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The Spectator
Saturday
Letters | 28 April 2012
Time-honoured paradox Sir: Tristram Hunt’s argument (‘Gove’s Paradox’, 21 April) seems convincing. At first glance, economic liberalism does appear at odds with social conservatism. However, one cannot exist without the other, as Thomas Hobbes realised over 300 years ago. Without a social contract based upon shared values and common interests, anarchy would ensue, making it
Barometer | 28 April 2012
Marathon mortalities A 30-year-old hairdresser collapsed and died in the final mile of the London marathon, echoing the alleged fate of the world’s original marathon runner, Pheidippides, who according to legend ran 26 miles to Athens to announce victory in the Battle of Marathon in 490 bc before collapsing and dying. — A paper published
Portrait of the week | 28 April 2012
Home The British economy went back into recession, shrinking by 0.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2012, following a contraction of 0.3 per cent in the last quarter of 2011. Government debt rose by £117 million over last year’s figure, to £1,022.5 billion, equivalent to 66 per cent of GDP. George Osborne, the
Leave those Lords alone
The Joint Committee on the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill could have saved itself a lot of bother if, instead of producing a lengthy report, it had simply quoted the words of Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland, in the House of Lords in 1641: ‘When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary
Friday
From the archives: Chernobyl, as seen from Minsk
It was this week in 1986 that the Soviet Union admitted there was a nuclear accident in Chernobyl. We’ve dug out this fascinating account by Samuel Phipps, who caught in Minsk when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded. A sudden evacuee, Samuel Phipps, The Spectator, 10 May 1986 Minsk ‘You’ll be national heroes when you
The week that was | 27 April 2012
Here is a selection of articles and discussions from this week on Spectator.co.uk… Most read: James Forsyth on Jeremy Hunt’s troubles. Most discussed: Fraser Nelson on whether Ed Balls caused the recession. Most shared: Jonathan Jones on Ed Miliband’s increasing popularity. And the best of the rest… Fraser Nelson thinks Ed Balls’s economic argument is detached
Wednesday
Shelf Life: Rachel Johnson
Editor-in-chief of The Lady, judge of the inaugural Hatchet Job of the Year Award, author of Shire Hell and a keen skier, Rachel Johnson is this week’s Shelf Lifer. She has eminently sensible suggestions for the English curriculum, reveals the guilty literary secrets of the Johnson dynasty and tells us about the downside of having
Tuesday
Before Sontag became a parody
When an unpublished diary or book of letters from a celebrated writer comes to the attention of the reading public nowadays, there is often a sense that a game is being played between two parties. Writers — being the megalomaniacs they invariably are — dream of grandiosity and world domination, therefore these documents are predominately
Monday
Just in case you missed them… | 23 April 2012
…here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: Fraser Nelson reports on Ash Green School’s success story and puts forward the case for ignoring Strasbourg. James Forsyth looks at how the House of Lords would be elected, examines Cameron’s mid-term blues and thinks Clegg’s is using ‘absurdly patronising’ language on a Lords referendum.
Sunday
Bookbenchers: Liz Truss MP
Parliament is back from the Easter recess, and so is the Spectator’s Bookbenchers. First back into the hotseat is Elizabeth Truss, the Tory MP for South West Norfolk. She is inundated with children’s books, and wants to get to grips with some serious science. 1) Which book’s on your bedside table at the moment? Charles
