Sir David Amess has died at the age of 69 after being attacked with a knife at a constituency surgery meeting. He spent 38 years in the House of Commons, serving first for the constituency of Basildon between 1983 and 1997 and subsequently for the Southend West seat. Tributes have been pouring in for him ever
Gasbags Sir: Seb Kennedy tells us that, like Covid, our looming energy crisis came from China (‘Power grab’, 9 October). Its roots are nearer home. The capitulation of successive governments to doom-mongers such as Insulate Britain and the catastrophists who are due to fly to Glasgow in a few weeks for COP26 is just as
Home In an extraordinary wrangle between government departments, the Treasury accused Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, of ‘making things up’ by saying he had held talks with the Treasury about helping companies badly hit by soaring energy prices. With the price of wholesale gas having risen fourfold in a year, businesses expected to close factories.
Wrong place, wrong time The name of the village of Nelson, north of Cardiff, was described as ‘problematic’ in an audit commissioned by the Welsh parliament, on the grounds that Admiral Nelson is claimed to have opposed the abolition of slavery. Some other place names that might not be safe: — Blackboys, East Sussex —
Coronavirus may have fallen out of the news cycle but the threat of the virus has certainly not passed. Britain is once again reporting the highest level of infections of any major country. While the back-to-school surge did not materialise in England, the virus continues to spread. Thanks to vaccines, the number of infections does
The [5 Down] MILESTONE puzzle number 2525 is the product of PRIME numbers 101 TIMES 5 TIMES 5, equivalently the 101 X 5 SQUARED appearing respectively in unclued entries [23A 13D 27D 28A]. First prize Joan New, Salisbury, Wilts Runners-up Roy Robinson, Sheffield; Peter Tanner, Hertford
It’s a strange reflection of our times that with so much else at stake, the leaders of both main parties have been asked, at their party conferences, whether they think that only women have cervixes. Both men prevaricated. Sir Keir Starmer declared this is ‘something that shouldn’t be said’. Boris Johnson avoided the question altogether.
How to stay safe Sir: Mary Wakefield is correct to highlight the opprobrium heaped on anyone who suggests sensible safety advice to women (‘Don’t mix up murder and hate crime’, 2 October). It has long been the case that this is the one area where it is impossible to give crime prevention information without stirring
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, said he did not think Britain was in a crisis; he wanted it to move towards ‘a high-wage, high-skill, high-productivity economy’ that was not addicted to cheap foreign labour. Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, told the Conservative party conference in Manchester that he had committed £500 million
Whole-life sentences How many prisoners are serving whole-life sentences? — There are currently 74 prisoners in prison with whole-life tariffs; 11 had the tariff imposed by a home secretary and 63 had it imposed by a judge. There are only two women, including Rosemary West. — A further 29 people have at some point been
The quotation is ‘I DO WISH THOU WERT A [dog] THAT I MIGHT LOVE THEE SOMETHING’. The honest servant is FLAMINIUS. Unclued lights are dogs: TOSA (25), DINGO (28), CORGI (17) and HYENA (38). The source is TIMON OF ATHENS (in the fourth column) which was to be shaded. First prize Don Thompson, Bolton Runners-up
It’s a strange reflection of our times that with so much else at stake, the leaders of both main parties have been asked, at their party conferences, whether they think that only women have cervixes. Both men prevaricated. Sir Keir Starmer declared this is ‘something that shouldn’t be said’. Boris Johnson avoided the question altogether.
Isn’t it amazing to be here in person? The first time we have met since you defied the sceptics by winning councils and communities that Conservatives have never won in before – such as Hartlepool. In fact it’s the first time since the general election of 2019 when we finally sent the corduroyed communist cosmonaut
It’s day three of four here in Manchester at the Conservative party conference. Expected highlights of the day include the recently demoted Dominic Raab making his first speech as Justice Secretary while Priti Patel and Sajid Javid will be well worth watching too. Elsewhere Raab’s axed predecessor Robert Buckland appears at Policy Exchange while The
It’s day two of the Conservative party conference here in Manchester and sore heads are collecting their thoughts as to which events they will be seeing today. Highlights of today include Rishi Sunak making his first in-person conference speech as Chancellor and Michael Gove telling the Tory faithful what ‘Levelling Up’ actually means. Elsewhere, there’s
It’s the first day of the annual Conservative party conference here in Manchester. The first events will be held from 11 a.m onwards with Liz Truss expected to make her first major speech since her promotion to Foreign Secretary, less than three weeks ago. Here are the highlights on the main stage and fringe events for the public: Main
Scummy idea Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner called Tories ‘scum’ in a speech to activists at her party’s conference. The word, derived from a 14th-century Dutch word for foam, was first recorded in the sense of an insult in Christopher Marlowe’s play Tamburlaine, written in the late 1580s. Referring to Christian slaves kept by the
The unclued Across lights can be preceded by MISS and the unclued Down lights. MRS 2/15D is the pair. First prize Suzanne Cumming, Plymouth Runners-up Stephen Rice, London SW1; Barbara Butterworth, Princes Risborough, Bucks
There’s a great revival under way in the British TV and film industry, but it’s not the BBC that’s behind it. Netflix is normally secretive about its figures but this week published a list of its most popular shows and top of the pile is Bridgerton, which imagines Regency London as a racially mixed society.
Parish problems Sir: Emma Thompson draws attention to a serious problem in the Church of England (‘Power to the parish’, 25 September). Why are they trying to make it easier to close down parishes when the parish is where the people are to whom the church must minister? The parish is also the major funder
