The Spectator
Thursday
Desert Island
Gentrification
‘This area has recently moved from being a dump to being an expensive dump.’
Spectator letters: Islam and the roots of radicalism
The roots of radicalism Sir: Qanta Ahmed is to be praised for her dissection of Islamism and her call for a reformation of Islam (‘Let there be light’, 17 January). That call has been muted for decades but is now growing louder, and it is right to promote Muslims who see a way forward out
Don’t believe the gloom-mongers: deflation will be good for Britain
Campaigning in Putney in 1978, Mrs Thatcher famously took out a pair of scissors and cut a pound note down the middle, telling her audience that the remaining stump represented what was left of the pound in your pocket after four years of Labour and high inflation. David Cameron may soon be able to repeat
Portrait of the week | 22 January 2015
Home More than 1,100 imams and Islamic leaders received a letter from Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, and Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, the communities minister, saying: ‘We must show our young people, who may be targeted, that extremists have nothing to offer them.’ Imran Khawaja, from Southall, west London, who had posed for a picture
The surprising truth about global inequality
Poor data Oxfam complained of an ‘inequality explosion’, citing an estimate that by next year 1 per cent of the world’s population will own half the wealth, but little other evidence. Is global inequality really growing, and does it matter? — There have been few estimates of global inequality in income and wealth, but one
Books and arts – 22 January 2015
From the archives | 22 January 2015
From ‘Economic quackery’, The Spectator, 23 January 1915: Ever since the war began there has been a tendency to rely upon the government, instead of relying upon ourselves and upon the operation of economic laws. The political mischief resulting is the establishment of what is virtually an uncontrolled Cabinet autocracy. The economic mischief, though it has
Wednesday
The Spectator at war: German hospitality
From The Spectator, 23 January 1915: The Press Bureau has published, at the request of the Russian Embassy, a narrative of the insults, privations, and assaults suffered by Russian subjects in Germany after the outbreak of war. All the facts have been carefully verified, and the names of the chief victims are given. The story
Monday
The Spectator at war: Terror without panic
From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 23 January 1915: WE have written elsewhere of the raid by German airships on Tuesday night, but may mention here the bare facts. The airships, of which there were apparently three, were seen at 1.30 in the afternoon off the Dutch coast, and they must have reached England
Sunday
The Spectator at war: War of words
From The Spectator, 16 January 1915: A VOICE FROM THE FRONT [To the editor of the “Spectator”] SIR,— You may be interested to hear that the other day—in a place which the Censorship regulations forbid me to mention —I saw a number of soldiers surrounding an officer who was reading the Spectator to them; and
Saturday
The Spectator at war: Compulsory service | 17 January 2015
From ‘Compulsory Service’, The Spectator, 16 January 1915: COMPULSORY service has not come yet, but it is drawing very near, and will certainly come unless some miracle should intervene—as, for example, the conquest of this country or the sudden collapse of our enemies. Those who dispute our statement that compulsion is coming must be very
Thursday
Cartoonist
‘So, you’re a cartoonist — can you actually survive doing that?’
Jihadi
Bull
‘I appreciate you not wearing the red sweater this week, Doc.’
