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Spectator letters: A GP’s cry of distress and a defence of Stephen Hawking
Dreadful treatment Sir: I worked as a GP through the Thatcher, Major, Blair, and Brown eras, apart from a spell as an A&E doctor, and never experienced such a depressing and worrying time for the NHS as now (‘Wrong diagnosis’, 10 January). There was frequently strain on the service from underfunding, but not the crisis
Three people to ask about free speech in Britain
Not Charlie Some cases which make Britain a pretty poor champion of free speech: — In 2005 Bristol pub landlord Leroy Trought was given an Asbo and told to remove a sign for his car park, calling it ‘the porking yard’, after complaints to police that it was ‘racially and sexually offensive’. — In 2006,
Portrait of the week | 15 January 2015
Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that he wanted to change the law so that there would be no ‘means of communication’ which ‘we cannot read’, in order to thwart terrorists. Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, said this meant ‘scooping up vast amounts of information on millions of people — children, grandparents and
David Cameron has a very strange idea of freedom
Last Sunday, David Cameron marched through Paris in solidarity, so it seemed, with those who stand up for free speech. Anyone who thought he meant it must now be crying out, ‘Je suis un right Charlie!’ Hardly had the march finished than the Prime Minister had rediscovered his other side: the one which reacts to
Books and arts – 15 January 2015
The Spectator at war: War music
From ‘Music and the War’, The Spectator, 16 January 1915: The war, so far, has not thrown up any supreme musical product. It would be an affectation to pretend that the taste of the average British soldier is elevated. As in the Boer War, his repertory is confined to music-ball tunes and songs of an
From the archives | 15 January 2015
From ‘Music and the war’, The Spectator, 16 January 1915: The war, so far, has not thrown up any supreme musical product. It would be an affectation to pretend that the taste of the average British soldier is elevated. As in the Boer War, his repertory is confined to music-ball tunes and songs of an
Wednesday
Cameron’s reaction to the Charlie Hebdo attacks has been depressingly predictable
Last Sunday, David Cameron marched through Paris in solidarity, so it seemed, with those who stand up for free speech. Anyone who thought he meant it must now be crying out, ‘Je suis un right Charlie!’ Hardly had the march finished than the Prime Minister had rediscovered his other side: the one which reacts to
The Spectator at war: Senior service
From ‘The Windfalls of Soldiering’, The Spectator, 16 January 1915: This war is unlike all our previous wars, in that it was known from the very beginning that a vast number of men would be required. Thus it was plain at once that the only speedy way of reaching the front for the civilian of
Tuesday
The Spectator at war: Commercial interference
From ‘The British Reply and American Comments’, The Spectator, 16 January 1915: We have not the slightest desire to punish American commerce or any neutral commerce. Our whole object is to destroy our enemies, and it is only so far as American commerce interferes with that object that we interfere with American commerce. That the
Monday
The Spectator at war: Taking cover
From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 16 January 1915: Friday’s Times contains on its “leader” page an appeal to our soldiers by Sir William Osier in regard to inoculation against typhoid. He tells the soldiers in simple but stirring language that it is their bounden duty to keep themselves in as perfect a state
