Ukip Calypso
‘It’s a worse record on immigration than the government’s!’
The Spectator
Thursday
Dairy 3
‘What do you mean you want to cut out dairy?’
Ebola Island
Refugees
‘Did you have to buy him toy refugees?’
Lad
‘When I was a lad it never occurred to me that we were all absolutely stinking filthy rich.’
Films 2
‘You do realise that everything you’ve said is a quote from a film.’
Oxo Cubes
Spectator letters: In defence of the GMC and Ukip members, and how Rachmaninov spelled Rachmaninov | 23 October 2014
Health check Sir: I have to take issue on (at least) three counts with Dr Vernon Coleman and his absurd suggestion that the GMC should be abolished (‘Get rid of the GMC’, 18 October). I administer the annual appraisal and revalidation process at an acute hospital. First, revalidation of licensed doctors is based on an
Portrait of the week | 23 October 2014
Home A hundred firemen could not prevent wooden cooling towers at Didcot B gas-fuelled power station in Oxfordshire from burning down. A consortium said it could power 2.5 million houses in Britain by 2018 with solar energy generated in southern Tunisia. The Bank of England indicated that interest rates would stay low for longer because
Deal with the debt, George Osborne? You’ve hardly started
George Osborne has declared victory over Ed Balls, the IMF and all the others who warned that his austerity measures would throw Britain back into recession. But his triumphalism obscures a huge failure: his inability to contain the national debt. While the UK economy has been growing strongly (it is currently the fastest-growing of any
Books and arts – 23 October 2014
Podcast: Europe, counties and hipsters
This week’s issue of the Spectator takes a close look at Europe. Nicholas Farrell focuses on the terminal decline of Italy, and asks whether anything can be done to stop the rot. Daniel Hannan, the Conservative MEP, suggests that David Cameron might not mean it when he says he will campaign for an EU exit
The Spectator at war: Coastal conquest
From The Spectator, 24 October 1914: In the western theatre of the war great movements have been going on which have won for themselves the name of the coast battle. Strange as it may sound, it appears that as soon as Antwerp was taken, and the inevitable State parade was finished, General von Kluck determined,
From the archives | 23 October 2014
From ‘Topics of the day’, The Spectator, 24 October 1914: That spies are a great danger at the present time, and that espionage is being carried on on a gigantic scale, we do not doubt. It has been shown again and again that reports of the movements of our ships and of our troops, and
Wednesday
The Spectator’s portrait of the week | 22 October 2014
This is a sneak preview from tomorrow’s magazine: Home A hundred firemen could not prevent wooden cooling towers at Didcot B gas-fuelled power station in Oxfordshire from burning down. A consortium said it could power 2.5 million houses in Britain by 2018 with solar energy generated in southern Tunisia. The Bank of England indicated that
The Spectator at war: The safety of the realm
From The Spectator, 24 October 1914: On Thursday the police authorities throughout the country arrested a large number of enemy aliens. Most of them were persons of military age. We have dealt with this problem and also that of spies elsewhere, and will only repeat here that the country will support the Government in any
Tuesday
The Spectator at war: Something pleasing for our sailors
From The Spectator, 24 October 1914: The Germans, as we write, have got as far as Nieuport, which is, roughly, south-west of Ostend. There they have come into the “sphere of influence” of eleven British vessels, including three river monitors bought by the Admiralty at the beginning of the war from Brazil, for whom they
Monday
The Spectator at war: The disease of immorality
From The Spectator, 24 October 1914: EVIL practices, when they concern the relation of the sexes, are often allowed to fester into scandals, and even to bring moral and bodily ruin, before ordinary English men and women can induce themselves to speak of them. The newspapers lately have contained many allusions to the presence of
Sunday
The Spectator at war: War and wildlife
From The Spectator, 17 October 1914: The siege of Antwerp has been a minor tragedy in a quarter to which few probably gave a thought. The authorities of the Antwerp Zoological Gardens, before the bombardment began, felt compelled to destroy all the dangerous animals in their cages. They could not contemplate the possibility of beasts
