The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 4 December 2014

Home The government spent days announcing how the Autumn Statement would allocate funds. ‘Frontline’ parts of the National Health Service would get an extra £2 billion for the time being, £750 million of it diverted from elsewhere in the Department of Health budget. Another £1.1 billion from bankers’ fines would go to support GPs. Labour said

The Spectator at war: Good taste and good breeding

From The King at the Front, The Spectator, 5 December 1914: It is impossible for the ordinary Englishman not to be delighted with the good taste and good breeding as well as the sincerity with which the King has acted throughout the war. Burke bade us so to be patriots as not to forget we are

From the archives | 4 December 2014

From ‘The Honourable Spy’, The Spectator, 5 December 1914: Decency is violated by the military spy when he becomes, for instance, a naturalised subject of a foreign power only to betray his adopted country. No such charge of dishonour can be brought against the German spy Lody who was shot at the Tower. He spied,

Lesson of the Autumn Statement? Boldness is best

Here is a preview of the leading article from this week’s Spectator, out tomorrow, on George Osborne’s Autumn Statement:  When George Osborne first became Chancellor, he asked to be judged on his ability to reduce the deficit. He does not make that request any more. This year’s deficit is almost three times higher than the