The Sutton Trust today criticised the system of personal statements for university admissions, as they favour well-connected children from private schools. Spectator readers might not be surprised by that, though: in September Molly Guinness revealed in the magazine that those who can afford to often contract the writing of the statement out to graduates for
‘Wow! Fire AND the wheel!! Renaissance man or what?’
‘It’s for the connoisseur who appreciates really tiny amounts of growth.’
‘See that? It’s trending on Twitter that you’ve been naughty, not nice.’
‘It only seems like yesterday that we packed everything away from last Christmas.’
‘This one’s for Mummy — it counts the days until it’s all over.’
‘Is it just me, or does everyone look 45p less drunk?’
‘…and everyone lived happily ever after.’
‘I’m not sure, Piglet. “Tombstoning”?’
The holly and the ID
‘Are we there yet?’
Eating
‘Shall we join the ladies?’
Munch
‘I’m also a member of Ukip.’
‘Let’s see who today’s manager is.’
The North in need Sir: Neil O’Brien’s article on the North-South divide is welcome (‘The great divide’, 1 December). As a Geordie who spent much of his working life in the West Midlands before being immersed in the Westminster bubble for the last decade, London increasingly feels like a separate country. The wealth, the economic
Distilling a philosophy The manager of Fitzpatrick’s in Rawtenstall, the last surviving temperance bar in Lancashire, has pleaded guilty to drink-driving. His embarrassing predicament would have been understood by the very earliest members of the temperance movement, however. — When cheese-maker Joseph Livesey of Preston founded the British Association for the Promotion of Temperance in
Home In his Autumn Statement, held nearer the winter solstice, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, confronted the need to extend austerity measures for reducing the deficit to 2018. The economy would shrink by 0.1 per cent in 2012. He cut corporation tax to 21 per cent from 2014, cancelled January’s fuel tax rise
