From ‘Left behind’, The Spectator, 29 August 1914: In the poorer streets a kind of holiday atmosphere prevails, and a sort of excitement which is in a measure pleasurable fills the air… All the children are intensely excited. Many fathers have ‘gone to the war’, but not quite so many as are said to have gone
This is an extract from this week’s Spectator, available tomorrow. Subscribe from just £12 for 12 issues here. If Rotherham council were a family, its children would have been removed by social services long ago, and Ma and Pa Rotherham would be safely behind bars. Professor Alexis Jay’s report, which was published this week, reveals depravity
The Spectator, 29 August 1914. A SHERIFF may be compared to the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, which faded away till nothing but its smile remained. The ancient office has gradually faded away till nothing but the ceremonial smile remains, a smile only now useful for the entertainment of Judges at the Assizes or
The Spectator, 29 August 1914: “WE need all the recruits we can get,” said the Prime Minister in the House of Commons, and he said no more than every thinking man knows to be true. We need, not one hundred thousand, but at the very least five hundred thousand men, and as many more as
In this View from 22 podcast special, Alex Massie, Isabel Hardman and Fraser Nelson analyse this evening’s going on in Glasgow, as Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling took part in the second round of their independence debates. The polls released immediately after the debate from The Guardian/ICM has Salmond the clear winner on 79%, with Darling on just 21% of the
Welcome to tonight’s liveblog of the BBC debate between Alex Salmond and Alistair Darling at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow. 00:05 In this View from 22 podcast special, Isabel Hardman, Alex Massie and Fraser Nelson discuss what they made of tonight’s debate. listen to ‘Scottish Independence Debate special – with Isabel Hardman, Alex Massie and Fraser
The Spectator, 29 August 1914: NO decent or self-respecting person will ever indulge in a word of recrimination even against those men who supported Germany and German aspirations till the beginning of the war, who deprecated any attempt to make adequate military provision for war in these islands, and who denounced as criminal, and even
The Spectator, 22 August 1914: WHEN so great a business as war comes upon England, the sports and games of the country fall into their proper places. Cricket has been packed into an obscure corner of the daily newspaper. Golf clubs have expended their activities largely in trenching vacant ground, and in forwarding subscription lists
The Spectator, 22 August 1914: Inter arma silent Musae; but Bayreuth on the eve of the war showed very few signs of the coming cataclysm. It is true that on the presentation of the Austrian ultimatum to Servia a good many Austrian visitors departed, and the Fürsten-galerie was not so crowded towards the end of
From The Spectator, 22 August 1914: THE Times of Wednesday published a piece of news in regard to the final interview between Sir Edward Goschen, our Ambassador at Berlin, and the German Imperial Chancellor, Herr von Bethmann Hollweg, which is of the highest significance. If the report is true—and we feel confident that the Times
‘He’s taken over from Famine.’
‘It turns out you’re not A, B or AB but the much rarer ABBA blood group.’
‘Don’t touch me — this isn’t the Seventies.’
‘Bearing in mind your little boy’s issues with sugary drinks, we recommend you enrol him in the rehab crèche.’
‘Jack Sprat would eat no fat, his wife would eat no lean, no dairy, no wheat, no soya, no non-organic or GM food, no non-sustainable fish, no...’
Emoticon theatre
‘There are a lot of long passages.’
‘Some of us are, quite literally, fat cats.’