Alright
‘Is everything all right, Sir?’
The Spectator
Thursday
Arguing
‘Looks as though they’ve been arguing again.’
Sodoff
‘Do make yourself at home.’
Lamilly And Barbie
‘I just want you to know I think you’re really brave.’
Letters: The silencing of Meirion Thomas; finding the Cross of St George in Tuscany; and healthy scepticism about NHS privatisation
This turbulent surgeon Sir: I have taken Meirion Thomas to task before in your letters pages, saying that since one third of NHS professional staff are immigrants, it would seem churlish to deny health visitors access to the very doctors we have poached from them. Meirion Thomas is not a whistle-blower (‘Bitter medicine’, 3 January) —
Portrait of the week | 8 January 2015
Home The electorate was bombarded with contrary claims by parties beginning campaigns for the election in May. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said that only electing the Conservative party could ‘save Britain’s economic recovery’. His party issued a dossier with figures compiled by Treasury civil servants, which sought to show that Labour’s spending plans did
Revealed: five British royals who definitely slept with underage girls
Teen queens The Duke of York denied allegations in court papers that he had had sexual relations with a girl in Florida aged 17, below the age of consent there. Some of his ancestors who might now be in trouble: — King John, who married Isabella of Angoulême in 1200 when she was 12. —
The attack on Charlie Hebdo is an attack on freedom
The French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo lambasts, attacks and lampoons absolutely everybody. Its targets include all religions, all identity groups, minorities and majorities. In recent years it has been most prominent for its refusal to apply different treatment to Islam. It knew that carrying on with satire, in the name of free expression, carried a
The Spectator at war: The German mentality
From News of the Week, The Spectator, 9 January 1915: The Report of the French Commission appointed to investigate the acts committed in violation of international law by Germany appears in the Journal Officiel of Friday. The Commission declares that “the terrible sufferings witnessed surpass in horror all that the imagination can conceive.” Not only
From the archives | 8 January 2015
From ‘Lord Curzon’s speech’, The Spectator, 9 January 1915: We are glad to record, though in no way surprised to find, that Lord Curzon takes a very serious and very clearly defined view of the duties of the Opposition during a period of national crisis. He recognised that part of these duties in war time
Wednesday
The attack on Charlie Hebdo is an attack on freedom | 7 January 2015
Here is the leading article from the new Spectator magazine, out tomorrow, which went to press as news of the attack on Charlie Hebdo broke. listen to ‘Douglas Murray discusses the attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine’ on audioBoom
The Spectator at war: Efficiency and blundering
From ‘The Threat of Grand Admiral von Tirpitz’, The Spectator, 9 January 1915: THE Manchester Guardian of Tuesday published the text of the interview with Grand Admiral von Tirpitz which appear last week in the New York Sun. This was the interview in which Admiral von Tirpitz seriously proposed that German submarines might declare war on all enemy
Friday
The Spectator at war: A flying visit
From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 2 January 1915: The first German aeroplanes which have visited us since the beginning of the war appeared on Thursday and Friday of last week. On Thursday week, about eleven o’clock in the morning, an aeroplane circled over Dover and dropped a bomb, which fell in a garden
Thursday
Champagne
‘Oh my God! Is this socialist champagne?’
Shooter
‘OK, buddy, I’m arresting you for impersonating a police officer.’