Bernie 4
The Spectator
Saturday
Letters | 12 November 2011
• Democracy in Zambia Sir: There are undoubtedly dubious countries in Africa but Daniel Kalder (‘Mr Blair goes to Kazakhstan’, 5 November) is wide of the mark in including Zambia among them. It may not be perfect but its record in terms of human rights and relative freedom from corruption is one of the best
Barometer | 12 November 2011
Another world Six cosmonauts have completed an experiment in which they were isolated inside a container for 520 days to simulate a voyage to Mars. A similar experiment, the Lunar-Mars Life Support Test Project between 1995-97 isolated crews for 91 days at a time. These were some of the findings: — Without natural daylight, the
Portrait of the week | 12 November 2011
Home Theresa May, the Home Secretary, blamed Brodie Clark, the head of the UK Border and Immigration Agency’s ‘border force’, for ‘relaxation of border controls without ministerial sanction’. Mr Clark left the agency, declaring that what Mrs May had said in parliament was wrong. An online petition urging ministers to reduce immigration gained more than
Border skirmish
No job in government has its path so strewn with banana skins as that of Home Secretary. A missing criminal, slippery detainee or foreign terrorist can end a ministerial career. And with tens of thousands of people going in and out of the country daily it can happen at any moment. The Home Office has
Books of the Year | 12 November 2011
A further selection of our reviewers’ favourite reading in 2011 Richard Davenport-Hines Amidst the din, slogans and panic of modern publishing, my cherished books are tender, calm and achieve a surpassing eloquence by dint of tightly controlled reticence. Anthony Thwaite’s Late Poems (Enitharmon, £10) are written by a man of 80. Each of them is
Friday
The week that was | 11 November 2011
Here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the past week: Fraser Nelson says that we ought to remember the living too, and questions whether Britain really is a safe haven. James Forsyth asks why Chris Huhne is still shunning shale, and observes the Italian domino effect. Peter Hoskin reports on the eurozone’s
Monday
CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 7-13 November 2011
Welcome to the latest CoffeeHousers’ Wall. For those who haven’t come across the Wall before, it’s a post we put up each Monday, on which — providing your writing isn’t libellous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency — you’ll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no
Just in case you missed them… | 7 November 2011
…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. Fraser Nelson says Ruth Davidson “could have been designed by a committee of A-lister fantasists”. James Forsyth says the Union needs a champion to take on Alex Salmond. Matt Cavanagh gives his take on the latest immigration revelations. Rod Liddle asks how you
Saturday
Letters | 5 November 2011
• Clock watching Sir: Peter Hitchens’s cover story ‘Hour of Surrender’ (29 October) was predictable, reactionary and dangerously short-sighted. The argument for changing the clock is simple: daylight is a limited and valuable resource — to maximise the benefits afforded by daylight, we should have more of it in evenings when we are most active
Barometer | 5 November 2011
• Initial problems The leaders of the eurozone countries have hatched a plan to bundle up dodgy Greek government debt and sell it to the Chinese. Without any apparent sense of irony, the debt will be sold in the form of a Special Purpose Investment Vehicle — known as Spiv for short. Some other unfortunate
Portrait of the week | 5 November 2011
• Home St Paul’s Cathedral decided not to take court action against anti-capitalist demonstrators who, since 15 October, had kept 200 tents pitched outside. The Corporation of London suspended its own legal action. The Rt Rev Graeme Knowles resigned as Dean of St Paul’s, a post he had held since 2007. His resignation followed that
Don’t blame the Greeks
One can’t help but admire the Greeks. To be sure, they lied and cheated their way into the euro, and even the threat of a referendum on the bailout may yet tip the eurozone into a financial abyss. But there is something to be said for actually consulting the people about their future. Greece faces
Books of the Year | 5 November 2011
Our regular reviewers were asked to name the books they’d most enjoyed reading this year. More choices next week • A.N. Wilson Rachel Campbell-Johnson’s Mysterious Wisdom: The Life and Work of Samuel Palmer (Bloomsbury, £25) is one of those rare biographies which is a work of literature: beautifully written, overwhelmingly moving. A great art critic,