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
From The Spectator, 17 October 1914: NEVER did a people and their Sovereign and his Consort deserve greater honour than the Belgians and their King and Queen. They have drunk the cup of misery and horror to the very dregs. “Their heads are bloody though unbowed.” The invaders have used against them the strength of
From The Spectator, 17 October 1914: King Carol of Roumania died suddenly at the Castle of Pelesh, Sinaia, on Saturday last, in his seventy-sixth year, and is succeeded by his nephew, Prince Ferdinand, born in 1865, who married in 1893 Princess Marie, daughter of the Duke of Edinburgh. King Carol, as a Hohenzollern, undoubtedly cast
‘No, I don’t think we’ve met, but I have abused you on social media.’
‘I’ve got us a TV dinner, followed by a Facebook dinner, followed by a Twitter dinner, followed by a. . . ’
‘Part of the constitution… they’re allowed to make just one smoke signal each.’
‘We all draw crap on our walls but he has to make such a big deal of it!’
Man flu season
‘There’s been a coo.’
‘Push! Push! Push harder!’
‘They’re much easier to get than they used to be.’
‘You’re not really the Latin lover I was looking for.’
‘I’m not saying he’s old but he still uses a land-line.’
‘Climate change? Not in our lifetime.’
Nothing to fear Sir: So long as we are not breaking any law, we have nothing to fear from the police being able to access our mobiles (‘Licence to snoop’, 11 October). They, however, would be committing a crime if they released any information so gleaned to anyone except to the judiciary if we are
Dirty dancing David Cameron was accused of causing racial offence by posing with blacked-up Morris dancers, though it was pointed out that the tradition dates from 16th-century jobless labourers covering their faces with soot. Other Morris dancer controversies: — In 2011 the Slubbing Billys were thrown out of a pub in Durham for breaking a
