
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
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.’