Back at Black Sir: With one exception, Conrad Black’s article (‘I’ll be back’, 2 July) is a succession of inaccuracies and outright lies. Among the most blatant is his assertion that he received a payment of $6 million in compensation for libel from Richard Breeden and the Special Committee which investigated and reported the frauds
Victory celebrations Novak Djokovic celebrated winning the men’s singles at Wimbledon by eating grass on the Centre Court. While not doing a lot to boost the image of his native Serbia as a modern country, the act joins a litany of bizarre victory celebrations. — After winning a 100 metres race in 2004, Maurice Greene
Home A private investigator working for the News of the World allegedly hacked into the voicemail of the murdered girl Milly Dowler while she was missing, deleting messages when the box was full to make room for new messages; this might have given the impression that the girl was still alive. David Cameron, the Prime
If the government were to grant an award to the public servant who has made the greatest effort over the past year to manage expenditure, Her Majesty the Queen would be a strong contender. The royal public finances, published this week, reveal that the cost of running the royal household has fallen over the past
Here is a selection of posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the last week. James Forsyth says that the phone hacking saga will damage the reputation of the police, and watches David Cameron take a beating at PMQs. Peter Hoskin argues that the phone hacking saga is testing the ties that bind the coalition, and sees
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
…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. Fraser Nelson considers Osborne’s voteless recovery. James Forsyth notes that Boris has turned against HS2, and says the times are changing in Europe. Peter Hoskin watches Yvette Cooper attack the coalition’s immigration policy from the right. David Blackburn reviews IDS’ great expectations, and
Child benefit? No thanks! Sir: I was particularly struck by Melanie McDonagh (‘What women want’, 25 June) trotting out the same old complaint about the ‘cloth-eared’ decision to take child benefit off families in the higher tax bracket. How and why have we got ourselves into a situation where even middle-class journalists think that they
Life of Pi A group of mathematicians is campaigning for the mathematical constant pi to be replaced by tau, the latter being the ratio of the circumference to the radius as opposed to that of the circumference to the diameter. As tau is simply twice the value of pi (approximately 6.28) it won’t consume so
