Bug
‘Be careful what you say. I think we’re being monitored.’
The Spectator
Thursday
Ikea
‘Look! Ikea do a round one that sits up to 150 knights, good and true.’
‘Now print your ticket and boarding pass. If you have a 3D printer, print your own aeroplane and don’t bother us again.’
Damascus
‘That blinding light on the road to Damascus — turns out it was a surface-to-air missile.’
Unemployment
‘You’re not entited to a sense of entitlement.’
Snowden
‘Can you keep a secret, Mr Snowden?’
8947601
‘Some more of that genetically modified spinach, please.’
8947561
‘Just going for a leak.’
End Is Nigh
‘It’s a really great time to be on the High Street.’
Ecuador
‘It’s a request for asylum from Charles Saatchi.’
Letters: My cuts are real, says Francis Maude
We’ve only just begun Sir: In Ross Clark’s article ‘Cuts, what cuts?’ (22 June), he suggested that I was boasting about saving the taxpayer £5.5 billion. It’s true: I’m proud of my department’s Efficiency and Reform Group and the work of civil servants across Whitehall who have sliced out wasteful spending. But the figures he
Barometer | 27 June 2013
Field reports The Glastonbury Festival is once again being held at Michael Eavis’s dairy farm at Pilton, just outside the Somerset town. The venues of some other famous festivals: — Monterey: the festival most associated with the 1967 ‘Summer of Love’ was held at the Monterey County Fairgrounds, previously used for jazz festivals. — Woodstock:
Portrait of the week | 27 June 2013
Home George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, outlined cuts of £11.5 billion from departmental spending for the tax-year beginning in 2015. David Gauke, a Treasury minister, gave a ‘firm commitment’ in a letter to backbenchers to introduce a transferable tax allowance of £750 between spouses and civil partners paying tax at the basic rate. This
Spending Review: Has George Osborne’s caution condemned Britain to a lost decade?
The Labour party used to joke that the Tories would act as their cleaners: win, take the political pain, abolish the deficit by 2015 and then hand over a balanced budget when they lost the election. George Osborne has, at the very least, put paid to that. His Spending Review this week made it clear
Books and Arts – 27 June 2013
Summer reading
Mary Killen Gone Girl by the American writer Gillian Flynn comes recommended by both high- and middle-brow readers (Orion, £7.99). I want the reported total absorption from the off and the welcome relief from thinking about anything other than what’s on the next page. The Blue Riband, Peter York’s anecdotal history of the Piccadilly Line
Wednesday
Ed Balls’ spending review response: full text
listen to ‘Spending review 2013: the Coffee House analysis’ on Audioboo The Chancellor spoke for over 50 minutes – but not once did he mention the real reason for this Spending Review today: his comprehensive failure on living standards, growth and on the deficit too. Prices rising faster than wages. Families worse off. Long-term unemployment
