Trolls 2
‘Internet trolls calling you fat and ugly? Big deal — fashion magazines have been calling their readers that for decades.’
The Spectator
Thursday
Couples
‘More and more couples seem to be settling out of court these days.’
Dogs 5
‘Very nouveau leash.’
Card
‘Do you have any “Sorry I can’t apologise” cards?’
Squirrel
‘May contain nuts? Can’t you be more definite?’
Jobshare
Witch 2
‘It’s a witch hunt.’
Why is the Church of England so obsessed with sex?
Four bishops and a retired civil servant shut away in a palace, talking about human sexuality — it sounds like the beginning of a bad joke. But the resulting Pilling Report is, in spite of 200 pages’ worth of double entendres, neither funny nor enlightening. It has been clear ever since the Lambeth conference in 1998,
Letters: Charles Saatchi’s challenge to Taki, and the battle over Benefits Street
On Benefits Street Sir: Fraser Nelson asserts that people in charities do not want to talk about what life is like on poverty (‘Britain’s dirty secret’, 18 January). To those of us who have experienced poverty or supported others stuck in it, there is no secret. We didn’t need a sensationalist pseudo-documentary to know that
Portrait of the week | 23 January 2014
Home George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that he was in favour of increasing the minimum wage by an amount greater than that of inflation. The International Monetary Fund raised its expectation of growth for Britain in 2014 to 2.4 per cent, from a forecast of 1.9 per cent last October. Unemployment fell
When they warned you about eight for the road
One for the road Road safety campaigners were angered by the opening of the first pub at a motorway service station, on the M40 in Buckinghamshire. — Drink-driving campaigns pre-date the motor-car: it was in 1872 that the first law was enacted that made it an offence to drive carriages, horses, cattle and steam engines
Books and Arts – 23 January 2014
Iain Duncan Smith’s speech on welfare reform – full text
The Work and Pensions Secretary was speaking to the Centre for Social Justice this morning. Introduction It is a pleasure to be hosted today by the Centre for Social Justice – setting out a vision for Britain’s welfare state alongside the organisation where, in a sense, it all started. Within their critique, the CSJ set
Friday
Ed Miliband’s ‘One Nation Economy’ speech: full text and audio
listen to ‘Ed Miliband’s ‘One Nation Economy’ banking reform speech’ on Audioboo Today I want to tell you what the next election is about for Labour. It is about those families who work all the hours that God sends and don’t feel they get anything back. It is about the people who go to bed
Thursday
Commute
‘He commutes so often that now he can’t read a book any other way’
Autobiography
‘It’s always about you, isn’t it?’
Mrbond
‘Ah Mr Bond, we’ve been expecting you’
Heaven
‘Oh, nothing’s wrong — I just thought there would be a few more people up here.’
Date
‘This machine measures my stress levels. If at any point this red light comes on the date is over.’