Date 3
The worst date ever
The Spectator
Thursday
Everything
‘She’s got everything we never had: a two-hour commute, IVF treatment, divorce pending and an alcohol problem.’
Spectator letters: Richard Ingrams defends Joan Littlewood, and the truth about Napoleon’s poisonous wallpaper
The state of Italy… Sir: Ambassador Terracciano’s letter (Letters, 1 November) about Nicholas Farrell’s article (‘The dying man of Europe’, 25 October) seems to me to be ill-researched and not thought through. Nicholas Farrell is spot on. The Ambassador is not. In another forum the Ambassador, on being asked what Italian nationals contribute to Britain, claimed
Fort Lauderdale’s law against feeding the homeless still isn’t America’s dumbest
States of criminality A 90-year-old Florida man feeding the homeless was arrested under a Fort Lauderdale law which makes it illegal to share food with members of the public. Other laws from the ‘Land of the Free’: — In Indiana you can be arrested for statutory rape if you are caught driving a car with
Portrait of the week | 13 November 2014
Home The government, expecting a backbench rebellion over the European Arrest Warrant, did not present it for a separate vote in the Commons, which enraged backbenchers all the more. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, tabled a procedural motion, forcing David Cameron, the Prime Minister, to hurry from the Lord Mayor’s banquet in white tie
Thank heavens for Justin Welby!
For decades, interventions of the Archbishop of Canterbury in national debate were like a sporadic bombardment of small pebbles against the door of Downing Street. Justin Welby has changed all that. This week, payday loan companies are facing reform (or in some cases oblivion) as new caps on interest payments come into effect. That the
Books and arts – 13 November 2014
John Major: Nearly 50% chance of Britain leaving the EU
This is the text of a speech delivered by Sir John Major in Berlin. Thank you for your kind invitation. I feel privileged to be here to talk about the future relationship of the UK and her European partners. Often, on these occasions, speakers deliver their messages delphically; almost in code. But this evening I
The Spectator at war: The scales of loss
From The Spectator, 14 November 1914: We must make no attempt to conceal the terrible character of our losses. It is true that the German losses have been probably twice, or possibly even three times, as heavy, but that does not make our own losses the less awful. That we shall be able to make
From the archives | 13 November 2014
From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 14 November 1914: We must make no attempt to conceal the terrible character of our losses. It is true that the German losses have been probably twice, or possibly even three times, as heavy, but that does not make our own losses the less awful. That we shall
Paul Johnson on Henry Kissinger, Susan Hill on David Walliams, Julie Burchill on Julie Burchill: Spectator books of the year
Mark Amory Being a slow reader, I first try the shortest, or anyway shorter, works of famous novelists unknown to me. This year, with many misgivings, I read The Confusions of Young Törless by Robert Musil (Penguin, £8.99) and was shocked and impressed by the intensity of the sex and violence he describes at a
Wednesday
The Spectator’s portrait of the week | 12 November 2014
Home The government, expecting a backbench rebellion over the European Arrest Warrant, did not present it for a separate vote in the Commons, which enraged backbenchers all the more. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, tabled a procedural motion, forcing David Cameron, the Prime Minister, to hurry from the Lord Mayor’s banquet in white tie
The Spectator at war: Quiet seas
From The Spectator, 14 November 1914: We have mentioned elsewhere Mr. Winston Churchill’s speech on the Navy at the Guildhall, in which he pointed out that in effect patience and vigilance must be the watch-words of our sailors now as heretofore. There seemed at one time a certain restlessness in the public mind in regard
Tuesday
The Spectator at war: The peril from aliens
From The Spectator, 14 November 1914: Men guilty of helping the enemy are simply spies within our lines, or traitors to their adopted country. There cannot be any dispute about that. If the penalty visited on them is one of laughable leniency, the spy or traitor, so far from being deterred, has an actual incentive
Friday
The Spectator at war: Watching the Home Front
From The Spectator, 7 November 1914: We say without hesitation that if every town and urban district and village in England had a Guard formed on the lines of the Mitcham Town Guard, something would have been accomplished that might prove most valuable in the event of invasion. We shall no doubt be asked by many
Thursday
Terror
‘Do we know any terrorists who could set up my Facebook account?’
Movember
‘It’s Movember.’
Dominant
‘They’re great friends though one of them is definitely more dominant.’