Censorship
‘It’s a portal to the whole David Cameron-approved world.’
The Spectator
Thursday
Rolex
‘If you want to know the time, nick a Rolex.’
Blot 2
‘That new office block is a frightful blot on the skyline.’
Lads
‘If you ask me, there ought to be a campaign to cover up lads.’
Muggy
‘I hate this muggy weather.’
Crosby
‘Lynton Crosby’s trying to give up tobacco lobbying with a patch.’
Coffee Table
‘It used to be a coffee table. Now it’s a booze table.’
The only way the Tories can show they care about the North is to permit fracking in Sussex
David Howell never really succeeded as energy and then transport secretary in Mrs Thatcher’s governments. After she sacked him in 1983, Thatcher wrote that ‘he lacked the mixture of creative political imagination and practical drive to be a first-class cabinet minister’. If she were still alive and writing now, she might have added that he
Letters: How IQ is handed down
IQ and social mobility Sir: It seems not to have occurred to our leaders that ability is not evenly distributed across the social classes. In a meritocratic society, employers will try to recruit the most able candidates into the top positions. There, they meet other bright people, pair off and have children. As Professor Plomin’s
Barometer | 1 August 2013
Art by the seaside The Kent seaside resort of Herne Bay staged the parade of a urinal through the town to celebrate its connection with Marcel Duchamp, who spent a month there in 1913 and credited the place with rekindling his artistic career — a postcard to a friend declared: ‘I am not dead. I
Portrait of the week | 1 August 2013
Home Barclays decided to issue £5.8 billion in shares to meet capital reserve requirements from the Bank of England. Lord Howell of Guildford, a former energy secretary, who does not speak for the government but happens to be George Osborne’s father in law, asking a question in the Lords about fracking for shale gas, said:
Books and Arts – 1 August 2013
Friday
Some brilliant book reviews
As ever, the Spectator carries some splendid and erudite book reviews this week. There are contributions from stellar writers and thinkers such as Margaret MacMillan, Susan Hill, Alexander Chancellor and John Sutherland. Here is a selection. Margaret MacMillan is captivated by Edwardian Opulence: British Art at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century, a ‘lovely lush
Thursday
Nhs 2
‘Bloody hell — it’s worse than we thought.’
Beach
‘I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky.’
Tigers
‘I’m just saying, there seems something morally wrong about attacking a zebra in a wheelchair.’
Nhs 3
‘Bloody hell — it’s worse than we thought.’
Litter
Cigarettes
‘But do they have child filters?’
Dogs 4
‘Why don’t these old country hotels have dinner gongs?’